Contemporary European societies are multi-ethnic and multi-cultural, certainly in terms of the diversity which has stemmed from the immigration of workers and refugees and their settlement. Currently, however, there is widespread, often acrimonious, debate about 'other' cultural and religious beliefs and practices and limits to their accommodation. This book focuses principally on Muslim families and on the way in which gender relations and associated questions of (women's) agency, consent and autonomy, have become the focus of political and social commentary, with followers of the religion under constant public scrutiny and criticism. Practices concerning marriage and divorce are especially controversial and the book includes a detailed overview of the public debate about the application of Islamic legal and ethical norms (shari'a) in family law matters, and the associated role of Shari'a councils, in a British context. In short, Islam generally and the Muslim family in particular have become highly politicized sites of contestation, and the book considers how and why and with what implications for British multiculturalism, past, present and future. The study will be of great interest to international scholars and academics researching the governance of diversity and the accommodation of other faiths including Islam.

During the nineteenth century British officials in India decided that the education system should be exclusively secular. Drawing on sources from public and private archives, Ivermee presents a study of British/Muslim negotiations over the secularization of colonial Indian education and on the changing nature of secularism across space and time.

Whereas most studies of Islamism focus on politics and religious ideology, this book analyses the ways in which Islamism in the Arab world is defined, reflected, transmitted and contested in a variety of creative and other cultural forms. It covers a range of contexts of production and reception, from the early twentieth century to the present, and with reference to cultural production in and/or about Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, the Gulf, Lebanon and Israel/Palestine. The material engaged with is produced in Arabic, English and French and includes fiction, autobiography, feature films, television series, television reportage, the press, rap music and video games. Throughout, the book highlights the multiple forms and contested interpretations of Islamism in the Arab world, exploring trends and tensions in the ways Islamism is represented to (primarily) Arab audiences and complicating simplistic perspectives on this phenomenon. The book considers repeated and idiosyncratic themes, modes of characterisation, motifs, structures of feeling and forms of engagement, in the context of an ongoing struggle for symbolic power in the region.

The past decade has seen a marked policy focus upon Bangladesh, home to nearly 150 million Muslims; it has attracted the attention of the world due to weak governance and the rising tide of Islamist violence. This book provides a broad-ranging analysis of the growth and impact of "political Islam" in Bangladesh, and reactions to it. Grounded in empirical data, experts on Bangladesh examine the changing character of Bangladeshi politics since 1971, with a particular focus on the convergence of governance, Islamism and militancy. They examine the impacts of Islamist politics on education, popular culture and civil society, and the regional and extraregional connections of the Bangladeshi Islamist groups. Bringing together journalists and academics - all of whom have different professional and methodological backgrounds and field experiences which impact upon these issues from different vantage points - the book assesses Bangladesh's own prospects for internal stability as well as its wider impact upon South Asian security. It argues that the political environment of Bangladesh, the appeal of Islamist ideology to the general masses and the dynamic adaptability of Islamist organizations all demonstrate that Bangladesh will continue to focus the attention of policy makers and analysts alike. This is a timely, incisive and original explanation of the rise of political Islam and Islamic militancy in Bangladesh.

Indonesia is home to the largest Muslim community in the world. Much of the media attention given to manifestations of radical Islam in Indonesia after 9/11 and the Bali bombings of October 2002 have been limited to current affairs. This book provides a broader perspective about contemporary Islam in Indonesia through discussing two outstanding streams of thought and movements -- Islamic modernism and radical Islamic fundamentalism.

This book carries out a comparative study of the US response to popular uprisings in the Middle East as an evaluation of President Barack Obama's foreign policy commitments. In 2009, Obama publicly pledged "a new beginning in US-Muslim relations," causing eager expectation of a clear shift in US foreign policy after the election of the 44th president of the United States. However, the achievement of such a shift was made particularly difficult by the existence of multiple, and sometimes conflicting, US interests in the region which influenced the Obama administration's response to the popular uprisings in five Muslim-majority countries: Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, and Syria. After providing a detailed analysis of the traditional features of both US foreign policy rhetoric and practice, this book turns its focus to the Obama administration's response to the 2011 Arab Awakening to determine whether Obama's foreign policy has indeed brought about a new beginning in US-Muslim relations.

The Dark Side of the Crescent Moon constitutes a historical and political analysis of the growth of radical Islam throughout the world. It shows how the spread of radical Islam in Europe drove the United States and Russia to become allies of necessity, in order to confront a shared danger. Georgy Gounev provides readers with a detailed assessment of the people, countries, and global movements that factor into Islam's mounting threat.

From the evolution and history of radical Islam to the role of the United States and Russia in the rise of Islam, the author lays out the factors contributing to this global phenomenon. Taking the reader from Chechnya and Kosovo, to Sudan and Somalia, to Afghanistan and Iraq, Gounev explores the motivations that lurk beneath the surface of active conflict, and extend the threat to the shores of Britain, Russia, and even the United States. He illuminates the vast network that is actively transmitting the political and religious dogma of radical Islam. Casting a cold eye on the theocratic fundamentalism emanating from Iran and Saudi Arabia, Gounev sounds an alarm about a growing threat both outside and inside our borders.

This volume deals with social, emotional and educational issues of Muslim children growing up in a Western country. It aims at shedding light on factors that contribute to the successful adjustment of these immigrant children and ways of helping them to adjust to the new life in their new country. CONTENTS Preface. PART I: INTRODUCTION. Growing up Between Two Cultures: Issues and Problems of Muslim Children, Farideh Salili and Rumjahn Hoosain. PART II: DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS AND ACCULTURATION ISSUES. Raising Children and Teens of Middle Eastern Born Parents in United States: Transformative Perspective of Intercultural Competency, Kathleen P. King, Heba Abuzayyad-Huseibeh, and Hasan Nuseibeh. Extent of Acculturation Experiences Among High School Muslim Students in the United States, Shifa Podikunju-Hussain. Understanding the Cultural Capital of Learners of Muslim Descent, Myra Daniel. PART III: ISSUES RELATED TO THE IDENTITY FORMATION OF THE MUSLIM CHILDREN. American Muslim Identity: Negotiating the Ummah and the American Public School System, Lesliee Antonette and Lara Taboun. The Personal Aspirations and Cherished Ideals of Muslim Adolescents Living in Norway and Singapore, Deborah A. Stiles and Osman Ozturgut. Trying to Fit In: Ismaili Youth Identity in Post-9/11 Canada, Hafiz Printer. PART IV: THE ROLE OF GENDER IN ACCULTURATION AND IDENTITY FORMATION. Discourse on Equity and Social Justice in a Muslim High School in Israel: A Case Study, Khalid Arar. Gender, Islam, and Refugee Status: Possibilities for Negotiating Hybrid Identities and Contesting Boundaries in Digital Spaces, Delila Omerbasic. Stepping in and out of Worlds: Bosnian Muslim Girls' Narratives About Cultural, and Religious Identity Construction, Lisa Hoffman. PART V: EXPERIENCES OF MUSLIM YOUTHS GROWING UP IN A NON-MUSLIM COUNTRY. The Strengths and Skills of Children: Self-Discriptions of Somali and Local Australian Children, Agnes E. Dodds, Nadia Albert, and Jeanette A. Lawrence. Religiosity and Happiness of American-Muslim Youths: An Empirical Study of Faith Maturity and Subjective Well-Being, Chang-Ho Ji. "That's Not What I Want for My Children": Islamic Schools as a Parental Response to Childhood Experiences of Mainstream British Schooling, Farah Ahmed. Author Index. Subject Index. About the Authors.

Drawing upon original case studies spanning North America, Europe and Australia, Muslim Citizens in the West explores how Muslims have been both the excluded and the excluders within the wider societies in which they live. The book extends debates on the inclusion and exclusion of Muslim minorities beyond ideas of marginalisation to show that, while there have undoubtedly been increased incidences of Islamophobia since September 2001, some Muslim groups have played their own part in separating themselves from the wider society. The cases examined show how these tendencies span geographical, ethnic and gender divides and can be encouraged by a combination of international and national developments prompting some groups to identify wider society as the 'other'. Muslim and non-Muslim scholars and practitioners in political science, social work, history and law also highlight positive outcomes in terms of Muslim activism with relationship to their respective countries and suggest ways in which increasing tensions felt, perceived or assumed can be eased and greater emphasis given to the role Muslims can play in shaping their place in the wider communities where they live.

This volume deals with social, emotional and educational issues of Muslim children growing up in a Western country. It aims at shedding light on factors that contribute to the successful adjustment of these immigrant children and ways of helping them to adjust to the new life in their new country. CONTENTS Preface. PART I: INTRODUCTION. Growing up Between Two Cultures: Issues and Problems of Muslim Children, Farideh Salili and Rumjahn Hoosain. PART II: DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS AND ACCULTURATION ISSUES. Raising Children and Teens of Middle Eastern Born Parents in United States: Transformative Perspective of Intercultural Competency, Kathleen P. King, Heba Abuzayyad-Huseibeh, and Hasan Nuseibeh. Extent of Acculturation Experiences Among High School Muslim Students in the United States, Shifa Podikunju-Hussain. Understanding the Cultural Capital of Learners of Muslim Descent, Myra Daniel. PART III: ISSUES RELATED TO THE IDENTITY FORMATION OF THE MUSLIM CHILDREN. American Muslim Identity: Negotiating the Ummah and the American Public School System, Lesliee Antonette and Lara Taboun. The Personal Aspirations and Cherished Ideals of Muslim Adolescents Living in Norway and Singapore, Deborah A. Stiles and Osman Ozturgut. Trying to Fit In: Ismaili Youth Identity in Post-9/11 Canada, Hafiz Printer. PART IV: THE ROLE OF GENDER IN ACCULTURATION AND IDENTITY FORMATION. Discourse on Equity and Social Justice in a Muslim High School in Israel: A Case Study, Khalid Arar. Gender, Islam, and Refugee Status: Possibilities for Negotiating Hybrid Identities and Contesting Boundaries in Digital Spaces, Delila Omerbasic. Stepping in and out of Worlds: Bosnian Muslim Girls' Narratives About Cultural, and Religious Identity Construction, Lisa Hoffman. PART V: EXPERIENCES OF MUSLIM YOUTHS GROWING UP IN A NON-MUSLIM COUNTRY. The Strengths and Skills of Children: Self-Discriptions of Somali and Local Australian Children, Agnes E. Dodds, Nadia Albert, and Jeanette A. Lawrence. Religiosity and Happiness of American-Muslim Youths: An Empirical Study of Faith Maturity and Subjective Well-Being, Chang-Ho Ji. "That's Not What I Want for My Children": Islamic Schools as a Parental Response to Childhood Experiences of Mainstream British Schooling, Farah Ahmed. Author Index. Subject Index. About the Authors.

The new and updated edition of Political Islam, World Politics and Europe focusses on the shift within political Islam, in light of 9/11 and the events of the Arab Spring, from a jihadist struggle, to institutional Islamism. Refuting what has often been referred to by commentators as the 'moderation,' of Islamism, the second edition of this book introduces the concept of 'institutional,' Islamism, a process which Tibi argues was accelerated in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. Both jihadist and institutional Islamism pursue the same goal of an Islamist state, but disagree fundamentally on the strategy for achieving it. Whilst jihadism is committed to the idea of a (violent) Islamic world revolution, institutional Islamism embraces political institutions as a means to an end. Turning to the events of the Arab Spring in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt this book attempts to determine whether an abandonment of violence is enough to underpin a shift to genuine democracy. Analysing the fall of Morsi in particular, Tibi questions what lessons can be learnt from his presidency, and argues that this event will not change the overall trend of development from jihadism to institutional Islamism A timely addition to existing literature, this book will be of interest to students and scholars studying Middle Eastern and European Politics, Political Islam and International Relations.

Muslim Ethiopia: The Christian Legacy, Identity Politics and Islamic Reformism is a pioneering collection of studies on Islam in contemporary Ethiopia. This volume challenges the popular notion of a 'Christian Ethiopia' imagined as the centuries-old, never-colonized Abyssinia, isolated in the highlands and dominated by Orthodox Christianity. In addition to marginalizing Muslim cultures and societies within Ethiopia, this notion has also excluded Muslims from public discourse and led to the neglect of Islam in Ethiopian studies. This is strikingly at odds with the country's cultural and historical reality, as Muslims constitute a significant part of the population and have contributed significantly to its development. Muslim Ethiopia develops this overlooked nexus of Ethiopian and Islamic Studies, while broadening our understandings of Muslims in Africa as a whole.

Hamka's Great Story presents Indonesia through the eyes of an impassioned, popular thinker who believed that Indonesians and Muslims everywhere should embrace the thrilling promises of modern life, and navigate its dangers, with Islam as their compass. Hamka (Haji Abdul Malik Karim Amrullah) was born when Indonesia was still a Dutch colony and came of age as the nation itself was emerging through tumultuous periods of Japanese occupation, revolution, and early independence. He became a prominent author and controversial public figure. In his lifetime of prodigious writing, Hamka advanced Islam as a liberating, enlightened, and hopeful body of beliefs around which the new nation could form and prosper. He embraced science, human agency, social justice, and democracy, arguing that these modern concepts comported with Islam's true teachings. Hamka unfolded this big idea-his Great Story-decade by decade in a vast outpouring of writing that included novels and poems and chatty newspaper columns, biographies, memoires, and histories, and lengthy studies of theology including a thirty-volume commentary on the Holy Qur'an. In introducing this influential figure and his ideas to a wider audience, this sweeping biography also illustrates a profound global process: how public debates about religion are shaping national societies in the postcolonial world.

This book explores the unfolding of world history in a remote corner of Central Asia: the region of Badakhshan. The history of this region has commonly been explored through the lens of the major superpowers who competed over its territory in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including Britain, Russia, and China. Here, we are offered a comprehensive overview of the history of the Ismaili community in Tajikistan. Leadership and Authority in Central Asia identifies traditional forms of religious authority within the network of religious functionaries at a range of levels and discusses the functions of Ismaili political leaders as they have evolved through time. Skilfully applying an interdisciplinary approach - drawing on historical sources, including unpublished materials, and ethnographic fieldwork data collected through interviews - and a perceptive analysis of political theories of leadership in communist and post-communist societies, this book challenges the ways religious and secular categories have been distinguished in recent scholarship Developing a structural explanation for the survival and evolution of religious and political authorities of Badakhshani Ismailis in times of radical social and political upheaval, this book will be of interest to scholars of Muslim societies, Political Science and Central Asian Studies.

Although pluralism and religious tolerance are most often associated today with Western Enlightenment thinkers, the roots of these ideologies stretch back to non-Western and premodern societies, including many under Muslim rule. This book explores the development of pluralism in Islam in South Asia through the work of the poet, historian and musician Amir Khusraw and sheds new light on how Islam developed its own culture of tolerance. Countering stereotypes of Islam as intrinsically intolerant, the book provides a better understanding of how rhetorics of pluralism develop, which may aid in identifying and encouraging such discourses in the present. Khusraw, a practicing Muslim who showed great affection toward Hindus and used much indigenous imagery in his poetry, is an ideal figure through whom to explore these issues. Addressing issues of ethnicity, religion and gender in the early medieval period, Alyssa Gabbay demonstrates the pre-modern precedents for pluralism, conveying the broad sweep of Perso-Islamicate culture and the profound transformations it underwent in medieval South Asia. Accurately depicting the paradoxicality and jaggedness involved in the development of its composite culture, this book will have great relevance to scholars and students of Islam in South Asia, gender, religious pluralism, and Persian literature.

Today there is a substantial and rapidly growing Muslim population in Europe and North America. Here, as elsewhere, many of the Muslims are Sufis. This book focuses mainly on issues of inculturation or contextualization of Sufism in the West. It shows that, while more traditional forms of Sufism exist, many radical changes have taken place in this part of the world. For instance, in some groups there are female sheikhs and a far-reaching pluralistic attitude to other religions. Hence Sufism is sometimes seen as something that transcends the boundaries of Islam.

The Muslim Brotherhood is one of the oldest and most influential Islamist movements. As the party ascends to power in Egypt, it is poised to adopt a new system of governance and state society relations, the effects of which are likely to extend well beyond Egypt s national borders. This book examines the Brotherhood s visions and practices, from its inception in 1928, up to its response to the 2011 uprising, as it moves to redefine democracy along Islamic lines. The book analyses the Muslim Brotherhood s position on key issues such as gender, religious minorities, and political plurality, and critically analyses whether claims that the Brotherhood has abandoned extremism and should be engaged with as a moderate political force can be substantiated. It also considers the wider political context of the region, and assesses the extent to which the Brotherhood has the potential to transform politics in the Middle East. "

Making European Muslims provides an in-depth examination of what it means to be a young Muslim in Europe today, where the assumptions, values and behavior of the family and those of the majority society do not always coincide. Focusing on the religious socialization of Muslim children at home, in semi-private Islamic spaces such as mosques and Quran schools, and in public schools, the original contributions to this volume focus largely on countries in northern Europe, with a special emphasis on the Nordic region, primarily Denmark. Case studies demonstrate the ways that family life, public education, and government policy intersect in the lives of young Muslims and inform their developing religious beliefs and practices. Mark Sedgwick's introduction provides a framework for theorizing Muslimness in the European context, arguing that Muslim children must navigate different and sometimes contradictory expectations and demands on their way to negotiating a European Muslim identity.

Educating Muslims in the Multi-Faith World makes the case for a contemporary educational philosophy of Islam to help Muslims surmount the challenges of post-modernity and to transcend the hiatuses and obstacles that Muslim face in their interaction and relationships with non-Muslims and visa-versa. It argues that the philosophy of critical realism in its original, dialectical and meta-Real moments so fittingly 'underlabours' (Bhaskar 1975) for the contemporary interpretation, clarification and conceptual deepening of Islamic doctrine, practice and education as to suggest and necessitate a distinctive branch of critical realist philosophy, specifically suited for this purpose. The book proceeds to explain how Islamic Critical Realism can revive and re-energise interpretation of the consensual elements of Islamic doctrine such as the six elements of Islamic belief and the five 'pillars' of Islamic practice so that these essential features of the Islamic way of life can help believers contribute positively to life in multi-faith democracies in a globalising world.Finally, the book shows how this Islamic Critical Realist approach can be brought to bear in humanities classrooms in history, religious education and citizenship to help Muslim young people negotiate and discover innovatively traditional Islamic approaches in the fields of education, economics, culture, gender-relations and inter-faith dialogue in 'new' Western Islamic and multi-faith contexts. Hence, this book provides a comprehensively theorised approach to thinking about Islam and Muslims in education to help Muslim and non-Muslim teachers, pupils and citizens to think creatively and coherently about the meanings of Islam in the West.

Since the early 2010s, an increasing number of European countries have passed laws that prohibit the wearing of various kinds of Islamic veil in particular circumstances. This insightful book considers the arguments used to justify such laws and analyses the legitimacy of these arguments both generally and in regards to whether such laws can be seen as justified interferences with the rights of women who wish to wear such garments. This timely book considers the most recently passed European laws that target Islamic veiling. The author situates the justifications for anti-veiling laws in the context of a careful analysis of the reasons why women wear veils, and considers these justifications by reference to emerging debates surrounding the relative value of liberalism and human rights, multiculturalism, and the need to protect 'traditional values'. The book concludes that these laws are best viewed as symbolic strikes at a recognizable symbol of an ideological opponent, theorising that their principal purpose is to enable particular countries to reaffirm traditional values in a context of increased domestic opposition to multiculturalism. This engaging work will be valuable reading for students and scholars of human rights law, Islamic law and those interested specifically in the laws and regulations surrounding Islamic veiling around the world.

Islamic myths and collective memory are very much alive in today's localized struggles for identity, and are deployed in the ongoing construction of worldwide cultural networks. This book brings the theoretical perspectives of myth-making and collective memory to the study of Islam and globalization and to the study of the place of the mass media in the contemporary Islamic resurgence. It explores the annulment of spatial and temporal distance by globalization and by the communications revolution underlying it, and how this has affected the cherished myths and memories of the Muslim community. It shows how contemporary Islamic thinkers and movements respond to the challenges of globalization by preserving, reviving, reshaping, or transforming myths and memories.

The revival of madrasas in the 1980s coincided with the rise of political Islam and soon became associated with the "clash of civilizations" between Islam and the West. This volume examines the rapid expansion of madrasas across Asia and the Middle East and analyses their role in society within their local, national and global context. Based on anthropological investigations in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, Iran, and Pakistan, the chapters take a new approach to the issue, examining the recent phenomenon of women in madrasas; Hui Muslims in China; relations between the Iran's Shia seminary after the 1979-Islamic revolution and Shia in Pakistan and Afghanistan; and South Asian madrasas. Emphasis is placed on the increased presence of women in these institutions, and the reciprocal interactions between secular and religious schools in those countries. Taking into account social, political and demographic changes within the region, the authors show how madrasas have been successful in responding to the educational demand of the people and how they have been modernized their style to cope with a changing environment. A timely contribution to a subject with great international appeal, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of international politics, political Islam, Middle East and Asian studies and anthropology.

The Malay population makes up Singapore's three largest ethnic groups. This book presents holistic and extensive analysis of the 'Malay Muslim story' in Singapore. Comprehensively and convincingly argued, the author examines their challenging circumstances in the fields of politics, education, social mobility, economy, leadership, and freedom of religious expression. The book makes a significant contribution to the understanding of Muslims in Singapore, and the politics of a Malay-Muslim minority in a global city-state. It is of interest to researchers and students in the field of Singaporean studies, Southeast Asian Studies and Islam in Asia.

First published in 1978, this title analyses a range of problems that arise in the study of North Africa and the Middle East, bridging the gap between studies of Sociology, Islam, and Marxism. Both Sociology and the study of Islam draw on an Orientalist tradition founded on an idealist epistemology, ethnocentric values and an evolutionary view of historical development. Bryan Turner challenges the basic assumptions of Orientalism by considering such issues as the social structure of Islamic society, the impact of capitalism in the Middle East, the effect of Israel on territories, revolutions, social classes and nationalism. A detailed and fascinating study, Marx and the End of Orientalism will be of particular interest to students studying the sociology of colonialism and development, Marxist sociology and sociological theory.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) ruled Mosul from 2014-2017 in accordance with its extremist interpretation of sharia. But beyond what is known about ISIS governance in the city from the group's own materials, very little is understood about the reality of its rule, or reasons for its failure, from those who actually lived under it. This book reveals what was going on inside ISIS institutions based on accounts from the civilians themselves. Focusing on ISIS governance of education, healthcare and policing, the interviewees include: teachers who were forced to teach the group's new curriculum; professors who organized secret classes in private; doctors who took direct orders from ISIS leaders and worked in their headquarters; bureaucratic staff who worked for ISIS. These accounts provide unique insight into the lived realities in the controlled territories and reveal how the terrorist group balanced their commitment to Islamist ideology with the practical challenges of state building. Moving beyond the simplistic dichotomy of civilians as either passive victims or ISIS supporters, Mathilde Becker Aarseth highlights here those people who actively resisted or affected the way in which ISIS ruled. The book invites readers to understand civilians' complex relationship to the extremist group in the context of fragmented state power and a city torn apart by the occupation.