Discrimination and religiosity among Muslim women in the UK before and after the Charlie Hebdo attacks

In January 2015, media outlets reported a series of attacks by Islamic terror groups in France, instigated at the offices of the Charlie Hebdo publication. Previous research has indicated that the consequence of exposure to terrorist attacks can extend beyond the immediate victims, with a potentially international reach. This secondary data analysis compares the perceptions of discrimination, religiosity, and religious engagement of 240 Muslim women in the UK, recruited before and after the Charlie Hebdo attacks. The results indicate greater religious engagement and perceptions of discrimination among those women recruited after the attacks. This suggests that the impact of such events may reach beyond the immediate victims, and societies need to develop and provide support in response to such attacks, regardless of the geographical location of the event.     

汉字加工的基本单元:来自笔画数效应和部件数效应的证据

用命名作业和真假字判断作业考察了笔画数和部件数对汉字加工的影响,发现,当部件数保持恒定时,笔画数少的汉字较笔画数多的汉字加工快,这种笔画数效应和字频之间不存在交互作用;当笔画数被控制时,部件数效应也存在,但和字频有交互作用,表现在低频少部件汉字的加工要快于低频多部件汉字的加工,而高频汉字中的部件数效应不显著。实验还发现独体字（只有一个部件）的加工和合体字（部件数大于等于二）的加工有差异。作者认为,汉字的加工要经过笔画、部件和整字三个层次,其中单位部件的笔画数和部件数影响着汉字加工时间     

Conceptualizing the Religious Dimensions of Armed Conflicts: A Response to “Shrouded: Islam,War, and Holy War in Southeast Asia”

Here I react to an article published in Volume 53 of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion by Ian Barter and Zatkin‐Osburn. My principal disagreement with Barter and Zatkin‐Osburn concerns their operational and methodological critiques of my work. However, the exchange also speaks to larger questions of how to conceptualize and measure religious dimensions of armed conflicts. It also highlights the importance of methodological pluralism in the study of religion and conflict.     

A Millennial Mistake: Three Arguments Against Radical Social Constructivism

Recent scholars have argued that counseling has begun to embrace social constructivism as a paradigm for counseling. However, this commitment to social constructivist tenets may be both premature and undesirable. This article provides a critique of a dominant branch of social constructivism: radical social constructivism. Three arguments are presented establishing that radical social constructivism leads to logically impossible conclusions, violates counseling's moral convictions, and denies secure scholarship in related fields.     

Queer Muslims: between orthodoxy,secularism and the struggle for acceptance

ABSTRACT

The aim of this paper is to concentrate on responses by Muslim scholars to both the Orlando incident and the United States Supreme Court Judgment on same-sex marriage. I first provide some comments on the Orlando incident in relation to the issue of Muslims, violence and homophobia. More importantly and central to my argument, I consider what the import of these responses are for Muslims – especially Muslims who identify as LGBTIQ or at least experience same-sex sexual attraction or participate in same-sex sexual conduct – and also what do such responses suggest about the prospect of same-sex sexuality being seriously considered, understood and accepted within the contemporary Islamic tradition and the possible consequences thereof. I make the case that the Islamic tradition, by way of its self-identified and proclaimed scholarly interpreters and representatives, urgently need to engage with the issue of same-sex sexuality in a more robust, dynamic and imaginative manner or risk a deepening epistemological crisis.     

Alternative realities: queer Muslims and the Qur’an

ABSTRACT

The interplay between Islam, Muslim lives and traditional/mainstream interpretations of the Qur’an have contributed to the marginalization of non-heterosexual Muslims. Queer Muslims face ridicule and rejection from friends and family and Muslim religious scholars openly question the morality and validity of their same-sex attraction. Yet, despite this, the source of this condemnation, the Qur’an, remains an instrumental source of support and guidance for Queer Muslims. The present study explores the entanglements of sexuality, spirituality and self-empowerment. Based on a structured interview with a gay Muslim man, an academic who is involved in Queer readings of the Qur’an, this paper explores how he resolves the now oft-mentioned “conflict” between Islam and homosexuality and how his scholarship serves to advance an alternative understanding and interpretation of the Qur’an. While his work is not endorsed, supported or recognized by mainstream Muslim scholars, it offers Queer Muslims the potential to be optimistic at the possibility of change. Reading the Qur’an while being sensitive to Queer lives means that contemporary interpretations, especially in relation to sexuality, can be reconstituted/reconstructed, making orthodox/“traditional” readings less rigid and impermeable. Using religious scholarship to “deviate” from and question heteronormative interpretations of the Holy text, the aim of Queer readings of the Qur’an is to embolden Queer Muslims to help them reclaim and exercise agency and power.     

‘My Husband is My Key to Paradise.’ Attitudes of Muslims in Indonesia and Norway to Spousal Roles and Wife-Beating

This article explores the influence of religious factors and values held by local societies, when Muslims develop their personal attitudes and perceived religious norms regarding spousal roles and wife-beating. It is based on qualitative interviews with 59 Muslims in Indonesia (N?=?35) and Norway (N?=?24). In addition, relevant Indonesian and Norwegian Muslim literature and web pages are examined. According to most Indonesian respondents, Islamic norms prescribe male leadership and allow the husband to beat a disobedient wife. This was regarded as crucial for the wife’s destiny after death. According to most Norwegian respondents, Islamic norms promote gender equality and oppose wife-beating. The sharp contrast between the perceived religious norms of Indonesian and Norwegian respondents may be caused by dissimilar cultural values in the two countries – values that influenced personal attitudes and thus the horizon of understanding where religion and authoritative text were interpreted. The reasoning of the respondents also sheds light on the importance of specific sacred texts when religious norms were developed individually. From a psychological point of view, the implementation of the egalitarian attitudes represented by numerous respondents may have positive effects for Muslim women living in patriarchal societies.     

Mahometans on the Edge of Colonial Empire: Antipodean Experiences

ABSTRACT

The public conceptualization of Muslim immigration and settlement in New Zealand has become synonymous with the comparatively recent influx of Asian and African migrants and refugees over the past two decades. However, a noteworthy minority of Muslim immigrants arrived during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in the colonial period. This article surveys the immigration and settlement of Muslims from the 1850s to the 1950s, focusing on the biographies of the most prominent individuals, broadly tracing their arrival and participation in the Anglo-European Christian society they chose to settle in, through to the creation of the Islamic institutions in this country from the 1950s to 1980s. I will conclude with a brief overview of the significance of this pioneer period in view of more recent immigration and the proliferation of Islam in New Zealand, together with some observations upon the interactions of Muslims with a largely Christian society and what that may indicate for the understanding of relations between Muslims and Christians within New Zealand from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. Although the first century of Muslim settlement has been largely overlooked, or marginalized, much can be revealed about the broader Muslim experience at this extremity of the (former) British Empire.     

‘Thank God We Are in Syria!’ Modernization,Interfaith Relations and Women’s Rights in Syria Before the ‘Arab Spring’ (2000–2010)

The status of women is generally considered a measure of ‘modernity’ and it has often been exploited by the West to highlight the ‘backwardness’ of non-Western countries and to justify colonialism and ‘civilization’ endeavours. The question of women’s rights and its connection to ‘modernity’, however, is not simple. This article considers the example of Syria immediately before the revolts of 2011, and highlights that the government’s approach to the issue of women’s rights appears to have been inspired by a peculiar idea of ‘modernity’ that is not in line with the Western mainstream view, because it is not based on the centrality of the individual and does not include a view of secularization that underestimates the social and political importance of religious beliefs. Reflections on the peculiarities of the Syrian approach may help avoid simplifications and – more generally – may help us reflect on the premise of the mainstream Western approach to the issue in countries considered as ‘other’.