The purpose of this article is to problematise a particular social transparency and disclosure regulation in the UK, that transcend national boundaries in order to control slavery in supply chains operating in the developing world. Drawing on notions from the regulatory and sociology literature, i.e. transparency and normativity, and by interviewing anti-slavery activists and experts, this study explores the limitations of the disclosure and transparency requirements of the UK Modern Slavery Act and, more specifically, how anti-slavery activists experience and (...) interpret the new regulations and the regulators’ implementation of the regulation. This research found limited confidence among anti-slavery activists regarding the Act’s call for transparency in relation to the elimination of slavery from global supply chains. The research also found that the limits of the transparency provisions within the Act appear to hinder the attainment of normativity. This study provides new and unique insights into the critical role that social activists play in exposing the lack of corporate transparency and failures of responsibility to protect workers within global supply chains. (shrink)

The search for cultural sociology -- New intellectual concepts for cultural sociology -- Social sciences need for the HS paradigm -- Theory of HS and the rules of collective behavioural patterns of influence on people's behaviors -- Culture profile from a different Islamic view -- The Aql-Naql theory of human symbols and the making of cultural sociology -- HS behind human longer lifespan -- Social science illiteracy of the other underdevelopment in post-colonial societies -- The Arab (...) Muslim world set to dialogue with the West : a cultural perspective. (shrink)

Max Weber discussed Islam in various places in his sociology of religion, but there was no sustained or systematic commentary unlike his other work on the religions of China and India. What he did have to say about Islam was, even by the standards of his own analysis of value neutrality, judgmental. Subsequently his sociology of Islam has been criticized as Orientalist. While he provided positive interpretations of Protestant inner-worldly asceticism and Old Testament prophecy as radical and charismatic, (...) his commentaries on Islam were by contrast negative and critical. He regarded Islam as a warrior religion in which the salvation drive was turned away from the individual soul and the energy of the Muslim community was directed towards imperial conquest. His arguments did not for example provide a valid account of how Islam spread peacefully in South and South East Asia through Sufi traders. The article however notes an ironic justification for Weber’s analysis through the growth of urban ascetic piety in so-called post-Islam. Finally the article, turning away from Weber’s focus on economic ethics of the world religions, argues that Weber’s work is better understood as an ethical reflection on the perennial conflict between religion (the ethic of absolute ends) and politics (the ethics of responsibility). (shrink)

© The Author. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: [email protected] book engages with the established scholarly tradition in sociology related to the study of Islam. Such engagement is required to clear the ground to make possible access to the lived reality of Islam in the contemporary world. A large part of the book is author’s conversation with the tradition of scholarship around the study (...) of Islam in its global and local context. This conversation consists of critical appraisals, methodological questions and useful distinctions that must inform a sociological venture into examining the ‘Islamic ecumene’ in the context of history and present frames of globalism.The author admits that the field is continuously challenged in the global public sphere on account of the politicization of Islam-related themes. The author identifies the relations of religion... (shrink)

``I am therefore I have rights," argues this paper. Mere existence qualifies a human being for universal human rights. Yet human beings do not live in solitude; they are always embedded in a network of social relations which determines their rights and duties in its own terms. Consequently, the debate about the universality and relativism of human rights can be best understood by combining legal and sociological perspectives. Such an approach is used in this article to explore the tensions and (...) contests around the universality of human rights in Islamic law. Whether all human beings or just citizens are qualified for the inviolability of human rights is a question which divided Muslim jurists into two schools: Universalistic School, emanating from Abu Hanifa, advocated for the universality of human rights, while Communalistic School, originating from Malik, Shafii and Ibn Hanbal, advocated for civil rights. Universalistic School was adopted by such great cosmopolitan empires as Umayyads, Abbasids, Mughals and Ottomans. It was also reformed by the Ottomans during the nineteenth century in the light of the new notions of universal human rights in Europe to purge remaining discriminatory practices against non-Muslim citizens and to justify constitutionalism and democracy. Yet the universalistic tradition in Islamic law has been forgotten as the chain of memory was broken after the collapse of Ottoman Empire. This article briefly unearths the forgotten universalistic approach in Islamic law to build upon it a modern universalistic human rights theory for which there is a pressing need at this age of globalization. (shrink)

Many societies have had different tendencies in terms of belief in the historical process. The purpose of this article is to look in general terms whether the types of society, including the Arabs, in the pre-Islamic tribe and clan structuring, have experienced systems such as totemism, fetishism, naturism and animism in different forms and time periods. Likewise, it is to examine the pre-Islamic Arabs, the features that distinguish them from other types of society, and their monotheistic religions and (...) paganism that they have lived since ancient times. In our research, it was concluded that the perception of a monotheistic religion, the last representative of which was "hanif" until Islam, had spread to such an extent that it had a profound effect on the religious experiences of pre-Islamic Arabs, and therefore, the idolatry of the pre-Islamic Arabs was never independent of the degeneration of the monotheistic religion, as in Hanif. has been reached. At the same time, Hanif thought also shared the fate of ancient divine religions, and faced the pressure of paganism before the phenomenon of communion could be realized, that is, before the religious experience of Hanif could be shared by its believers with its social dimension. However, the limited historical data on both pagan worship and Hanif's religious experience is one of the difficulties of the research as a problematic issue. Another issue we question in our study is that the idolatry of the pagan Arabs who cannot be seen as different forms of worship that only worship the idol and symbolize the show of servitude to him. As a matter of fact, these idols are embodied on earth as symbols of a pantheon of gods that includes "the supreme being Allah", jinn, angels and other abstract beings. Naturally, they are also powerful and should be respected, worshiped, sacrificed, inshort, worshiped as representatives of the gods. At the same time, since they are divine beings, they are expected to fulfill any task required of a god. (shrink)

This paper examines the contribution of sociology to the Islamic proselytization. In the context of epistemology, it has the opportunity to develop based on five aspects: factors, systems, interpretative, developmentalism and participatory. The five principles can be developed based on sociological theories. Among these theories, for example are the phenomenology of Islamic proselytization, the social construction of Islamic proselytization, dramaturgy of Islamic proselytization, hermeneutics of Islamic proselytization, communicative acts of Islamic proselytization, and ethnomethodology (...) of Islamic proselytization. Through a sociological approach, the Islamic proselytization will be able to develop more quickly. In further, it can be said that the inclusion of social science is a form of pattern of science development based on the integration of science, namely the phenomenon of Islamic proselytization as an object of study and utilizing other sciences as an approach. (shrink)

The present paper addresses the mutual relationship between society and law in shaping women’s law in Islam from the perspective of the sociology of law. It analyzes the role of pre-Islamic social, political, and economic structures in the Arabian Peninsula in modeling women’s law and highlights some customary laws which were rejected or revived and integrated in Islamic jurisprudence. In this regard, the paper reviews issues such as polygyny, rights to inheritance, marriage, the process of testimony and (...) acceptable forms of evidence in legal matters, diyya, the exclusion of women from the judiciary and the system of issuing fatwa, natural right of guardianship of underage children after divorce, and regulations related to the veil. Finally, referring to the manner of the Prophet of Islam, the paper suggests that ʿurf can be considered as a source of Islamic legislation alongside other commonly known sources of fiqh. (shrink)

Practice and implementation of Islamic teachings for better quality of human resources in Indonesia; collected articles.

Islam in the Post-Secular Society offers an interpretation of the struggles that Muslims face within secular western society, and attempts to find a path for a future reconciliation.

Makalenin konusu Ebû Hanîfe örneğinden hareketle İslam düşüncesinde yargı-siyaset ilişkisi-dir. Ebû Hanîfe’nin yaşadığı döneme kadar karizmanın dini ve siyasi kültürde gelişimine paralel olarak yargı-siyaset ilişkileri bağlamında İslam düşüncesinde bazı formlar çoktan ortaya çık-mıştı. Burada amaç İslam’ın henüz ikinci asrında yargı-siyaset ilişkilerini Ebû Hanîfe üzerinden anlamaya çalışmak ve dolaylı olarak da meselenin bugüne yansıyan yönlerine ışık tutmaktır. Bu yüzden farklı sosyolojik düzlemlerde inşa edilmiş Şiî, Haricî, Sünnî öteki formlar çalışma dışında tutulmuştur. Araştırma Ebû Hanîfe’nin; doktrini oluşturan Kur’an, sünnet ve sahabe uygulamaları (...) ile kendi dönemindeki dini, siyasi, sosyal ve kültürel şartlar arasında nasıl bir okuma yaptığını sorunsallaştırmıştır. Çalışmada Ebû Hanîfe’nin yargı-siyaset ilişkisi bağlamın-da ortaya çıkardığı genel anlama biçiminin, işaret edilen dini ve tarihi şartlarla kendi dini top-lumsallaşma çevresindeki diyalektik bir ilişkide şekillendiği varsayılmıştır. Dolaylı gözlem yöntemi ile elde edilen veriler bir tekil olay incelemesi bağlamında fenomenolojik bir çözüm-lemeye tabi tutulmuştur. Konu bugüne kadar ilahiyat bağlamında olduğu gibi din bilimi alanın-da da dikkat çekici görülmemiştir. Makale İslam düşüncesinde yargı-siyaset ilişkisinin farklı desenleri arasında Ebû Hanîfe modelini tartışması bağlamında bir değere sahip görülebilir. Çalışmada; temel hak ve özgürlüklerin korunması noktasında sivil ve barışçıl bir muhalefetin yeterli olmadığı, iktidarın kişisel hakları tanımaktan daha çok kişisel ödevler ve mutlak itaat talebi ile siyaset yaptığı bir ortamda Ebû Hanîfe’nin soruna ahlaki bir saikle yaklaştığı ve bu bağlamda bir çözüm önerisi getirdiği görülmüştür. Ebû Hanîfe gerek otorite ve karizması ge-rekse ekonomik statüsü ve kültürel birikiminden aldığı güç ile yaşadığı dönemde üst düzey siyasal ve hukuki bir katılım gerçekleştirmiştir. Yasama erkinin özgür bir üyesi olarak Ebû Hanîfe temel haklar bağlamında hayatı boyunca hep iktidarlarla karşı karşıya gelmiş ve bu mücadele içinde iken de öldürülmüştür. Müslüman bir ailede doğmasına rağmen dönemin politik tavrı nedeniyle daha doğumuyla birlikte iktidar tarafından öteki olarak görülmüş ve ömrü boyunca bu statü ile yaşamak zorunda kalmıştır. Başlangıçta kendi ailesi içinde toplum-sallaşırken deneyimlediği mevalilik duygusu, Ebû Hanîfe’de özellikle hocasının ölümünden sonra iktidarlara karşı toplumsal bir hak arayışına dönüşmüştür. Esasen kendi özelinde bir hak arayışı olmaksızın iktidarların yasa ile sorunlu politik tavırları karşısında dini, hukuki ve top-lumsal bir tavır içinde yürüttüğü bu mücadelesi Ehl-i Beyt’i ve diğer bütün toplumsal grup ve kategorileri içine alan bir genişlikte ilerlemiştir. Ebû Hanife’nin yargı- siyaset ilişkisine dair bu yaklaşımı teorik ve pratik olarak tamamen sistematik bir çerçevede şekillenmiştir. İslam hu-kukunun dayandığı bilgi gövdeleri kapsamında o, çok kapsayıcı ve dinamik bir tarzda din ve şeriat kavramsallaştırması yapmıştır. Buna göre Ebû Hanîfe dine temel hakların dayandığı temel yasa anlamı yüklerken şeriata ise kendisinin bu dini alana veya başka bir ifadeyle yasaya göre düzenlendiği neshe açık, değişken bir alan anlamı vermiştir. Bu tevhit eksenli hiyerarşi içinde siyaset, yasaya karşı kesin sorumluluğu olan dünyevi bir alan görülmüştür. Ebû Hanîfe’nin İslam’ın ilk dönemini bir hukuk devleti nosyonu içinde değerlendirdiğinde kuşku yoktur. Buna mukabil, genel yargı-siyaset ilişkisine yaklaşımından anlaşıldığına göre yaşadığı dönemi, iktidarlar tarafından hukukun araçsallaştırıldığı bir dönem olarak görmüştür. Kurmuş olduğu akademi onun yargı-siyaset ilişkisine bakışının önemli bir pratiğidir. Bu akademiden yetişen ve daha sonra resmi ve gayri resmi olarak yasamanın bir üyesi olan öğrencilerine tav-siyeleri ve mektupları, onun bir yargı elemanı olarak siyaset kurumuna yaklaşımının sübjektif değil; bir düzen ihtiyacının ortaya çıkardığı objektif bir tavır olduğunu göstermiştir. Ebû Hanîfe teorik yaklaşımını pratik bir eylem alanı ile birleştirmek suretiyle yargı-siyaset ilişkisine bakışı konusunda oldukça net bir fotoğrafa sahiptir. (shrink)

This article embarks on making a political analysis of Islamist politics by criticizing the hegemonic approach in the field and considering a number of the institutions or structures, composing of either state and its ideological-repressive apparatuses, political parties and actors, intellectual leadership and ideology, and political relations, events, or facts in political sphere. The aforesaid approach declares that the social and economic factors, namely class position, capital accumulation, market, education, and culture, have been far better significative for a political study (...) in examining any political movement, party, and fact or event. However, our study will more stress on political structures, events and struggles or conflicts produced and reproduced by the political institutions, the relationships and the processes in question. Taking into account all these, it will be argued that they have been more significant as compared to class position, capital accumulation, market in economic structure, or culture and education, in a political study. (shrink)

The presence of muslim appeared by post colonial migration in Europe has begun to rice gradually and instinctively since 1960. Today, the population of immigrant muslims exceeding is 15 million has faced many problems such as political, socio-cultural and economic and this situation still remains up to date. Behind all these problems, it is alleged that the significiant integration problems occur and that there are also significiant ethnic and religious identity in front of the integration problems. The debates of Euro-Islam (...) started in the 1900’s at this point are seen as a solution to the adaptation and integration problems of muslim immigrants around the concept of “Euro-Islam”. This study questions whether the provision of a social concept of ‘’Euro-islam’’ is in different terms rather than the results of politic Project assesment of the concept of “Euro-Islam”. In this sense, It reveals as a problem of whether the religious understanding of Muslim differs. The data about “Euro-islam” discussed in the example of Netherland was collected with detailed discussions. Islamic education and Islamic school in Netherland are discussed with the claim that education has significiant impacts in the formation of European Muslim Culture. It was concluded that using the concept of “European Muslim culture” instead of Euro-Islam or Eurooean Islam more accurate and that the differences occur in the culture of religious life of Muslim immigrants parallel to requirements of social life and the intereaction of socio-cultural life of Europe. These differences aren’t occured as a homogenous Muslim culture and emerged in the form of defensive, reactive understanding in which the religion is instrumentalized. (shrink)

Securitizing Islam examines the impact of 9/11 on the lives and perceptions of individuals, focusing on the ways in which identities in Britain have been affected in relation to Islam. 'Securitization' describes the processes by which a particular group or issue comes to be seen as a threat, and thus subject to the perceptions and actions which go with national security. Croft applies this idea to the way in which the attitudes of individuals to their security and to Islam and (...) Muslims have been transformed, affecting the everyday lives of both Muslims and non-Muslims. He argues that Muslims have come to be seen as the 'Other', outside the contemporary conception of Britishness. Reworking securitisation theory and drawing in the sociology of ontological security studies, Securitizing Islam produces a theoretically innovative framework for understanding a contemporary phenomenon that affects the everyday lives of millions. (shrink)

This book is a theoretically and historically informed exploration of 'secularism' in Muslim contexts. It does this through a critical assessment of an influential tradition of thinking about Islam and secularism, derived from the work of anthropologist Talal Asad and his followers. The study employs the tools of comparative historical sociology and sociology of knowledge to engage with the assumptions of Asadian theory. Ultimately, Enayat argues against nativist assertions drawn from the experience of Western modernity and provides a (...) qualified defense of secularism. (shrink)

This book is a contribution to the nascent discourse on global health and biomedical research ethics involving Muslim populations and Islamic contexts. It presents a rich sociological account about the ways in which debates and questions involving Islam within the biomedical research context are negotiated - a perspective which is currently lacking within the broader bioethics literature. The book tackles some key understudied areas including: role of faith in moral deliberations within biomedical research ethics, the moral anxiety and frustration (...) experienced by researchers when having to negotiate multiple moral sources and how the marginalisation of women, the prejudice and abuse faced by groups such as sex workers and those from the LGBT community are encountered and negotiated in such contexts. The volume provides a valuable resource for researchers and scholars in this area by providing a systematic review of ethical guidelines and a rich case-based account of the ethical issues emerging in biomedical research in contexts where Islam and the religious moral commitments of Muslims are pertinent. The book will be essential for those conducting research in low and middle income countries that have significant Muslim populations and for those in Muslim-minority settings. It will also appeal to researchers and scholars in religious studies, social sciences, philosophy, anthropology and theology, as well as the fields of biomedical ethics, Islamic ethics and global health.. (shrink)

This article is about Islamism as a challenge for contemporary liberal democracies. Islamism is portrayed as an ideology that favors one specific religion as supreme and that is a threat to freedom of speech. The author makes a plea for distinguishing a. the religion of Islam, b. Muslims as a group, and c. the political ideology of Islamism. Regarding the dangers of Islamism, some sociological research about the convictions of Muslims is discussed and the most recent case from the European (...) Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg—E.S. v. Austria —is analysed, which renders all criticism of Islam and Islamism difficult, if not impossible. (shrink)

Islam in Europe delves into the daily routines of European Muslim communities in order to provide a better understanding of what it means to be a European Muslim today. Instead of positing particular definitions of being Muslim, this volume invites and encourages a diverse body of 735 informants from Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK to reflect on who they are and on the meaning and place Islam has in such considerations. Drawing upon extensive fieldwork and suggesting novel (...) ways of seeing the phenomenon of European Islam and the continent's Muslim communities, Islam in Europe examines how through their practices, discourses, face to face and mediated interaction, European Muslims construct notions or identity, agency, solidarity and belonging, or how they negotiate and redefine religion, tradition, authority and cultural authenticity. Theoretically and methodologically innovative, Islam in Europe makes a significant contribution to better understanding European Islam and Europe's Muslims. (shrink)

Why has the Islamic economy, as a model of socioeconomic development, gained traction as a viable option? The existing literature suggests that the Islamic economy has been popularized by a combination of factors, including anticolonial movements, a global renewal of religiosity, and the activities of new social strata who merge piety with capitalist orientations. These approaches, however, tend to homogenize social actors, subsuming them under the overarching label of Islamism. In contrast, this article employs the lens of “intra-hegemonic (...) struggles” to identify three competing orientations of Islamism and their manifestation in the economy. Drawing on eighteen months of fieldwork in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, it argues that this contestation motivates diverse segments of the society to create and engage in the Islamic economy, rather than any single state-driven or identity-based movement. The article synthesizes three otherwise isolated bodies of work: the political sociology of articulation, new theories of Islamism, and the concept of imaginaries from economic sociology. (shrink)

This study is a theoretical work in the field of sociology of religion which aims to explain the origin of the act of sin and the fundamental motives of crime and deviation tendencies in this context, from Adam’s story in the Qur'an, the main source of Islam. Sin is regarded as a negative act in religious-cultural sense where one struggles for life and tries to protect itself. Though a direct correlation cannot be established with belief values, the sense of (...) sin can be effective in shaping our everyday life and controlling our behavior. Adam’s story is worthy of examination in this context as it carries the qualification of being a religious text that allows us to study the nature of sin. This is based on the Qur'anic text which we think is the simplest form of expression. Adam and Eve, Satan, Abel and Cain are the actors of this story and prototypes helping us to analyze the nature of sin. In this sense, sin acts in the form of various crimes and deviance behaviors as the result of man's eternity of property, power and status struggle in the person of these prototypes. Some theories which have been put forward about crimes and deviations can give a certain explanation on the subject. Also there is the possibility of giving more comprehensive factual explanations about the act of sin which contains a great deal of crime and deviant behavior, moving from the story of Adam. (shrink)

The article focused on the study of religious moderation based on values of moderation in three Islamic boarding schools (Pesantren) in Southeast Sulawesi, namely Pesantren al-Muhajirin Darussalam Konawe, Pesantren Ummu Sabri Kendari, and Pesantren Darul Mukhlisin Kendari. Therefore, a qualitative approach was used with a case study design -the techniques of collecting data used in interviews, participatory observations, field notes, and documentation. Data analysis in this article was done using interactive data analysis by Miles, Huberman, and Saldana. This study (...) found that the construction of religious moderation in the pesantren emerged from the basis of religious textual-scriptural combined with the performance of rationality (reason). This combination emerges to a dialogical pattern of harmony between the text and the context to color the behavior and social actions of the community. Precisely this attitude of religious moderation can prevent residents of Islamic boarding schools from behaving radically both in attitude and thought, so the outputs of pesantren can accept all forms of differences in religion and respect the beliefs believed by others in the community. This attitude of religious moderation in the pesantren also emerges in religious behavior that is tolerant and respectful of differences in society. (shrink)

cis is presented of Randall Collins's book, The Sociology of Philosophies: A Global Theory of Intellectual Change. It presents a sociological theory of intellectual networks that connect thinkers in chains of masters and pupils, colleagues and rivals, and of the internalized conversations that constitute the social processes of thinking. The theory is used to analyze long-term developments of the intellectual communities of philosophers in ancient Greece, ancient and medieval China and India, medieval and modern Japan, medieval Islam and Judaism, (...) medieval Christendom, and modern Europe through the early 20th century. (shrink)

Islamic sociology.; Islam and the social sciences. ; Religion and science ; Islamic philosophy.

Studies in the sociology of religion in Turkey have always kept the concern of examining the objective with an impartial perspective. The fact that researches in Turkey have focused on the religion of Islam and different religious groups with Islamic origins has kept the problem of the objectivity of the sociology of religion on the agenda methodologically. However, it should not be forgotten that understanding Turkish society and other societies where Islam is the dominant religion will be (...) possible by going down to the first sources sociologically as well as religiously, and interpreting the behavior of the first believers of the revelation. In particular, the ijtihads of the "Rashid Caliphs Period", which is a special period in the history of Islam, have been referred to as a religious and rational source both in the formation of Islamic fiqh and in the social structures of Muslim nations. In this context, the question of what are the effects and sociological aspects of the ijtihads of the first four caliphs on the development of Islamic culture and civilization, the govarnance and social formation of Muslim societies will be examined. What social reasons did the Rashid caliphs take into account in their ijtihads, what social events they led to, and how they had an impact on institutions. This study, which will be an essay on "Sociology of Ijtihad", also aims to question the possibilities of a common study field for Sociology and Fiqh. (shrink)

Jamel Khermimoun considers that Muslims born in France and in the West now build their identity not from an imported model but from a strong sense of belonging to the nation, which they claim at the same time as their Islam. He wants to shed light on his reading of texts guided by the spirit of flexibility and openness advocated by Islam. We must listen carefully to what he has to say to us; one must know how to confront ones (...) own point of view with ones own, and thus enter into a process of dialogue which, as he writes himself, creates real issues and is capable of appeasing the spirits (Jean Baubrot, professor emeritus of the Chair History and Sociology of Secularism [Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris] and author of several books). Through this book, the author has the merit of advocating the creation of a field of mutual acquaintance [...], a base of common values that can help Westerners and Muslims to get out of the tunnel of reciprocal prejudices, to protect together the true notion of secularism that calls for respect for individual choices and the defense of the right of expression (Claudia Mansueto, doctor of literature, professor at the University of Trieste). Jamel Khermimoun provides answers to the questions raised by the place of the Muslim religion in modern societies. For the author, Islam is not incompatible with secularism because it shares with it the most important values which make possible cohabitation, or even mutual enrichment. Instead of opposing them, it encourages us to reinvest the republican principles that make up our societies. [...] It is for those of us who want to understand the world in which they live. The links of Islam to modernity, to knowledge, to the idea of freedom, to the equality of the sexes, to violence, to fanaticism, to racism, are here dealt with frankness and clarity (Victor Loupan, journalist, author, former international reporter at Figaro Magazine). (shrink)

The resurgence of religious movements all over the world, their varying claims to identity and politics, and their success in generating system-transforming effects in both national and world politics have indicated clearly that there is a need to uncover the invisible interconnections between religion and politics. Moreover, the way in which religion has been striking back has taken different forms. From religious and terrorist fundamentalism to multiculturalism, from communitarian claims to the religious state to religion-based civil societal calls for pluralism (...) and freedom, it is possible to see different articulations of the resurgence of religion in the world in which we live. In this context, Turkey constitutes a sociologically illuminating, theoretically challenging and politically timely case study. As a modern republic on the margins of Europe and preparing for accession negotiations with the European Union for full membership, Turkey is both a Muslim society and a strictly secular nation-state. This article suggests, first, that the process of modernization and democratization in Turkey has always faced the problem of establishing a delicate balance between politics and religion, and, second, that in this process the more secularism is used by the state elite to control religion, the less pluralistic and democratic the state has become in governing a society where Islam has always played an important role in the symbolic formation of Turkish identity. What is needed in this context is a ‘democratic secular imaginary’ as a more dialogical, tolerant and accommodating strategy of living with difference, enabling us to understand religious claims to difference in their own right, and to approach them clearly and critically. (shrink)

This book is a study of overlooked themes in Iran's contemporary political and intellectual history. It investigates the way Iranian Muslim intellectuals have discussed politics and democracy. As a history of Iranian Islamism and its transformation to post-Islamism, this work demonstrates that Muslim intellectuals have enriched the Iranian society epistemologically, aesthetically, ethically, and politically. This book examines the internal conflicts of the Islamist ideology as the intellectual underpinnings of the 1979 Revolution, its contribution to the formation of the post-revolutionary state, (...) and the post-Islamist response to the democratic deficits of the post-revolutionary state. Seeking to overcome the shortcomings of historiographical approaches, this book demonstrates the intellectual and political agency of Muslim intellectuals from the 1960s to the present. (shrink)

In this article, I first criticize commonly held assumptions about what Islamic law is. I suggest that it is at best useless and at worst wrong to start with a label like ‘Islamic law’ to describe something that is presumed to be an instance of such a label. I identify the source of confusion, i.e. the postulate that there must be a kind of genealogical continuity between what people refer to as Islamic law and Islamic law (...) as it is found in the heterogeneous legacy of sharî’a and fiqh treatises. My contention is that Islamic law is what people consider as Islamic law, nothing more, nothing less, and that it is up to theologians, believers and citizens, not social scientists, to decide whether something does conform or not to some ‘grand tradition’. Second, I argue that instead of looking at the hypothetical Islamic-law model, which something like Egyptian personal status law would be an instance of, the task of social scientists is, rather, to describe the situations, the mechanisms and the processes through which people orient themselves to something they call ‘Islamic law’. This position is grounded on a principle of indifference that seeks to avoid any normative and evaluative engagement: the focus is put on the description of practices, not on their evaluation. Moreover, this position is based upon the refusal of any ironical standpoint. In other words, it denies that social scientists occupy any kind of overhanging position vis-a-vis the social that would allow them to ‘reveal’ to ‘self-deceived people’ the truth that is concealed from them because of their ‘lack of critical distance’, ‘ignorance’ and/or ‘bad faith’. Third, I ground this praxiological re-specification in examples drawn from Egyptian judicial activity in the field of personal status. (shrink)

Basic characteristic of Islamic heritage law, principally it has accepted the two-to-one ratio between the male and the female children/siblings in division of heritage. In Islamic inheritance law, the main/basic reason why the share of the male is twice the share of the female is no “value” judgments given to female/women in creation and gender in Islam, on the contrary, are real realities related with the roles and financial obligations that man and woman have undertaken, in other words, (...) related with “socio-economic structure/fact” in the family and society structure foreseen by Islam. As a matter of fact, “need principle” is based on in division and succession of heritageand a fair arrangement has been made in accordance with the rights and responsibilities of the husband and wife in Islamic Law. In some classical tafsīr books, the concept of “degree” in the verse “... Men have a degree (right) over women” (Al-Baqara 2/228) mentioning the mutual rights and responsibilities of women and men; and the expression of “lil al-dhakari mithlu haẓẓ al-unthayain” in the verse –the inheritance of man is the share of two women– (Al-Nisā 4/11) mentioning the inheritance shares of boys and girls is interpreted against the woman by disregarding the intended purpose and socio-economic contexts of these verses. As a result of this interpretation, the share of men in inheritance is twice the share of women in Islamic law is ontologically (existential/creation) based on a justification that “man is superior to woman”. In this article/study, an analyticallook atthe interpretations in some classical tafsīr books on the axis of “daraja/degree” and “lil al-dhakari mithlu haẓẓ al-unthayain” that today sheds light on the sociological-historical background of depriving the daughter from the heritage will be made. Summary: Just as there is no way to determine a person’s sex, it is not either possible by reason to have such an opportunity. - With the possibility of medical intervention nowadays - sex is determined by the discretion of the Supreme Creator rather than will. Indeed, it is mentioned in the Qur’ān: To Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth; He creates what he wills. He gives to whom He wills female [children], and He gives to whom He wills males (Al-Shūrā 42/49.)In addition to human biological sex, there is also social gender. Indeed, the term “sex” refers to being biologically female or male, while the term "gender" refers to the social and cultural identity of a woman or man, or the social roles that occur in the historical process.Accordingly, while it is not possible to determine biological sex (in normal circumstances in advance), determining gender is shaped by the cultural will of individuals and societies. As a matter of fact, gender is shaped according to the religions, customs and cultures of the societies and it shows differences according to time, culture and family structure. In this context, in the pre-Islamic Arab society, the gender of the girl or the woman was shaped by the custom of the ritual and customs. Indeed, it is a known fact that during the period of Jahiliyyah, in terms of social gender, the girl/woman has been deprived of many social and economic rights, especially heritage. The Qur’ān has brought the girls who, in the period of Jahiliyyah, were oppressed in terms of gender, deprived of many social and economical rights, treated as second class human, embarrassed of themselves and buried alive, to the same position as man. In this context, as it is in every field in the direction of social structure and social conditions of that day, also in the field of inheritance law, a number of regulations were made in the Qur’ān and the Sunnah being the main sources of Islam. The divisions of the inheritance were connected with religious and legal rules and the shares of the inheritance of the sons and daughters were determined by naṣṣ (verses and hadiths).However, in Islamic inheritance law, as a requirement of the structure of family and society accepted by Islam, in principle, “two-to-one” measures have been adopted between male and female children. As a matter of fact, in this aspect, it is mentioned in the Qur’ān: Allah instructs you concerning your children: for the male, what is equal to the share of two females (Al-Nisā 4/11.)On one hand, the principle that Islamic law brings between boys and girls; Seems to be an inequality in terms of the arrangement in which "the inheritance share of the male child is twice the share of the female child", while on the other hand, within the border of in the family foreseen by Islam, this regulation has not been seen as an injustice and inequity by Muslim societies, because in Islamic family law, a man is obliged to ensure the livelihood of the family after marriage. He is also obliged to give his wife her mahr when marrying.In Islamic inheritance law, “necessity principle” is taken as the basis of responsibility that women and man have undertaken in family and society. Therefore, even though giving nothing at all to those who are not in need and giving less to those who are in less need, giving too much to those who are in much need might seem contrary to the principle of equality, it is a necessity of the principle of justice and fairness. As a matter of fact, while "law equality, necessity in sharing" principle, law is arranged according to people's qualifications, goods and wealth sharing is divided according to the needs of people. In this context, there has been a fair division in Islamic heritage law based on the necessity, (distributive) justice and fairness principle. Indeed, the French philosopher Roger Garaudy (1913-2012), who chose /converted to Islam, evaluates the following about the proportion of male child in the Qur'an to that of female child: “When we consider that in the Arab society all the obligations of the family and of the care of the parents and of all the things that we call ‘social security’ today are put on the shoulders of the husband, the hereditary male child's share must be twice as high as the female child’s is”.As Garaudy argues, the difference in the inheritance of women and men in Islamic inheritance law is not a legal discrimination/inequality, but a form of divisiveness stemming from a need based on the role and responsibility that women and men have undertaken in the family and society. Therefore, giving nothing to those who need nothing, giving little to those who need little, and giving a lot to those who need a lot,even though may seem contradictious to the principle of equality, it becomes a necessity of equity and (distributive) justice principle. In this case, in Islamic inheritance law, the basic reason why the share of the male child is twice the share of the female child, is social and economic reasons and it is possible to rank them as follows:1) According to Islamic law, women are not obliged to make their own economic livelihoods. The woman’s economic responsibility belongs to her father or brothers before marriage, and then to her husband after marriage. 2) When a woman is married she is not responsible for herself or other family members’ livelihood. The male is obliged to make a living for himself, his wife and his children.3) While married, the male is obliged to give the wife mahr. The woman has no such responsibility.As it is understood from the above explanations, in Islamic inheritance law, the basic reason why the share of the male child is twice the share of the female child is not about the ontologically “value” based on creation and sex given to the woman (girl child) in Islam. On the contrary, it is the real facts concerning the family and society structure that Islam predicts, the roles and financial obligations that man and woman have undertaken, namely “socio-economic structure/fact”.In some commentaries in classical commentary books, the rights and responsibilities of women and men are referred to, like: the word “degree” mentioned in: …but the men have a degree over them [in responsibility and authority (Al-Baqara 2/228), and the talk about the inheritance shares of boys and girls in: for the male, what is equal to the share of two females (Al-Nisā 4/11). Eventually, the concepts “lil al-dhakari mithlu haẓẓ al-unthayain” have been associated with the gender of the woman/girl child ontologically (based on social fact) by ignoring the referent purpose and socio-economic contexts of these verses. As a result of these interpretations, it was desired that the Islamic law principle of inheritance share of male child being twice the share of female child, ontologically, should be based on a justification that “man is superior to woman”.In this study, some of the era’s dominant culture classical interpretations grounding women's inheritances share on her gender and based on the axis of the concepts of "degree" and “lil al-dhakari mithlu haẓẓ al-unthayain” in the related verses of the Qur'ān will be elaborated. (shrink)

Sociology of religion is an interdisciplinary formation at the intersection of sociology and religious studies. While trying to explain the relationship of religion -as a noticeable parameter- with other variables and analyze the current pattern, the unity of social sciences and basic Islamic sciences is occasionally needed. It is expected that the intersection points with the auxiliary sciences will be clearly explained, and the research will represent the field by positioning at the center of the sociology (...) of religion. The valid way for readers to understand texts that are written within the discipline of the sociology of religion is to increase the textual representation of research. The basic issue to increase this representation is locked on the determination of the method as in other sciences. Although it can be mentioned that the studies focusing on the method in the field of sociology of religion are based on the philosophy of science and methodology-oriented evaluations, it is clear that the subject does not receive the necessary attention. This study questions the schematic feasibility of the method that can be used in researches within the field of sociology of religion hypothetically. By schematizing, it is meant to show the main tricks of the method use in the sociology of religion and draw a design. For this reason, firstly the problems encountered in the determination of the method will be addressed and then methodological scheme that can be followed in the studies of the sociology of religion will be evaluated together with the mental, the actional and the semiotic process added as an original category. The article focuses on principal information on how to use the method while studying the sociology of religion; however, does not promise an in-depth study of how the method can be used in practice. The most general output of the research is that by following the signs shown in the study, in-depth examples for further studies can be presented. The study emphasizes that the method as the umbrella concept used jointly by the natural and social sciences is not the only mental processes such as induction and deduction, and also explains that it cannot be labeled as actional processes such as research technique, pattern, model, or theory and approach. It is suggested that the method, which is the product of both abstract and concrete effort, should be taken into account not only with its mental and actional aspects, but also with its semiotic process. In the specialized scheme, while the mental and actional categories have more in common with markers in other sub-branches of sociology, the semiotic side differentiates as a new category. The first point to be mentioned is the necessity to draw attention to the indicative meaning of every object seen in the scientific process. Before the research plan, when a sociologist of religion internalizes that every object around him/her is a part of the body of signs, countless inventories of topics worth investigating are presented. Various protocols suggested by semiotics are followed in the process of providing inventory. Secondly, the researcher is expected to discover his/her own semiotic identity. Since the scholars of the sociology of religion, have largely received theological education, there is a greater possibility that their embodied knowledge will be reflected in the text. Through the inclusion of the semiotic process in the method, the researcher learns before the mental process that he/she cannot conduct a scientific study with a subjective perspective in a way to legitimize his own values and tenets. Through this awareness, he/she recognizes his semiotic identity and reaches the kitchen of meaning. When the researcher is closest to objectivity, receptors understand that they are not reading dogmatic text. This situation, on the one hand, leads to an increase in the studies of the sociology of religion to be carried out in a free arena, on the other hand, it allows to establish a stakeholder with dehumanized sociology texts. The reflection of the principle, sociology not sociologies, to the texts improves the use of related concepts by developing the common language, and the arranged conceptual material helps to prevent schematic clutter. Also the researcher of the sociology of religion expands the doors of a cognitive process as much as possible to get more than they think. Reasoning forms such as induction, deduction or hypothetical-deduction determine the direction of whole and particular. The fact that the researcher takes into account both the whole and the part, and the multi-directional connection between them and indicate which mental process he/she followed according to the course of the research, enables the reader to comprehend the method. (shrink)

Mohammed Arkoun is one of the Muslim world's foremost thinkers. His efforts to liberate Islamic history from dogmatic constructs have led him to a radical review of traditional history. Drawing on a combination of pertinent disciplines ? history, sociology, psychology and anthropology ? his approach subjects every system of belief and non-belief, every tradition of exegesis, theology and jurisprudence to a critique aimed at liberating reason from the grip of dogmatic postulates. By treating Islam as a religion as (...) well as a time-honoured tradition of thought, Arkoun's work aims at overcoming the limitations of descriptive, narrative and chronological modes in history by recommending that the entire development of Islamic thought ? from Quranic to present-day fundamentalist discourses ? be subjected to a critical analysis guided by these categories. The expected outcome of such a strategy is an emancipated political reason working hand in hand with a truly creative imagination for a radical re-construction of mind and society in the contemporary Muslim world. (shrink)

Study of the historical events of early Islamic period; includes Islamic teachings.

The resurgence of religious movements all over the world, their varying claims to identity and politics, and their success in generating system-transforming effects in both national and world politics have indicated clearly that there is a need to uncover the invisible interconnections between religion and politics. Moreover, the way in which religion has been striking back has taken different forms. From religious and terrorist fundamentalism to multiculturalism, from communitarian claims to the religious state to religion-based civil societal calls for pluralism (...) and freedom, it is possible to see different articulations of the resurgence of religion in the world in which we live. In this context, Turkey constitutes a sociologically illuminating, theoretically challenging and politically timely case study. As a modern republic on the margins of Europe and preparing for accession negotiations with the European Union for full membership, Turkey is both a Muslim society and a strictly secular nation-state. This article suggests, first, that the process of modernization and democratization in Turkey has always faced the problem of establishing a delicate balance between politics and religion, and, second, that in this process the more secularism is used by the state elite to control religion, the less pluralistic and democratic the state has become in governing a society where Islam has always played an important role in the symbolic formation of Turkish identity. What is needed in this context is a ‘democratic secular imaginary’ as a more dialogical, tolerant and accommodating strategy of living with difference, enabling us to understand religious claims to difference in their own right, and to approach them clearly and critically. (shrink)

This collection of 13 specially commissioned essays expands a new intellectual terrain for sociology: virtue ethics. Using a variety of religious perspectives, of Catholicism, Protestantism, Hinduism, Quakerism, with considerations of Islam and the New Age, this engaged and topical collection deals with properties of virtue in relation to the person, celibacy, hope, the apocalypse, mourning, and moral ambiguity. It also treats the concept of virtue in response to MacIntyre, Bauman, Weber, Durkheim, and Giddens. It seeks to move sociology (...) past disabling effects of postmodernity. (shrink)

Within the agenda of historical-materialist theory and practice Sociological Marxism has delivered a compelling perspective on how to explore and link the analysis of civil society, the state, and the economy within an explicit focus on class exploitation, emancipation, and rich ethnography. This article situates a major analysis of state formation, the rise of the Justice and Development Party, and the growth of a broader Islamist movement in Turkey within the main current of Sociological Marxism. It does so in order (...) to critically examine the rather bold revision of the theory of hegemony at the heart of Cihan Tuğal’sPassive Revolution: Absorbing the Islamic Challenge to Capitalism, which posits the separate interaction of political society, civil society and the state in theorising hegemonic politics in Turkey. My contention is that the revision of hegemony that this analysis offers and its state-theoretical commitments are deeply problematic due to the reliance on what I term ‘ontological exteriority’, meaning the treatment of state, civil society and the economy as always-alreadyseparatespheres. The focus of the critique then moves toward highlighting a frustrating lack of direct engagement with Antonio Gramsci’s writings in this disquisition on hegemony and passive revolution, which has important political consequences. While praise for certain aspects of ethnographic and spatial analysis is raised, it is argued that any account of the reordering of hegemony and the restructuring of spatial-temporal contexts of capital accumulation through conditions of passive revolution also needs to draw from a more sophisticated state theory, a direct reading of Gramsci, and broader scalar analysis of spatial relations and uneven development under capitalism. (shrink)

Lifeworlds of Islam shows that Islam has typically operated not in the form of standard dogmas, but more often as a compass for practical individual orientations or lifeworlds. Mohammed Bamyeh develops a sociology of Islam that maps out how Muslims have employed the faith to foster global networks, public philosophies, and engaged civic lives both historically and in the present.

XIX. Yüzyılın sonları ve XX. yüzyılın başlarında Azerbaycan'da entelijansiya arasında milli bilinç ortaya çıkmış olsa da Sovyet dönemiyle birlikte bu süreç kesintiye uğramış ve toplumsal tabana yayılamamıştır. Sonuç olarak, var olan “Müslüman Kimliği”, Azeri toplumu için temel bir kimlik bağı olarak varlığını sürdürmeye devam etmiştir. Entelijansiyanın tasfiyesi ile birlikte, kullandıkları sloganlar ve milliyetçi semboller de ortadan kalkmış, Türk milliyetçiliği Azerbaycan'da bir ideoloji olarak varlığını koruyamamıştır. Sonuç itibariyle, politik-ideolojik milliyetçilik ve onun sloganları, milli bilinci canlı tutma imkanından yoksun bırakılmıştır. Bu makalede, (...) Sovyet Azerbaycan'ında milli bilinci besleyen temel faktörün İslâm ve Müslüman kimliği olduğu savunulmaktadır. Komünist rejim İslam’ın entelektüel ve ideolojik boyutlarını en aza indirmeyi başarmasına rağmen, kültürel norm ve yaşam tarzı haline gelen unsurlarını aşındırma konusunda başarısız kalmaktaydı. Sovyet Azerbacan’ında Müslüman olmak Azeri toplumunun bir üyesi olmak ve söz konusu toplumun yaşam tarzına bağlılık olarak algılanmaktaydı. Nitekim, Azerbaycan'da “Müslüman” tanımının göndermede bulunduğu yaşam tarzı Azeri toplumunu çevredeki -Ruslar, Ermeniler ve Gürcüler- toplumlardan ayıran temel faktör olmuştur. Bu anlamda, ortak yaşam tarzına ve kültürel normlara atıfta bulunan İslam, Sovyet döneminde Azeri toplumunun özdeşlik duygusunu pekiştirerek milli bilinci canlı tutmuştur.ÖzetBu çalışma Sovyet döneminde Azerbaycan’da İslam kimliğinin ve İslamî yaşam tarzının milli bilincin sürüdürülmesindeki rolü üzerine yoğunlaşmaktadır. Çalışmanın temel iddiası milli bilincin varlığını sürdürmesinde Müslüman kimliğinin ve İslami yaşam tarzının etkili olduğudur. Bu iddianın doğruluğunun kanıtlanması için belli tarihsel dönemde gerçekleşen, siyasi, toplumsal, demografik ve kültürel konularla ilgili analizler yapılmaktadır. Bu bağlamda XIX. yüzyılın ikinci çeyreğinden itibaren Rusya’nın işgali, milletleşme süreci ve arkasından yaşanan sovyetleştirme süreci Müslüman kimliği ve İslamî yaşam tarzi bağlamında ele alınmaktadır. Söz konusu dönem istatistiki kaynaklar, istihbarat raporları, propaganda kitapları, ve dönem üzerine yapılan akademik araştırmalar ışığında ele alınmış ve üzerine yorumlar yapılmıştır. XIX. Yüzyıla kadar siyasi ve kültürel açıdan İran’ın etkisi altında bulunan şimdiki Azerbaycan bölgesi Rusya İmparatorluğu tarafından işgal edilince bölge halkı ilk kez Hıristiyan yöneticilerin yönetimi altına girmiş oldu. Bölgedeki dayanaklarını güçlendirmek için Çar yönetiminin bölgeye yoğun bir şekilde Ermeni ve Rus nüfusu göç ettirmesi sonrasında ise Azerbaycan’daki Müslüman halk kendini ilk kez Hıristiyan topluluklarla çevrelenmiş olarak buldu. Hep kendisi gibi Müslüman olan toplumun bir parçası olan Azerbaycan toplumu Ruslardan, Ermenilerden ve Gürcülerden oluşan Hıristiyan toplulukların ortasında kendi kimliğini yeniden tanımlamak durumunda kaldı. Çar yönetiminin Azerbaycan’a göç ettirilen Ermeni ve Ruslar’a hem yasal olarak hem de uygulamalarda bir dizi ayrıcalıklar tanıması Azerbaycan Türklerinin kendilerini toplumsal, kültürel, ekonomik ve siyasi açıdan Hıristiyan baskısı altında hiss etmelerine neden olmuştur. Söz konusu baskı ve kayırmanın 1905 ve 1918 yıllarında Azerbaycan Türkleri ile Ermeniler arasında patlak veren çatışmalarda daha yoğun bir şekilde hiss edildiği görülmektedir. Yaşadığı tecrübeler Azerbaycan Türklerini dışlanma nedeni olan kimliklerini, yani Müslüman kimliğini, çevresinde bulunan gayri-muslim topluluklara karşı sahiplenmelerini sağlamıştır. XX. Yüzyılın başında toplumsal gelişimi sağlamak üzere halkın milli bilincini geliştirmeye yönelik faaliyetlerde bulunan, aynı zamanda Müslüman kimliğini de sahiplenen entelejensiya ve burjuvazi kesimi oluşmuştu. Bu süreç 1918 senesinde Azerbaycan’da, türkleşmeyi, çağdaşlaşmayı ve İslamlaşmayı simgeleyen mavi, kırmızı ve yeşil renkleri biraraya getiren bayrağı bulunan Cumhuriyetin kurulması ile sonuçlandı. Fakat cumhuriyet varlığını sadece 23 ay sürdürebildi ve 1920 yılında gerçekleşen sovyet işgali ile birlikte Azerbaycan’da milliyetçi ideoloji, onun idelogları ve sembolleri tamamen tasfiye edilerek yoğun bir şekilde sovyetleştirme politikaları uygulanmaya başladı. Sovyet döneminde milliyetçilik ideolojik düzlemde ortadan kalkmış olsa bile, halkın homojenleşmesini sağlayan, ulus devlete mahsus bir dizi donanımlar sağlandı. Sovyet versiyonunda olsa bile, milli bir devlet aygıtı, milli sınırlar, milli tarih, milli eğitim sistemi oluşturuldu. Neticede aynı dili, aynı tarih bilincini, aynı sınırları paylaşan fakat milli bir ideolojiden yoksun olan bir millet meydana geldi. İdeolojik milliyetçiliğin tehlikeli bir girişim (perilous venture) olduğu Sovyet Azerbaycanı’nda kültüre ve yaşam tarzına dayanan kültürel bir milliyetçilik gelişti. Kültürel milliyetçilik halkın dilini, tarihini ama özellikle de yaşam tarzını savunan bir tutum olarak Sovyet Azerbaycan’ında gelişme gösterdi. Bütün bunlar, yani kültürel özellikler ve yaşam tarzı Azerbaycan toplumunu kendini çevre toplumlarından –Ruslardan, Ermenilerden ve Gürcülerden– ayırdığı başlıca niteliklerdi. Bu bağlamda Sovyet Azerbaycan’ında milliyetçi ve vatansever olmak Azerbaycan toplumunun kültürüne ve yaşam tarzına sahip çıkmak anlamına gelmekteydi. Dolayısıyla kültürel milliyetçilik çevredeki halklarla etnik sınırları sürdürme ve milli bilinci canlı tutma açısından önemli bir role sahipti. Burada araştırma konumuz açısından üzerinde durulması gereken nokta Azerbaycan toplumunda yaşam tarzının ve kültürün önemli bir kısmının İslam ve İslamî gelenek görenekle yakından ilişkili olduğudur. Sovyetleştirme politikaları İslam’ın entelektüel ve ideolojik boyutunu ortadan kaldırma konusunda büyük ölçüde başarılı olduysa da İslam’ın kültürel normları ve yaşam tarzı haline gelen öğeleri kendi varlığını güçlü bir şekilde sürdürmekteydi. Sovyet rejiminin başarısız olduğu nokta, yönettikleri Müslüman toplumlara alternatif bir kültür ve yaşam tarsi sunamamaları idi. Sovyet döneminde İslam’ın cami, başörtüsü vb. somut sembolleri yok edilse de kişiler arası ilişkilerde, sosyal yapıda ve aile ilişkilerinde tezahür eden öğeleri varlığını sürdürmeye devam etmekteydi. Bütün bunlar Azerbaycan toplumunun kendini çevresindeki etnik kimliklerden Ruslardan, Ermenilerden ve Gürcülerden ayırt ettiği, dolayısıyla da milli kimliğinin sınırlarını muhafaza ettiği önemli kültür öğeleri idi. Kebinolarak bilinen dinî nikah, sünnet, cenaze ve yas merasimleri gibi yaşam döngüsü ritüelleri Azeri olmanın çok önemli göstergeleri olarak algılanmıştır. Sovyet ateist ideologlarının yaptıkları birçok araştırmalarda ve istihbarat raporlarında komunist partisi yöneticileri de dahıl olmak üzere halkın söz konusu yaşam döngüsü ritüellerini milli gelenek görenek olduğu gerekçesiyle sürdürdükleri belirtilmekteydi. Ateistler bile, bahsedilen yaşam döngüsü ritüellerine uymadıkları taktirde milli geleneklere karşı gelmekle suçlanacakları ve toplumdan dışlanacakları endişesiyle ritüelleri yerine getirmekteydiler. Kebinsadece Müslüman çiftler arasında kıyıldığından ve dini nikahsız yapılan evlilikler toplumda hoş karşılanmadığından Ruslar, Ermeniler ve Gürcülerle evlilik yapma oranları oldukça düşük kalmaktaydı. Erkek çocuğa sünnet yaptırmak o çocuğu Azeri toplumunun bir üyesi yapmak olarak algılandığından çocuğa sünnet yaptırmak onu diğer toplumların üyelerinden ayıran bir özelliğe kavuşturmak anlamına gelmekteydi. Ölen bir kişinin İslamî üsullere göre gömülmesi o cenazenin bir Rusa, Ermeniye veya Gürcüye değil, bir Azeriye ait olduğunun göstergesi olmaktaydı. Dolayısıyla İslamî kültürden kaynaklanan yaşam döngüsü ritüelleri aynı zamanda çevredeki etnik gruplarla sınırları belirlemekte, dolayısıyla milli ve etnik bilinci canlı tutmaktaydı. Böylece İslamî kültür ve yaşam tarzi Sovyet rejiminin milli ve etnik kimliklerin ötesinde yeni bir insan ve toplum tipi oluşturmayı amaçlayan Homo Sovieticus projesinin de en önemli panzehirlerinden biri olmuştur. (shrink)

This paper examines parallels between contemporary Western and Islamic thought. It will propose that there is congruence between Western and Muslim political thought processes on issues of soft-foundationalism, negative theology, provisional truth claims and religious democracy, in order to offset hegemonic tendencies. This will be illustrated by a concise juxtaposition of the ideas of Davutoglu, Winkel, Sardar, Tariq Ali, Derrida, Foucault, Abdolkarim Soroush, Mohammed Arkoun and others. In the social sciences, namely political science, the neutralization of ideology is also (...) supported in relation to the concern of ideological encroachments into the discipline by William E. Connolly, that echoes Karl Mannheim’s sociology of knowledge. This paper concludes that similar concerns on the relationship between power and knowledge in contemporary Western and Islamic political thought processes are beneficial to the study of Islam and its transformation as a social and political phenomenon. (shrink)

Islam is not a mono-dimensional religion, therefore studying Islam with all its aspects is not enough with the scientific method, ie philosophical, human, historical, sociological methods. Likewise, understanding Islam with all its aspects can not be-be doctrinaire. A scientific and doctrinal approach should be used together (Scientific Cum Doctrine).

Turkish Islamic leader Fethullah Gülen offers a distinctive view of responsibility, which is explored here for the first time. Simon Robinson shows how Gülen's writings, influenced by both orthodox Islam and the Sufi tradition, contribute a dynamic, holistic and interactive view of responsibility which locates personal identity, agency and freedom in plural relationships. The Spirituality of Responsibility also explores the practice of responsibility in Gülen's life and in the Hizmet movement which he founded. Gülen has been at the centre (...) of many controversies, including in his Movement's relationship with the Turkish government. Charting Gülen's response, from the Israeli Gaza blockade through to more recent crises, the book critiques aspects of both this practice and underlying ideas, and argues that responsibility, focused in dialogue and peace-building, is continuing to evolve in the leadership and practice of the movement, providing a challenge to conventional views of governance and responsibility. This book is an important contribution both to the theological and philosophical debate about responsibility but also to the practice of responsibility focused in creative action, debates in business and contemporary society about responsible governance and enterprise. (shrink)

There are differences in the approach to law and ethics in Western philosophy compared to law and ethics in Islamic philosophy. Western philosophy itself is divided into several schools, including natural law philosophy, legal realism or positivistic philosophy, historical philosophy of law, sociological philosophy of law, and utilitarianism. These schools have different views on the position of law and ethics. In the discourse of Islamic philosophy, Law and Ethics or Morality are seen as interrelated principles. While Western philosophy (...) is divided into several schools and dichotomizes between Law and Ethics, in Islamic philosophy they are integrated into the view that law and ethics are a unity and represent the spirit of Islamic teachings. This research aims to explain the role of law and ethics in Western philosophical schools. This research will explain how Western philosophical thought relates to law and ethics, and how the integration of law and ethics occurs in the context of Islamic philosophy. This research is a type of literature review or bibliographic study. The method applied in this research is descriptive analysis using a comparative approach. In the issue of Law and ethics, Western philosophical schools are divided into two views: those that unite law and those that separate law and ethics. The view that unites law and ethics includes natural law philosophy and historical philosophy of law. The view that separates law and ethics includes legal realism, positivism, social jurisprudence, and utilitarianism. Meanwhile, in the context of Islamic philosophy, the relationship between law and ethics is considered an integrated dimension in human life that cannot be separated. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Islamic Aesthetics: An IntroductionSulejman BostoIslamic Aesthetics: An Introduction. By Oliver Leaman. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Pp. 216. Hardcover £55.00. Paper £16.99.IIf Islamic Aesthetics: An Introduction by Oliver Leaman falls into your hands,1 you may well find it hard to curb your curiosity and resist the challenge, given that "Islamic [End Page 502] topics" are so much in the forefront these days, especially in relation to (...) global politics, but no less in the widely diverse cultural, theological, philosophical, sociological, and other fields of strictly academic interest. With this conjuncture—along with the inflationary interest of the market in everyday politics and journalism, which is shaped by the crisis that has engulfed the world and the globalization of discord, by ideological conflicts and clashing worldviews, by the economic and political struggle for dominance and power, and by the simplifications resorted to by the media culture of today as it promotes a new type of instant, fast-generated, and easily digested knowledge—issues are frequently vulgarized, reducing serious, unresolved questions of understanding cultures and civilizations to the superficial discourse of stereotypes and prejudices and their manipulation in and by everyday politics.The counter or alternative to this conjuncture and its mundane political motives, which are highly diverse and often marked by opposing interests, ought to be an entirely new cognitive and hermeneutic strategy designed, with regard to the sociocultural and spiritual sciences falling within the term humaniora, both to ensure academic objectivity and methodological dependability and to further a nonviolent hermeneutic openness to the Other—the existential, social, and historical connections and interactions between individuals, societies, cultures, knowledge, belief, and so forth—in which our human lives run their course. This hermeneutic need, however, is not convertible with the new and mutually contradictory developments in globalization—to the extent that globalization means not merely interconnection and political, technological, and economic standardization, but also a leveling down designed to obliterate difference and lead to bland uniformity. To the contrary, this hermeneutic does not mean aspiring to eradicate differences, but rather necessarily involves a dialectic of recognition based on the premise of a nonviolent will for understanding and entente. What is needed, in fact, is a new culture of mutual recognition, for which neither mere spontaneous sympathy for today's much-vaunted "dialogue" nor the moralistic incantations by which public discourse pays lip service to it will be sufficient. Such a culture demands the ability critically to reassess established orders of knowledge, a critique of prevailing clichés and stereotypes, and a positive, systematic knowledge of and familiarity with the material being presented and discussed. In other words, a culture of recognition inevitably presupposes a culture of knowledge, from which alone one may expect cognition, exchange, understanding, and concord.Clearly, knowledge acquired in the domain of historical, cultural, spiritual, or humanist studies, the domain of the social sciences, is not of the same nature as the positivism and objectivism of the natural sciences, nor does it share the latter's universality, since matters concerning our past existence and our creations and inventions, with their historical mutability and temporal nature, their historical, social, or cultural relativity, are resistant to absolute objectivization and reduction to the cognitive norm of unambiguity. If the hermeneutic task, in its encounter with the current historical material of human thought and formation, is faced with the dangers of an adverse, relativistic infinity in which everything is convertible with [End Page 503] everything else, then, in the absence of a uniform criterion of truth and knowledge and its purposes, one must conclude that "unity of sense" or "unity of meaning" is impossible. Despite this danger, the hermeneutic experience—with, as its basis, the unity of experience of understanding to be found in the postulate of human historicality and finitude, which suggests to us the bond between us in the open human "communication through historical time"—invokes the indispensable openness and free flow of the most diverse human expressions, works, and meaningful acts, in which people in their diverse historical groupings and circumstances, social environments and differing experiences, and languages and cultures meet in the same historical, existential play—the transformation of primal chaos into... (shrink)

: Contemporary Muslim societies suffer from numerous endemicproblems such as corruption, poverty, and gender inequality. In addressingthese problems, scholars tend to consider sociological models, and overlookthe potential of Islamic ethical perspectives. The Islamic sources, particularlythe Qur’an provide pertinent insights on ethics that should be foremost in theminds of those seeking to alleviate social problems in Muslim communities.Essential writings on ethics, particularly Tahdhib al-Akhlāq by Ibn Miskawayh,The Moral World of the Qur’an by Draz, and The Ethico-Religious Conceptsin the Qur’an (...) by Izutsu are major works in this field. This paper elucidates themeaning of Islamic ethics, with an overview from the Qur’an and the viewsof prominent scholars. It then analyses the current major problems in Muslimmajoritycountries and their ethical roots to emphasize the significance of Islamicethics as a source of remedy. This is an interdisciplinary qualitative study,which uses the thematic commentary on Qur’an and ḥemedy methodologies,integrating the methods of sociology and ethics. (shrink)

Mansour Fahmy, one of the dramatic figures in modern Arab philosophical and social thought. He was the reformist and enlightenment figure in modern Arab history. He is also the owner of a notable current that was subjected to a violent attack that silenced him for a long time and forced him to "hide" physically. However, this did not eliminate the new opinions and positions that came at the beginning of the twentieth century towards the issue of women. He is the (...) first to write with a scientific methodology - from the point of view of sociology - on Islamic discourse and its dealings with women. he sought to differentiate between religion and the religious establishment, between the personality of the Prophet Muhammad and what later prevailed in the books of jurisprudence and others. When he discussed the headscarf issue, he concluded that it was the product of traditions and customs that the Hijab is not from the Islamic religion. Islamic law has nothing to do with the Hijab. Mansour Fahmy's creativity was at one of the sensitive stages in Egypt's modern history in which the political, social, national, cultural, and revolution clashed in each one. All this, in turn, identified the problem of Mansour Fahmy's intellectual personality in the battles of thought and politics. This research's main task is to redraw the features of his actual personality and the reality of his intellectual, social, and political positions. Besides, this study seeks to uncover the effect of philosophy on crystallizing Mansour Fahmy's critical personality and its role in laying the foundations of the critical vision with its practical, reformist, and enlightening dimensions. (shrink)

This book is a collection of essays by Dr. Seyed Javad Miri as he attempts to expand the sociological canon by exploring the works of Dr. Ali Shariati, an Iranian sociologist.