Islam as moral education: madrasa courses and contestation of the secular in the Republic of Tatarstan,Russia

In this paper, based on fieldwork in a small town in post-Soviet Tatarstan, Russia, I explore the dynamics of religious life in a rural community, highlighting the ways religious and secular education interact with and reinforce each other, contributing to the processes of religious revival in this community. Soviet ideas and practices of moral education as well as post-Soviet concerns about morality constitute the common ground that brings secular and religious together. Adhering to the Soviet idea that society is responsible for the moral education of its young people, local schoolteachers use Islam as a source of moral values and disciplining practices to bring up the younger generation, affected by post-Soviet transformations. Teachers increasingly rely on Islamic ethics in the moral upbringing of schoolchildren that effectively challenges the separation between secular and religious education. Religion acquires growing significance as a process of moral edification and discipline.     

Communion and Liberation: a Catholic movement in a multilevel governance perspective

In this article we focus on how changes in political structure influence religion. Communion and Liberation (CL) is widely known in Italy as a very important Catholic movement whose political power has been significantly increasing in the last 15 years. It is an example of a movement deeply rooted at the local level, where its activities range from grassroots meetings to business activities and service provision. In the sociological literature, CL has been studied either by focusing on its political ideology, or as a religious movement. Introducing a specific focus on the political system allows us to highlight the close relationships between the recent changes in the Italian political system and the reasons for the local success of CL. Indeed, it has been a process of mutual adaptation and influence. The political success of a Catholic movement in a Western democracy is relevant to understanding the changing role of religion in the political arena. Christian movements can play a role of substitution for traditional political movements in countries where traditional parties have become particularly weak and not capable of inspiring enthusiasm among citizens. But the story of CL in Lombardy suggests also that something is changing in the relationship between national and local politics. CL is able to play on different territorial horizons by using local, regional and national political spheres to promote its policies, mainly in the welfare sector. This is an important signal of a capacity both to adapt to a changing political system and to influence these changes. In this paper we focus on the relationships between CL and Italian politics in the Second Republic (1993 to the present day) by analysing CL representation of its political role as well as by pointing out the political opportunity structure in which its success has taken place.     

Pacifying Muslims in Germany’s ‘City of Peace’: interreligious dialogue as a tool of governance in Osnabrück

ABSTRACT

Addressing Muslims as a target group in municipal politics is a relatively new development in German cities. Interreligious dialogue, often initiated by established Christian actors, provides a format for doing so. In our local West German case study, the politics of dialogue link up with a historical narrative of Osnabrück as ‘City of Peace’, creating a semantic framework which is hard to resist, yet not undisputed. As a governance tool, interreligious dialogue has the potential to pacify and to structure social relations. It tends to prefer and support certain subject positions, while neglecting others. In this contribution we focus both on actors who are involved in local interreligious dialogue as well as those who – for diverse reasons – do not participate, and who question or oppose it. Thus, we analyse the effects of interreligious dialogue on local subjectivation processes, including alternative reactions that might challenge the dominant paradigm.     

Globalised violence,community psychology and the bombing and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq

In this article, I first set out a conceptualisation of globalised violence. I then reflect upon how psychology networks in general and community psychology networks in particular appear to have positioned themselves publicly in relation to the violence of the recent bombing and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq. I ask whether networks of Community Psychologists are able/willing to publicly position themselves in regards to these specific events and the levels of globalised violence in general. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Muslim veil as politics: political autonomy, women and Syariah Islam in Aceh

This article examines the interlinking of political autonomy, Syariah law and women in contemporary Aceh. Looking at Aceh’s historical precedents, current sociocultural and political developments cannot be seen as manifestations of Islamic revival. It would be misleading to look at the implementation of Syariah Islam in general and the enforcement of veiling in particular as signs of the radicalization of Islam. Islam in Aceh has always had political meanings. It shapes an identity characterized by a long collective history of rebellion against foreign oppression and repression. The revival however is seen in notions of gender dominance and order, which have profound consequences for women’s lives. Using articles from 2005 to 2006 in Serambi, a locally published newspaper in Aceh, an assessment is made of how Syariah Islam has affected women’s lives.

论伊斯兰伦理道德形成初期的政治历史背景

伊斯兰教的兴起不但解决了穆斯林的信仰、伦理道德、行为规范、精神生活等问题,而且解决了民族命运、社会兴衰、阿拉伯半岛的统一等问题。本文试图通过对伊斯兰初创时期阿拉伯半岛外部形势和内部社会矛盾的深度剖析,探讨伊斯兰伦理道德形成初期的政治历史背景。     

Misreading Islamist Terrorism: The "War Against Terrorism" and Just-War Theory

Abstract: The Bush administration's military war on terrorism is a blunt, ineffective, and unjust response to the threat posed to innocent civilians by terrorism. Decentralized terrorist networks can only be effectively fought by international cooperation among police and intelligence agencies representing diverse nation‐states, including ones with predominantly Islamic populations. The Bush administration's allegations of a global Islamist terrorist threat to the national interests of the United States misread the decentralized and complex nature of Islamist politics. Undoubtedly there exists a “combat fundamentalist” element within Islamism. But the threat posed to U.S. citizens by Islamist terrorism neither necessitates nor justifies as a response massive military invasions of other nations. Not only does the Bush administration's war on alleged “terrorist states” violate the doctrine of just war, but in addition these wars arise from a new, unilateral, imperial foreign‐policy doctrine of “preventive wars.” Such a doctrine will isolate the United States from international institutions and long‐standing allies. The weakening of these institutions and alliances will only weaken the ability of the international community to deter terrorism.     

Sharʿī norms and German Schools: Court Challenges to Participation in Swimming Lessons,School Trips and Sex Education

ABSTRACT

This article examines the treatment by German courts, from the early 1970s to 2016, of requests made by Muslims to be exempted from school activities for religious reasons. Based on a qualitative reading of 72 court rulings, the article demonstrates a shift in the courts’ decision-making, from initially tolerating Muslim requests for exemption to firmly denying them. Arguments from the court rulings are substantiated by an analysis of the public discourse on Muslims in German schools. The results suggest that the transformation of court attitudes corresponded with the rise of broader concerns about multiculturalism and manifestations of Islam in the public sphere, the liberalization of gender norms, and increasing secularism within German society. The article further demonstrates that, contrary to public perception, requests for exemptions from school activities were not a distinctly Muslim phenomenon. Christian families have challenged school activities in a similar way.     

Worldviews about change: Their structure and their implications for understanding responses to sustainability,technology, and political change

People hold different perspectives about how they think the world is changing or should change. We examined five of these “worldviews” about change: Progress, Golden Age, Endless Cycle, Maintenance, and Balance. In Studies 1–4 (total N = 2733) we established reliable measures of each change worldview, and showed how these help explain when people will support or oppose social change in contexts spanning sustainability, technological innovations, and political elections. In mapping out these relationships we identify how the importance of different change worldviews varies across contexts, with Balance most critical for understanding support for sustainability, Progress/Golden Age important for understanding responses to innovations, and Golden Age uniquely important for preferring Trump/Republicans in the 2016 US election. These relationships were independent of prominent individual differences (e.g., values, political orientation for elections) or context-specific factors (e.g., self-reported innovativeness for responses to innovations). Study 5 (N = 2140) examined generalizability in 10 countries/regions spanning five continents, establishing that these worldviews exhibited metric invariance, but with country/region differences in how change worldviews were related to support for sustainability. These findings show that change worldviews can act as a general “lens” people use to help determine whether to support or oppose social change.     

The social and cultural roots of political violence in Central America

The paper suggests that there are specific features of violence, both personal and organized that have roots in the cultural formation of the Central American peoples. Its focus is on the three neighboring countries of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador and on the ideological violence of the twentieth century. The paper considers various aspects of the social character of the Spanish Americans of this area, their concepts of manliness, and their religion, as these affect both rich and poor, and contrasts these features with the attitudes of the indigenous Indian community. Having established that political violence is endemic in the region, the paper considers the role of Hispanic culture in shaping this violence. Emphasis is placed on the notion of machismo, which is identified not with pleasure seeking but with defiance of death. The attitudes of the people of this area toward death shape their attitudes toward violence. They are shown to have a fascination with the instruments of death, especially the machete among the lower classes and the gun among the university students. These attitudes are contrasted with the relatively non-violent attitudes of the Indians. The studies cited in this paper show the Indians as less interested in competition and aggression that the Hispanic population. In the last analysis, the violence of the Central American is intensely personal and can be shown to derive from the basic social and cultural fabric of the society.     

How contextual and individual characteristics influence psychological needs satisfaction: The critical roles of political skill and political will

This two-study research package investigates the interactive effects of perceptions of organizational politics, political skill, and political will on psychological need satisfaction, which has been shown to predict a number of different important organizational outcomes. Drawing primarily on social/political influence and self-determination theories, we propose that although perceptions of organizational politics (i.e., as an important situational or contextual variable) can demonstrate need-thwarting effects for some, its effects can be need-satisfying for those individuals with high levels of political skill and political will. In Study 1, we analyze a sample of 142 individuals to demonstrate that possessing political skill attenuates the negative effects of perceptions of organizational politics on psychological need satisfaction. In Study 2, we analyze a sample of 420 individuals to demonstrate that respondents with high levels of both political skill and political will experience their highest levels of need satisfaction in highly political environments. Theoretical contributions, limitations and future research directions, and practical implications are discussed.     

From outsiders to kingmakers: a comparative study of political Salafism in Egypt and political Haredism in Israel

ABSTRACT

How and why have fundamentalists, who aim to defend religion and tradition from modernity by advocating a new return to the fundamentals of religious belief and behaviour, become politically successful when one would expect them to remain marginal in their mass appeal given their belief in one true faith, exclusive organisations, limited ideological appeal and strict codes of conduct for their followers? To study this puzzle, this article utilises a cross-religious comparative study looking at how political Salafism in Egypt and political Haredism in Israel both moved from the margins of the political spectrum to its centre despite very different socio-political contexts. Building on literature addressing religious revival in Christian churches in the US, this article hypothesises that fundamentalists gained ground because the state’s ambiguous secularism allowed for the emergence of a ‘religious market,’ in which fundamentalists’ niche appeal allowed them to position themselves as kingmakers.     

A Review of: Darwinian Politics: The Evolutionary Origin of Freedom

This article takes a critical look at identity politics and conflict in Jos, a setting once regarded as “the home of peace and tourism in Nigeria.” The study situates the conflict within the relationship between the “indigene-settler” syndrome and the state, with its ugly hydra-headed manifestations. It argues that the conflict with a coloration of ethnic/religious garb was orchestrated under the façade of politics. It is suggested that the commitment of good governance remains the surest means of nipping in the bud the crises in Jos. The findings have important implications for aggregate research on ethnic/religious conflicts in Nigeria.     

Ethical selfhood and the status of the secular: Muslim identity in Mumbai

As part of a larger project, this essay contributes to the current anthropological rethinking of categories such as ‘religion’, ‘secularism’ and ‘politics’ in relation to social processes and subjects: a series of ventures that are related, in the Indian context, to modernity and liberal conceptions of statehood, sovereignty and personhood. In discussing everyday phenomena such as piety and religious authority, gender and childraising, and political and professional pursuits in Mumbai, I demonstrate that the ostensibly ‘religious’ domain of Islam is not necessarily the only, or even primary, basis for achieving a self-consciously ethical selfhood for even those who identify as observant and devout Muslims. I argue that the religious domain of Islam in this context is defined as such and intersected by discourses and practices of the self as a political and economic agent defined largely in terms of political modernity.     

The influence of political climate on job pursuit intentions and the moderating effect of Machiavellianism

Job seekers now have access to a number of internet resources (e.g., social media, chat rooms, and message boards) that provide information about potential employers. These resources provide potential job applicants with extensive amounts of third‐party information about organizations, including information about the extent to which a particular organization's climate can be characterized as being political. Unfortunately, owing to a dearth of research on this topic, it is unclear to what extent such information about an organization's political climate might affect the recruiting process. Therefore, drawing from the Attraction‐Selection‐Attrition model, we considered the extent to which potential job applicants are less (more) likely to pursue jobs in organizations that are perceived as more (less) political. We further identified Machiavellianism as a potential moderator of this relationship, given that this trait reflects the extent to which an individual would “fit” into a highly political work environment. Across three studies, our findings provide evidence that job applicants report being less likely to pursue jobs in organizations characterized by high levels of workplace politics. The results further indicated that Machiavellianism attenuates this negative effect. In light of our findings, we discuss implications for how information that is not controlled by the organization (e.g., information provided by social media or other internet‐based sources) affects job pursuit intentions and the organization's applicant pool.     

Contract governance of religious diversity in a German city-state and its ambivalences

ABSTRACT

This contribution discusses whether specific German policy instruments developed to govern relations between the state and religious communities are a decisive step towards legal equality or of limited impact when extended to non-Christian religious minorities. I research the effects of the 2012 ‘contracts’ concluded between the city’s government and the Muslim and Alevi communities in the German city (state) of Hamburg by drawing on academic research, analysing official documents and interviewing city officials and local politicians. I find that the contracts are a decisive step towards legal equality but bring with them shortcomings that show the limited impact of contract governance measured against the complex reality of (non-)religious life in contemporary societies.     

Taking liberties and making liberty: religious bounding and political violence in Sri Lanka

This paper argues that the relationship between religion and violent politics is best understood through a focus on religious practice. The case study of the Tamil Catholic Church within Sri Lanka's civil war is presented against a backdrop of Buddhist monk participation in violent insurgency decades earlier. The discrete cases evidence a common preoccupation with management of physical borders and discursive boundaries as actors seek to reproduce themselves and their work as legitimately ‘religious’. Despite relying on remaining ‘pure’ from the dirty political realm, in practice religion is bound to social action and reproduced through the violent circumstances it engages.     

The changing dynamics of religious authority on Pakistani religious television

This paper analyses the production, ownership and control of Pakistani religious talk shows, which have emerged as a popular genre of religious programming, subsequent to the liberalisation of Pakistani media in 2002. Much scholarship has implicated the nexus between Islam and televisual media in enabling the fragmentation of religious authority, by altering ‘lay’ engagements with Islam and thereby eliciting wider participation in religious discourse. In contrast, this paper focuses on the changing terms of asserting religious authority in the newly liberalised media context. Based on an analysis of the innovative formats and modes of editorial control characterising contemporary religious shows, I posit the significance of religious talk shows in both altering the nature of scholarly participation in religious public debate, and subjecting featured scholars to non-scholarly interests and agendas. I argue that the latter two insights into the nature of religious authority on television are only accessible from a production-based perspective, which is crucial for evaluating the wider implications of broadcast media for religious authority.     

Justice,instruction, and the good: The case for public education in Aristotle and Plato's Laws

This paper develops an interpretation and analysis of the arguments for public education which open Book VIII of Aristotle's Politics, drawing on both the wider Aristotelian corpus and on examination of continuities with Plato's Laws. Part I: The paper opens with the question of why Aristotle would say that no one will doubt that education should be the concern of the legislator, and Sections I–III identify the nature of his enterprise in the Politics, the audience he wishes to address, the conclusions he seeks to establish in VIII. 1, and what public education would amount to for him. An important conclusion reached is that the first of Aristotle's two conclusions in VIII.1 has been routinely misidentified.