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Purpose: This paper aims to confront some of the many facets of academic freedom as a whole, including the shared concerns with Western academia, its relationship to the politics of Arab society and the relevance of these issues within local political domains. It attempts to profile the problems hindering societal progress beyond the seemingly defined truth. While this subject has many facets, this article only examines academic freedom within the scope of knowledge and inquiry derived from the revered text of the Qur'an, including its relation to democracy and radicalism. It is an effort to refocus Arab intellectual dialogue on its ailing academia. It also argues for Arab society to reclaim its core culture of Islam as an enabler of learning aside from the Eurocentric perspective of academic freedom. Design/methodology/approach: This paper uses an expository and persuasive format in its novel perspective. This expository form sets out the argument of academic freedom as being indigenous to Arab-Islamic heritage and pursues a persuasive statement for its resolution. This format outlines the main familiar aspects of academic freedom and lays out its components within Arab-Islamic history. Findings: This paper provides insights and arguments supporting its main theory. It suggests that Arabs must judiciously consider what their education will look like and accomplish in the next 100 years, considering the sociopolitical status quo and the chances of changing it. It argues that academic freedom is indigenous to Arab-Islamic early history, academia and knowledge governance. Therefore, Arab academia must not ignore its heritage to examine what hinders education and intellectualism. It concludes with the point that reinstalling a culture of knowledge will create a relevant democracy. Research limitations/implications: The implications for research, practice and society are vast. Further academic freedom research would redefine terms of processes, change the role of academic leadership, debunk locally dominated politics, introduce learning-first policies, balance inequalities in gender, abolish academic tribalism and move past colonialist ideas and predominance. For researchers, this point of view would open doors for new scholastic approaches. Practical implications: This paper includes practical implications that stem from an approach that would provoke practical possibilities and call for more academic conversations. Further conversations should explore and debate the gaps in Arab-Islamic knowledge history. The Global South of the Arab World or the Middle East and Northern Africa/Southwest Asia North Africa region could consider drafting a contemporary MENA account of a Magna Charta Libertatis Academicae or a Magna Charta Universitatum that is galvanized by Arab revivable heritage. Moreover, It would be productive if Western universities that operate in the Arab World would also take an active role in denouncing undemocratic practices and not merely operate as commercial enterprises. Social implications: Realizing academic freedom in Arab institutions will have a positive spillover effect on Arab society, including thriving and free media, freedom of speech and gender issues. Academic freedom is one of the main elements in structuring free political culture that adhere to the principles of tolerance. Academic freedom is necessary for showing all contesting ideas in a better light and, ultimately, achieving a form of intellectual equipoise. Originality/value: This paper concerns academic freedom in the Arab-Islamic World. The majority of academic freedom scholarship today assumes a Western democratic context in discussing or even arguing against it. The paper's focus is a novel expansion of that literature.

Purpose: In this paper, the author adapts the concept of culturally relevant pedagogy and the pedagogy of hope for Middle Eastern Muslim students' education. This paper aims to develop a new perspective for educating Middle Eastern Muslim students by focusing on Islam by considering being Muslim as a cultural way of being and living. Design/methodology/approach: Pedagogy of hope (Hooks, 2003), particularly the concept of healing in education and culturally relevant pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, 1995), guided this study during the research process. Findings: Three themes of culturally relevant pedagogy through a picturebook by Mobin-Uddin (2007) entitled "The Best Eid Ever" was examined to illustrate how this picturebook can be used as an example of culturally relevant pedagogy. Research limitations/implications: The limitation is the researcher's interpretation as a Middle Eastern Muslim who lived in a Western country. "The Best Eid Ever" (2007) can be used in the classroom for Middle Eastern Muslim students' education to discursively build a positive identity and educate students from different backgrounds. More studies may investigate other texts (e.g. novels) with Middle Eastern Muslim characters. Further research can also explore the use of this book in the classroom. Originality/value: This study provides qualitative description of a picturebook from culturally relevant pedagogy and pedagogy of hope to guide teachers to bolster Middle Eastern Muslim students' schooling experiences.

In the study of Islamic education, the scientific and medical contributions of Muslims globally are incongruously positioned. In most cases, Islamic education is completely divorced from its conventional scientific research and experimentation known and appreciated in its early and classical periods. Science and medicine are not alien in Islamic epistemology, though, have suffered gross neglect in the Muslim World in recent centuries. However, the universality and connectivity among the Muslims in the world since the beginning of the Islamic mission has been one of the gluing and cementing factors in the Muslim world intellectually and culturally, which made spread and diffusion of literature and scholarship across Muslim communities reciprocally. It is thus, not a surprise to find that, not only on the spiritual and educational facets but also in scientific and medical spheres the classical writers of the Middle Eastern and Mediterranean regions got their ways and significantly impacted the Muslim scholars of the nineteenth century northern Nigeria. The paper, therefore, aims at tracing and analyzing the extent of influence of those (Middle Eastern and Mediterranean regions) scientific literatures on the perception, motivation, as well as research, documentation, and experimentation in fields of sciences and medicine in Muslim Northern Nigeria. Special consideration will be given to the works by Sultan Muhammad Bello, d. 1837, who wrote quite a number of treatises on different aspects of sciences, followed by Sheikh Abdullahi Fodiyo d. 1829, and others who followed after them. The research will also explore how in turn, their educational works on scientific and medical research also impacted on the Muslim societies in Nigeria and beyond, especially in the codification and enlistment of the scientific resource materials on the wider educational spheres and the curricular of the Muslim societies of the area, since the last two centuries.

In this paper, I insert the importance of teaching race through Middle Eastern America and Muslim America. By bringing in critical analysis of Middle Eastern America and Muslim America, I offer theoretical insights and pedagogical strategies in the education curriculum to teach race that will deconstruct, destabilize, and interrogate the dominant White-Black racial logic in the United States. While my theoretical engagement with Critical Race Theory complicates how we theorize race in the United States, I couple the theory with transhistorical, transnational, embodied, performative pedagogical strategies to enable a wide assortment of ways to engage with the dynamism, fluidity, and constantly shifting nature of race and Whiteness through an engagement with scholarship on Middle Eastern America and Muslim America. I present a way to teach race that enriches the curriculum on race in the education program while preparing future educators with resources to support students and expand the conversation on race and racism during this time of the "global war on terror" and rising Islamophobia.

In this paper, I will examine the influence of nationalism and colonial racial theories on modern Islamic thought in Muslim South Asia and the Middle East. I argue that modern Islamic thought —a new way of conceiving Islam that began in the late nineteenth century—has some basic features that reveal the influence of Western colonial discourse, racial theories, and nationalism. I will provide many examples that show how contemporary Islamic thought has internalized the colonial discourse on religion, nation, and state. In particular, I will discuss the influence of nationalism on Islamism and how Islamists believe that a "true" Islamic life requires the creation of an Islamic state. But modern states are essentially limited, and national interests determine their relations with the outside world. An Islamic state cannot be an exception to the latter rule. Therefore, Islamic principles cannot determine an Islamic state's domestic and foreign policies; ultimately, it would have to function like a nation-state. Through a brief discussion of the policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and Turkey, I will also show how the discourse of these states is nationalist in practice and that the national interest of these states determines their foreign and domestic policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the part of human nature to explore new locations, to study interesting landscapes, archeology and cultures, and to visit holy and religious sites. Travelling and journey are highly recommended by the Glorious Qur'an. Allah asked us to travel through the earth to take the lessons from His creation. Islam is a complete code of life. Islam spread due to the tourists from North Africa to the Middle East, and from Arabia to China. It is a well-established fact that Islam guide day-to-day activities whether at home or travelling.it recognizes people's right to move from one place to other and encourages travelling for beneficial purposes like health and medication, education, business, trade, entertainment, and fun. learning new things and personal enrichment have both been found to be motivators and desired benefits of travel But It has been proposed that all travel is educational because it broadens the mind and heart as people learn from and interpret experiences. Travelling improves person's knowledge gained from books. Ideas hit when people travel in different places. The mental prospect is broadened. It makes us open-minded in thought. It expands outlook of people. This paper will describe the educative outcomes and benefits of travel. First, meaning and etymology of travel will be defined. than link between traveling and learning benefits will be established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Al-Mustansiriya Journal of Arts is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article investigates whether Turkish populism has undergone a 'civilizational turn' akin to what Brubaker, Haynes, Yilmaz, and Morieson have described occurring among populist parties in Europe and North America. The article applies Yilmaz and Morieson's definition of 'civilizational populism' to Turkey under the rule of the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) in order to determine whether the party conforms to this definition. The article investigates how the AKP, an Islamist and populist political party lead by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has increasingly incorporated what we term 'civilizational populism' into its discourse. The article shows the impact of civilizational populism on Turkey's domestic and foreign policy under the AKP rule. The article finds that the AKP has increasingly, and especially since the 2013 Gezi Park protests and the mysterious coup attempt in 2016, construed opposition between the Turkish 'self' and the 'other' not in primarily nationalist terms, but in religious and civilizational terms, and as a conflict between the Ottoman-Islamic 'self' and 'Western' other. Furthermore, the article finds that the AKP's domestic and foreign policies reflect its civilizational populist division of Turkish society insofar as the party is attempting to raise a 'pious generation' that supports its Islamizing of Turkey society, and its nostalgic neo-Ottomanist power projections in the Middle East. Finally, the paper discusses how the AKP's civilizational populism has become a transnational populist phenomenon due to the party's ability to produce successful television shows that reflect its anti-Western worldview and justify its neo-Ottoman imperialism in the Middle East. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent efforts to improve attitudes toward outgroups and reduce support for extremists in violent settings report mixed results. Donors and aid organizations have spent millions of dollars to amplify the voices of moderate religious figures to counter violent extremism in West Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. Despite this investment, we know little about whether such messaging persuades the primary recruits of violent extremist organizations: at-risk youth in fragile settings. In this paper, we consider whether pro-peace religious messaging can promote social cohesion among school-age respondents in Burkina Faso. Using a survey experiment, we find little evidence that such messages affect reported attitudes or behaviors toward religious extremism and find instead that it can have the unintended effect of increasing intolerance toward ethnic others. Our findings carry lessons about the inadvertent priming of ethnic identities that can result in a backlash effect among certain societal segments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to offer an editorial introduction to the special issue on "Diversity management in the Middle East". Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews the state of extant research on diversity and equal opportunity in the Middle East. It also offers an overview of the papers included in the special issue and the unique contribution they make to this field of knowledge. Findings – Findings vary from one paper to the other; however, overall, the papers in the special issue bring to fore alternative types of national and corporate institutions, theoretical ideas, activities and challenges involved in diversity and equality management in the Middle East. Research limitations/implications – The papers offer some fresh insights in terms of theorizing and enacting diversity and equal opportunity in departure from the dominant Anglo-centric theorizations in this field. Practical implications – Policy makers as well as business managers may take into account various findings and recommendations offered in the papers in formulating context-specific policies and practices of diversity management in the Middle East. Originality/value – There are not many researchers interested in this field in the Middle East. Thus there are relatively few high quality research papers being produced. Those that are published appear in a wide variety of journals never achieving a critical mass. And the central role of national culture and values is rarely examined. The current (special) issue of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion addresses these gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper highlights a context where Christians lived under Muslim rule. Muslim critique of Christianity was widespread, and Christians had to react to Muslim dominance by finding ways of responding to criticisms without incurring punishment for rebellious attitudes to their rulers. In the first two centuries after the Arab conquest of the largely Christian Middle East, Muslims viewed Christians as needing correction for their mistaken beliefs about the oneness of God in their deviant Trinity, about the humanity of Jesus in their insistence on his divine status, about the death of Jesus by crucifixion when this had not happened, and for their failure to recognise the finality of the Prophet Muḥammad in their suppression of testimony to his coming in the Bible. Christians viewed Muslims as heretics who had diverted from the true Christian faith in the Trinity and the divinity and crucifixion of Jesus and who looked for prophecies of Muḥammad in the Bible that did not exist. Muslims and Christians searched each other's scriptures to persuade the other that their interpretations might need correcting. As the centuries passed in the Middle East, Christians steadily embraced Islam. By the time of the Mongol invasion in the thirteenth century, the vast majority of the population were Muslims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

War begets crises that are among the most urgent areas requiring help from the international HCI/CSCW community; yet too few scientists address it using context-based, participatory field methods and by engaging in country and regionally based, longitudinal partnerships. Drawing on the author's ongoing eight-year engagement as a design ethnographer with UNHCR Jordan and region for the Syrian War, this paper discusses Humanitarian Research as a framework for guiding HCI/CSCW research in conflict zones with displaced persons. Based on the principle of "People First, Data Second," Humanitarian Research is explained with illustrative examples along with the nature of war and UNHCR's protection mandate, the research challenges and ethical roles of HCI scientists in conflict zones and how these roles entwine with refugee stakeholders, NGOs, country actors, and university IRBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social and cultural contexts, as well as religious ideology, shape sexual knowledge and beliefs. At present, the Islamic Republic of Iran is going through social and cultural shifts with regards to sexuality. Yet, very little is known about the contours of these shifts. This paper reports on a qualitative study that explored the sexual beliefs of 15 young Iranian women (aged 23–33), in Tehran and Qom. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analysed using qualitative content analysis. Four themes were identified as encapsulating the women's ideas, experiences and beliefs about their sexual lives: (1) sexuality as a cultural and religious behaviour; (2) conservative sexual beliefs; (3) sexual objectification versus sexual power; and (4) the importance of sex within marriage. These findings are discussed in relation to recent shifts in sexual mores in the Middle-East/Iran and their implications for identity, relationality and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In March 2021, Pope Francis visited Iraq, highlighting the challenges faced by the Christian community in Iraq and meeting with the Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. By engaging in this interreligious dialogue with al-Sistani, Pope Francis reminded us of another interreligious episode from the Crusades between Saint Francis and Sultan al-Kamil and challenged our perspective on the Crusades. This paper submits that in order to facilitate the repairing of relations between Christian and Muslim communities in the Middle East, we must dismantle the War on Terror discourse and in particular the nineteenth century Crusader images that underpin it and follow the example of Pope Francis in recovering not only a more ecumenical vision of the Crusades but also of the relationship between Middle Eastern Christians and Muslims. This article aims to dismantle this discourse which divides Muslim and Christian communities both in the West and in the Middle East by examining the use of Crusader imagery from Napoleon's invasion of Egypt to the present, arguing that our modern images of the Crusades are developed in the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and it is these ahistorical images that also fuel the rhetoric surrounding the War on Terror. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While research on geographies of creativity have proliferated in the last few years, there has been scant attention to religious cultural and artistic practices, particularly in the context of the Middle East. This research seeks to address such gap with a focus on the Islamic and traditional visual arts scene which has flourished in Istanbul in the past decade and a half along with the rise of political Islam in Turkey. Rendered obsolete through the Western-oriented and secular cultural politics since the early republican era, art forms such as Arabic calligraphy (hat), miniature (minyatür), and illumination (tezhip) have now found currency as 'authentically Turkish and Islamic' in an art scene that emerged alongside Islamist politics. This paper examines the trajectory of Islamic and traditional visual arts through the lens of cultural and creative industries starting from the cultural politics of Islamic urban governance through the 1990s and 2000s, and to the emergence of an Islamist-nationalist authoritarianism in the past decade. In doing so, it aims to situate Islamic and traditional visual arts on the map in studies on geographies of creativity, particularly in the Middle Eastern and Islamic context, where limited attention has been paid to cultural and artistic practices. With ethnographic reflections from the field, it highlights the internal dynamics of an art scene and the potential it bears in unsettling the core concepts of Turkish Islamic nationalism from within. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the religious dimensions of armed conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), a region where the monotheistic religions of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity traditionally dominate. Applying a regional perspective, this study finds that about half of the armed conflicts in the MENA region were between parties, where at least one side had made explicit reference to religion in their basic demands, and this category of conflicts has increased substantially over time. Why are religious civil wars becoming relatively more common over time in the MENA region? I argue that the relatively high frequency of religious armed intrastate conflicts in the region can be explained by three major empirical regularities: (1) the intractability of interreligious conflicts; (2) the spread of several but relatively shorter intrareligious disputes; and (3) the increasingly transnational aspect of religious disputes in the MENA region. Although these trends have been countered by the emergence of institutional settlements of some of the armed conflicts, these types of conflict management and conflict resolution attempts have, so far, been too few to generate a general shift in the basic empirical patterns. This paper provides an empirical overview over the main patterns and ends by identifying some important avenues for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper considers the form, status, and importance of the Qur'anic message in the first two centuries of Islam. The argument is that the term "Qur'an" could not have originally referred to the final body of revelation in a text form. Rather, the concept of the Qur'an must have functioned among the faithful as a term for oral transmission before the scripturalization of the revelation, and it is this oral function of the Qur'an that is primal to its literate function. It seems that just as in Judaism and Christianity, in Islam the process of remembering, passing on, collecting, and codifying the textus receptus, along with its stabilization and sacralization, was a centuries-long self-propelled operation shaped primarily by the oral tradition (especially in the presumed culture of illiterate people). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of a Shia-majority Iraqi state has provoked a debate on the nature of Shia Islam, and its potential for control of the wider Middle East. As a result some commentators have pointed to what is termed a 'Shia revival' or awakening, with Iraq the nexus where many of these critical issues are converging. Through the prism of the 'Shia revival' proposal, this article argues that the re-conceptualization of the emerging Iraqi state in Shia-majority terms is misguided. It seeks to provide an overview of three major developments in the Shia identity in Iraq: the background to the disenfranchisement of the Shia grouping in modern Iraq; the Shia intifada after the first Gulf War; and the devastating insurgency post-2003. The final section counters the arguments for a Shia revival, pointing instead to the human rights discourse with a specific emphasis on minority rights provisions as a more appropriate framework for representative government within the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims Many policies have been introduced to reduce alcohol harm in different countries. However, Muslim majority countries (MMCs), where the major religion (Islam) prohibits alcohol consumption, have less well-developed civil alcohol policies. Overall, MMCs have low prevalence of alcohol consumption, although recently most MMCs have been undergoing transition, which has sometimes increased pressure for alcohol availability and impacted on social practices, alcohol policies and broader public health. Globalization, the influence of the global alcohol industry, recent governmental transition or political instability and the presence of immigrants from non-Muslim countries can all affect civil alcohol policy. In this context, consumption overall has increased compared with two decades ago. This paper presents an overview of current civil alcohol policy, with regard to the presence or absence of alcohol prohibition, and provides an insight into the legal availability of alcohol in MMCs and the challenges facing policymakers. Methods English, Arabic and Persian language sources were examined, using PubMed, government websites for each country and the World Health Organization (WHO). Some of the challenges MMCs may face in developing alcohol policies are explored, including the need to interact with the global economy and the potential influence of the alcohol industry. Conclusion Muslim majority countries have adopted a range of civil alcohol policies in recent decades. There is a pressing need for better data and to support Muslim majority countries in alcohol policy development. Lessons from Muslim majority countries can help to inform other parts of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School-based comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) programmes play an important role in reducing young people's sexual risk behaviour and promoting health and well-being. There is limited evidence regarding the attitudes and beliefs of parents towards the implementation of school-based CSE programmes in Islamic cultural settings, including Oman, which this mixed-method study set out to explore. A convenience sample of 250 parents, with equal numbers of mothers and fathers of children aged 12–14 years (grades 7–9) at two urban public pre-secondary schools in Saham, completed a paper-based self-administered questionnaire in Arabic. We found most parents (72.8%) supported school-based CSE programmes that conformed to Islamic requirements of pre-marital sexual abstinence, but there was some opposition. Almost all parents supported comprehensive age-appropriate CSE being taught to students aged 10–15 years, including topics perceived as controversial in Omani culture, except for birth control and safer sex. Most parents considered themselves, school teachers and school nurses to be important sources of CSE. The study findings which suggest strong parental support for CSE programmes can facilitate education policy, CSE curriculum decision-makers and school healthcare-providers in Oman, other Middle Eastern countries, and countries with Muslim immigrant populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the design patterns derived from the Chinese tradition of wood-based crafts which were applied on furniture as found in the illustrated books of "The Shahnama of Shah Tahmasb" and "The Shahnama of Firdausi" during the Safavid period. The intimate connections between the Middle East and Asia over the past centuries (1501 to 1722) raised interest in both the handcrafts and decorative design motifs of the two regions. This resulted in the appearance of Chinese decorative motifs in Safavid miniatures which commenced in early Islam when Shah Ismail became a Chinese art appreciator. The Shah's patronage is explicit through the painters and designers working in the court workshops where the practice of Chinese structural composition and designed patterns are evident with continued production during the following Safavid kings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth in the welfare of citizens of countries with a predominantly Muslim population and the increase in free resources in the countries of the Middle East have formed trends towards the development of Islamic banking. Islamic banking is an integral part of the economy of many countries around the world and is actively developing, including in Russia. The active growth of transaction volumes in this sector of the economy increases every year, which confirms the relevance of the research. The article discusses the prospects for the development of Islamic banking in Russia and its features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses how Islamic Neo-traditionalists perceive gender constructs through a distorted view of religious texts and cultural conventions. It explores the ramifications of these constructs for attitudes towards same-sex orientations and relationships. These themes are discussed with reference to a case study of a TV talk show on 5 June 2006 by one conservative scholar-activist, Shaykh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, whose teachings have an impact in the Middle-East and on Muslim minorities in the West. The paper will demonstrate how al-Qaradawi articulates his views of homophobia as part of an agenda to reinforce perceived threats to Muslim masculinity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of the Economic & Social History of the Orient is the property of Brill Academic Publishers and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper intends to demonstrate three objectives: (1) Fukuyama's theory of the triumph of liberal democracy is cross culturally plausible at the attitudinal level; (2) Fukuyama's claim that Islam is resistant to modernity (characterized by liberal democracy and capitalism) does not hold up to empirical testing. That is, using Islam as an explanatory variable of democracy/authoritarianism is largely uncorroborated; and (3) Explore alternative explanations for the absence of democracy in most of Middle Eastern countries. The paper concludes by emphasizing the importance of Human Development and Political Opportunity Structure for the explanation of democracy/authoritarianism. The main conclusion of the paper is that Islam is largely irrelevant as an explanatory variable for authoritarianism/democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We explore the role of religion in shaping women's opportunities in Muslim states. • In Muslim societies, female employment declines after unexpected oil booms. • Women's employment is two percentage points lower a decade after an oil discovery. • In non-Muslim societies, we find a neutral impact of oil booms on female employment. • We attribute the negative impact to Islamic family laws limiting women's mobility. Female employment rates vary systematically across the world. Some of the lowest rates are observed in the Middle East and the Arab states. But what explains this pattern? In this paper, we ask whether religion — and in particular Islam — curbs women's employment during economic booms. To credibly address this question, we combine data on the unanticipated timing of giant oil and gas discoveries with a measure of Islamic prevalence prior to the oil era. Employing a dynamic event study model on a sample of 126 countries, we show that a giant resource discovery depresses female employment by more than two percentage units in Muslim countries. In non-Muslim countries, we find that a discovery has a neutral to positive effect on female participation in the long run. We attribute the loss of female employment in Muslim countries to the presence of religious laws restraining women's mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Social Compass is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The field of reproductive medicine witnessed a breakthrough in September 2014 with the first successful live birth post uterine transplantation. This success represents the culmination of decades' worth of research on infertility and reproductive medicine. This subject of infertility gathers special attention in the Middle East, as childbearing is given paramount importance in the family unit. And as with any new medical advancement, Middle Eastern people look to their religious authorities for guidance. This paper describes the various ethical quandaries related to uterine transplantation, from a perspective of the religious and societal factors that are unique to the Middle East, and embeds them within the conversation of its alternative solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines how the modern-day Turkish music therapy group TUMATA relates to a longer history of Islamic medical music treatment. It traces the history of music therapy in the Islamic Middle East, and then proceeds to examine the Muslim Sufi Mevlevi mystical sect within this context. The musical songs of TUMATA and its founder Dr. Oruc, Güvenc shed light on how modern music drew upon the historical medicinal understanding of musical therapy. Their songs intertwine with the religious beliefs of the Sufi mystics, while simultaneously avoiding blind allegiance to their traditions. TUMATA retained artistic license and created music therapy within a deep Islamic tradition but did not hesitate to break from that heritage. Thus, the group and its founder provided a mechanism through which to explore the history of Islamic music therapy while examining the modern ways this practice manifests itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a piece of research which brought together eight Islamic scholars, four child protection academics and two international development agencies to identify mechanisms and processes which safeguard children from harm that are congruent with Islamic scholarship and practices. Roundtable methodology was used to share knowledge, build networks and increase engagement with child protection by bringing together different stakeholders to share experiences and encourage collaboration in a relatively cost-effective manner. Four key themes were identified following initial qualitative data analysis of the roundtable discussion: (1) The convergence and divergence in Islamic thought on issues of child protection; (2) knowledge sharing and partnership working; (3) individual and collective wellbeing; and (4) mechanisms and tools for intervention. Findings from the roundtable indicate that a reliance on solely Western-based models does not allow for the trust and credibility that enable intervention at a deeper level in Islamic communities. Critically, the roundtable highlighted a significant gap in how Islamic knowledge and principles are practically applied to child protection policy and practice in international development contexts. Next steps are identified for building a knowledge base that can be practised in Islamic communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this critical discourse analysis of six high-school world geography textbooks, we explore how constructions and representations of North Africa and Southwest Asia have served to reinforce Orientalist discourse in formal curriculum. Visual and written representations in these textbooks were overwhelmingly confounded by a traditional/modern dichotomy that constructed a paradoxical “Muslim world.” Gender and religion coding perpetuated the temporal paradox with women and Islam used as symbols of the traditional in need of western modernization. This paper begins with a contextualization of the study of textbooks and addresses investigations of media portrayals of Muslims, Arabs, and Islam. We then describe our theoretical grounding in criticalist perspectives and detail methods of analysis. Lastly, we present the three themes revealed through analysis and conclude with recommendations for enhancing geographic literacy in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Matériaux et Techniques is the property of EDP Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Historically, all cultural, geographical, and political names and descriptions have clearly reflected intense categorization, cultural bias, political prejudice, and, more generally, 'otherization' to a certain extent. Orientalism, as an influential political-cultural concept, unambiguously reveals a discriminatory and arrogant Western stance towards the rest of the world, particularly the 'East' and the Islamic world. This general idea, as a mainstream trend, can easily be observed within the context of historical Western usage of the term 'Middle East'. This paper aims to review the term 'Middle East' as an outcome of the Orientalist perspective. It will do so in both cultural and political terms which clearly reveal the critical relationship between 'power' and 'knowledge.' It will also emphasize the importance of using alternative 'regionalist' terms to describe more contemporary realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suicide attack has become a dangerous trend in the contemporary history of some Asian societies. While it has been used by some people as a means of protest, it has been largely rejected by humanity for its severe debilitating effects. Instances of suicide attack can be found in the contexts of the Israel-Palestine conflict, September 11 attacks, Bali bombing, Sunni-Shiite disagreement, struggle of the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, as well as the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan by foreign powers. The recent contours of suicide attacks are basically largely related to various groups or organizations. The paper therefore examines the meaning, brief history, and the causes of suicide attack, and analyzes these within the purview of contemporary Islamic thought which is based on the textual arguments of the Qur'an and Sunnah. The paper concludes that though a tiny fraction of the whole Muslim spectrum tries to justify the suicide attack as a "weapon of the weak", the majority of the Muslim scholars has viewed it as a crime against humanity and therefore vehemently rejects this practice in any form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the debate on the meaning of the term 'Islamophobia'. It proposes an examination of the early twentieth-century approaches to Islamophobia, both the term and the phenomenon. The aim is to show that the phenomenon had already been identified at the end of the nineteenth century and that it had been defined by the beginning of the twentieth. That definition could throw some light on the current debate about the meaning of the term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent work argues that the relationship between Islamic faith, the lack of support for gender equality and democratization is spurious. This paper analyzes the correlates of individual support for increasing the number of women serving in Indonesian legislatures. Indonesia is a relevant case because it is an emerging democracy, outside of the oil-rich Middle East, where over 85% of the citizenry registers a Muslim faith. We find that the willingness of Indonesians to support or oppose gender equity in politics is only minimally rooted in their faith or culture. This result buttresses the conclusions of cross-national studies that question the appropriateness of treating predominantly Muslim nations in the same way when studying questions of gender equity and democratization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that within the Islamic mystical tradition of Sufism lies an important perspective for approaching human rights. Sufism, while usually perceived as only dealing with spiritual matters, actually expresses a distinct message of service to mankind, and thus should be examined within the discussion of Islam and human rights. Along with Sufism's emphasis on service, the Sufi message of unity with God, and specifically the message of recognizing the existence of God in all creatures resonate soundly within the human rights discourse. With these points in mind, Sufi philosophy heightens the importance of human rights, while also allowing for self-construction regarding issues of human rights, and should be considered as another approach within the Islamic framework that is highly compatible with international human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at works of recent fiction and memoir with the Middle East or Muslims as their subject, in order to examine the underlying assumptions about Muslims carried by the text, highlight some of the common narrative conceits used to cast the Middle East and the Islamic world in the role of the morally deficient opposite of the West, and to raise concerns about the ability of these texts to both normalize these assumptions in popular culture and, in doing so, help engender support for US foreign policies of intervention in the 'Orient'. These works are examined using the framework of criticism toward material culture elaborated first by Edward Said in his writings about Orientalism, and refined by more recent scholars to include a criticism of 'New Orientalism', which relies on native or semi-native testimony while promoting the same problematic assumptions about Muslims as did classical Orientalist scholarship and material culture. I argue that these texts function as producers of meaning in contemporary American culture in ways which are both problematic and limiting, and that the symbiotic relationship between texts of this nature and American foreign policy needs to be brought to light and subject to critical review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the ways in which Arab education systems have responded to the challenges of modernity alongside framing structures of religion. Focusing mainly on the tertiary education sector, it offers a critical overview of the way in which Arab education authorities have sought, collectively and individually, to address both secular and religious fundamentalist demands. It analyses policy and culture in response to econopolitical change, and to shifting perceptions of the functions of education. Engaging with ideas about the relationship between secularism and modernity, it argues that regional patterns of infrastructural engagement with religion have more to do with politics and power than with ideological foundations of culture and society, and challenges, as others have done, the essentialist association of modernity and secularism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need to innovate in the use and re-use of water in the Middle East and North Africa is related to the need for making a transition to the post-petroleum economy, both of many states there, and oil-dependent states elsewhere. The paper raises some fundamental issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many people in the United States gain most of their information about Islam, Muslims, and events in the Middle East from mainstream media sources. Since September 11, 2001, the need to know about Islam has increased in the schools while biased misrepresentations have dominated. This paper answers the question, how has the media shaped representations of Islam in US schools since September 11, 2001? First I discuss the general and educational need to know in light of media responses to 9/11 before exploring some of the major educational responses. I argue that representations of Islam today in US public schools reflect a divisive politics of representation going on in the United States today at large, around the nature of Islam and American interventions in the Middle East. I contrast two different educational accounts of Islam to explore the educational effects of the post-9/11 US political climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the limited management knowledge of gender and HRM policies in the Middle East, specifically Bahrain. This involves an assessment of how Islamic values have affected women's work experiences and also how Islam has shaped gender and HRM policies. The study is based on an assessment of 53 survey responses and 27 semi-structured interviews collated from female professionals participating in career development workshops held in Bahrain. The analysis reveals the growing importance of women's employment in the Middle East, and outlines how governments are devising national development strategies within an Islamic framework, to support women's advancement in the public sphere. The empirical data show that women experience career and development constraints on account of equal but different gender roles, and that gender or equality issues are largely absent from HRM organization policy. It is suggested that HRM policy development at the organization level should specifically address the issue of women's management training. The research suggests issues of women's rights are a key aspect of understanding the relationships of globalization, Islam and HRM processes in the Middle East and argues that there is a need for international HRM scholarship to incorporate gender issues in policy planning and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present the findings of a study which collected data on a range of HRM practices normally used in 58 Egyptian organizations operating in Egypt. The range of practices is concerned with job descriptions, recruitment and selection, training and development, compensation, performance appraisal and employment security. We examine and discuss these practices in the Egyptian context. The dimensions of the Egyptian environment which we examine include: the socio-cultural context, Islam, the vocational education and training system and elements of the economic and legal environment. The practices and approaches being used by the sample organizations appear to be the product of both culture bound and culture free influences. The main contributions of the study are that it provides much needed information on the HRM practices and approaches being adopted by Egyptian-owned organizations in the early part of the 21st century and provides support for the influence of national context on the HRM practices pursued by indigenous organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how globalization in the Middle East has been understood and responded to during the last two decades and how it relates to the continued, though sometimes troubled, implantation of Islam in Europe. I first explore the dynamics of the marginalized incorporation of the MENA (Middle East/North Africa) region into the dominant networks of economic globalization, offering a critical appraisal of the existing literature on this subject. I then explore how my reading of this data correlates with how Muslim scholars and activists in the Middle East and Europe have experienced globalization and are writing about it. Guiding this analysis is a focus on culture as a primary vector of globalization at large and among Muslim communities and societies in particular. Through a process of ‘complex connectivity’ in which the myriad small everyday actions of millions of people are linked with fates of distant, unknown others and even with the possible fate of the planet, globalization has created new possibilities for either increased integration or ghettoization of Muslim communities within Europe and across the Muslim majority world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feminism/s in the Middle East are more than a century old. There have been two major feminist paradigms referred to as ‘secular feminism’ and ‘Islamic feminism.’ The foundational moment of women's ‘secular feminism’ may be traced to the late nineteenth century while the emergence of ‘Islamic feminism’ became evident in the late twentieth century. These feminismis appeared mainly in Muslim-majority societies with plural religions and/or multiple ethnicities. They evolved in historical contexts in which new subjects and identities were being re/fashioned out of shifting combinations of religious, class, ethnic, and national affiliation. The two fin de siècle feminisms surfaced as efforts to re/construct states and vibrant social, economic, and technological transformation were underway. Secular feminism and Islamic feminism may be seen as two discursive modes. Secular feminism draws on and is constituted by multiple discourses including secular nationalist, Islamic modernist, humanitarian/human rights, and democratic. Islamic feminism is expressed in a single or paramount religiously grounded discourse taking the Qur'an as its central text. In this paper I reflect on the two modes of feminism in the Middle East, secular feminism and Islamic feminism and consider what makes them distinct and how they intersect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the construction of both Muslim and Islamist identities and the ways in which they interact, converge and diverge. This exploration is set against the background of debates on the nature of Islamism and its positioning vis-à-vis modernity and post-modernity. The paper argues that processes of modernity and post-modernity may be at work in the production of Muslim identities, but highlights the need to examine how different dimensions of identity formation such as socio-economic position, gender, age and lifestyle enter into the formation of Muslim selves. This is made necessary if we accept the premise of the sociality and historicity of religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to conceptualise the contemporary phenomenon of 'political Islam', or Islamic fundamentalism as it is usually classified in the West. This paper takes the view that those movements that utilise the ideology of political Islam are not primarily religious groups concerned with issues of doctrine and faith, but political organisations utilising Islam as a 'revolutionary' ideology to attack, criticise, and de-legitimise the ruling elites and the power structure on which their authority and legitimacy is based. Since the one-party authoritarian state is the norm in most of the Middle East, only Islam has been able to provide the marginalised, alienated, and disgruntled masses with an oppositional force capable of articulating their specific grievances and general displeasure with these regimes. A Gramscian framework helps to demonstrate that these organisations classified as 'political Islam', and promulgated by the core Islamic scholars of the twentieth century, are authentic counter-hegemonic movements focussed on the overthrow of these despotic regimes and the acquisition of political, economic, and social power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the literature on September 11 focuses on bin Laden as a terrorist or on the idea of a clash of civilizations. In criticizing both, this paper instead conceptualizes bin Laden as a "civilizational revolutionary." As a revolutionary, bin Laden has sought to topple moderate regimes in the Middle East and to reestablish the caliphate. In contrast with most other national of transnational revolutionaries, however, he has emphasized culture--militant Islamism. Nevertheless, as the literature on social revolutions suggests, bin Laden has used the big strategy of most other revolutionaries in "externalizing" regional conflicts with his attacks on the United States. But his tactic of apocalyptic terrorism has made him unique as a revolutionary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religious extremism is arguably the most controversial topic in the post 9/11 era. This divisive and sensitive topic not only has pitted academics, policy makers, and political parties against each other but also has become a source of passionate discord among the public. This article surveys a number of perspectives on the relationship between Islam and extremism and notes that a constructivist perspective offers a better account of the relationship between Islam and extremism as well as provides more possibilities for the contributions of Islamic actors to peacebuilding in the region than others. Indeed, despite its limitations, constructivism offers a better picture by de-emphasizing an essentialist account of Islam and by bringing Islam into the debate on peace and extremism. The article first briefly reviews three key views for understanding the relationship between Islam and extremism: correlation, denial, and constructivist perspective. It then applies the constructivist perspective on al-Qaeda narratives and concludes with a discussion of the utility of such a perspective for peace making in Middle East. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]