This review deals with the relationship between Islam and the West from the point of view of the Bulgarian-French philosopher Tzvetan Todorov, especially in his book the Fear of Barbarians. Some issues have been discussed. Firstly, the term barbarism or savagery is defined and compared with the concept civilization. Secondly, attention is paid to Todorov's historical criticism of a number of Western concepts and postulates that they are circulating in politics and the media. Finally, some negative stereotypes about Islam and (...) Muslims, that Todorov has criticised and corrected, have been highlighted in this article. (shrink)

Based on the available materials and literature, Islām got to America as far back as 1530 when the early African Muslim slaves were taken to the land of America. Elijah Muhammad was one of the Muslim who works and struggled hard on how Islam would be spread and progress in America. Later on, the Muslim Emigrants from various parts of the World also entered America around 19th Century. Hence, it's increasing the population and strengthening the growth of the religion of (...) Islām in the area. The West particularly America known for her secularism, capitalism and extreme individualism with a political ideology not based on the recognition of the creator talk less of monotheism. From all indication, Islām continues to grow from strength to strength despite all odds in its way. Its therefore in the light of the above, the methodology adopted for this paper was historic and descriptive method in order to describe the nature of Islām in America and its practices among the black America and the emigrants during the early days of Islām. The paper concluded that Elijah Muhammad was a great revivalist, preacher and scholars in the spread of Islam in America. Islām equally penetrated in one way and the other into the nook and cranny of America through the peaceful preaching among the Muslim slaves and the people of America. (shrink)

The goal of the present study is to explore the link between Islam and deviance using a sample of 1,596 young adults from a public university in Türkiye by employing multivariate statistical analyses. The core independent variables are importance of Islam and political identity (Islamic, nationalist, social democrat/Ataturkist, apolitic, and other). The dependent variables are life-time deviance (an index), cheating on exams, skipping school, cigarette use, alcohol use, carrying a weapon, beating up/hurting someone seriously, and internet crime. The findings indicate (...) that Islam has inverse impacts on various deviant acts, and its effect is stronger for substance use than non-ascetic/secular deviant acts, independent of the control variables (age, gender, monthly total family income, deviant friends, failed courses, high certainty of punishment, high risk seeking, and high maternal control). In other words, importance of Islam is associated negatively with life-time deviance, cheating on exams, skipping school, cigarette use, alcohol use, carrying a weapon, beating up/hurting someone seriously, and internet crime. Islamic political identity, compared to social democratic/Ataturkist political identity, is negatively associated with life-time deviance, cheating on exams, cigarette use, alcohol use, and internet crime. In sum, religion is negatively related with deviant acts. (shrink)

The Muslim world is in crisis – politically, socially and economically – and Islam is in need of a reformation. Drawing on insights from the Protestant Reformation, this article argues that two of the major reasons for the success of the Protestant Reformation lay in the fact that dissident voices such as that of Martin Luther were protected and that developments like the printing press increased literacy thereby empowering ordinary people to read the Bible on their own without the Church (...) serving as a mediator in conveying revelation to the masses. This helped to break the monopoly of the Catholic Church. At the same time, the printing press allowed the views of reformers to be disseminated to a wider audience creating widespread sympathies for the reformers given the excesses of the Church. Whilst the Muslim world shares many objective realities of the period leading to Europe’s Reformation, the reality is that reformers are provided with little protection from Muslim political elites and widespread illiteracy prevents reformist ideas from gaining traction to a wider audience. (shrink)

This study aims to understand Roel Meijer's thoughts regarding Salafism, focusing on terms, doctrines, and their relation to politics and violence. Before 9/11, Salafism had not received significant attention from scholars. However, after this incident, Salafism and Wahhabism became important topics because they were related to political movements and violence in the name of religion. The method used in this study is Library Research with the Factual Historical Model, which examines the substance of the text that contains the thoughts and (...) ideas of the figures as religious works as contained in the thoughts and works of the figures. Based on Roel Meijer's study, global Salafism originates from the inspiration of Wahhabism, founded by Muhammad bin 'Abd Wahab. Wahhabism has a doctrine of returning to the Koran and al-Hadith, purging monotheism from various polytheism, accepting ijtihad, and rejecting taqlid. The term "Salafi" refers to two groups: Salafi da'wah groups that are oriented towards improving individual, family, and community structures through da'wah and education, and Salafi groups that have the same goal but are politically inclined and tend to use violence, which is referred to as Salafi jihadis. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of Salafism, its doctrines, and its relation to politics and violence. (shrink)

This paper assesses the state of Islam in Post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan. It examines the challenges Islam faces due to the diversity of ideologies bequeathed by the Soviet Union. Although Islam emerged as a dominant religious belief in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan, due to the internal elements of secularism, Tengrism, and other indigenous ideologies, and the interpretation of Islamic lore coupled with the Soviet ideology of atheism, Islam remains syncretic with some loose extremism fuelled by home-grown socio-political factors and imported fundamentalism. It, therefore, concludes (...) that the challenge to Islam and Islamic religious identity in contemporary Kyrgyzstan is a sort of ‘Muslimo-phobia’ rather than ‘Islamo-phobia’ because the challenge to Islam is clearly unleashed by the Muslims themselves and not the minority non-Muslim population. (shrink)

Ẓafarnāmah (Book of Victory), written by the tenth Sikh leader, Guru Gobind Singh (d. 1708), in 1705, about the Mughal emperor of India, Aurangzeb (d. 1706). It is widely considered evidence of a religious leader's spiritual victory over a tyrant who not only broke his Koranic oath (and, consequently, fell from his status as a good believer). The book, originally in Persian poetry, is composed of one hundred and eight bayts (verses), and the first twelve verses praise God and His (...) power. Due to its bold divine connotations, Ẓafarnāmah is widely regarded as a spiritual text. However, as I will argue in the following, Ẓafarnāmah should not be treated as just a spiritual text but as one of ‘the mirrors for princes’ that has a well-established tradition in the history of Persian literature and political ethics tradition as well. (shrink)

Recent developments in genetics and biotechnology have ushered in a new era of health advancement. Islam is the name of a faith that inspires its followers to innovate within the limits of Islamic law in the pursuit of knowledge and to improve the quality of life. Modern biotechnology, especially animal cloning, has helped advance human civilisation's social, economic, and health aspects. Therapeutic Cloning has opened up enormous possibilities in medical practice. But cloning technology is also believed to have the potential (...) for reproductive Cloning, which raises ethical issues. Islamic countries need to reach a consensus on this important issue. The need for a Sharia perspective to improve science and technology is evident in the context of greater health development. Muslim scholars need to immediately take a logical and much-needed step towards stem cell research and Cloning that considers the scientific benefits and ethical, legal, and Sharia implications. The present study aims to evaluate the different views of Muslim jurists on therapeutic and reproductive Cloning by clarifying the Shariah position on this controversial issue. (shrink)

Khᾱlid bin al-Walīd -may Allah be pleased with him- is one of the noble companions of the Prophet (pbuh) whose image and dignity are being tarnished, especially by the Shiites and orientalists. He is being accused of savagery towards the Muslims during the battles. Thus, he is alleged to have been a war criminal. So, this paper intends to primarily explore one of the major narratives that have been exploited against this noble companion by presenting a contextual and critical analysis (...) of the Incident of Khᾱlid bin al-Walīd's troop to Banī Jadhīmah. Considering the nature of the research, the qualitative method is adopted by visiting the related ḥadīths and historical sources, together with the Islamic historian's remark. Therefore, analytical and critical approaches are applied to analyze and examine the narrations. The outcome of the investigation reveals that the details of the Incident were not reported in any reliable sources of ḥadīth. However, they were only reported in historical sources with unsatisfactory isnᾱd, upon which we can not rely to rebuke such a great companion. Besides, none of the historians among the narrators of the event tried to justify Khᾱlid's action and defend him or report the event without any remark. In addition, the Incident neither affects Khᾱlid's companionship nor tarnishes his reputation. Hence the Prophet (pbuh) appointed him to lead several military activities afterwards. Likewise, the great Caliph of the Prophet (pbuh) Abūbakr assigned the leadership position to him during his caliphate. (shrink)

This research is entitled "Educational Method in the Quran Surah An-Nahl Verse 125 (the Analysis of Islamic Education Science)". This study aims to figure out the educational method contained in the Quran Surah An-Nahl verse 125. The method used was the descriptive-qualitative analysis method. The data were collected through library research from various sources, i.e. commentary books, educational science books, papers, and educational, scientific journals. The study revealed that the concept of educational methods contained in the Quran Surah An-Nahl verse (...) 125 is the Hikmah, mau'izhah, and Jadil methods. The implications of these three methods in teaching and learning activities in schools are, first, the hikmah method can be synchronized with the lecture method. Second, the mau'izhah method can be applied in guidance and counselling sessions as a curative or repressive measure when a normative or procedural violation occurs and as a preventive measure where educators can use the mau'izhah session in the form of messages or appeals at the end of each learning session. Third, the Jadil method can be used to improve existing discussion methods. (shrink)