Islamic Studies Commons^™

Preserving Identity Under Totalitarianism: The Adaptation And Resilience Of Muslim Communities In The Soviet Union, Meltem Akıncı

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the methods employed by Muslim peoples in the former Soviet Union to preserve their traditional, spiritual, and religious identity under the systemic anti-religious policies, ideological pressures, and repressive measures of the Soviet totalitarian regime. Despite the Soviet authorities' efforts to rapidly secularize society and reshape public consciousness through scientific atheism, the enduring commitment of Muslim communities to their traditional values is clearly demonstrated. The study examines the closure of mosques, the restriction of religious rituals, and the severe obstacles encountered in performing daily worship. Furthermore, it thoroughly explores the role of Sufi brotherhoods …

How Do Governments Combat Jihad Online?, Noah Cook

Honors College Theses

Since the September 11th, 2001 attacks, jihadist groups like ISIS, al-Qaeda, and al-Shabaab have used the internet as a tool for recruitment, radicalization, and propaganda dissemination. Since then, governments, non-governmental organizations, and private companies have developed strategies to combat jihadism on the internet. This paper examines how these actors have worked to mitigate the digital jihadist footprint and its effects by analyzing three main approaches to countering violent Islamist extremism on the internet: counter narrative initiatives, awareness-raising programs, and content removals. This paper finds that each of these methods has its own strengths and weaknesses. Counter narrative campaigns show the …

Riyadh Charter On Artificial Intelligence For The Islamic World, - Islamic World Educational, Scientific And Cultural Organization (Icesco), - Saudi Data And Artificial Intelligence Authority (Sdaia)

The Journal of Social Encounters

The Riyadh Charter on Artificial Intelligence for the Islamic World was launched by the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) and the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) in September 2024, in collaboration with the Saudi National Commission for Education, Culture, and Science, during the third Global AI Summit (GAIN Summit) in Riyadh.

The Charter has been widely recognized and endorsed by Islamic scholars and policymakers. During the 26th Session of the Council of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy, it was highlighted as a moral and strategic compass for AI technologies, addressing the limitations of existing international …

Institutionalized Collective ZakāH System In India And Technological Integration: A Qualitative Descriptive Analysis Of ZakāH Payers' Perception, Syed Imtiyaz Hassan

Journal of King Abdulaziz University: Islamic Economics

This qualitative descriptive study based on naturalistic inquiry was conducted to investigate awareness, present habits, experiences, opinion about establishing institutionalized collective Zakāh system, and degree of acceptance of technology among Zakāh payers in India. The study found that approximately 60% of Zakāh payers of India are having just basic information. The other notable outcome worth mention is the trust issue. Less than 50% of Zakāh payers are able to trust and have full confidence that their Zakāh is utilized properly. This study also collected the data related to perception of Zakāh payers about the …

Wv Bully Pulpits, Robert Ellison

English Faculty Research

This presentation is grounded in Theodore Roosevelt’s notion of the “bully pulpit,” defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a “public office or position of authority that provides its occupant with the opportunity to speak out and be listened to on any issue” (in this context, “bully” is used in its 19th-century sense of “very good” or “excellent,” not in its modern sense of someone who likes to intimidate, threaten, or actually harm others).

Roosevelt used the term metaphorically, but my presentation will focus on literal pulpits, specifically those occupied by ministers whose sermons challenge the prevailing orthodoxies of a …

Review Of Shia Islam And Politics: Iran, Iraq, And Lebanon, Christopher Anzalone

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

The Birth Of Afghanistan: From Ancient Persia To A Modern-Day Multiethnic And Linguistic Country, Tyler A. Worm

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis offers a comprehensive historical analysis of the formation and evolution of Afghan identity from antiquity through the early medieval period, emphasizing the region’s role as a dynamic crossroads of civilizations. It traces the origins of Afghan populations to Indo-Iranian pastoralist migrations and examines the successive influence of major imperial formations, including the Median and Achaemenid Persian empires, the conquests of Alexander and the Seleucid period, and the rise of the Kushan, Parthian, and Sasanian states. Through this longue durée approach, the study demonstrates how Afghanistan’s geographic position facilitated continuous cultural interaction, economic exchange, and political contestation, producing a …

The Role Of Religion In Ensuring National Security In Kazakhstan, Nurzhan Arystanbekuly Tursin Nur, Mukhan Issakhan, Shamshadin Kerim, Kovalev Dmitriy, Kalimash Begalinova

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This article explores the foundations of state policy aimed at ensuring religious stability in Kazakhstan. It analyzes the scientific basis of religious studies, principles of tolerance toward the country’s traditional religions, and the role of religion in maintaining national security. The methodology, goals, and objectives of the study are shaped by the interdisciplinary nature of the subject. The research examines state and interfaith relations, the development of freedom of religion, its integration into domestic and international law, and ways of resolving legal contradictions, traditions, and stereotypes. The theoretical framework relies on the works of domestic and foreign scholars devoted to …

Singing A Wide Heart: Timbre And Sung Prayer In Senegal’S Layène Community, Margaret L. Rowley

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

Layène sung prayer (called sikkar) is embedded within the religious practices of the Layène community, a minority Sufi order in Dakar, Senegal. This article explores the functions of Layène sung prayer, focusing especially on its loud, vibrational timbre. Both men and women vocalists in call-and-response sing loudly, using wide vibrato and electronic amplification to ensure that the sikkar reaches the inhabitants—both human and non-human—in the surrounding community. This article demonstrates that the distinctive timbre of Layène sung prayer serves the spiritual functions of binding the community together in spiritual and social cohesion, increasing individual and collective generosity, and demarcating …

The Islamic Approach To Combating Administrative Corruption, Kayed Qaroush

Jordan Journal of Applied Science-Humanities Series

Corruption is considered a global phenomenon that exists in both developing and developed countries; the latter are not immune from it. It manifests in various forms, such as political, financial, environmental, and administrative corruption. However, this research is focused on the administrative type, which is linked to the questionable conduct of certain public officials, including illegal gains through bribery and gifts, abuse of power, breach of trust (such as embezzlement, coercion, or forgery), and adherence to bureaucratic behavior characterized by closed-door policies. It also covers the imposition of unfair tax policies in an attempt to address economic imbalances. This research …

Women And Asylum Issues In Islamic Law, Ahmad Ababneh

Jordan Journal of Applied Science-Humanities Series

This study examines one aspect of the difficult reality caused by wars and current conflicts in Islamic countries. More specifically, it focuses on the reality of refugees who are forced to flee their countries in search of safety, highlighting the largest portion and most vulnerable group among refugees: women. This is accomplished by revealing the harsh realities that women face in refugee camps and by reviewing reports from international human rights organizations, which include important statistics that inform and accurately describe the issue. The study also explores the most favorable circumstances for women, particularly as defined by their rights in …

Exploring The Role Of Religious Media In Shaping Public Perceptions Towards Climate Change In Egypt, Hebatullah Ashour Abdel Fatah Ibrahim Ashour

Theses and Dissertations

Climate change poses significant threats globally, with particular vulnerability noted in developing nations like Egypt. While effective communication is crucial for societal engagement, the role of influential actors like religious media within specific cultural contexts remains under-explored. This thesis investigates the role and communication practices of religious media (Islamic and Coptic Christian) concerning climate change in Egypt, a country where religious institutions command significant public trust and influence. Existing literature highlights gaps in understanding how these specific media outlets navigate and frame climate change discourse.

Employing Framing Theory and Communication for Development (DevCom) Theory as a combined framework, this study …

Capturing The Intersection Of Black-American, Muslim Males And Education: Exploring Their Attitudes, Perceptions, And Lived Experiences Within An Islamic Consciousness, Kirk A. Talib-Deen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation explored the lived realities of Black-American, Muslim males and their attitudes, perceptions, histories, and endurances toward higher learning in America. It attempted to join and contribute to the more significant, historical, and extant conversations and literature on Black-American males and education, as well as their successes and failures. This dissertation adds to the dearth of literature on the intersection of Black-American, Muslim males, and education, and using jazz as an epistemological way of navigating and organizing the content, the research works to uncover, locate, and define an Islamic consciousness. While negating racist histories concomitant with the American narrative …

Recovering Palestinian Lives: Qudsiyya Khurshid From Mandate Palestine To Postwar Pennsylvania, Andrea L. Stanton

Religious Studies: Faculty Scholarship

This article works to recover the life story of Qudsiyya Khurshid, a once well-known Mandate Palestinian intellectual and educator, who wrote essays for publication and for broadcasting on the Palestine Broadcasting Service, while working as a principal at girls’ schools in al-Bireh and Jerusalem. One of a number of educated women active in the Mandate public sphere, she disappeared from public consciousness after the Nakba. But in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, where she had moved with her husband, a naturalized U.S. citizen, she became a prominent figure in civic work and as a community speaker on Palestinian and Middle Eastern life …

Islamic Themes In Us Hip-Hop Culture, Anders Ackfeldt

Music & Performance in Muslim Contexts

Explores how Islam is produced in American hip-hop culture by both Muslims and non-Muslims

Islam has been a part of hip-hop culture since it sprang from New York’s street culture in the 1970s. Today hip-hop has evolved into a global artform with a diversity of Muslim Islamic discourses expressed. Using tools from the field of social semiotics, this book examines how Islamic themes feature in US hip-hop culture, maintaining a particular awareness that both Muslims as well as non-Muslims participate in their production.

Anders Ackfeldt analyses a collection of lyrics, sounds and images to show how Islamic themes are featured …

Pr Activities Of Muslim Organizations In Slovakia: Political And Communication Analysis, Vadym Sluysar, Oleh Sokolovskyi, Serhii Kostiuchkov, Mykola Slyusar

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article is dedicated to analyzing the PR activities of Muslim organizations in Slovakia, taking into account the political, social, and communicative context. The authors explore the impact of digital technologies on religious communication, examining the use of social media and traditional media to shape the public image of Islamic organizations. Significant attention is given to the issue of islamophobia and the informational strategies aimed at overcoming negative stereotypes about Muslims. The PR campaigns of the "Islamic Foundation in Slovakia" are analyzed, including their role in interfaith dialogue and combating hate speech. The study addresses political challenges, particularly the populist …

Disorienting "Western" Viewers With Nacer Khemir's Desert Trilogy, Kristian Peterson

Philosophy Faculty Publications

In this essay, I explore tensions that arise when creating alternative cinematic visions of Muslim life, specifically frictions emerging from the goal of shifting public perception of the community and patterns of self-orientalization. Here, I complicate assumptions about the representation of Islam by looking at a self-articulated presentation of Muslims through the narrative feature series the Desert Trilogy, by Tunisian director Nacer Khemir (born 1948). I argue that Khemir is ensnared by ahistorical Islamic nostalgia and largely reinforces romantic orientalist aesthetics in his films. While his portrait of Muslims is much more “positive” than those in the broader archive, it …

Sunrise In The Heartland: The Ahmadiyya Movement And The Foundations Of African American Islam, Hazel Videon

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

During the early 1920s, an immigrant missionary from colonial India named Muhammad Sadiq established headquarters in Chicago for a branch of Islam called the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam (AMI). The AMI became the first institutional expression of Islam in the United States to draw a significant number of American converts and was particularly popular among African Americans. Following the Second Great Migration, Black migrants to the urban Midwest sought new ways to express their identity, fulfill both spiritual and material needs, and resist racist violence. The AMI became attractive to them as an alternative to respectability politics and drew upon …

Muslim Communities In Post-Communist Bulgaria (Challenges And Perspectives For Communication Between Orthodox Christians And Muslims), Klara Toneva

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The paper explores the challenges and prospects for communication between Orthodox Christians and Muslims in post-communist Bulgaria. After providing a brief overview of the Bulgarian ethnic model, it presents the current situation of Muslim communities in the country. The paper examines the ongoing processes within these communities and the different paths they may take: adherence to tradition, re-Islamization, secularization, or religious radicalization. It outlines the prerequisites and causes that contribute to manifestations of religious radicalization. The integration of Muslim communities into Bulgarian society, the role of religious education, and the presence of a strong spiritual elite are emphasized as key …

The Role Of Islam In The Prevention Of Suicide: An Analytical Study Of The Reasons Behind Suicide Prevention In Islam, Hamza Hammad

An-Najah University Journal for Research - B (Humanities)

Objectives: The purpose of this research is to extrapolate and analyze the causes leading to suicide prevention in the Islamic religion, by deducing the relationship between the level of Islamic religiosity and mental health, specifically suicide, then extrapolating the factors or components that lead to suicide prevention in the Islamic religion, as well as analyzing the Islamic faith’s position on Suicide, then inferring the effect of belief in fate and destiny on psychological security and in reducing suicide. Methods: This study follows the inductive and analytical approach, based on extrapolating studies and statistics about suicide rates in the world as …

Radical Hospitality: Height And Excess Of The Other And The New Host Self, Diako Alikhani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Drawing on Emmanuel Levinas’ ethical framework and its emphasis on the “height and excess” of “the Other,” this thesis explores and develops a sense of “radical hospitality” in Levinas and across Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In particular, the thesis explores how encounter with the Other is not only marked by an overwhelming excess, but one which transforms the subject into what I call a “New Host Self:” Where the self is the host who greets the stranger with hospitality, it is ultimately the stranger—the refugee, the migrant—who transforms the host into someone new. Here, the host ultimately receives a gift …

A Religion For The Common Man: A Culturally Subversive Understanding Of Kabir’S Simple State, Wyatt Golden

NEXUS: The Liberty Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies

No abstract provided.

Considering The Historical Houri In Early Islamic History, Vivek K. Rallabandi

Student Publications

This paper examines the question of how the houri (heavenly maidens in Islamic theology) figure into the historical context of early Islam. While the houri have been the subject of much discussion in terms of contemporary affairs, it is worth exploring how the houri may have played a utilitarian role in the growth of Islam. This paper conducts that analysis.

"No, Not Even Water": A Dei Approach To Embracing Ramadan's Richness, Essraa Nawar

Library Presentations, Posters, and Audiovisual Materials

"As Ramadan commences tomorrow, March 11, 2024, it presents a unique opportunity for both observant Muslims and those from other faiths or practices to come together in a period marked by reflection, renewal, and community. This sacred month offers a window into the discipline and devotion of fasting from dawn until dusk, underscoring values of empathy, gratitude, and solidarity with those less fortunate. For non-Muslims, it's an opportunity to learn about and respect these practices, perhaps by participating in communal Iftars, engaging in dialogue, or simply offering support and understanding to those observing the fast. By embracing the spirit of …

The Educational Thought Of Imam Al-Ghazali (450-505 Hijri / 1058-1111 Ad) In The Light Of His Book 'Revival Of The Sciences Of Religion, ربيع الفرجات, آلاء خريسات, هبة عازم

Jerash for Research and Studies Journal مجلة جرش للبحوث والدراسات

The intellectual and jurisprudent is the argument of Islam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali in the forefront of the Islamic innovators who were founded to defend Islam in the face of the deviant intellectual currents that hit it in the fifth century AH. Al-Ghazali tried to present a new image of Islam, bringing closer and closer to his good education for all time and place.

This study is intended to show some aspects of the educational thought of al-Ghazali, by taking his comprehensive religious subject, "Reviving the Sciences of Religion," as a model. This study attempted to capture all aspects of educational …

Islam And The Environment, Jon Armajani

The Journal of Social Encounters

This is a transcript of a presentation at the Thirty-Fourth Annual Peace Studies Conference at the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University on September 18, 2023. The presentation provides (1) some background information about Islam; (2) related ideas about Christianity; (3) a discussion of some verses in the Quran, which relate to the environment, and some Islamic interpretations of them; (4) an analysis of Ibrahim Abdul-Matin’s ideas on Islam and the environment; and (5) a tribute to Father Rene McGraw, OSB.

Image Of Women In Islam: Maqāsid Approach For Correct Interpretation, Maher Haswa, Man Baker, Moath Alnaief

All Works

The current study attempted to outline the necessity of using the purposes method (al-manhaj al-maqāṣidi) to understand the correct meaning of Islamic religious texts, particularly those related to the image of women, by analysing a set of Prophetic Hadiths in the canonical works of al-Bukhari and Muslim. When the purposes method is not utilized, these texts are typically understood as hostile towards women, leading many to question their validity. The current study employed the analytical and critical methods derived from holistically viewing the religious texts. The study argued that the purposes method should be used by gathering all the texts …

The Utilitarian Islamic Modernity Of Ḥasan Al-ʿAṭṭār (1766–1835), Ian Greer

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I describe and analyze the manifestations of modern thought in the life and works of Ḥasan al-ʿAṭṭār (d. 1835), an Egyptian Islamic scholar who served as Shaykh al-Azhar in the 1830s, in concert with Muḥammad ʿAlī Pasha. These manifestations were significantly influenced by the writings and ideas of Ottoman ʿulamāʿ and political elites which al-ʿAṭṭār would have encountered during his 10-year journey across the Empire. The thesis will also explore the content of al-ʿAṭṭār’s political, legal and social thought, which was guided by a unique form of ‘Islamic utilitarianism’ which reaches across his writings and the reforms …

Pr Activity Of Muslim Organizations Of Ukraine (On The Example Of The Ramu “Ummah”), Oleh Sokolovskyi

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The content and main directions of PR activities of Muslim religious organizations of Ukraine were analyzed (on the example of the RAMU “Ummah”). It was determined that it is characterized by the use of many resources and modern media technologies. PR activity has a multi-channel nature: through print and electronic media, as well as radio and television, although Internet resources, including social networks, prevail. An universal model of PR activities of Muslim organizations is the posting of general information on the basics of Islamic belief and features of religious practice, as well as digitized thematic literature, on electronic resources. The …

Layla, Christopher R. Deacy

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Layla (2024), directed by Amrou Al-Kadhi.