Mecca is the heart of Islam. It is the birthplace of Muhammad, the direction towards which Muslims turn when they pray and the site of pilgrimage which annually draws some three million Muslims from all corners of the world. Yet Mecca's importance goes beyond religion. What happens in Mecca and how Muslims think about the political and cultural history of Mecca has had and continues to have a profound influence on world events to this day. In this captivating book, Ziauddin Sardar unravels the significance of Mecca. Tracing its history, from its origins as a 'barren valley' in the desert to its evolution as a trading town and sudden emergence as the religious centre of a world empire, Sardar examines the religious struggles and rebellions in Mecca that have powerfully shaped Muslim culture. Interweaving stories of his own pilgrimages to Mecca with those of others, Sardar offers a unique insight into not just the spiritual aspects of Mecca - the passion, ecstasy and longing it evokes - but also the conflict between heritage and modernity that has characterised its history. He unpeels the physical, social and cultural dimensions that have helped transform the city and also, though accounts of such Orientalist travellers as Richard Burton and Charles Doughty, the strange fascination that Mecca has long inspired in the Western imagination. And, ultimately, he explores what this tension could mean for Mecca's future. An illuminative, lyrical and witty blend of history, reportage and memoir, this outstanding book reflects all that is profound, enlightening and curious about one of the most important religious sites in the world.

This book investigates ways of dressing, style and fashion as gendered and embodied, but equally as "religionized" phenomena, particularly focusing on one significant world religion: Islam. Through their clothing, Muslims negotiate concepts and interpretations of Islam and construct their intersectionally interwoven position in the world. Taking the interlinkages between 'fashionized religion,' 'religionized fashion,' commercialization and processes of feminization as a starting point, this book reshapes our understanding of gendered forms of religiosity and spirituality through the lens of gender and embodiment. Focusing mainly on the agency and creativity of women as they appropriate ways of performing and interpreting various modalities of Muslim clothing and body practices, the book investigates how these social actors deal with empowering conditions as well as restrictive situations. Foregrounding contemporary scholars' diverse disciplinary, theoretical and methodological approaches, this book problematizes and complicates the discursive and lived interactions and intersections between gender, fashion, spirituality, religion, class, and ethnicity. It will be relevant to a broad audience of researchers across gender, sociology of religion, Islamic and fashion studies.

This book examines the wide range of multilingual devotional performances engaged in by young Muslims in the UK today. It evaluates the contemporary mosque school in the UK and contrasts this with practices from the past and with prevailing discourses (both political and other) which suggest that such institutions are problematic. It also challenges the highly-politicised and mediatised discourse which suggests that linguistic diversity presents a threat to the privileging of monolingualism in the UK. Finally, it argues for the usefulness of the term 'ultralingual' when analysing the multilingual devotional language performances of these young people.

The first account of one of the world's most pressing humanitarian catastrophes. This eye-opening book reveals how China has used the US-led Global War on Terror as cover for its increasingly brutal suppression of the Uyghur people. China's actions, it argues, have emboldened states around the globe to persecute ethnic minorities and severely repress domestic opposition in the name of combatting terrorism. Within weeks of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, the Chinese government announced that it faced a serious terrorist threat from its largely Muslim Uyghur ethnic minority. Nearly two decades later, of the 11 million Uyghurs living in China today, more than 1 million have been detained in so-called re-education camps, victims of what has become the largest program of mass incarceration and surveillance in the world. Drawing on extensive interviews with Uyghurs in Xinjiang, as well as refugee communities and exiles, Sean Roberts tells a story that is not just about state policies, but about Uyghur responses to these devastating government programs. Providing a lucid and far-reaching analysis of China's cultural genocide, The War on the Uyghurs allows the voices of those caught up in the human tragedy to be heard for the first time. -- .

A frank academic study of the Muslim holy scripture, the Qur'an, comparing it to the early extra-Qur'anic literature of Islam - and highlighting the differences and contrasts between the two. This exhaustive study goes on to analyse the Muslim holy book from a linguistic perspective, exploring some unconventional interpretations based upon the principle that in all Islamic matters, the last and definitive word is that of the Qur'an. It is the author's contention however, that the traditional Muslim view of Islam (based upon the infallibility of Hadith and Muslim scholars of early Islam) does not accurately reflect the reality of the Qur'an. In compiling this study, the author not only offers genuine insights into the sacred texts of Islam, but also pleads with Muslims to recognise some problems in their religious literature, and exercise more self-restraint in the face of objective criticism. To the Western world, the author asks that all Muslims should not be tarred with the same brush. "A few thousand - or more - militants who believe in terrorism do not represent the entire billion-strong Muslim community of today's world anymore than the few thousand slave traders of 18th century colonialism represent the entire Judeo-Christian world. Indeed, Islam has sprung from the same original source of Semitic monotheism of Abraham as have Judaism and Christianity; and, strangely enough, suffers from the very same problems of misrepresentations perpetuated through the centuries since its appearance."

The objective of Arab Criminology is to establish a criminological sub-field called 'Arab Criminology.' The ever-evolving field of criminology has advanced in the past decade, yet many impediments remain. Unlike criminology in Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe, and Oceania based merely on geopolitical constructs, the Arab world has unique commonalities that do not exist in the other established sub-fields on criminology. The Arab world has largely remained in criminology's periphery despite the region's considerable importance to current international affairs. In response, this book explores two main questions: Why should we and how do we establish a sub-field in Arab Criminology? The authors examine the state of criminology in the Arab world, define its parameters, and present four components that bond and distinguish Arab criminology from other criminological area studies. They then identify the requirements for establishing Arab criminology and detail how local, regional, and international researchers can collaborate, develop, and expand the sub-field. Arab Criminology will challenge some of the recurrent Orientalist and Islamophobic tropes in Northern criminology and progress the discipline of criminology to reflect a more diverse focus that embraces regions from the Global South. Presenting compelling arguments and examples that support the establishment of this sub-field, Arab Criminology will be of great interest to Criminology, Criminal Justice, Legal Studies, and Middle Eastern/North African studies scholars, particularly those working on Southern Criminology, Comparative Criminology, International Criminal Justice Systems, and Arab studies.

As a Slavic-speaking religious and ethnic "Other" living just a stone's throw from the symbolic heart of the continent, the Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina have long occupied a liminal space in the European imagination. To a significant degree, the wider representations and perceptions of this population can be traced to the reports of Central European-and especially Habsburg-diplomats, scholars, journalists, tourists, and other observers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This volume assembles contributions from historians, anthropologists, political scientists, and literary scholars to examine the political, social, and discursive dimensions of Bosnian Muslims' encounters with the West since the nineteenth century.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. Offering key insights into critical debates on the construction, management and destruction of heritage in Muslim contexts, this volume considers how Islamic heritages are constructed through texts and practices which award heritage value. It examines how the monolithic representation of Islamic heritage (as a singular construct) can be enriched by the true diversity of Islamic heritages and how endangerment and vulnerability in this type of heritage construct can be re-conceptualized. Assessing these questions through an interdisciplinary lens including heritage studies, anthropology, history, conservation, religious studies and archaeology, this pivot covers global and local examples including heritage case studies from Indonesia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Jordan, and Pakistan.

This book traces the trajectory of militant jihadism to show how violence is more intentionally embraced as the centre of worship, social order and ideology. Undertaking an in-depth analysis of militant jihadist groups and utilising the work of Rene Girard, Joel Hodge argues that the extreme violence of militant jihadists is a response to modernity in two ways that have not been sufficiently explored by the existing literature. Firstly, it is a manifestation of the unrestrained and escalating state of desire and rivalry in modernity, which militant jihadists seek to counter with extreme violence. Secondly, it is a response to the unveiling and discrediting of sacred violence, which militant jihadists seek to reverse by more purposefully valorising sacred violence in what they believe to be jihad. Relevant to anyone interested in Islam, philosophy of religion, theology, and terrorism, Violence in the Name of God imagines new ways of thinking about militancy in the name of Islam in the twenty-first century.

This book focuses on the Boko Haram insurgence in Nigeria, and provides information on the origin and growth of the sect, antecedent and historical factors behind the insurgence, assessing a variety of socio-political drivers. The structure, organization and ideology of the sect are analysed, paying attention to internal splits within the group, as well as external relations with the Nigerian state, and global jihadism. The diverse and wide ranging issues covered in the book makes it valuable for academic researchers, students and policy practitioners both within Africa and beyond.

Salafism is a fundamentalist Sunni vision of Islam that is growing in popularity in many countries. In this book, Mohamed-Ali Adraoui focuses on quietist Salafism, which he calls a study in contradictions. Strongly opposed to political action, terrorism, and the overthrow of established regimes, quietist Salafism insists on restructuring Islamic norms with the fervor of a revivalist and fundamentalist ethic. Quietist Salafis seek the purification of culture and religious renewal through a "de-militantization" of the Islamic corpus. Adraoui explores the Salafis' individual trajectories, their relationship with politics, and their vision of the world and of modernity, in order to understand how quietist Salafis negotiate their social identities and religious obligations in the Western context. What does the increasing presence of Islamic movements in the global space mean? Adraoui draws parallels between the French case and that of Muslim countries, and argues that the spread of quietist Salafism is partially a result of the foreign policy of Saudi Arabia. Quietist Salafism, he argues, is resonant of Saudi Arabia's efforts to promote a legitimist, anti-anarchist, and counter-revolutionary conception of Islam, after having long legitimized and reinforced the Islamist forces and Jihadist movements when it was in its geopolitical interests to do so. Salafism Goes Global sheds light on a dynamic of globalization that is taking place in the margins.

Focusing on Rumi, the best-selling Persian mystical poet of the 13th century, this book investigates the reception of his work and thought in North America and Europe - and the phenomenon of 'Rumimania' - to elucidate the complexities of intercultural communication between the West and the Iranian and Islamic worlds. Presenting tens of examples from the original and translated texts, the book is a critical analysis of various dimensions of this reception, outlining the difficulties of translating the text but also exploring how translators of various times and languages have performed, and explaining why the quality of reception varies. Topics analysed include the linguistic and pragmatic issues of translation, comparative stylistics and poetics, and non-textual factors like the translator's beliefs and the political and ideological aspects of translation. Using a broad theoretical framework, the author highlights the difficulties of intercultural communication from linguistic, semiotic, stylistic, poetic, ethical, and sociocultural perspectives. Ultimately, the author shares his reflections on the semiotic specificities of Rumi's mystical discourse and the ethics of translation generally. The book will be valuable to scholars and students of Islamic philosophy, Iranian studies, and translation studies, but will appeal to anyone interested in the cultural dichotomies of the West and Islam.

According to Avicenna, whatever exists, while it exists, exists of necessity. Not all beings, however, exist with the same kind of necessity. Instead, they exist either necessarily per se or necessarily per aliud. Avicenna on the Necessity of the Actual: His Interpretation of Four Aristotelian Arguments explains how Avicenna uses these modal claims to show that God is the efficient as well as the final cause of an eternally existing cosmos. In particular, Celia Kathryn Hatherly shows how Avicenna uses four Aristotelian arguments to prove this very un-Aristotelian conclusion. These arguments include Aristotle's argument for the finitude of efficient causes in Metaphysics 2; his proof for the prime mover in the Physics and Metaphysics 12; his argument against the Megarians in Metaphysics 9; and his argument for the mutual entailment between the necessary and the eternal in De Caelo 1.12. Moreover, Hatherly contends, when Avicenna's versions of these arguments are correctly interpreted using his distinctive understanding of necessity and possibility, the objections raised against them by his contemporaries and modern scholars fail.

This book provides school professionals - including teachers, principals, counselors, psychologists, and administrators - with a practical guide for supporting Muslim students in PK-12 schools. It is important that school professionals are culturally responsive and understand students' backgrounds in planning effective instruction and creating safe schools. However, in the post-9/11 world, negative biases and stereotypes permeate mainstream discourses. Muslim students and their families often find themselves in conflict with school practices, procedures, and policies and do not often find themselves represented in the curriculum. This book provides a practical guide to the important issues that may impact the lives and education of Muslim students. This books give essential information about Islam and Muslim students from authentic perspectives. This text will support teachers and other school professionals in their advocacy for all students to provide equitable and just educational opportunities for all students. Beyond basics such as food and clothing requirement, this text advocates for the implementation of anti-bias pedagogy for diverse learners. Through school-based vignettes and case studies, we situate experiences of Muslim students in lived realities and help school professionals think deeply and critically about who their students are and how to engage their experiences in the curriculum.

Offering a vital, critical contribution to discussions on current perspectives, practices and assumptions on Islamic education, this book explores the topic through a wide range of diverse perspectives and experiences. This volume challenges current assumptions around what is known as Islamic education and examines issues around educational leadership based on Islamic principles to confront xenophobia and Islamophobia in educational systems, policies and practices. Arguing for a new term to enter the discourse - 'Islamic-based' educational leadership - chapters approach the issue through critical reflexivity and diverse perspectives, addressing issues such as the higher education of immigrant students around the globe and the rising tensions in Muslim and non-Muslim populations. Exploring topics ranging from the leverage of leadership to religious education, this text brings together a wide range of case studies, experiences and examinations to shed light to the different approaches of Islamic-based educational leadership, administration and management. This book will support researchers, doctoral students and scholars involved with multicultural education, school leadership and management studies, and education policy and politics more widely to explore new theories and practices that pave the way for future educational systems to meet faith-based demand in the school choice era.

Islam and China are topics of relevance and contention in today's economic, political and religious climate. In this work, Tiffany Cone makes an important contribution to these contemporary discourses through an ethnographic case study of Islamic leadership and the cultivation of charismatic power by Sufi disciples at a shrine site in Northwest China. Though this volume focuses on a specific religious community, it carries valuable insights into religious unity, syncretism and religious legitimacy, materialism and religious integrity, and the stability of religious institutions in light of rapid economic growth. Cultivating Charismatic Power speaks to global concerns about the rise of a militant Islam and an increasingly aggressive Chinese State. As such, it will appeal to scholars and practitioners across a range of fields including anthropology, philosophy, religious studies, Islamic Studies, and Chinese Studies.

This book addresses contemporary debates on civil disobedience in Islam within the rich Sunni tradition, especially during the height of the non-violent people revolution in various Arab countries, popularly known as the Arab Spring. It illustrates the Islamic theological and jurisprudential arguments presented by those who either permit or prohibit acts of civil disobedience for the purpose of changing government, political systems or policy. The book analyses the nature of the debate and considers how a theological position on civil disobedience should be formulated in contemporary time, and makes the case for alternatives to violent political action such as jihadism, terrorism and armed rebellion.

This book examines the varied ways in which Minister Farrakhan's Resurrected Nation of Islam appeals to men from different backgrounds. Dawn-Marie Gibson investigates a number of themes including faith, family, and community, making use of archival research and engaging in-depth interviews. The book considers the multifaceted ways in which men encounter the Nation of Islam (NOI) and navigate its ethics and gender norms. Gibson describes and dissects the factors that attract men to the NOI, while also considering the challenges that these men confront as new converts. She discusses the various inter-faith and community outreach efforts that men engage in and assesses their work with both their Christian and Muslim counterparts. To conclude its discussion, the book takes a look at the NOI's 2015 Justice or Else March to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the Million Man March in Washington, DC.

This book explores the representation of queer migrant Muslims in international literature and film from the 1980s to the present day. Bringing together a variety of contemporary writers and filmmakers of Muslim heritage engaged in vindicating same-sex desire, the book approaches queer Muslims in the diaspora as figures forced to negotiate their identities according to the expectations of the West and of their migrant Muslim communities. The book examines 3 main themes: the depiction of queer desire across racial and national borders, the negotiation of Islamic femininities and masculinities, and the positioning of the queer Muslim self in time and place. This study will be of interest to scholars, as well as to advanced general readers and postgraduate students, interested in Muslims, queerness, diaspora and postcolonialism. It brings nuance and complexity to an often simplified and controversial topic. -- .

This book gathers scholars from the three major monotheistic religions to discuss the issue of poverty and wealth from the varied perspectives of each tradition. It provides a cadre of values inherent to the sacred texts of Jews, Christians, and Muslims and illustrates how these values may be used to deal with current economic inequalities. Contributors use the methodologies of religious studies to provide descriptions and comparisons of perspectives from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam on poverty and wealth. The book presents citations from the sacred texts of all three religions. The contributors discuss the interpretations of these texts and the necessary contexts, both past and present, for deciphering the stances found there. Poverty and Wealth in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam identifies and details a foundation of common values upon which individual and institutional decisions may be made.

The demolition of the Babri Mosque at Ayodhya on December 6, 1992 was an event as significant as it was unexpected. In this book, nine scholars (Theodore P. Wright, Jr., John J. Carroll, Matthew A. Cook, Dhirendra K. Vajpeyi, Subhas C. Kashyap, Steven A. Hoffman, Srinivas Tilak, Koenraad Elst, and Vasudha Narayanan) explore the myriad significances of this event for the Hindu and Muslim communities, and for the relations between them, in India.

This pivot sets Muslim shrines within the wider context of Heritage Studies in the Muslim world and considers their role in the articulation of sacred landscapes, their function as sites of cultural memory and their links to different religious traditions. Reviewing the historiography of Muslim shrines paying attention to the different ways these places have been studied, through anthropology, archaeology, history, and religious studies, the text discusses the historical and archaeological evidence for the development of shrines in the region from pre-Islamic times up to the present day. It also assesses the significance of Muslim shrines in the modern Middle East, focusing on the diverse range of opinions and treatments from veneration to destruction, and argues that shrines have a unique social function as a means of direct contact with the past in a region where changing political configurations have often distorted conventional historical narratives.

Through an examination of Christian interaction with other religions, Paul S. Chung constructs a theology of comparative religion. In the course of this construction, he employs the work of Ernst Troeltsch, Robert Bellah, and Karl Barth, while offering case studies of transformative interaction between Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam. Chung's interdisciplinary approach opens up new avenues for inter-religious understanding and melding, for instance exploring the development of a Protestant Islam. Throughout, he provides innovative conceptions of the religions involved and the realities they assert.

First Published in 1976 The Reformers of Egypt deals with the views of three major leaders of the Reform School in Egypt - Jamal Al-Din Al-Afghani, Muhammad ' Abduh and Rashid Ridha. The first was the Socrates of the movement. He wrote little but inspired a great deal. It is difficult to be certain, with regard to the early contributions of 'Abduh, what emanated from Al-Afghani and what's exclusively 'Abduh's. The relationship between 'Abduh and Ridha is even more complex, especially when it is realized that Ridha sometimes read into 'Abduh's thought what was entirely his own. This book is a must read for scholars of Islam, Religion and Egyptian history.