Management and Responsibility in Muslim Practice

. Growing Muslim minorities in Western societies has sparked debate about which Muslim practices should be accepted, with many people finding certain practices intolerable. Two competing perspectives on this intolerance argue that it represents either principled objections or prejudice. Using four large samples from the Netherlands, we apply latent profile analysis and find four groups of people: two groups that like and dislike Muslims and their practices respectively, but also two groups who are intolerant of some or most Muslim practices without necessarily displaying prejudice. A person-centered analysis of key demographic and psychological variables suggests that the two intolerant groups differ with one group’s intolerance motivated more by anti-Muslim feelings, while the second group’s intolerance is motivated more by principled objections.

While the teaching of religion in the Danish folkeskole is a widely debated issue, there is little knowledge about how parents of Muslim background relate to the role of religion in the children’s daily school life. This article explores the meanings that teachers and parents at a school in the Danish province attribute to Muslim children’s religious backgrounds. Based on interviews with school leadership, teachers, parents and children, it particularly examines how they interpret the course ‘knowledge of Christianity’ and how they view the division of responsibility for teaching children about religion. It argues that while both parents and teachers understand religious belonging as a private matter that does not concern the school, they have different understandings of what this means and what it should imply for the children’s participation in school activities. The article further argues that the so-called encounter between ‘Muslim practices’ and ‘Danish values’ rather constitutes yet another example of negotiations that have always taken place in modern Danish society between the institutions of family and school.

This chapter examines neighborhood encounters where women negotiate pious Muslim practices and attempt to informally guide each other to adopt the best possible Muslim practices. I discuss moments when a sense of neighborly control, authority and supervision causes anxieties among those who occasionally fail to live up to vaguely shared standards. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in a working class/immigrant neighborhood in the southern German state capital of Stuttgart, I illustrate the significance of small urban spaces in the working of informal Muslim religious authority and the casual negotiation of everyday Muslim practices. I argue that informal religious authority debated and exercised among friends, relatives, neighbors and strangers in everyday encounters constitute a vital element in the articulation of pious urban lifeworlds. Theoretically, this chapter analyzes the power of informal authority and how individuals mediate aspects of conformity and defiance in the making of lived religion/Islam.

This chapter sets out the hierarchical, exploitative conditions of the late pre-colonial period that villagers would react against. The elusiveness of ritual authority that characterized indigenous religious practice helps elaborate the relatively low profile of Islam in relationships of dependency beyond the coast. The chapter first discusses the coast in terms of a reference point in regional politics. The factors mitigating Muslim influence up-country are shown. It is tempting to suggest that big men turned to Islam to overcome the limitations of their role in local religious practice. Muslim practice was diverse on the coast and became discernible up-country in discrete elements, and big men had no reason to assume that they would be able to retain control over it. Additionally, the oral evidence on long-distance trade, viewed from the villages, and the effects of colonization, are presented. The role of coastal Muslims in the interior was nothing if not ambiguous. Inasmuch as Muslim practice was recognized as ritual practice, it faced both towards society and towards spirit forces.

Although it is indisputable that Muslims have been in Britain for centuries now, it is the events of the recent past that has increasingly focussed attention on the presence of what is now one of Britain's largest minorities. Like numerous other religious minorities in the United Kingdom, Muslims have established themselves and largely conduct their religious and cultural practices within the confines of English law. The aim of this article is to investigate how English law deals with Islam and the regulation, recognition and accommodation, if any, of certain Muslim practices, such as religious divorces and marriages and the establishment of places of worship. The article does not aim to be comprehensive in its coverage of all the issues raised by the Muslim population in the United Kingdom, especially the criminalisation of certain political activities which some Muslims consider to be religious obligations, but simply attempts to analyse how in some respects British Muslims regulate their activities and how a parallel but non-recognised legal system is now in operation and the extent to which English law makes provision for British Muslims and their practices, beliefs and needs.

The present chapter explores evolving perceptions of children’s rights as reflected in Muslim state party practice in light of responses to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The only human rights treaty making specific mention of Islam and ratified by all Muslim states, the CRC, also enjoys near-universal ratification by all UN member states (the only exception being the USA). But this unanimous ratification by Muslim states is accompanied by reservations, some of which have been entered in the name of Islamic law and sharia, raising questions of compatibility between the CRC and Muslims’ perceptions of children’s rights. Reservations to multilateral treaties such as the CRC are one of several indicators of Muslim state practice and of Islam’s plural legal traditions in international law; others include, but are not confined to, country reports submitted to the CRC Committee, as well as a range of ‘Islamic’ human rights instruments. Assessing the first two indicators—reservations and country reports—against the backdrop of Islamic legal traditions and international conceptions of human rights, this chapter bears the following questions in mind: Does membership of the CRC per se constitute active engagement with and ownership of its provisions on the part of Muslim states? If so, is there a discernible or potential paradigm shift in perspectives in this area as a result of this engagement with the CRC as evidenced through reservations, withdrawals of reservations, and country reports? And to what extent do children’s rights as set out in the CRC resonate with comparable conceptions within Islam’s plural legal traditions—especially in relation to freedom of religion, thought, conscience, and the adoption of children? The chapter will focus on two of the CRC articles most widely reserved by Muslim states—Articles 14 (freedom of thought, conscience, and religion and 21 (adoption). It argues that children’s rights are an evolving concept with changing content and connotations in classical Islamic law, in Muslim state practice, and in regional and international child rights instruments. Vague and fluid formulations of various aspects of children’s rights both in the CRC and in classical conceptions of the Islamic legal traditions make it a malleable concept that enables diverse cultures and traditions to implement it in their particular contexts.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced people to reimagine how they engage in spiritual and religious activities. This paper presents an analysis of the information practices of young Muslims during Ramadan, with a focus on their social, spiritual and COVID-related needs and strategies. Our qualitative approach entailed semi-structured interviews with 22 self-identified Muslims from across the Muslim spectrum. They were asked about their experiences with completing Ramadan under pandemic, including the nature of information accessed and shared as part of the fasting rituals.Analysis. Interviews were transcribed, and open coding was used to categorize the data into themes. The thematic analysis was conducted through an iterative process. Our findings pointed to the differing affective states of the young Muslims who observed the fast under COVID. Participants also hinted at the loss of communal practices and rituals and the emergence of new habits and coping strategies (many informational in nature). Social and emotional support were particularly critical to overcoming the challenges. This study contributes to a better understanding of the intersection between information activities and spiritual/religious practices. The findings also have theoretical and practical implications for the role of information and technology in times of crisis.

In this article, the author analyzes the religious practices of ethnic Muslims in modern Germany. The author used such methods as field ethnographic observation and informal interviews with informants. The scientific novelty of this study lies in the fact that for the first time in Russian historiography, the transformation of religious practices of ethnic Muslims living in Germany is considered on the basis of field material collected by the author. The main conclusions of the study are that, as a rule, fully integrated ethnic Muslims cease to observe religious practices or perform one of its elements. For example, they only observe fasting in the month of Ramadan or do not eat pork, some Muslim women may wear a headscarf for the sake of aesthetic appearance. В данной статье автор анализирует религиозные практики этнических мусульман в современной Германии. Автором использовались такие методы, как полевое этнографическое наблюдение и неформализованное интервью с информантами. Научная новизна данного исследования заключается в том, что впервые в отечественной историографии на полевом материале, собранном автором, рассматривается трансформация религиозных практик этнических мусульман, проживающих в Германии. Основными выводами проведенного исследования является то, что полностью интегрированные этнические мусульмане, как правило, перестают соблюдать религиозные практики либо выполняют один из ее элементов. Например, только соблюдают пост в месяц Рамадан или не употребляют в пищу свинину, некоторые мусульманки могут носить платок ради эстетического вида.

Abstract: the article examines the sociological aspects of Islam in post-Soviet Russia and one of its regions – Tatarstan. The author draws attention to a number of influential factors, without which it is impossible to adequately study the processes of post-Soviet reIslamization. The most significant are: regional differentiation of Muslim communities; the influence of Soviet modernization and state ideology of atheism on the state of Islamic theology and the transmission of religious norms and practice; the impact of globalization trends and glocalization on the identification and practices of Muslims. The combination in one sociocultural space of the local religious tradition and the patterns of Islamic globalization in close proximity to the secular community forms the situation of competition of identification projects, normative and ideological conflicts, both among spiritual leaders and inside the ummah itself. The new challenges of the post-secular world require a revision of the methodology for studying Muslim communities; rethinking the concept of “tradition” in the contexts of the local history of the Tatars in conditions of a multi-confessional Russian society and a global Islamic tradition. The research potential of constructivist approaches in sociology and identity theories in the study of Islam and Muslim communities is shown.

This article attempts to explain the similarities and differences between the religious beliefs and practices of young Jordanian and Palestinian women of Muslim and Christian background. It analyses the emerging patterns in the light of Bourdieu's ideas of ‘distinction’ and ‘habitus’, as well as Scott's notion of ‘hidden transcripts’ as aids to explain how differences between the religious communities are maintained despite the obvious similarities, and argues that the similarities found in the religious beliefs and practices of Muslim and Christian women (and men) are the result of a shared socio-cultural space as well as specific historical and political circumstances, their habitus. The past and current political circumstances require a public discourse of ‘unity’ and ‘harmony’. The differences that are regularly emphasized in day-to-day discourse are a specific feature of the minority situation in which Christians in the region find themselves. This is explained with reference to ‘hidden transcripts’ by a dominated group about those in a dominant position.

This article explores the transformation of the Prophet's ḥadīth from a fundamental religious text into a living discourse within culture and the practices of Muslims in the digital era. Technology and digital media have reshaped the understanding, dissemination, and integration of prophetic values into daily life. Using hermeneutic approaches, critical discourse analysis, and historical-comparative linguistics, this article examines how new methodologies in the social sciences and humanities provide deeper insights into these changes. Additionally, the article highlights the importance of considering both historical and contemporary shifts in the understanding of ḥadīth, including the impact of modernity and globalization. The analysis considers the role of scholars, institutions, and digital platforms in shaping new interpretations and applications of ḥadīth. The findings suggest that while traditional understandings of ḥadīth remain influential, there is an increasing openness to diverse interpretations that address contemporary issues and challenges faced by Muslim communities worldwide. The results indicate not only a growing openness to diverse interpretations but also reveal specific ways in which modernity and globalization have redefined traditional ḥadīth scholarship, influencing both the content and context of these interpretations.

L ocality arguably looms larger as an issue for Muslims than for followers of any other religion. Strictly tied to the Arabic language and the Arabian peninsula by a genealogical theory of religious practice, Muslims also conceive of their religion in highly universalistic terms. Christianity, especially in nonCatholic forms, has the universalism without the particularism-not even Catholics are obliged to make a pilgrimage to Rome; nobody learns Aramaic or Greek to be a good Christian. Judaism has the opposite combination of features, and Israeli Jews today find that this combination plagues their efforts to rethink what an Israeli nation can be. Neither Hinduism nor Buddhism is conceived of as ideally bringing all humans under one set of doctrines and institutions-a very different local/universal dynamic animates these faiths, one more oriented toward micro/macrocosmic relationships. Muslims' dual pull-toward practical and doctrinal universalism, toward the historical particulars of an Arabian revelation-leads to two complementary types of practice: struggles to define the universal qualities of the religious, and efforts to develop distinct identities, local by definition, with respect to these universal qualities. The first practice, the effort to sift the universal from the merely incidental, often turns on a kind of inventory of the religious status to be given diverse features of Arabian life. Are dates and white headgear by virtue of showing up in the Prophet Muhammad's life? They seem to be so, judging from the practices of Muslims, in particular during the fasting month of Ramadan. What does it mean to translate the Koran? In Indonesia, the idea of vernacular commentaries that did not even pretend to be translations was highly controversial in the early decades of this century, for in the eyes of some they endangered the uniqueness and inimitability of the Koran. These and other questions get to the bottom of Islamic religious theories, based as they are on the Prophet Muhammad's role as

This study discusses Waṣiyyah al-Muṣṭafa (WM) manuscript which contains the Prophet's will for Ali bin Abi Thalib. This manuscript is a single manuscript which written by Ahmad Thabibuddin using Sundanese. This manuscript obtained from people collection in Cianjur, West Java. The condition of the manuscript when it was found was quite good even though there were some damage such as torn, folded, and corrupt. This research used philology method, as for edition method of this research is standard edition. The purposes of this research is to produce text edition which is pure of written errors. So, it can be enjoyed by readers generally. In addition, this study aims to reveal the will of the Prophet to Ali bin Abi Thalib to become a daily lesson and practice of Muslims. Based on the results of the study, it can be concluded that this text consists opening section, contents section which includes 15 part, and closing section. Written errors only occurred in substitution and omission cases, the most cases occurred is substitution cases with percentage of 81.8%, while omission is only 18.1%, this shows the writing errors that occurred are mechanical and the author is not aware moreover intended to change it. The results showed that the Messenger of Allah willed about various aspects of life, both the scope of individuals such as honesty or social scope such as way in friends relationship. In addition, this will guides the relationship between humans and humans with their Lord.

One aspect that gets serious attention in study of classical fiqh siayasat, is importance of principle of morality in political theory and practice of Muslims as caliph of God on earth. Indeed aspect should be inherent moraliatas is paraktek theory of government and state and every country in world with no notice if country contains shades of secular government or based on a particular religion. Also by not see whether state uses term for head of state with term messages caliph, sultan, Malik, kings, and presidents). Urgency value of morality, because they lie in intrinsic value of human beings depraved. As a framework for implementing a practical rule, almost all literature moral paradigm provides a view of the nature of government before recognition, that God has chosen party of human groups as a ruler.

It would appear that the emergence of Islam into the consciousness of liberal democracies has largely been assimilated with notions of a displaced people and somewhat displaced beliefs, and it is not necessarily reconcilable with notions of freedom, tolerance and peaceful co-existence. There are, of course, a litany of atrocities, injustices and tragedies that perpetuate the schism between conceptions of a civilised world, as embodied in liberal societies, on the one hand, and what is considered to be a monolithic construction of a Muslim world, on the other. The focal point of this chapter—social and societal conflicts—is in many ways the climax of this book. The argument for an ethical enunciation of Muslim education only comes to bear, really, when juxtaposed against the realities of what some Muslims do, and, in turn, how Islam is being actualised, and, consequently, perceived and represented. Like the practices of Muslims and conceptions of Islam, social and societal conflicts are diverse, broad, limiting and yet all-encompassing. The list of dystopic declines and complexions are endless and so intricately intertwined that it becomes nearly impossible to dissect social and political calamities from economic or environmental ones. This chapter, therefore, will consider a range of dystopias currently afflicting modern understandings of ways of being and doing. It will also recognise the place of Muslims in a complex world of counter-poised discourses—both from those who are not Muslim and those who are, as well as liberal democracies and modern-day Muslim nation-states—it is our argument that since dystopias are local and global, and therefore affect all forms of civilisations, an ethical enunciation of Muslim education ought to be relevant and responsive to such dystopias.