The Muslim community and English law

This article addresses what are perceived as being the main areas of English law likely to present Muslims in Britain with problems or difficulties. Some English legal provisions relating to the family, education and religious freedom are inconsistent with Islamic beliefs and practices. While English law has to be obeyed by all those living in England, there are plenty of opportunities for Muslims to exploit its liberal principles and practical flexibility to suit their own needs. Furthermore, English law can be reformed to make it more consonant with the values and traditions of minority faiths, as the Sikhs have recently demonstrated. So far, Muslim pressure groups have failed to achieve similar reforms and some possible explanations for this are given. The future emphasis of the English legal system should lie in promoting cultural and religious pluralism, within a set of shared core values, and various concrete suggestions for change are offered.

This article is based on a paper given at Cumberland Lodge, Windsor on 29 November 1991 to a conference on ‘Islam: The British Experience’ organized by the St. Catherine's Foundation.     

The English public space: developing spirituality in English Muslim schools

Developing a language and a context for a spirituality that can speak to children and young people in a post‐modern, secular English society is a challenge for anyone, parent or teacher, who wishes to raise the vision beyond the purely material and the everyday. The challenge is both epistemological and pedagogical. How young people see, know and describe the world in which they find themselves is central to any school curriculum. For English Muslim schools the epistemological and pedagogical interfaces with the cultural and theological in a search for a language and spirituality that is a reflection of a contemporary English Islam.     

Representation of Muslim sexual subjectivities: the hidden ethical judgments of journalistic rhetoric

In 2005, following a year of increased attention in English language media to the prominence of sexual reassignment surgeries in Iran, the London-based Guardian dubs Tehran “the unlikely sex-change capital of the world.” This title is significantly complicated when we realize that according to mainstream English media, Tehran is not the first or only sex change capital of the world. Its sister city is Trinidad, Colorado, a predominantly Catholic town with a population hovering around 9,000. Although English language newspapers have served up stories of each location as “surprising” magnets for SRS, none have mentioned both places in the same article because these stories operate with a different set of logics related to religion, sex, and human rights. Analysis of the journalist rhetoric of these two unlikely capitals highlights these diverse logics, particularly how assumptions about Muslim subjectivity affects judgments about the status of sexual freedom in Iran.     

The mosque and social control in Edinburgh's Muslim community

The present paper is based on an ethnographic study of the social organisation of one of the main mosques (Markazi Jamia Masjid‐i‐Anwar‐i‐Madina) in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. The main focus of the paper is the ways the mosque operates as an agency of social control among the Muslim population of Edinburgh. This study identifies sabaq—mosque‐based religious education of young Muslims—and the Jom'a (Friday) congregational prayer as the two main mechanisms of social control within the mosque. It is argued that while the social organisation of the mosque is, in some important ways, a response to and shaped by exclusionary practices in the wider society, it plays a central role in the maintenance of order in the Muslim community of Edinburgh.     

Muslim Canadians: Immigration policy and community development in the 1991 census

Canada's Muslim population is rapidly increasing. Initial immigration was hindered by the racist White Canada policy, discarded in 1962. Thereafter, Muslims from South Asia and the Middle East entered Canada in large numbers as professionals and trained workers, as well as substantial numbers of refugees. While the community is well‐integrated economically, in terms of job classification and educational involvement, Muslims face prejudice and discrimination because of their race and religion. The most important challenge is passing on religious and cultural traditions to offspring, not only since their socialization occurs in a secular environment but also because the higher levels of economic and educational success within the Muslim community tend to break down religious and cultural barriers to mixed marriages. While characteristics of Muslim social identity, such as esteem for education and caring for older relatives, are positive factors encouraging group adhesion, negative forces, such as racism, also contribute to group maintenance.     

English,Christian or Muslim Law: Deconstructing Some Myths

Archbishop Rowan Williams's 2008 lecture, “Civil and Religious Law in England: A Religious Perspective,” has become an historic reference point for discussions about relationships between Islam, religious law and English law. One of the Archbishop's heart-felt pleas was for “deconstruction” of myths about both Islam and the Enlightenment. Continued stereotypes perpetuated by the “Trojan Horse” debate over Birmingham schools and the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo event suggest the plea went unheard. This article aims to address factors that prevent objective assessment of the relationship between English law, religious laws, Islam and other faiths. It is hoped that this will help the deconstruction of myths by examining what the law says, the claims religious communities make and whether further change is needed. The relationship of religious laws, norms and courts to secular legal systems is a pertinent topic for Christian–Muslim dialogue to which it is hoped that this article might contribute. Amongst issues considered are the scope for more formal recognition or monitoring of religious laws that have an impact on the lives of some UK citizens, and arguments for recognition on the basis that a democracy should reflect all parties to its citizenship and protection of the most vulnerable. As calls for further recognition of religious laws arise, the deconstruction of myths can only smooth the way for their objective assessment.     

Media making Muslims: the construction of a Muslim community in Germany through media debate

This article focuses on the ways in which Muslims actively participate in media debates about Islam and Muslims in Germany, and how they challenge or reinforce representations of themselves. It questions the narrative of powerlessness versus dominant actors in media and politics. Even though they were already perceived as part of a Muslim community, several prominent individuals in the German cultural and political sphere took an explicit position as Muslims—some insisting on their distance to religion. This paper aims at describing the various reasons and reflections accompanying this decision and argues that media images of Muslims steered individuals, who are not members of Islamic organizations let alone representatives of them, to become active or change their self-representation and act as Muslims. By demanding recognition as active members of German society, prominent Muslim individuals are creating new images of Muslims beyond an imaginary that is reducing them to their (alleged) religiosity and positioning them outside German national identity.     

The faith community and mental health resilience amongst Australian Ismaili Muslim youth

The religio-cultural community of minority ethnic migrants can strongly affect post-migration adaptation. Whilst religion itself may influence resilience, the social support network it provides may also play a role. Extant literature on resilience and migrant communities has largely focused on refugees whilst the experience of younger voluntary migrants and second-generation immigrants, who may experience “acculturative stress”, has been overlooked. This study examines 18–25 year old diasporic and post-diasporic Ismaili Muslim youth in Australia. Of the 11 youth respondents, five were Australian-born/raised (“post-diasporic”) and six were recent immigrants (“diasporic”). Five community leaders were also interviewed for triangulation. Respondents were obtained using purposive and convenience sampling in two Australian cities. Results demonstrate how faith engagement and civic participation were utilised in developing resilience when facing mental health stressors encountered during the migratory and acculturative processes.     

Children growing up in a violent community: The role of the family

This review evaluates empirical reports of relations among exposure to violence in the community, dimensions that characterize families and parenting, and the distress and maladjustment of children and adolescents. Family functioning variables that have been examined in relation to community violence exposure include family conflict and violence, social support, structure and cohesion, parenting practices, maternal distress, and sociodemographic characteristics. Evidence is reviewed for three hypotheses regarding family dimensions: (1) that they are associated with children's community violence exposure in bivariate relations, (2) that they moderate relations between community violence exposure and child outcomes, and (3) that they mediate relations between community violence exposure and child outcomes. Following the empirical review, theoretical and methodological gaps in the literature are identified; guidelines are proposed for ecologically valid family-based research on community violence.     

Simulation in hypnosis research: the "hidden" role of attribution of meaning

The role played by attribution of meaning in research involving simulation is examined. Acknowledgement of this role, lacking to date, queries the traditional use of simulation but also opens up interesting research questions.     

The hidden side of the Ultimatum Game: The role of motivations and mind-reading in a two-level one-shot Ultimatum Game

The main aim of our study is to investigate the role of motivations and mind-reading in a two-level one-shot Ultimatum Game with three players. Our intention is to analyse subjects’ behaviour in both the responder and proposer roles. In the responder role, we found that the difference between the subjects’ expectations and the actual offers was the major factor that influenced their decisions and motivations in receiving money. In the proposer role, our results showed a significant influence of mind-reading, with a positive association between the fairness of subjects’ offers and the subjects’ expectations about the recipients’ willingness to accept. Although a shared concept of fairness exists findings suggest that decisions and motivations seem to depend on expectations, either when they are directly experienced or when they are ascribed to the counterpart.     

Underdetermination as an epistemological test tube: expounding hidden values of the scientific community

Duhem–Quine underdetermination plays a constructive role in epistemology by pinpointing the impact of non-empirical virtues or cognitive values on theory choice. Underdetermination thus contributes to illuminating the nature of scientific rationality. Scientists prefer and accept one account among empirical equivalent alternatives. The non-empirical virtues operating in science are laid open in such theory choice decisions. The latter act as an epistemological test tube in making explicit commitments to how scientific knowledge should be like.     

The intelligence community and the war on terror: the role of behavioral science

The United States intelligence community has been under intense scrutiny from both inside and outside in the aftermath of September 11. Post mortem assessments of intelligence breakdowns may judge the events as more predictable than was in fact the actual reality. In a troubled world, when threats to national security can materialize very quickly, the intelligence community must be able to effectively and swiftly develop and implement plans to prevent further terrorist attacks on the homeland. Numerous scenarios need to be considered for the management of crisis situations. Intelligence actions must make it more difficult for terrorists to strike at their targets. The war on terror must confront a new generation of enemies who threaten to attack the United States with weapons of mass destruction. This essay will focus on the role of behavioral science and how related reforms within the intelligence community could improve its capability to respond to a huge challenge.