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The article reports developments in the practice of Islam in the Muslim world, particularly in Egypt, as of April 1974. It focuses on the Qur'an recording titled "al-Mushaf al-Murattal," which can be accessed by Muslims through the radio and can be bought at record centers in Cairo, Egypt. It claims that the recording project was conceptualized by Doctor Lab¡b al-Sa¡, who also wrote several books, including "al-Jam' al-Sawt¡ al-Awwal li'l Qur'ân al-Kar¡m."

The article discusses the concept of world community through the perspective of Judaism. It offers an explanation of the religion's tradition and notions of particularity and universality, which highlights the importance of world community. An overview of the varying interests of Christians and Muslims is presented.

It is generally assumed that the family constitutes the basic socializing agency for the individual. Within the family much of the individual's personality is developed. In the Indian subcontinent, like China, the family has been of special significance, because for thousands of years it has been the basic social and economic unit. Despite the continuity of culture between India and Pakistan, there are certain obvious differences in each culture, subject to the religion of the majority groups in both countries. In India 85 per cent of the population is Hindu, whereas in Pakistan the same percentage of the population consists of Muslims; the remaining are Christians, Parsis, or Buddhists. In both nations individuals hold many values in common, but there are many cultural differences such as marriage observances and family patterns. Pakistani boys and girls are segregated in school at eight years of age. From the age of puberty members of the opposite sex who are not related should not meet, talk, or carry on any activities together, lest intimacy lead to sexual temptation.

This article discusses the changing moslem family of the middle east. The Middle East is a fascinating land of great contests. There side by side, one sees daily the ancient and the modem, the West and the East, the Christian and Jew and Moslem. In the short span of less than half a century, Moslem families in important numbers have tried to leap from the seventh to the twentieth century. The remarkable range of Moslem family living patterns which has been accomplished in recent decades is perhaps best symbolized by the lifting of the veil that for more than a thousand years has held the Middle Eastern women in seclusion. As with most changes in family living patterns, the extent to which the veil has been lifted correlates closely with the over-all degree of westernization in each area. the upper class women. It has been the least effective among the middle class, the conservative religious groups, and the older generation. Marriage is the accepted pattern of the mature life and has a religious blessing.

This article presents a description and analytical account of family life in Arab countries. These countries are located in both Africa and Asia; some are politically independent, while others are occupied by foreign powers. There have been both internal and external revolts, and these no doubt have influenced the more educated young people to revolt against the autocratic authority of their parents. This social revolution is increasingly affecting family relations. The following are Arab countries: Egypt, Libya, Tunis, Algeria, Morocco in Africa and Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Transjordan, Iraq and Keweit in Asia. There are small Arab Protectorates south of Saudi Arabia, such as Aden. In 1954, the approximate populations in Arab countries which are members of the Arab League are as follows: Egypt, 22; Iraq, 5; Lebanon, 1.3; Libya, 1.5; Saudi Arabia, 8; Syria, 3.8; Transjordan and Arab Palestine, 1.5; Yemen, 5. The Arabs, especially the Moslems, are fond of marrying and at an early age. There are many reasons for this: (1) there are many verses of the Koran urging people to marry; (2) the climate of most of the Arab countries arouses the sexual impulses early, enticing them to marry at an early age; (3) the traditions of the Arabs cause the separation of the sexes rather than free mixing; and (4) the desire to have children is common among Arab men and women.

This article presents the notes related to the international migration. Sudan is one of the growing group of African republics freed at last from colonialism. The ancient Egyptians conquered much of Sudan, calling it Nubia. Today reports tell of a growing exodus of refugees fleeing religious persecution and hostility. The trouble goes back almost 600 years, to the time when Arab invaders superimposed the Moslem faith upon a Christianity that had been founded in the sixth century. But the Christian tradition persisted, even when the self-proclaimed Mahdi revolted in the 1880's, driving out Egyptian and Turkish rulers in his Holy War. It took a new lease on life after the Mahdi's eventual defeat by the British. Under the firm but tolerant control of Britain, foreign missionaries were permitted into the Sudan, and both Protestant and Catholic schools and hospices were established. Today, out of a total population of about 11,000,000 there are at least 400,000 Christians in the southern part of the country. And it is this group that is reported to be feeling the first pinches of persecution.

The article offers an Islamic view of marriage and the status of woman as they existed before, during and after the advent of Islam. In contrast to the teachings of Judaism and Christianity, the principles of Islam consider marriage as part of one's religious obligation. Islam ordains that all human institutions not serving any high ideals should be abandoned in favor of marriage. Meanwhile, women attained a status that is equal to that of men during the advent of Islam. In Islam, the wife's individuality does not merge with that of her husband and the equal right of divorce is also granted to her. Islam, however, maintains a puritan outlook as far as women's dresses are concerned.

The article discusses several World Council of Churches (WCC) events. A dialogue held in Broumana, Lebanon on July 1973, attended by 46 Muslims and Christians from 20 countries was convened by the WCC. The WCC conducted two Church and Society consultations in Cardiff, Wales with the themes "Global Environment, Limits to Growth and Distributive Justice" and "Violence, Nonviolence and the Struggle for Social Justice."

The article presents a comparative study of attitudes of Christian and of Moslem Lebanese villagers. Any study comparing two vast, complex and historically powerful religious systems it is hazardous in the extreme to attempt generalizations beyond the empirical data at hand. At least, these data clearly substantiate the hypothesis that Christians and Moslems show no significant differences with respect to the attitudinal dimensions tested. This is true in an area of intense religious feeling and commitment to a faith at least in name. Each gives evidence of fatalism, cynicism, bitterness. Christian and Moslem groups which were comparable with respect to educational attainment, income, and length of residence in the area manifest strikingly similar reactions to questions involving village life in general, future for young people, the Lebanese government, efficacy of foreign aid, cooperation as opposed to working as an individual, the employment of women outside the home, and direct faith in the will of Allah as opposed to modern science and technology.

The purdah system, which limits a woman's mobility outside her home, may be an extreme example of highly segregated systems of sex role allocation, but shows many fundamental features in common with other societies. Purdah is an important institution among Muslims in Pakistan and India, but has not been well studied, partly because secluded women are inaccessible to male researchers. The purdah system is related to status, the division of labor, interpersonal dependency, social distance and the maintenance of moral standards; the two conceptual formulations used to analyze the system with reference to these factors are "separate worlds" and "symbolic shelter." In the present paper, special emphasis is placed on the influence of purdah observance and values on women's participation in modern occupations. Medicine and teaching are found to be the most important high prestige occupations for educated women because of the special needs of a female clientele in a sex-segregated system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compared families affiliated with the Nation of Islam to those matched families affiliated with various lower-class Negro Christian churches. The specific areas of family life covered included husband-wife relationships; family-extended kin relationships; parent-child relationships; and relationships between the families and various types of social groups and community agencies. The results indicated different patterns of family life existing between the two groups. Of particular interest was the tendency for the Muslim families to exhibit middle-class values and behavior patterns to a greater degree than did the Christian families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mate selection in a Muslim society is based on marriages arranged by the families of the principals, and in this paper the function of dower, or the sum of money the bridegroom agrees to pay the bride, is examined. A sample of 1,333 marriage registrations was taken in Karachi, Pakistan, from three distinct socioeconomic areas—upper, middle, and lower class—to determine what differentials, if any, exist among them in the role that dower plays. Although there exists an arrangement for the payment of a minimum amount of dower, it was found that the upper class made the largest commitment, the lower class the smallest, with the middle class falling between the two. Dower largely functions as a form of insurance to provide a degree of economic security for the wife should the couple separate or either party seek a divorce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The population densities of mountain hares Lepus timidus L. were compared with those of red grouse Lagopus l. scoticus (Lath.), within and between study areas on heather Calluna vulgaris (L.) Hull moors in north-east Scotland. Mean densities varied greatly between different areas, in both hares and grouse. They were higher on the areas where the underlying rock was richer and the heather was more nutritious. The amplitude of population fluctuations differed greatly between different areas in both species. The amplitude was generally bigger in hares than grouse. Fluctuations of the two species were not in phase within areas. Within each species, population fluctuations were not in phase on different areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses Islam within the context of Orientalism. Islam is not only the badge of Muslim society, but it has remained the constitutive and regulative principle of Muslim life in its temporal as well as its spiritual concerns. The distinctive feature of Islam is that it is said to be permeated by a sense of the autocracy of the Lord. There are verses in the Quran which seem to acknowledge the existence of free will in man, but as soon as a coherent and systematic body of theology began to exist, it was the other conception, also to be found in the Quran, of God's utter omnipotence, and the utter powerlessness of his creature, which assumed central importance. The Muslim community is a community of believers ruled by the divine will, and divine will requires someone to enforce it against transgressors and unbelievers. Its purpose is to enable the community of believers to worship God and obey His commands. To obey the Prophet is to obey God and to disobey him is to disobey God. Similarly, obedience to the successor of the Prophet is mandatory, so long as he does not order what is contrary to Revelation. There can, then, be no scope for constitutionalism or theories of representation and consent.

The article examines social process in integrating colored people in Great Britain. The colored population which in Great Britain settle in a number of her ports is affected by two main social processes. On the one hand are forces separating colored from white and integrating them into large discrete groupings. On the other, is the process integrating them with whites and dissolving the bonds which hold them together as a distinct unit. Accommodation and assimilation are used in reference to the process of integration, but sociologists do not always agree on the precise definition of these terms. Accommodation as used in this paper will mean social relationships, consciously organized for the purpose of resolving conflict and establishing a working agreement to enable divergent personalities, groups and cultures to engage in activities while contriving to retain their own characteristic traits. The two groupings here concerned will be called, for convenience, Moslem and Negro. Each grouping, although composed of different national and linguistic sub-groups, is bound together by a number of social and cultural ties. But the sub-groups retain their distinctiveness by their continual admission of new immigrants.

The article presents trends in legal research in various countries of the Arab-Islamic world. For several centuries, the Islamic world was governed by classical Moslem law, which was extremely simple and evolutive. The decline of Arab-Islamic civilization, followed by the colonization of most Islamic countries, gave rise to an extremely serious legal crisis as a result of which Moslem law lost its evolutive character. Faced by the crisis, several countries found that the only practical solution was to adopt forms of legal technique and procedures copied from those of European countries. Other countries retained a rigid Moslem law that had little in common with the social realities of the contemporary world. From the foregoing analysis of the present trends of research in the field of legal science in the Arab-Islamic world, two major conclusions may be drawn, which are, these trends are not always in the same direction and indeed frequently run counter to one another as a result of the crisis through which Islamic civilization is passing. Furthermore, it is almost impossible to predict which trends analysed herein will prevail in the near or distant future.

The article informs that the conquest of the new world by the Spaniards was for a long time painted in blackest colors by most non-Spanish writers. The history of the evolution of the Black Legend is too long a story to relate here. It is enough to say that, during the past few decades, it has undergone considerable bleaching as a result of the patient researches of unbiased historians. However, for years the Black Legend seemed to obscure the fact that the fierce, fanatical conquistadores and their adventurous companions were followed by humble folk who brought with them the skills of the artisan and the patient husbandman. Of the many plants that China has contributed to the gardens and orchards of the world, none is more important than the citrus group, the fruits of which have long been a food for man. Cultivated from a remote period in southeastern Asia, the orange was carried by the Arabs to southwestern Asia, probably before the ninth century. From Mesopotamia and Syria, the orange followed the tide of the Moslem Conquest, and thus spread to Africa, Spain and Sicily. The Moors in the Iberian Peninsula became famous horticulturalists, and perfected the techniques of the cultivation and care of citrus groves.

The article discusses about the backgrounds of conflict in Egypt. On November 9, 1951, Sheikh Mohamed Abu Shedida, the priest of Cairo's Al Hussein Mosque, urged Moslems to launch a holy war against the aggressive invaders in the Suez Canal Zone, and he told them not to fear the enemy's ruthlessness. This campaign emanates from Cairo, capital of Egypt and center of the Moslem world. Egypt, the Nile Valley, fabulous land of the Sphinx and the Pyramids, is the scene of what is probably the oldest continuous cultural area on earth. In 1798 it seemed inconceivable to the Egyptians that they could be overrun by a western army. But when they saw that it was true, they became conscious of the full measure of their decline. The first tangible result was the reign and the conquests of Mohammed Ali, who galvanized the country behind him and gave it an idea of its collective strength. Only the British fleet kept him from conquering Constantinople. He aroused Egypt from its long sleep, and since that time the country has never gone to sleep again.

The article discusses the highlights of the four-day conversations between 22 Muslims and Christians organized by the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Cartigny, Switzerland on March 2-6, 1969. It mentions that Judaism, Christianity and Islam belong together historically and speak of the same God. The article also mentions that both Islam and Christianity are confronted by formulating their belief in God in the presented world.

The article reports that a combination of conceit and laziness on the part of Madison Avenue, New York, may be paying off for U.S. advertisers in the admittedly small beachhead so far developed for their products in the Middle East. On the other hand, it may well be providing the anti-American propaganda merchants with grist for their mills. Unlike other areas in the world--where some attempt is being made by admen to adapt U.S. product advertising to local conditions-disregard for the mores of Islamic society and of national types is being used to titillate Muslims into buying American. In recent issues of two illustrated weeklies published in Cairo, the American reader would find himself among familiar faces and phrases. Advertisements show the same pale blonde young women certain U.S. publications insist every man wants on a pedestal; while the males displayed are just the type to want to put them there.