Muslim City Research Articles

The khwarezmians in medieval arabic and persian manuscripts

The article examines the historical role of the Khwarezm people in the socio-political life of the Middle East countries of the 1330s and 1360s based on the Medieval Arabic and Persian manuscripts. It is known, the brave Jalal al-Din Mingburnu, the last Shah of the Khwarezmian dynasty, had already gathered a ten-thousand-strong army of the Khwarezmians outside of Khwarezm, and he was repeatedly engaged in the battle with the Mongols and won their invasion further to West into the Arab world. But he died in 1231, and his army roamed all over the Middle East, serving either the Seljuq empire sultans, or the Ayyubid princes in Syria (Sham) who entered into an internecine struggle for thecentral power in Syria and Egypt. The Khwarezmians helped the Ayyubids defeat the crusaders, liberate the Holy Muslim city of al-Quds and several fortress cities from them, and later they inflict a crushing overthrow the Mongols who entered the Arab lands. These important events are reflected in detail in the historical chronicles by al-Maqrizi, Ibn Iyas, al-Khanbali, as-Suyuti, Ibn Taghriberdi, al-Khamadani and many other historians of the Mamluk period of the 13–15th centuries, associated with the arrival of the Mamluk Turks in Egypt and Syria. These works repeatedly emphasize the crucial role of the Khwarezmians in the historical arena of the Middle East in the 1330-60th, when they were considered to be a formidable military force in the fateful battles for the peoples of this region. The authors of the Chronicles also pay great attention to certain historical figures, which they concede to be of Khwarezm origin, such as the Egyptian Sultana Shajarat ad-Dur and the Mamluk Sultan Sayf ad-din Qutuz. Qutuz, along with his emirs, including the Khwarezmians, won a crushing victory over the Mongols in the town of Ayn Jalut in 1260, and stopped their victorious march through the Arab world. The chronicles unanimously state that Qutuz's real name is Mahmood Ibn Mamdood and he comes from the Khwarezmshah dynasty, as he is the son of Jalal

DETERMINAN PREFERENSI MASYARAKAT MUSLIM DALAM MEMILIH HOTEL SYARIAH

This research tries to analyze the factors that determine the preferences of Medan's Muslim community towards the selection of sharia hotels. The method used in this research is quantitative by taking a sample of 100 people from the Muslim City community who stay at the Sharia Hotel chosen by the researcher. The method of data analysis uses multiple linear regression with the help of SPSS Version 21.0. From the results of research conducted showed that the partial variables are also simultaneous price, halal, facilities, interests and motivation towards the preferences of the Medan City Muslim community in the selection of sharia hotels. From these variables, the overnight stay of finance from the sharia hotel sector in Medan increased.

Urban Transformation of Muslim Spanish Cites after 1492: The Case Study of Baza, Granada (Spain); from a “Petrified” City to Its Great Expansions

Spanish Islamic cities stagnated or declined after 1492. Because of the expulsion of Jews and Moors, despite the repopulation policies, they seemed to “petrify” their size. The uninhabited houses and the suburbs disappeared. The extension and population of the main Muslim cities, Almeria, Seville, Toledo, Valencia, Zaragoza, tended to decrease. Murcia and Granada are two paradigmatic cases of evolution. In the kingdom of Granada, Baza was an important settlement at the end of Middle Ages. Urban transformations adapted it to Castilian policies: mosques were transformed into churches, squares and gates were opened, some streets widened, and so on. However, its size remained “petrified.” In the nineteenth century, there was a strong population growth cushioned by the phenomenon of “cave-house.” From mid-twentieth century, it had a strong expansion and growth regardless urban plans. Currently, the city, declared as Historic Site, has slowed down its growth, although its planning foresees it will keep growing.

Cultural Symbol dan Politik Identitas dalam Pembangunan Kota Sampit

This study aims to trace the cultural symbols and identity politics that occur in the city of Sampit. This is based on several important things that happened in Sampit. Sampit is a heterogeneous and multicultural city and at the same time there were riots between the Dayak and Madura tribes around 2000, which resulted in the emptying and rejection of Madurese residents. At least in the past two decades, Sampit has turned into a city that displays an identity as a Muslim city with the emergence of urban icons built by local elite leaders. It is interesting to track what exactly is behind the elite officials in the city of Sampit in building these identity symbols and how political symbol culture plays a role in the development of the city of Sampit. The analytical tool used in this study is functional sociology where the emphasis of this study is on actors who provide change in society. The results of this study indicate that several values obsess over Cultural Symbol actions in Sampit, including; First, religious values, one of which orientates the cultural symbol policy is that the Sampit community is moved to worship their Lord and minimize criminal acts that used to occur frequently, such as wild speeding, theft and obscene acts. Secondly, art values, symbols used such as the dome and calligraphy of Asmaul Husnaand calligraphy of Allah and Muhammad's writings are expressions of the architectural art values possessed by the Sampit regent which used to beautify the city of Sampit. Third, Political Interest, every policy carried out by an elite certainly cannot be separated from political interests, the Sampit regent is no exception, which in this case is to perpetuate his power, bearing in mind that the regent is in power for two periods untill 2020

The Vascos site: potential use of groundwater for water supply

The Muslim city of Vascos (Navalmoralejo, Toledo) was inhabited from the 9th to the11th centuries A.D. The reasons that justify its specific location are unknown, although the latest research considers this settlement to be a centre related to metallurgical work. The archaeological excavations carried out evidence a population greater than a thousand inhabitants. A city of such a magnitude must have had a water supply system, sufficient to meet the demand of the population, as well for derived secondary activities. Today some archaeological remains both inside and outside the city have been identified, which could be related to the original supply system. It is considered that the possibilities of water supply were complicated when the geological, hydrogeological and weather conditions are taken into account. This difficulty raises the hypothesis of a water supply and possibly of underground origin. After an analysis of the hydrogeological conditions of the environment, and in line with the identified remains, a possible supply system is proposed, characterized by the maximum use of available surface and underground water resources. This system combines waters of both origins, thus forming a truly integral system of resource management that arose as a result of a shortage of temporary water in the surroundings of the city of Vascos.

«DAILY ACCIDENTS OF DAMASCUS» BY AHMAD AL-BUDAIRI AND THE SERIES «URBAN STUDIES: PRIMARY SOURCES AND RESEARCH» AT ODESSA NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

This publication is a comprehensive review of the book «Daily Incidents of Damascus» by Ahmad al-Budayri, an Arabic author of the XVIII century.Text refers to the widespread genre of Arab-Muslim literature «hawadis» - daily incidents. A translation of this work with extensive commentaries and a analytic preface made by a scholar F.O. Nofal opens the book series “Urban Studies: Primary Sources and Studies” at the Odessa I. I. Mechnikov National University. In this regard, it is made an attempt to connect the urban issues of the unassuming story of a simple barber of the XVIII century with contemporary problems of urban studies as an interdisciplinary field of scientific research and practice.Background. The Faculty of Philosophy has a long tradition of investigation of the city phenomenon as part of various scientific projects, for example “Academic Jewish Studies” with Hebrew University in Jerusalem(the first issue of series “Jewish Studies in Odessa”is published under the title “Mom of the Cities of Israel ...”, international scientific seminar “Strategies for working with otherness. Regional Judaica in Odessa”). All these projects are somehow related to the theoretical and practical problems of urban studies. In addition, the “Philosophical Oriental Studies” series has recently been established in Odessa National University. And the first book in this series became a monograph of Faris Nofal “The category of “faith” in classical Islamic theology. Historical and philosophical essays” (2016). Thus, the necessary background was created for a synthetic contemplation of the problems of urban and oriental studies.Objectives. The purpose of this publication is to show the heuristic possibilities of the synthesis of modern urban and oriental studies using an example of the book «Daily Incidents of Damascus» by Ahmad al-Budayri, that was first translated from Arabic and has became available to Ukrainian and Russian philosophy and Humanities.Methods. We consider that the most fruitful areas of modern re-reading of «Daily Incidentsof Damascus» in the light of urbanism are the theoretical and methodological trends studies of everyday life in cities, “biography of the city”, “own logic of cities”,urban discourse, urban anthropology.Research. Based on the published text, it is difficult to get an idea of an integral and coherent picture of the life of the Middle Eastern city. Al-Budairi writes his story without looking back at the canon and the metropolitan example. This is his own biography, derived from the background of urban routine. A small ordinary man who does not identify himself with either the Caliphate or the Ottoman Empire dissolves in everyday life and puts forward his view of the events in which his city participates. He constantly criticizes power and appeals to the will of Allah. In this case, according to the translator and the author of the preface, we are dealing with the product of a “new Arab consciousness” and an example of a new urban “philosophy”.Conclusion. The published text of the chronicler al-Budairi allows us to look at the city with different eyes. The Havadis genre, updated by the author of “Everyday Incidents…”, is the result of a turn to habits and everyday life, to natural world-experience, and pre-reflexive knowledge. No less valuable is the fact that it allows you to plunge into the atmosphere of a traditional Muslim city, while usually urbanism takes as a model a modern western city. Thus, there is every reason to consider such a synthesis of traditional oriental studies and the modern t urbanism of the XXI century relevant and promising for the development of the philosophical and interdisciplinary urban studies.

Agency, Identity and Ecumenicalism in the American Missionary Schools of Tripoli, Lebanon

ABSTRACTWhen the American Protestant Mission in Syria entered the educational arena of nineteenth-century Tripoli, its administrators founded long-lasting educational institutions primarily for the purpose of converting souls to Protestant Christianity. Secondarily, missionaries sought to impose ideas of gender and class on their students. Through previously unexamined memoirs, school records, and missionary writings, this article offers a microhistorical analysis of the Tripoli Girls' School (est. 1873) and the Tripoli Boys' Boarding School (est. 1904). This study begins by situating the schools within the broader context of an increasingly peripheralized and predominantly Sunni Muslim city, showing that the geographical, social, and educational environment of Tripoli shaped and was shaped by the boarding schools. It explores two trends within the Tripoli schools, namely, the ‘professionalization’ of female students, and the reification of class divisions, as Tripoli was integrated into a system of global capitalism. Finally, it moves beyond narratives of ‘secularization’ and argues that students played a significant role in shifting the emphasis of missionary education away from religious conversion to an educational model of interreligious cooperation that saw Muslims and Christians as partners in a syncretic endeavour.

Profile of Mahzarin R. Banaji

Harvard University experimental social psychologist Mahzarin Banaji is on the frontlines of the “implicit revolution,” a paradigm shift in psychology that, since the 1980s, has been reconceiving the relationship between unconscious and conscious mental processes. Banaji and her colleague Anthony Greenwald applied the concept to social psychology via the intertwined concepts of attitude, belief, and identity. In 1995, the duo defined implicit social cognition, introduced the term “implicit bias,” and foreshadowed the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to detect and measure automatic, unintentional biases. The IAT and other methods have enabled Banaji and her colleagues to uncover hidden biases in the form of attitudes and beliefs (stereotypes) of gender, race/ethnicity, age, sexuality, and other common social group identifiers. Elected in 2018 to the National Academy of Sciences, Banaji reports evidence in her Inaugural Article (IA) suggesting that implicit beliefs and attitudes are inextricably linked due to shared evaluative content. Photograph of Mahzarin Banaji. Image courtesy of Robert Taylor (photographer). Banaji was raised Zoroastrian in the Hindu and Muslim cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, India. “My family and I remained largely within the borders of a small and homogenous Parsi community, while voraciously learning about the world through the printed page,” she says. Her father Rustom shared his love of the arts with his children, but the scientist in Banaji was equally captivated by the inner workings of toys and mechanical objects. She says, “It seemed obvious that whatever was inside and hidden from view was infinitely more fascinating than whatever was outside and accessible.” Her mother Coomi was a teacher who, with Banaji’s aunt, opened a small school in their home. To keep her precocious daughter from getting bored, Coomi recruited five-year-old Banaji to mentor younger students. This continued until Banaji entered St. Ann’s, a local parochial school. Years later, after …

Jonathan Sciarcon. Educational Oases in the Desert: The Alliance Israélite Universelle's Girls’ Schools in Ottoman Iraq, 1895–1915. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2017. 226 pp.

Reviewed by: Educational Oases in the Desert: The Alliance Israélite Universelle's Girls' Schools in Ottoman Iraq, 1895–1915 by Jonathan Sciarcon Isabelle Headrick Jonathan Sciarcon. Educational Oases in the Desert: The Alliance Israélite Universelle's Girls' Schools in Ottoman Iraq, 1895–1915. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2017. 226 pp. doi:10.1017/S0364009419000291 In Educational Oases in the Desert, Jonathan Sciarcon provides an engaging microhistorical treatment of the establishment and twenty-year operation of a school for Jewish girls in Ottoman Baghdad at the turn of the twentieth century. In doing so, he adds depth and texture to our understanding of the modernizing transformation in education that took place on a global scale between 1890 and 1930. This movement was intimately connected to state modernization, and it involved many actors, including local government officials; states engaged in building their administrative infrastructure; Christian missionaries; and transnational organizations, such as the Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU), that supported communities of religious minorities. The education of girls was one of the critical components of this modernizing project. It was also, particularly in the case of the AIU, deeply connected to the processes of the professionalization of women and integration of minorities. Founded in 1860 by French Jews in response to concerns about antisemitism in Muslim-majority and eastern European countries, the Alliance Israélite [End Page 239] Universelle was also an expression of a new and growing feeling of solidarité with Jews outside of western Europe. Its mission was to improve the economic situation of Jews through education, specifically secularized education that included academic subjects such as mathematics, history, and language (usually French and the local language, such as Arabic or Turkish), as well as vocational training. Sciarcon argues that educating girls was seen as a critical step in molding the modern woman, who would in turn socialize her own husband and children. In this the Alliance resembled Protestant missionary organizations that "viewed women as key agents in the quest to transform indigenous societies" (xx). Sciarcon organizes Educational Oases in the Desert chronologically around the tenure of each of the female school directors. This approach serves well, particularly over such a short time span, to underscore the connection between the directors' personal experiences and different phases of institution building. The introduction and first chapter situate the 1895 establishment of the first girls' school in the debates concerning female education over the previous thirty years. Baghdad provides an interesting case study. In contrast to many other predominantly Muslim cities, Jews were far from a small minority—in fact they constituted one-third of the city's population. (There were far more Jews in Baghdad than in all of Iran, for example.) Baghdadi Jews, particularly among the upper classes, had generated their own homegrown interest in Haskalah, or Jewish Enlightenment, and therefore eagerly embraced secularized education. Additionally, the Ottoman Empire provided a friendly environment for such endeavors. Having begun its own modernizing secular education project in the 1820s, it was generally extremely receptive to the establishment of Alliance schools, which were viewed as providing a high-quality education not just to Jews but to Muslims as well, without proselytizing. In the first chapter, Sciarcon introduces the reader to the AIU's Baghdad girls' school's first director, Rachel Danon, whose husband Joseph served as the boys' school director at the time. Inexperienced, young, and French—in this way representative of both male and female directors—Danon nonetheless undertook the difficult tasks of locating a suitable physical space, hiring teachers, ordering teaching materials, and establishing policies concerning tuition payments. Here, as in other chapters, Sciarcon's microhistorical approach and detailed attention to Danon's letters to the AIU's Paris headquarters pay off. The struggles of each AIU school director, whether female or male, were both unique to the specific landscape and shared commonalities with their colleagues' experiences. Therefore, the work of recuperating individual narratives provides a vibrant illustration of the local social and communal landscapes. Sciarcon emphasizes the self-appointed modernizing role that turn-of-the-century Alliance female school directors played vis-à-vis their female students. Like her female Christian missionary counterparts, Danon sought to model a new...

Educational Oases in the Desert: The Alliance Israélite Universelle's Girls' Schools in Ottoman Iraq, 1895–1915 by Jonathan Sciarcon

Reviewed by: Educational Oases in the Desert: The Alliance Israélite Universelle's Girls' Schools in Ottoman Iraq, 1895–1915 by Jonathan Sciarcon Isabelle Headrick Jonathan Sciarcon. Educational Oases in the Desert: The Alliance Israélite Universelle's Girls' Schools in Ottoman Iraq, 1895–1915. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2017. 226 pp. doi:10.1017/S0364009419000291 In Educational Oases in the Desert, Jonathan Sciarcon provides an engaging microhistorical treatment of the establishment and twenty-year operation of a school for Jewish girls in Ottoman Baghdad at the turn of the twentieth century. In doing so, he adds depth and texture to our understanding of the modernizing transformation in education that took place on a global scale between 1890 and 1930. This movement was intimately connected to state modernization, and it involved many actors, including local government officials; states engaged in building their administrative infrastructure; Christian missionaries; and transnational organizations, such as the Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU), that supported communities of religious minorities. The education of girls was one of the critical components of this modernizing project. It was also, particularly in the case of the AIU, deeply connected to the processes of the professionalization of women and integration of minorities. Founded in 1860 by French Jews in response to concerns about antisemitism in Muslim-majority and eastern European countries, the Alliance Israélite [End Page 239] Universelle was also an expression of a new and growing feeling of solidarité with Jews outside of western Europe. Its mission was to improve the economic situation of Jews through education, specifically secularized education that included academic subjects such as mathematics, history, and language (usually French and the local language, such as Arabic or Turkish), as well as vocational training. Sciarcon argues that educating girls was seen as a critical step in molding the modern woman, who would in turn socialize her own husband and children. In this the Alliance resembled Protestant missionary organizations that "viewed women as key agents in the quest to transform indigenous societies" (xx). Sciarcon organizes Educational Oases in the Desert chronologically around the tenure of each of the female school directors. This approach serves well, particularly over such a short time span, to underscore the connection between the directors' personal experiences and different phases of institution building. The introduction and first chapter situate the 1895 establishment of the first girls' school in the debates concerning female education over the previous thirty years. Baghdad provides an interesting case study. In contrast to many other predominantly Muslim cities, Jews were far from a small minority—in fact they constituted one-third of the city's population. (There were far more Jews in Baghdad than in all of Iran, for example.) Baghdadi Jews, particularly among the upper classes, had generated their own homegrown interest in Haskalah, or Jewish Enlightenment, and therefore eagerly embraced secularized education. Additionally, the Ottoman Empire provided a friendly environment for such endeavors. Having begun its own modernizing secular education project in the 1820s, it was generally extremely receptive to the establishment of Alliance schools, which were viewed as providing a high-quality education not just to Jews but to Muslims as well, without proselytizing. In the first chapter, Sciarcon introduces the reader to the AIU's Baghdad girls' school's first director, Rachel Danon, whose husband Joseph served as the boys' school director at the time. Inexperienced, young, and French—in this way representative of both male and female directors—Danon nonetheless undertook the difficult tasks of locating a suitable physical space, hiring teachers, ordering teaching materials, and establishing policies concerning tuition payments. Here, as in other chapters, Sciarcon's microhistorical approach and detailed attention to Danon's letters to the AIU's Paris headquarters pay off. The struggles of each AIU school director, whether female or male, were both unique to the specific landscape and shared commonalities with their colleagues' experiences. Therefore, the work of recuperating individual narratives provides a vibrant illustration of the local social and communal landscapes. Sciarcon emphasizes the self-appointed modernizing role that turn-of-the-century Alliance female school directors played vis-à-vis their female students. Like her female Christian missionary counterparts, Danon sought to model a new...

Ephemeral space sanctification and trespassing gender boundaries in a Muslim city

A distinct feature of Muslim cities is demarcated separation between zones of public economic and private domestic activities. Such spatial distinction has been the organic extension of a social st ...

WARAK NGENDOG DALAM TRADISI DUGDERAN SEBAGAI REPRESENTASI IDENTITAS MUSLIM URBAN DI KOTA SEMARANG

This research aims to explore how Warak Ngendog in the Dugderan tradition represents the identity of urban Muslim communities in the city of Semarang. This research also aims to expose the strength of the city's Muslim culture that has been maintained to this day. This study uses an identity theory approach by Peter J. Burke and Homi K. Bhabha about Hybrid culture, and several other extraordinary theories as supporting theories. This research uses a qualitative descriptive approach with the support of substantive information from archives and interviews with related figures. The results of this study emphasize that the dynamics of the religiosity of urban Muslim communities in Semarang City shape urban Muslim identity. Acculturation of the traditional culture of Javanese, Arab, and Chinese Muslims symbolizes the new religious and cultural rites as an inseparable part of the urban Muslim identity of Semarang City because there are social interactions in their involvement in religious rituals, traditions and culture.

Killing Images: Iconoclasm and the Art of Political Insult in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Portuguese India

The article builds on a succession of visually disturbing events that occurred in Goa—the capital city of Portuguese India—during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. From the early years of the Portuguese conquest (1510), Goa went through a redefinition of its urban space, which implied the appropriation and re-semantization of buildings and other key sites of the old Muslim city. This process included the spread of images and symbols related to several Portuguese viceroys, soon-to-be targets of acts of political insult and even political iconoclasm performed by their Portuguese opponents in a context of growing factionalism. We speak namely of episodes of protest against places of memory associated to different clans, encompassing statues (both official and bogus), textual inscriptions, and viceroys’ portraits. These were European phenomena to a large extent, but coloured by significant local and native elements. The article engages with a grid of questions that places real statues, satirical effigies, and erased faces (and the diverse reactions they have aroused) in dialogue with current debates on popular politics; high and low vis-à-vis the colonial social fabric; the uses of public space; verbal, written, and visual insult; political languages; and disputed authority in an imperial setting.

Residing Tradition of Muslim Community in Java Northern Coastal

The development of globalization has been encouraged social changing of the city. The less social behaviour occured in the daily of urban community and has became a preferred life style. This situation will be a seriouse threat for the urban social life. A good city should be able to create many places for its people, that could make people feel comford and feel like home to live inside. A place expresses its local culture has potential to be a local identity. Locatity is an imporant point that is needed by a nation to attrach roles in globalization era. The characteristic of muslim city is a place to muslim community live in that do the Idlamic shariah well. Since in the 11’th century the region of north coast of Java has been known as an entrance gate of Islam teaching in Indonesia. The region of Demak and Kudus are the old city which are saving many artefact and tradition of living of muslim community. Kauman is an important place related to this case. The purpose of this paper is to describe the phenomena of Muslim residence present in Demak and Kudus, using descriptive qualitative methods. The result is that the existence of Muslim residence in this region occured because of the strong support of coastal economic. There is a considerable difference between the Muslim residence in Demak and in Kudus. The Muslim residence in Demak develops with the character of hierarchical, dependent society; while in Kudus develops an egalitarian and independent character of residence. In Kudus known the social kinship of 'Gusjigang', while in Demak emerged the Kasepuhan & Notobratan kinship which was the heir of Sunan Kalijaga. The characteristic of the two Muslim cities on the north coast of Java shows the uniqueness of Muslim cities that are not found in other areas.

Horse Archetype and Its Relationship with Hero Patterns on Luster Pottery in the Seljuk

<p><em>Horse with the hero archetype are the most common mythological motif. In Jung’s opinion, archetypes are collective unconscious contents which potentially exist in the human’s mind; therefore, myth is not limited to the time and space. The pattern of horse and horseman was used on pottery and in wall paintings, paintings and drawings throughout the history. This kind of pattern is observed frequently on different artworks of the Seljuk Period (Eleventh and twelfth centuries AD). During the 10th century, due to various events, the Oghuz had come into close contact with Muslim cities. Seljuk Turks had a strong interaction with the nature. They fought with their neighbors to find suitable permanent pastures; so, war and hunting were their favorite works and subjects. One of the artworks on which these patterns were frequently used was golden shades and enamel pottery in the Seljuk Period. Pottery in this period is important in terms of its qualitative and quantitative value. In this article, first we address Jung’s opinions about the hero and horse pattern as an archetype; then, by introducing some samples of golden shades pottery with the pattern of horse and horseman, we will discuss the concept which the Seljuk society had understood.</em></p>

Illness and the Hospital in the Muslim City: Reflections on the Pietistic Space of Illness in Premodern Islam

Illness and the Hospital in the Muslim City: Reflections on the Pietistic Space of Illness in Premodern Islam

The Manifestation of Real Norms and Ideal Norms among Muslims in Hamtramck

AbstractThis research aims at explaining life of and religious norms conformed by Muslims in Hamtramck, a predominantly Muslim city in Wayne County of the U.S. state of Michigan. More specifically, through this paper the writer tries to explain and analyze the norms conformed by Muslims in Hamtramck from a socio-cultural perspective. Based on the data the writer sees the existence of two forms of norms conformed by Muslims in their daily life in Hamtramck. Later, these norms are called ideal norms and real norms. In this research, the data is collected by using library study method. The data on the portrait of Muslims’ socio-cultural life in Hamtramck is obtained from newspaper articles and some video coverages. Furthermore, the data is processed and interpreted by using the theory that has been selected by the writer. The research suggests that the socio-cultural interaction of Muslims in Hamtramck is mostly based on the real norms while the ideal norms are conformed mostly in the context of religious rituals.Keywords: Manifestation; Ideal Norms; Real Norms; Muslims; Hamtramck.

Bankarization in the first European cities with an equal number of Muslim and Christian inhabitants

PurposeThis paper aims to analyze the situation of the financial system in the Spanish-governed cities of Melilla and Ceuta, Christian and Muslim cities located on the north coast of Africa, and compared it with the mean bankarization level in the rest of Spain in 2000-2015.Design/methodology/approachAlthough different calculation methods have been proposed, most authors agree that the bankarization level of a country or a territory reflects the development of the society as a whole and has a positive correlation with economic growth. The indicators of financial depth proposed by these researchers are not only the ratio between variables such as loans, deposits, etc., but also the ratios of these variables to the population and the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country or territory.FindingsThe results obtained revealed that there are differences between these two North African Spanish cities. Furthermore, the financing gap between the mean bankarization levels of these cities and those of mainland Spain was found to be even larger than most of the other economic indicators (GDP per capita and the unemployment rate).Practical implicationsThe authors are convinced that the manuscript is a contribution of great interest for serving pilot experience in cities wishing to offer a development of traditional banking and Islamic banking. The paper should be of interest to readers in the areas of finance systems and commercial banks where two different cultures coexist.Originality/valueThis is the first research study on the financial framework of European cities whose populations have an approximately equal percentage of Christians and Muslims. The data reflected the existence of savings and loan methods parallel to conventional banking. The conclusion was that in the near future, it would be advisable for European banks to take into account the cultural customs and religious practices of potential Muslim clients.

New histories of education in South Africa: Authors' reflections on Schooling Muslims in Natal

New histories of education in South Africa:Authors' reflections on Schooling Muslims in Natal Thembisa Waetjen (bio) and Goolam Vahed (bio) A few weeks after Schooling Muslims came into print in July 2015, a local Durban newspaper announced its publication and reproduced a selection from the text in its pages. That section was drawn from our conclusion, which briefly considers twenty-first century transformations and developments. Among other significant changes, we drew attention to shifting urban social geographies and noted that Durban's mosques and madrassas, established over a 100 years ago by the city's Muslim 'founding fathers', now provided religious sustenance for new immigrant diasporas and new converts to Islam. Our point was to indicate the continued vibrancy of Islamic spaces in a port city that has nurtured transoceanic community-formation despite formal exclusions through colonial, segregationist and apartheid strategies of division. While pleased for press attention, we were distressed by the article's headline: 'Today Mainly Migrants Worship at Urban Mosques'.1 Our concerns were related to the climate of xenophobic tensions and lethal violence – reminiscent of the horrors of 2008 – that, in April of 2015, compelled many immigrants to leave the Durban city centre and set up camps of refuge on its outskirts. Against these realities, the headline not only failed to reflect our point but also appeared to lay open a possibly dangerous misreading. We thus, here, wish to reflect further on the current relevance of the story we tell in this book. Xenophobia and racism have dogged 'Indians' from the late nineteenth century, when colonial policy in Natal amalgamated [End Page 66] South Asian migrants of diverse religious, cultural, linguistic, class and caste origin into a 'population group', later incorporated into apartheid classifications. Such race ideology continues to be affirmed as normative in ongoing public debates about whether 'Indians benefited from apartheid',2 or in calls by fringe groups for Indian South Africans to 'go home'.3 Accusatory declarations about 'Indian' educational privilege have also threaded through recent university student protests, the #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall movements. Reflected in quotas, and in other race-based university admissions policies, is the idea of the relative advantage possessed by South Africans of Indian ancestry, when compared with students subjected to the horrifying legacies of Bantu Education. Yet cries of 'privilege' and 'benefit' are ahistorical and lack explanation. They are at best expressions of frustration about persistent social inequalities and, at worst, politically expedient claim-making that pushes a new, exclusive identity politics. They cannot tell us how social inequalities were historically created nor through what structural or ideological engines they continue to be reproduced and maintained. Schooling Muslims provides an important backstory in this regard. Education is a significant driver of social mobility but also of class entrenchment. Understanding education history in South Africa can potentially establish grounds for a more effective and unified strategy of educational – and social – change. That the reviews in this forum are notably generous and collegial does not (we are aware) reflect on our work as being without many elements that deserve criticism and debate. It rather highlights the extent to which researchers who share an interest in histories of schooling are passionately united in the recognition of how very much this past matters for understanding the present educational predicaments and for shaping South Africa's future. If it were merely that this history confirmed the current and prominent discourse that works to establish 'degrees of victimhood' under apartheid, there would be little more to say. Indeed, what is evident from public debates about 'Indian privilege' is how much of a trap group-think and the comparisons it invites can be. Accusation breeds defense and invites a chronicling of the hardships and depravations underpinning the Indian South African experience as a means to demonstrate belonging and entitlement to civic recognition.4 Such arguments reinforce a conception of apartheid oppression mechanistically, as strata of suffering, rather than [End Page 67] a political and economic system built through uneven and changing relationships and out of diverse social fields. Histories of education are particularly valuable for revealing formations of power across generations of change and the structures and actors, ideas and forces, that produce and...

Help seeking in school by Israeli Arab minority adolescents with emotional and behavioral problems: results from the Galilee Study.

BackgroundMany distressed minority adolescents with little access to professional mental health services use teachers and school counselors as their main consultation sources. This paper presents data from the Galilee study on factors that may increase the probability of adolescents’ help-seeking in school and discusses the needed linkage between the school mental health services and those provided by other agencies, in the framework of the Mental Health Reform in Israel.MethodsThis cross-sectional survey included 1639, 9th grade students living in 5 Arab localities in the Galilee in northern Israel, representative of the Muslim and Druze populations. The study was carried out in two stages: in the screening stage, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) was completed in the classroom. During the follow-up stage 704 students were selected and interviewed at home regarding service use in school and wellbeing at home. Their mothers were interviewed as well providing information on sociodemographic traits of the family. Total response rate was 69.3 % during the screening stage and 84.4 % during the follow-up. Students were categorized according to their SDQ scores and all students in the higher 25th percentile (high risk) and a simple systematic sample without replacement of those in the lower 75 % (low risk) were included in the follow-up study.ResultsSignificantly more high risk than low risk students reported having felt the need to seek professional help (14.0 and 6.5 % respectively) and more high risk than low risk consulted a school source (27.1 and 15.2 %, respectively). Bivariate analyses show that among Muslim adolescents more high risk than low risk consulted a school source (30 vs. 16.2 % respectively) and among high risk students more Muslim than Druze sought help from a school source (30 vs. 18 %). Higher consultation rates were found among adolescents who felt uncomfortable at home, than among those who felt very comfortable. Binary logistic regression showed that for high risk adolescents, only religion remained significantly associated with help-seeking in school: Muslim students were 2 times more likely to seek help than Druze students. In the low-risk group, students who do not feel comfortable at home were 3.3 times more likely to seek help than those who feel comfortable at home. The main sources of consultation for both risk groups were the school counselor and the grade teacher.ConclusionsA constellation of factors may be associated with help-seeking in school by minority Israeli Arab adolescents: they are students at higher risk for an emotional or behavioral disorder, they have more socio-economic hardship, they feel less comfortable at home and they are more likely to live in the larger Muslim cities. Adolescents with less family support and particularly those not classified as being at high risk, are more likely to seek help from school counselors and teachers. The school staff may need additional training to care for the mental health needs of students. There is a need to integrate the school mental health services with the other government agencies that provide services to children and adolescents.