Christians and Muslims in search of common ground in Malaysia

According to its constitution, Malaysia is a federation and a secular state. But due to the special position given to the Malays, who usually adhere to Islam, Islam is declared to be the ‘official’ religion in the federation — although not necessarily in all of its member states, which differ in their ethnic and religious composition. The federal constitution generally guarantees religious freedom, but it provides that the propagation of other faiths among Malays and Muslims may be prohibited by law. In recent years, however, the Christians together with the other non‐Muslims feel a growing restriction of their freedom while the federal government pursues a policy of creating a common ‘Malaysian culture’ oriented towards Malay, and thus Islamic, values. This would change the open and pluralistic character of Malaysia — which is more than just peninsular Malaya — substantially and carry the danger of compartmentalizing society.     

Islamising Malayness: Ulama discourse and authority in contemporary Malaysia

This paper seeks to discuss Malay identity as it has been understood by the Malay Muslim religious elites (the Ulama) in Malaysia. I posit that the Ulama’s voices have been privileged in the context of the Islamic resurgence period. Although there has been a general consensus by the Ulama that Islam is a key component of the Malay identity and that the two are inseparable, the Ulama are, at present, divided in the contest for a clear definition of what ‘Islam’ is and how Malayness can be refashioned towards Islam. By couching these debates and contestations within the context of the Islamic resurgence period and the state’s Islamisation project, I shall highlight the ways in which issues such as Malay rites, rituals and cultural practices, and what constitutes bid’ah (sinful innovations) in Islam are elucidated. The works and sermons of three key Ulama in contemporary Malaysia—Nik Aziz, Mohd Asri, and Harussani Zakaria—shall be treated as case studies. Their attitude towards other key markers of Malayness, such as the Malay Royalty and Malay language, and how they are negotiated in relation to Islam are also examined.     

Teaching Islam in contemporary America: Digital ethnography and the affective challenges of Islamic studies pedagogy

In this article we address the affective dimensions and challenges of teaching about Islam and Islamic studies in the current American political and cultural environment and make two related arguments. First, we explain how the impact of certain kinds of digital media in the past few years has heightened the association of Islam with violence in the minds of many Americans, leading to a classroom affective environment characterized by the “posttraumatic” experience of knowledge about Islam. Second, we argue that the pedagogical use of digital media as a tool for ethnographic and empathic engagement with individual Muslim lives can help meet this particular teaching challenge. We show how the pedagogical employment of digital ethnography can turn the affective power of digital media into a positive learning tool, and model its responsible social and intellectual use.     

ISLAM AND SCIENCE: THE NEXT PHASE OF DEBATES

This article reviews the new developments that have occurred in the past ten to fifteen years in the field of Islam and science: (1) the emergence of a “new generation” of thinkers, Muslim scientists who accept modern science's fundamental methodology, theories, and results, and try to find ways to “harmonize” it with Islam; and (2) the exponential increase in the popularity of the I‘jaz ‘Ilmiy “theory,” the “miraculous scientific content of the Qur'an” (and, some say, the Hadith) as well as the continuation of the traditionalist school (Iqbal and others, following Nasr) among a section of the Muslim intelligentsia. The author then focuses on the next phase of issues, that is the “challenges” that this “new generation” must address, including the integration of methodological naturalism and evolution (biological and human) in the Islamic worldview, and positions to adopt regarding divine action and miracles. The author also mentions “educational and social issues” where Islam and science interface, and concludes with “the way forward.”     

Defining ‘Modern’ Malay womanhood and the coexistent messages of the veil

The gender constructions and performances of Malay women are often perceived by outside researchers as ‘shrouded under a veil’ of increasing Islamic conservatism. Urban Malay women, however, argue that women actively engage in the construction and performance of gender identities. Based on research conducted in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, during 2001 and 2003, this article argues that women advantageously alter, transform and utilise the constructs placed upon them by Islam, by ethnic identification and by conceptions of ‘modernity’. Often one image of ‘womanhood’ is presented and in public e an image that is socially accepted, honoured and respected e while less publicly alternative forms of ‘womanhood’ articulate individual goals and aims. Using an agent-oriented perspective, this article further includes an analysis of women's individual renegotiations of larger cultural constructs and the ways in which the tudong, or headscarf, has become a symbol by which individual women express their understanding of social position and personal freedoms in an industrialised Islamic context.     

Between Islam and anti-globalization: cultural, political and religious debates in the German Muslim newspaper Islamische Zeitung

This paper examines the Islamische Zeitung (IZ), a newspaper made by German Muslims for German Muslims that informs about political, cultural, and theological topics. I argue that beyond providing information, the paper aims to create a platform of debate for a growing group of, in particular, younger pious educated Muslims who examine current politics by way of an Islamic and also an anti-globalization perspective. Of relevance for this audience are Islamic knowledge, local and global politics, everyday religious concerns and practices, and cultural affairs. I illustrate how by discussing certain topics on its pages, the makers of the IZ support specific issues of debates among some pious individuals, such as for example the participation of pious Muslims (men and women) in the democratic process by way of running in elections. Finally I argue that the IZ seeks to link the German Muslim community to the context of the global ummah and here in particular the globalized ummah as a new community marked by a shared popular culture universe. I illustrate that contrary to the claims of some of its opponents, the IZ is a platform for German Muslim affairs that participates in the broader public sphere as much as it helps to mediate a variety of possibilities for the participation of individuals and communities.     

A Religiously Partisan Science? Islamic and Christian Perspectives

Both within Christianity and Islam we can find influential scholars who maintain that science is not religiously neutral because it contains a naturalist bias. They argue that Christians or Muslims should respond by developing their own kind of science, an “Islamic science,” a “sacred science,” a “theistic science” or a “faith-informed science.” In this article the recent writings of two advocates of such a view, standing in two different religious traditions, namely Mehdi Golshani (Islam) and Alvin Plantinga (Christianity) are compared, analyzed, and evaluated. A distinction between different ways in which religion might enter into the fabric of science is introduced and it is argued that the most crucial issues surround the question of whether or not religion ought to play a part in the validation of theories.     

Defining ‘Modern’ Malay womanhood and the coexistent messages of the veil

The gender constructions and performances of Malay women are often perceived by outside researchers as ‘shrouded under a veil’ of increasing Islamic conservatism. Urban Malay women, however, argue that women actively engage in the construction and performance of gender identities. Based on research conducted in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, during 2001 and 2003, this article argues that women advantageously alter, transform and utilise the constructs placed upon them by Islam, by ethnic identification and by conceptions of ‘modernity’. Often one image of ‘womanhood’ is presented and in public - an image that is socially accepted, honoured and respected - while less publicly alternative forms of ‘womanhood’ articulate individual goals and aims. Using an agent-oriented perspective, this article further includes an analysis of women's individual renegotiations of larger cultural constructs and the ways in which the tudong, or headscarf, has become a symbol by which individual women express their understanding of social position and personal freedoms in an industrialised Islamic context.     

Diasporic sublime: Sikh martyrs,Internet mediations,and the question of the unimaginable

How are the Internet and the World Wide Web productive of new forms of cultural life? I analyse how the confluence of martyrdom, terror, and computer-mediated-communications has contributed to the emergence of a Sikh diasporic cultural politics. I argue that the centrality and force of both the Internet and the figure of the martyr for many Khalistanis prompt a rethinking of the privilege scholars often accord to the “imagination” and “experience” in explaining the creation of diasporic communities. In outlining what I call the diasporic sublime, I mine the works of Walter Benjamin and Immanuel Kant to develop a more precise way for talking about community formation in terms of the inexperiencable and the unimaginable.     

Inquiry and Belief

In this paper I look at belief and degrees of belief through the lens of inquiry. I argue that belief and degrees of belief play different roles in inquiry. In particular I argue that belief is a “settling” attitude in a way that degrees of belief are not. Along the way I say more about what inquiring amounts to, argue for a central norm of inquiry connecting inquiry and belief and say more about just what it means to have an inquiry or question settled.     

Islam as an ethical tradition of international relations

This article explores the ethical traditions of Islam in order to examine its potential as a source that would help precipitate ethical and peaceful, as opposed to political and conflictual, relations between nations, faiths, and cultural groups. While using philosophical and ethical categories borrowed from the Western epistemes, this paper in a way reintroduces Islam as an ethical tradition. Given the significance that Islamic sentiments and Islamic symbolism have for a billion people and over fifty nation states, this paper recommends the inclusion of Islamic traditions in discourses whose concern is the proliferation of ethical consideration in international and intercultural relations. Having said that, the paper proceeds to elaborate foundations for an Islamic ethic of international relations.     

Islamic identity and its role in the lives of young Swedish Muslims

This paper concerns the level of wellbeing experienced by Swedish Muslim youths and young adults as well as the ways in which this is influenced both positively and negatively by their sense of Islamic religious identity. Taking Akerlof and Crantons’ Treatise on “identity economics” as its point of departure, the paper explores, discusses and analyses the following two questions: (1) what are the contexts in which identification with Islam tends to facilitate the wellbeing of Swedish Muslim youths and young adults; and (2) what are the contexts in which identification with Islam tends to destabilize (or increase the sociocultural discomfort of) this same group. Here, the notion of Islam as a “resource” is important, since this underlines its potential to resolve the types of existential dilemmas that are often found to confront the young and undermine their sense of wellbeing. The paper bases its assessments on the results of a questionnaire concerning life, values, relations, leisure time activities and religion that was distributed to a total of 4,000 young Swedes, a certain number of whom identified themselves as “Muslims”. Apart from studying the survey’s Muslim-specific results, I have conducted a number of additional interviews with young Muslim respondents, aiming to extend our understanding beyond the strictly quantitative findings of the material. The survey indicates that, much like their Christian counterparts, a majority of the Muslim respondents considered their belief in Islam to be a private, personal matter; one-third described themselves as “seekers”—an identification that previous research has found to be associated primarily with secular majority youth. The results further indicate that a majority of Muslim youths have a low level of confidence in religious leaders and that very few are actively involved in mosque activities and the like; on the contrary, they prefer to spend their leisure hours earning money, being with friends and/or “working out” at the gym. While the survey found that the vast majority of Muslim respondents looked upon the social and spiritual dimensions of Islam as a positive resource, the interviews indicate that the ability of young Muslims to appropriately shift between different forms of cultural belonging is highly advantageous as well.     

Islam in the academic sphere in senegal: the case of Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar (UCAD)

This paper discusses the changing socio-cultural landscape at Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar (UCAD), Senegal. It shows how the growing influence of the religious phenomenon since the late 1970s has encouraged young students to develop an Islamic activism that tends to replace the revolutionary and secular traditions that had dominated the space since the founding of this Senegalese university in 1957. These transformations, which take the form of a “decomplexification” of religion and of a communitarisation of the academic sphere, are also a reflection of the ongoing transformations in Senegalese society marked by a citizenship in transition. This transition translates itself into a duality between a “national citizenship,” with a francophone and secular character, and a “cultural citizenship,” inspired by Islam and initially driven by an Arab-Islamic elite as it negotiates its place in the public and administrative spheres that have historically been dominated by francophone elites.     

Islamist Conservatism and the Demise of Islam Hadhari in Malaysia

This article argues that Islam Hadhari, as a model for development officially inaugurated during the administration of Malaysia's fifth Prime Minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (2003–9), encountered failure. Its lack of success was significantly due to the rise of Islamist conservatives, who deliberately interpreted Islam Hadhari as a political instrument to impose Islamization from above in a manner not conducive to living in a spirit of peaceful coexistence in a multi-ethnic society. While on the one hand it promoted an Islam that cherishes the values of inclusivity, moderation and inter-religious tolerance, on the other hand Islam Hadhari unfortunately triggered defensive responses from Islamist conservatives. This ad hoc conservative alliance comprised religious leaders associated with the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), state religious functionaries, scholars affiliated to the opposition Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS: Parti Islam SeMalaysia) and Islamist non-governmental organizations. The rise of this Islamist conservatism aggravated ethno-religious relations during Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's premiership, leading to the setbacks experienced by his government in the general elections of 2008. By then, the death knell had been sounded for Islam Hadhari. It was steadily consigned to the graveyard of history by the administration of Najib Razak, who took over from Abdullah in April 2009.     

Religiosity and Islamic Rule in Iran

We investigate the relationship between religiosity and support for Islamic rule in the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI). Are high levels of religiosity associated with an ideology characterized by clerical rule, supremacy of Islamic law, and state enforcement of Islam? The data come from a random sampling survey conducted in Tehran in August 2003. It covers a range of questions on religiosity, social, and political attitudes, and has a sample of 412 respondents. The analyses show that religiosity is closely affiliated with an ideological understanding of Islam in Tehran. Interestingly, political dissatisfaction does not negatively affect this association. Shi‘ism in Iran has evolved from a “world‐shaking” force into a “world‐legitimating” force.     

Donna Haraway's Cyborg Touching (Up/On) Luce Irigaray's Ethics and the Interval Between: Poethics as Embodied Writing

In this article, I argue that Donna Haraway's figure of the cyborg needs to be reassessed and extricated from the many misunderstandings that surround it. First, I suggest that we consider her cyborg as an ethical concept. I propose that her cyborg can be productively placed within the ethical framework developed by Luce Irigaray, especially in relationship to her concept of the “interval between.” Second, I consider how Haraway's “cyborg writing” can be understood as embodied ethical writing, that is, as a contemporary écriture feminine. I believe that this cyborgian “writing the body” offers us a way of both creating and understanding texts that think through ethics, bodies, aesthetics, and politics together as part of a vital and relevant contemporary feminist ethics of embodiment. I employ the term “poethics” as a useful way to describe such a practice.     

Women in Egypt: Islamic Rights Versus Cultural Practice

In order to understand the predicament of Muslim women in Egypt, it is necessary to look beyond religion to the strong social and cultural forces, which shape their position in society. Islam is often held responsible for the inequitable and sometimes violent treatment of women in Egypt. However, Islam is unjustifiably blamed for such discriminatory practices against women. The Islamic rights granted to women are, for the most part, just. Women have gained more rights over the years; nevertheless, they continue to suffer, as these rights are often not put into practice, because of social and cultural influences. The Islamic religion is all too often misunderstood and held accountable for the unacceptable treatment of women; whereas in reality, cultural traditions have led to this inequity.     

Coming to Terms with Modernity: Iranian intellectuals and the emerging public sphere

Almost two decades after the Islamic revolution of 1979, the quest of Iranians for a distinct religious identity produced a new socio-political movement, which incorporated a pluralistic rhetoric in the name of reform. Since the presidential elections of May 1997, an intensifying fascination has emerged with exposing the internal diversities of the Islamic nation via a language of critique. The June 2001 elections confirmed the popular desire for reform. This reform movement has given voice to the needs and desires of so-far peripheral groups (youth, women, intellectuals, artists and ethnic minorities, etc.), who tend to appropriate Islam in order to come into public life as active protagonists. Recent discursive developments in Iran demonstrate the real possibility of the public expression of dissent within the constraints of Islamic politics. This paper is meant to offer an overview of how new intellectual interpretations of Islamic tradition in Iran since 1997 are contributing to cultural, social and political critique, within a public sphere defined by Islam.     

Apolitical Interpretation of Islam: Said Nursi's Faith-Based Activism in Comparison with Political Islamism and Sufism

In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, Islam has generally been represented in the media as a political ideology and some academics have over-emphasized this political image of Islam. These are not baseless speculations; there are several political Islamic groups worldwide. However, there are also many apolitical Islamic groups. This article analyzes one of the most influential apolitical Islamic movements in the world, the Nurcus, and its founder, Bediüzzaman Said Nursi. Nursi, the author of the Risale-i Nur collection, emphasized the ascetic aspect of Islam: ‘Ninety-nine percent of Islam is about ethics, worship, the hereafter, and virtue. Only one percent is about politics; leave that to the rulers.’ He also added, ‘I seek refuge in God from Satan and [party] politics.’ Through the analysis of Nursi's thought and activism, the article will try to answer the following questions: Was Nursi a Sufi? What are the theological and structural bases of Nursi's apolitical interpretation of Islam? What is the impact of the secular state in Turkey on the development of Nursi's apolitical outlook and activism? What does his apolitical understanding of Islam say to non-Turkish Muslims who do not live in a secular state?