Terrorism, radicalization and violent extremism dominate sociological, political and cultural concerns in today's polarized social and political world. However, the role of governments and issues relating to state terrorism and the counter-terror state remain important considerations. This book presents an understanding of the concept of Countering Violent Extremism from a critical terrorism studies perspective using case studies from different countries while examining the issues it raises. Extremism and violence do not emerge in a vacuum - nor do the policies that counter these concerns. There are no simple solutions to violent extremism but the fixation on ideology can do more harm than good.

Sonic Encounters recounts the author's experience gathering field recordings of the Islamic Call to Prayer. It touches on key questions and problems faced along the way, as well as discussing technologies and methods for recording, what it means to develop art from ethnographic research, and the ethics and considerations of working with Islamic communities around the globe. The book uses a sound studies framework to explore artistic research methods and practices in ethnography as they relate to religious recitation.

Commemorating Muslims in the First World War Centenary engages with the explosion of public commemorations in Britain and France in the wake of the First World War centenary, alongside the hyper-visibility of British and French Muslims in political and popular discourse. Bringing these two phenomena together, it draws on national commemorations of the First World War centenary in Britain and France, alongside eleven local field sites that foregrounded Muslims, to make sense of how national memory changes when it seeks to include a previously excluded group. Through an identification of three distinct narratives, which correspond to three ways of situating Muslims in relation to the nation-mourning, mobilisation, and melancholia-it intervenes in debates surrounding memory, nationhood, and belonging to make sense of the centenary as an extended exercise in nation-building at a moment when the borders of British and French national identity were openly, and violently, contested. With particular attention to sites of melancholia, the author shows how certain sites disrupt national memory and refrain from producing any cohesive narrative to repair that which has been fractured. An exploration of the ways in which commemoration pushes nations to grapple with their past and present, without prescribing any tidy solution, this book will appeal to scholars of sociology and anthropology with interests in memory studies, nationalism and postcolonial studies.

What is driving political extremism in Pakistan? In early 2011, the prominent Pakistani politician Salmaan Taseer was assassinated by a member of his own security team for insulting Islam by expressing views in support of the rights of women and religious minorities. Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister, was killed by gunfire and explosive devices as she left a campaign event in December 2007; strong evidence links members of extremist organizations to her slaying. These murders underscore the fact that religion, politics, and policy are inextricably linked in Pakistan. In this book, Haroon K. Ullah analyzes the origins, ideologies, bases of support, and electoral successes of the largest and most influential Islamic parties in Pakistan. Based on his extensive field work in Pakistan, he develops a new typology for understanding and comparing the discourses put forth by these parties in order to assess what drives them and what separates the moderate from the extreme. A better understanding of the range of parties is critical for knowing how the US and other Western nations can engage states where Islamic political parties hold both political and moral authority. Pakistan's current democratic transition will hinge on how well Islamic parties contribute to civilian rule, shun violence, and mobilize support for political reform. Ullah's political-party typology may also shed light on the politics of other majority-Muslim democracies, such as Egypt and Tunisia, where Islamist political parties have recently won elections.

This book is a microsociological study of religious practice, based on fieldwork with Conservative Jews, Bible Belt Muslims, white Baptists, black Baptists, Buddhist meditators, and Latino Catholics. In each case, the author scrutinizes how a congregation's ritual strategies help or hinder their efforts to achieve a transformative spiritual encounter, an intense feeling that becomes the basis of their most fundamental understandings of reality. The book shows how these transformative spiritual encounters routinely depend on issues that can seem rather mundane by comparison, such as where the sanctuary's entrance is located, how many misprints end up in the church bulletin, or how long the preacher continues to preach beyond lunchtime. The spirit responds to other dynamics, as well, such as how congregations collectively imagine outsiders, or how they talk about ideas like individualism and patriarchy. Building on provocative theories from sociologists such as Emile Durkheim, Erving Goffman, Randall Collins, and Anne Warfield Rawls, this book shows how "interaction ritual theory" opens compelling new pathways for sociological scholarship on religion. Micro-level specifics from fieldwork in Texas are supplemented with large-scale survey analysis of a wide array of religious organizations from across the United States.

This book tells the little-known story of a fascinating crypto-Jewish community through two centuries and three continents. Beginning as a precarious settlement of a few families in mid-eighteenth-century Mashhad, an Islamic holy city in northern Iran, the community grew into a closely-knit group in response to their forced conversion to Islam in 1839. Muslim hostility and a culture of memory sustained by intra-communal marriages reinforced their separate religious identity, vesting it in strong family and communal loyalty. Mashhadi women became the main agents of the cultural transmission of communal identity and achieved social roles and high status uncharacteristic for contemporary Jewish and Muslim communities. The Mashhadis maintained a double identity upholding Islam in public while tenaciously holding onto their Jewish identity in secret. The exodus from Mashhad after 1946 relocated the communal centre to Tehran, and later to Israel and after the Khomeini revolution to New York. The relationship between the formation and retention of communal identity and memory practices with interconnected issues of religion and gender draws upon existing research on other crypto-faith communities, such as the Judeoconversos, the Moriscos, and the French Protestants, who through the special blend of memory-faith and ethnicity emerged strengthened from their underground period. For the immigration period, the author challenges the old paradigm that modernity and religion are mutually exclusive. The book also explores the sometimes uncomfortable yet intimate relationships that exist between seemingly incompatible ways of seeing the past, both secular and religious.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which was founded in Egypt in 1926, has been at the forefront of the resurgence of political Islam in the Middle East. It has also endeavored to reach out beyond Egypt and the Middle East, to an international audience, increasing its media campaign in English. This outreach is the focus of the book, which delves into the media strategies and ventures of the Muslim Brotherhood by studying how it has used its official English website to frame its political ideologies and its role in the 2011 Egyptian uprising.

Islamophobia, Race, and Global Politics is a powerful introduction to the scope of Islamophobia in the United States. Drawing on examples such as the legacy of Barack Obama, the mainstream media's portrayal of Muslims, and the justifications given for some of America's most recent military endeavors, author Nazia Kazi highlights the vast impact of Islamophobia, connecting this to a long history of US racism. Kazi shows how American Islamophobia and racism are at once domestic-occurring within the borders of the United States-and global-a matter of foreign policy and global politics. Using Islamophobia as a unique case study, Kazi asks the reader to consider how war and empire-building relate to racism. The book sheds light on the diverse experiences of American Muslims, especially the varying ways they have experienced Islamophobia, and confronts some of the misguided attempts to tackle this Islamophobia.

Islamophobia, Race, and Global Politics is a powerful introduction to the scope of Islamophobia in the United States. Drawing on examples such as the legacy of Barack Obama, the mainstream media's portrayal of Muslims, and the justifications given for some of America's most recent military endeavors, author Nazia Kazi highlights the vast impact of Islamophobia, connecting this to a long history of US racism. Kazi shows how American Islamophobia and racism are at once domestic-occurring within the borders of the United States-and global-a matter of foreign policy and global politics. Using Islamophobia as a unique case study, Kazi asks the reader to consider how war and empire-building relate to racism. The book sheds light on the diverse experiences of American Muslims, especially the varying ways they have experienced Islamophobia, and confronts some of the misguided attempts to tackle this Islamophobia.

This study examines the marital data preserved within the Arabic genealogical works of the early ninth century CE in order to better understand the tribal relationships of the pre-Islamic Quraysh (the Arabic tribe to which Muhammad belonged). The research establishes the accuracy of the Nasab Quraysh (Genealogy of the Quraysh) and informs a more nuanced analysis of the politics of the Central Hijaz into which Islam was born.

This book provides researchers and students with an understanding of the basic legal tenets of the Islamic finance industry, studying the real economic effects of those tenets using the tools of the modern economic theory. Split into four parts, the book begins with an introduction to the history and a legal framework for Islamic banking, covering typical Islamic financial products such as Sukuk and Takaful and examining the structure of Islamic financial institutions. It then analyzes and discusses the Miller-Modigliani Theorem, which is of direct relevance to Islamic banks which are prohibited to charge interest and often have to rely of profit-loss sharing agreements. Part III of the book introduces the reader to modern mechanism design theory, paying particular attention to optimal contracting under hidden action and hidden information, and final part of the book applies the tools of economic theory to understand performance of Islamic financial institutions such as Islamic banks and Takaful operators. Islamic Finance in Light of Modern Economic Theory brings together all the necessary technical tools for analyzing the economic effects of Islamic frameworks and can be used as an advanced textbook for graduate students who wish to specialize in the area, as a reference for researchers and as a tool to help economists improve the design of Islamic financial institutions.

How do modern Muslims adapt their traditions to engage with today's world? Charles Tripp's erudite and incisive book considers one of the most significant challenges faced by Muslims over the last sixty years: the challenge of capitalism. By reference to the works of noted Muslim scholars, the author shows how, faced by this challenge, these intellectuals devised a range of strategies which have enabled Muslims to remain true to their faith, whilst engaging effectively with a world not of their own making. The work is framed around the development of their ideas on Islamic socialism, economics and the rationale for Islamic banking. While some Muslims have resorted to confrontation or insularity to cope with the challenges of modernity, most have aspired to innovation and ingenuity in the search for compromise and interaction with global capitalism in the twenty-first century.

Moroccan Jewry has a long tradition, harking back to the area's earliest settlements and possessing deep connections and associations with the historic peoples of the region. In Jews and Muslims of Morocco historians, anthropologists, musicologists, Rabbinic scholars, Arabists, and linguists examine the complex and hybrid history of intercultural exchange between Moroccan Jewry and the Arab and Berber cultures through analyses of the Jews' use of Morocco's multiple languages and dialects, characteristic poetry, and musical works as well as their shared magical rites and popular texts and proverbs. The essays in this collection span political and social interactions throughout history, cultural commonalities, traditions, and halakhic developments. Acknowledging that Jewish life in Morocco has dwindled and continues to exist primarily in the memories of Moroccan Jewish diaspora communities, the volume concludes with personal memories an analysis of a visual memoir, and a photo essay of the vanished world of Jewish life in Morocco.

This highly topical book aims to undermine unsubstantiated myths by examining Muslim integration in Germany, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, states which dominate the debate on minority integration and the practice of Muslim religious traditions. These nations have a range of alternative relationships between religion and the state, as well as strategies for coordinating individuals' ethnic and state identities. Using the European Parliament's benchmarking guidelines, surveys and other non-official data, the authors find that in some areas Muslims are in fact more integrated than popularly assumed and suggest that, instead of failing to integrate, Muslims find their access to integration blocked in ways that reduce their life chances in the societies in which they are now permanent residents. The book will have an impact on research and policy especially with the commencement of the EU-wide integration benchmarking effort and will be an excellent resource for researchers, academics and policy makers.

This book examines the lives of the Malay and Cham Muslims in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam and examines how they co-exist and live in societies that are dominated by an alternative consensus and are illiberal and non-democratic in nature. Focusing on two major Muslim communities in Southeast Asia, both of whom live as minorities in societies that are not democratic and have a history of hostility and repression towards non-conforming ideas, the book explains their circumstances, the choices and life decisions they have to make, and how minorities can thrive in an unfriendly, monocultural environment. Based on original field work and research, the author analyses how people live, and how they adapt to societies which are not motivated by Western liberal ideals of multiculturalism. The book also offers a unique perspective on how Islam develops in an environment where it is seen as alien and disloyal. A useful contribution analyzing historical and post-colonial experiences of Muslim minorities and how they survive and evolve over the course of state monopoly in mainland Southeast Asia, this book will be of interest to academics working on Muslim minorities, Asian Religion and Southeast Asian Studies.

Calfano provides an examination of the pressures faced by Muslims, often considered political and social outsiders in western nations, especially in the United States. Identity is a complex concept, especially when considering the role that group attachments play in affecting how one sees her/his role in the political environment of their country of residence. Perhaps the greatest tension in this regard is felt by those who are often considered outsiders in their home country, despite significant ties to their nation. Though citizens and second generation residents in many cases, American Muslims face a combination of suspicion, government scrutiny, and social segregation in the United States, despite significant education and economic assimilation in America. The crux of the investigation advanced here centres on how group influence, emotions, and religious interpretation contribute to the political orientation and behaviour of a national sample of Muslims living in the American context. A compelling explanation as to how members of an ostracized political group marshal the motivation to push through suspicion to become fully engaged political actors, this book has wide relevance and will be of interest to scholars researching Muslims and political participation across the fields of political science, history, sociology, and religion.

Nationalism has played an important role in the cultural and intellectual discourse of modernity that emerged in Iran from the late nineteenth century to the present, promoting new formulations of collective identity and advocating a new and more active role for the broad strata of the public in politics. The essays in this volume seek to shed light on the construction of nationalism in Iran in its many manifestations; cultural, social, political and ideological, by exploring on-going debates on this important and progressive topic.

Presents oral histories and interviews of women who belong to Nation of Islam With vocal public figures such as Malcolm X, Elijah Muhammad, and Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam often appears to be a male-centric religious movement, and over 60 years of scholarship have perpetuated that notion. Yet, women have been pivotal in the NOI's development, playing a major role in creating the public image that made it appealing and captivating. Women of the Nation draws on oral histories and interviews with approximately 100 women across several cities to provide an overview of women's historical contributions and their varied experiences of the NOI, including both its continuing community under Farrakhan and its offshoot into Sunni Islam under Imam W.D. Mohammed. The authors examine how women have interpreted and navigated the NOI's gender ideologies and practices, illuminating the experiences of African-American, Latina, and Native American women within the NOI and their changing roles within this patriarchal movement. The book argues that the Nation of Islam experience for women has been characterized by an expression of Islam sensitive to American cultural messages about race and gender, but also by gender and race ideals in the Islamic tradition. It offers the first exhaustive study of women's experiences in both the NOI and the W.D. Mohammed community.

This book provides comprehensive analysis in the areas Islamic financial institutions and society. It starts off with the integration of the Islamic socio-economic and socio-political systems with the Islamic financial sector; with a view to help in removing some of the stereotype views that people have on the Islamic society and religion. In doing this, it provides the readers with an understanding of the Islamic society, characteristics of an Islamic society, and Islamic economics thoughts and theories. It goes further to make the readers to understand the sources, evolution, and guiding principles and practices of the Islamic finance and commercial jurisprudence. Although the book acknowledges the innovative no-interest financing framework; but in the absence of zero cost of lending, it develops an Islamic interest rate theoretical framework structure based on the profit-margin concept of the Islamic financial system. It goes on further to cover the structures, roles, functions, and monetary policies of the Islamic central banks in the absence of interest rate as well as proposes that organizational structures for the Islamic central banking system should include an Islamic finance division to oversee and monitor the Islamic financial institutions squarely. Flow charts are used to explain the structure, operations, models, products, instruments, and services of the Islamic commercial banks, financial institutions, insurance, and capital markets. This helps the readers to understand the dichotomies between the Islamic and conventional financial systems. It provides detailed systematic, logical steps, and processes involved in the Islamic financial transactions with the use of flow chart graphs which will help the readers in grasping the essentials of the Islamic financial sector; which will help the readers to understand the step-by-step processes and facilitate the conceptual clarities involved in the product deliveries and processes of the Islamic financial institutions. The book's concluding chapters were devoted to the performance, achievements, governance, challenges, and future expectations of the Islamic banking, finance, and capital markets. The book concludes with some suggestions on how to make the Islamic finance and its products more acceptable to the entire world; especially to the non-Muslim community of the world.

Just like people around the world have done for generations, Arab people from the Middle East and North African (MENA) region have immigrated to various nations around the world. A number of 'push' factors account for why groups have left their homeland and 'pulled' to another nation to settle. The history and patterns of Arab migration out of the MENA illustrates the wide array of reasons for these patterns, primarily illustrating that mass emigration and settlement are highly linked to a number of factors, including social, political, economic, familial climates of each nation-state and its policies. If it is one takeaway that this edited volume brings to light, it is that the Arab MENA does not only include a diverse population within each nation-state it also illustrates the ways in which their settlement in new nations have contributed to their own identity development patterns, their communities, and that of their new nation-state. This book celebrates the achievements and acknowledges the challenges of the new communities that Arabs have built around the world. It shows examples of societies that have embraced the Arab diaspora as well as examples of sidelining these communities. These examples come from a number of subject areas, from music to international affairs. The examples are both contemporary and historical, authored by individuals with a diverse set of disciplinary lenses and professional training. This book is meant to fill a gap in the literature as it expands on the understanding of Arab communities to inform and inspire a more nuanced, inclusive approach to the study of the Arab diaspora. It does so by revealing untold stories that challenge stereotypes to push for more inclusive media representation of Arab identity and its development in various regions of the world.

Pariah Politics breaks new ground in examining the issue of western Islamist extremism from the perspective of government. It links underlying causes to the capacity of governments to respond directly and to influence others. The book contains four main messages.
Focusing on causes, not symptoms. The book identifies four big causal drivers: settled disadvantage, social isolation, grievance and oppositional cultures, and the volatile dynamics of global Islam. Governments can hope to influence the first two, using existing and innovative policy levers. The scope to make big changes in the latter two is severely limited.
The circle of tacit support. Action by government to counter terrorism has relied too heavily on security policy measures to intercept or disrupt men of violence. This emphasis is misplaced. Though important, this fails to address the moral oxygen for violence and confrontation that exists within Muslim communities.
Better focus and better levers. Ministers and officials need to think and act smart. They need to push ahead with social inclusion policies to broaden opportunity. They need to make more use of community-based strategies to isolate extremism. They need to promote civil society actions so that affected communities can take control of their own reputational future. And, they desperately need to avoid making things worse.
Reputations matter. The pariah status of western Muslims has worsened by the fallout from terrorism. Few have anything good to say about western Muslims; still fewer can imagine an optimistic future. Yet earlier demonised groups, such as Jews or Asian refugees, have overcome significant hurdles, moving from pariahs to paragons. A credible willingness to tackle extremism is the most important first step to a reputational turnaround.

Followers of Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Wahhab, often considered to be Islam's Martin Luther, shaped the political and religious identity of the Saudi state while also enabling the significant worldwide expansion of Salafist Islam. Studies of the movement he inspired, however, have often been limited by scholars' insufficient access to key sources within Saudi Arabia. Nabil Mouline was granted rare interviews and admittance to important Saudi archives in preparation for this groundbreaking book, the first in-depth study of the Wahhabi religious movement from its founding to the modern day. Gleaning information from both written and oral sources and employing a multidisciplinary approach that combines history, sociology, and Islamic studies, Mouline presents a new reading of this movement that transcends the usual resort to polemics.

The relatively new sukuk (or Islamic debt securities) markets have grown to more than US $800 billion over the past decade, and continue to grow at a rate of around 20-30 per cent per year. Arguably the first of its kind, this path-breaking book provides a highly unique reference tool relating to key issues surrounding sukuk markets, which are found in 12 major financial centers, including Kuala Lumpur, London and Zurich. The internationally renowned contributors present an in-depth study of sukuk securities, beginning with a comprehensive definition and history. They go on to discuss Islamic financial concepts and practices that govern how sukuk securities are issued, how markets are carefully regulated to protect investors, and how securities are designed to safeguard invested money. The prospects and challenges of developing sukuk Islamic debt markets across the world are also illustrated. This comprehensive guide to sukuk markets will prove a fascinating and useful reference tool for academics, students, researchers and practitioners with an interest in Islamic finance, and, more specifically, in the nascent field of sukuk securities. Contributors include: M. Ariff, P. Casey, M. Cizakca, S.A. Hussein, M. Iqbal, S.S.A. Khan, A. Meor-Amri, S. Mohamad, H.S. Nasser, A. Saeed, M.T. Skully

M. Hakan Yavuz offers an insightful and wide-ranging study of the Gulen Movement, one of the most imaginative developments in contemporary Islam. Founded in Turkey by the Muslim thinker Fethullah Gulen, the Gulen Movement aims to disseminate a ''moderate'' interpretation of Islam through faith-based education. Its activities have fundamentally altered religious and political discourse in Turkey in recent decades, and its schools and other institutions have been established throughout Central Asia and the Balkans, as well as western Europe and North America. Consequently, its goals and modus operandi have come under increasing scrutiny around the world.
Yavuz introduces readers to the movement, its leader, its philosophies, and its practical applications. After recounting Gulen's personal history, he analyzes Gulen's theological outlook, the structure of the movement, its educational premise and promise, its financial structure, and its contributions (particularly to debates in the Turkish public sphere), its scientific outlook, and its role in interfaith dialogue. Towards an Islamic Enlightenment shows the many facets of the movement, arguing that it is marked by an identity paradox: despite its tremendous contribution to the introduction of a moderate, peaceful, and modern Islamic outlook-so different from the Iranian or Saudi forms of radical and political Islam-the Gulen Movement is at once liberal and communitarian, provoking both hope and fear in its works and influence.