Diversity Of Islam Research Articles

Muslims and European citizenship

Over the centuries, there have been far-reaching differences in how Islam has been practised and how the Qur'an and the holy scriptures have been read and interpreted by believers. Professor Platti challenges Muslims to explore the diversity of Islam, in order for the Muslim community to become a fully integrated part of European society.

Review of R. Michael Feener, Islam in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives

Islam in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives, edited by R. Michael Feener, walks a careful line between a generalized study of world Islam and specific analysis of Islam in unique geopolitical settings. This is both its shortcoming and its success, and raises the thorny philosophical problem of how to conduct comparative religion, a question addressed by the editor in the introductory essay but largely ignored in subsequent chapters except to remark that Islam manifests itself differently from country to country. The challenges for such a text are twofold. First, how to account for the vast diversity of Islam as a faith tradition in the contemporary world; and second, if contemporary Islam is best understood through a comparative intrareligious analysis, what does this say about any effort to engage in interreligious comparison? The first challenge – of providing an adequate account of the complexities of world Islam – is gallantly if unevenly attempted. The chapters of the text are divided into geographical areas and written by various scholars expert in each region. The diversity of voices also contributes to a diversity of quality: the Central Asia chapter evocatively accounts for both the history and lived reality of Islam in the former Soviet states, while the chapter on South Asia blandly offers a list of important figures in Asian Muslim history while confining the ethnographic details of Muslim life to an account of political turmoil in Pakistan. More problematic is the selection of regions. The scope of the text is truly global, but its omissions are glaring: no account of Islam in Western or Eastern Europe; the SOPHIA (2007) 46:317–319 DOI 10.1007/s11841-007-0040-5

Cultural Diversity and Islam

As a compilation of papers presented at an international conference (1998)on “Cultural Diversity and Islam” at American University in Washington,DC, this volume brings together the contributions of a wide array of scholars.It has four sections and twelve chapters dealing with diversity and/orpluralism in relation to Islam.The first section, “Cultural Diversity in Civilizational Perspective,”provides a macro (and at times comparative) perspective on Islam anddiversity. In chapter 1, the editors prepare the ground for discussion by providingsome definitions, potential questions, and chapter summaries. Theyalso explain why they prefer the concept of diversity over pluralism.In chapter 2, Seyyed Hossein Nasr discusses what he calls “a theoreticaland practical dilemma” in Islam: unity vs. diversity. Entitled“Unity and Diversity in Islam and Islamic Civilization,” this chaptermakes general statements about the nature of diversity in Islam and howunity and uniformity differ. Nasr argues that “Islam’s refusal to reducethis unity-in-diversity to mere uniformity, far from weakening the faith,has been a major cause of its strength through the ages” (p. 33). Tounderstand more fully how Islam created a unitary civilization that hasthrived on diversity, he looks at different cultural zones within Islam.The issue of Islam and diversity is often discussed in reference to theassertion of Islam’s compatibility with democracy as well as the challengesproduced by globalization, which brought Islam into closer contactwith western and other cultures. It is uncommon for scholars addressingsuch issues to raise the question of power.Sulayman S. Nyang’s excellent article in chapter 3 brings the issueof power into the equation. Looking at what he calls the factors and ...

Islam in the digital age: e-jihad, online fatwas and cyber Islamic environments

Glossary 1 Introduction 2 'The Digital Sword'? and Defining 'E-Jihad' 3 Hacktivism, Hacking and Cracking in the Name of Islam 4 Cyber Islamic Reactions to 9-11: Mujahideen in Cyberspace 5 Cyber Islamic Reactions to 9-11: The 'Inter-fada' and Global E-jihad 6 Cyber-Islamic reactions to 9-11: Jihad for Peace 7 Islamic Decision Making and Advice Online 8 Sunni Religious Authority on the Internet I: Muslim Majority Contexts 9 Sunni Religious Authority on the Internet II: Muslim Minority Contexts 10 The Online Mujtahid: Islamic Diversity And Authority Online 11 Islam in the Digital Age 12 Bibliography Index