Muslim Context Research Articles

Rethinking contemporary schooling in Muslim contexts: An Islamic conceptual framework for reconstructing K-12 education

This paper presents a conceptual framework drawn from philosophies of education underpinned by an Islamic worldview. The framework offers an interconnecting network of Islamic educational concepts that can be used by contemporary educators in Muslim contexts think through how they might reconstruct preK-12 education in a more authentic and culturally coherent manner for their communities. This work of reconstruction and renewal is needed to decolonise schooling in Muslim contexts and offers scope for intercultural pedagogical discourse amongst philosophers of education.

Generation Z's Trust in Mainstream Media and Social Media in Indonesia and Lebanon

This study investigates Generation Z's trust in mainstream and social media in Indonesia and Lebanon. Using a descriptive research design and survey method, data were collected from 114 respondents through Google Forms in April 2022, including students from Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Ampel (UINSA) Surabaya and participants from @iCademy in Lebanon. The research explores the critical role of mainstream media in modern information dissemination and social media as a powerful communication tool. The results indicate that while social media is widely used, mainstream media maintains credibility due to its verified information. The findings emphasize the importance of reliable information sources for Generation Z, especially in predominantly Muslim contexts where ethical standards and factual accuracy are crucial. These findings suggest that media organizations must uphold high journalistic standards to retain the trust of young audiences.

Can religion motivate people to blow the whistle?

While major religions espouse moral values encouraging prosocial behavior, the empirical evidence supporting the effectiveness of religious influence on such behavior, as proposed by the religious pro-sociality hypothesis, remains inconclusive. To explore this further, we conducted two studies to test this hypothesis in Pakistan, a Muslim-majority Asian nation, focusing on whistleblowing as a prosocial behavior. The first study gathered cross-sectional data from 323 undergraduate business students in Karachi, Pakistan, utilizing hypothetical scenarios of academic cheating and bank embezzlement. Participants completed a scenario-based questionnaire assessing intrinsic religiosity, personality traits, and whistleblowing intentions. Measures were adapted for the Muslim context, with intrinsic religiosity assessed using the Age Universal Intrinsic-Extrinsic (AUIE) scale and personality traits measured using the Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) scale. Regression analysis of these data revealed that while intrinsic religiosity significantly predicted whistleblowing intentions in the academic cheating scenario, it did not do so in the bank embezzlement scenario. Furthermore, multiple regression modeling to test moderating effects of personality traits did not yield significant results for either scenario. The second study employed an experimental design to observe actual whistleblowing behavior among 85 undergraduate business students in Karachi, Pakistan. Participants were randomly assigned to either a religious or a neutral condition, aiming to assess the impact of intrinsic religiosity on whistleblowing behavior. The experiment used a cover story which involved a confederate cheating during an intelligence quotient (IQ) test. The purpose of this design was to examine whether the participant, acting as the sole witness to wrongdoing, would intervene and blow the whistle. Data analysis using logistic regression indicated that intrinsic religiosity did not significantly predict whistleblowing behavior across both the experimental and control conditions. These contrasting results highlight the complexity of whistleblowing, emphasizing its subjective nature and the influence of social dynamics on behavior.

An Overview of Resources on the Family in the American Muslim Context

An Overview of Resources on the Family in the American Muslim Context

Interdisciplinary Approach to Overcoming the Persistence of Patriarchal Islamic Interpretations: Gender Equality, the Development of Empathy and Children’s Rights, and Insights from the Reformist Eurasian Scholars of Early Twentieth Century

Abstract Gender equality and women’s rights are among the most discussed issues in the context of Islam. Any thorough analysis of the persistence of conservative patriarchal religious interpretations in Muslim communities should also consider social factors. The conservative appropriation of Islam is not only the result of theological factors but also a manifestation of a conservative and patriarchal habitus. This article draws attention to the vitality of empathy in establishing universal equal human dignity. It dwells on the idea of the universal innate nature of the child to offer some solutions to overcome the persistence of conservative religious interpretations and develop gender equality in the Muslim context. Also, the reformist views of the Jadids and Alash intellectuals, the Eurasian Muslim reformists of the early twentieth century, are analyzed as authentic historical and conceptual precedents to develop gender-egalitarian Islamic interpretations. Overall, this article establishes a connection between women’s rights in Islam, the universal innate nature of the child (and the universality of children’s right-friendly parenting and education that fosters empathy and critical thinking), and the intellectual legacy of the Jadids and Alash intellectuals, who wanted to transform the conservative and patriarchal habitus through educational reform, literary works, and a rationalistic, thematico-holistic approach to Islam.

Ritual “khatym-ash”: spetsifika lokalnogo islamskogo konteksta Tyumenskoy oblasti

A home prayer meeting accompanied by Quran reading and a meal (Khatam-ash) is a crucial part of the local Muslim context among the Tatars in Tyumen Region who profess the Islamic faith. This article is based on the field research materials collected in the south of the region in 2011–2021. It aims to describe the common and specific features of how the ritual is performed and understood in different settlements. I applied unstructured observation and interviews with a flexible questionnaire to collect the materials. The prayer meetings under consideration share stable and frequently recurring occasions (commemoration of deceased relatives, the birth of a child, nearest and dearest being ill, change in social status, big-budget purchase), scenario elements (voicing the occasion, recitation of the Quran, prayer requests, almsgiving, a collective meal), and meanings (care for the dead in the supersensible world, Allah’s support in the sensible world). At the same time, the ceremonies are not the same combination of rituals, identically reproduced in different places. The denomination of the ritual may differ depending on the occasion. The place, the time, and the person who conducts it also hold meaning. The participants and the doer of the ritual may differently perceive and explain the meaning of Khatam-ash.

Adapting Religious Orientation Scales for Muslim Contexts: theoretical review

Even though the scale of religious orientation has a long history of development, it has not yet entered scientific circulation on the territory of modern Kazakhstan. In particular, no special research tests on the Intrinsic and Extrinsic and, Quest scale were carried out on the territory of the country. After all, the scale of religious orientation is not adapted to the Society of Kazakhstan. Therefore, for the development of the Kazakhstan model of the scale of religious orientation, it is necessary to take into account, first of all, the religious and cultural space of the country. Considering that Kazakhstan, being a secular country, is dominated by Muslims, it is important to study the scope of application of the scale of religious orientation in Muslim society. The study aims to analyze the theoretical aspects of adaptation of the scale of religious orientation in the Kazakhstan space and to scientifically substantiate the possibility of its use in future research. In the course of the study, the main works of Khan and Waston and Ji and Ibrahim were taken into account. To achieve the goal of the study, a critical analysis of the main works and a comparative approach were used. As a result of the study, it became clear that both works had a scientific contribution. However, since the Khan and Waston studies were conducted primarily in Islamic countries such as Pakistan, there is an adaptation to the culture of these Islamic countries. It was concluded that the Intrinsic and Extrinsic scales used in the Ji and Ibrahim studies have the potential to adapt to the Society of Kazakhstan.

Конфликтное поведение сунданских студентов-мусульман: роль идеологии и предполагаемой несправедливости

<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Objective. </strong>Exploration of the psychological factors of conflict-related action among Sundanese Muslim students in Indonesia. <br><strong>Background. </strong>Religious-based conflicts have been widely examined in various disciplines, attracting responses and factors in every cultural context. <br><strong>Study design. </strong>Study 1 used an indigenous-based survey and was analyzed by thematic analysis. Study 2 examined the role of political ideology and perceived injustice in conflict-related behavior using hierarchical regression analysis. <br><strong>Participants. </strong>Study 1: 224 people (35,7% of men, 64,3% of women) from 18 to 49 years old (<em>M </em>= 20,98; <em>SD</em> = 3,72). Study 2: 494 people (35,6% of men, 64,4% of women) from 17 to 49 years old (<em>M</em> = 20,00; <em>SD</em> = 1,52).<br><strong>Measurements. </strong>Indonesian-language versions of the scales of religious fundamentalism ideology by Muluk and colleagues, violent extremist attitude by Nivette and colleagues, nonviolent direct action by Brown and colleagues, and sensitivity to injustice by Schmitt and colleagues. <br><strong>Results. </strong>Study 1 showed specific patterns of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses. There are differences in the respondents' responses to conflicts between and within religions. These differences are caused by ideology orientation towards religion and perception of injustice towards their groups. Study 2 confirmed Study 1 that religious fundamentalism predicts both violent and nonviolent behavior. Also, perceived injustice of victims moderates the effect of religious fundamentalism to violent behavior. Meanwhile, perceived injustice of perpetrators predicts only nonviolent behavior. <br><strong>Conclusions. </strong>There is a significant effect of religious-based ideology and perceived injustice on conflict-related behavior in the Sundanese Muslim context.</p>

Experiences of Anti-Blackness in Islamic Educational Spaces: Implications for Islamic Teacher Education

This paper is an initial examination of anti-Blackness within a specifically Muslim context, and it presents the experiences of some Black community members who attended one U.S. city’s primary local mosque’s weekend school program and who either attended or had children who attended the city’s sole Islamic school. During this ethnographic project, 18 participants who identified as part of the Muslim community of the city were interviewed; semi-structured interviews and snowball sampling were used to obtain data. Research participants included parents of children in the Islamic school or weekend school program at the affiliated mosque, former students of the Islamic school or the mosque’s weekend school program, and former or current leaders in the community. The findings demonstrate that anti-Blackness in Islamic community spaces often manifests through the targeting of Black children for perceived misbehavior in educational spaces and through practices of exclusion toward Black community members. The findings also indicate that there is a need for increased education and training related to anti-Blackness and a need for the implementation of an anti-racist pedagogy in Islamic educational settings.

The Rule of Peshat: Jewish Constructions of the Plain Sense of Scripture and Their Christian and Muslim Contexts, 900–1270 by Mordechai Z. Cohen, and: Rashi, Biblical Interpretation, and Latin Learning in Medieval Europe: A New Perspective on an Exegetical Revolution by Mordechai Z. Cohen (review)

The Rule of Peshat: Jewish Constructions of the Plain Sense of Scripture and Their Christian and Muslim Contexts, 900–1270 by Mordechai Z. Cohen, and: Rashi, Biblical Interpretation, and Latin Learning in Medieval Europe: A New Perspective on an Exegetical Revolution by Mordechai Z. Cohen (review)

EXPLORING THE ROLE OF MALAYSIAN MUSLIM MOTHERS IN MEDIATING THEIR CHILDREN'S YOUTUBE USAGE

Abstract: In this digital era, YouTube has become prominent in children's lives as a source of entertainment and education. Nonetheless, parents face conundrum in controlling or monitoring their children activities on YouTube. This research explores the significant role that Malaysian Muslim mothers play in mediating their children's engagement with YouTube. We aim to gain insights into the mothers' mediation strategies through in-depth interviews with three informants. Using a purposive sampling technique, we selected three Malaysian Muslim mothers of children aged 3-8 years old who actively viewed YouTube. We conducted semi-structured interviews, which allowed the informants to share their strategies, challenges, and perspectives regarding their children's YouTube usage. A thematic analysis based on mediation strategies theories was conducted to extract critical insights, including - 1) rules and guidelines, 2) mothers' roles, and 3) Islamic influences. The findings of this study suggest the used of restrictive and instructive mediation strategies to manage children's media consumption. These strategies aim to strike a balance between allowing children some autonomy in their media choices and ensuring the content aligns with the family's values and educational goals. They actively set time limits, verify the content, recommend Islamic content and explain the significance of good and bad content. Their commitment reflects a dynamic relationship between religious faith and digital parenting practices within the Malaysian Muslim context.
 Keywords: Children; Mediating; Muslim mothers; Parenting; YouTube

EXAMINING THE POTENTIAL OF WAQF-BASED EDUCATION MANAGEMENT

Waqf is a charitable institution within Islam and Muslim contexts. Waqf translates to an endowment held in trust and is utilised for charitable purposes such as education, poverty alleviation, a place of worship, or medical care. In the educational development, waqf has funded many Islamic educational institutions, colleges, universities, libraries, and the like. In the context of Indonesian society, the modern system of waqf institution has been implemented to establish the pesantren (Islamic schools) and Islamic universities. This paper presents the example of waqf in education that has been practised in Indonesia. Darussalam Gontor is taken as an example since it is well-known as the first modern pesantren in Indonesia, endowed in 1958. It is a successful waqf-based educational institution. In reality, waqf-based institution can generate significant benefits in support of education and community development. The study shows the values-based management at the core of this waqf-funded Institution and reveals the concept of waqf basyr (Human waqf) which looks at the contribution of human resources. In addition to this essay also highlights the internal control practiced preserving the pesantren’s operational sustainability and to mitigate the mismanagement. This study is based on recent qualitative research comprising both primary and secondary data. The primary data included interviews with the core and peripheral respondents within the Institution. Secondary data was collected from in-depth literature reviews including the annual report of this Institution, books, journal articles, and relevant data and documents. The study's finding presents how the values-based education and human waqf implemented in this pesantren could be a role model for supporting the educational development system in the modern world. Additionally, the result of study shows that the internal control can mitigate the miss-managements and enhances the sustainability of the operational of this Institution. Importantly, there is a need to broadly bring values-based management, skilled human waqf (as human resources), and internal control to the educational or waqf institutions to enhance their operational sustainability and support their impacts on community development.

Ibn Rushd in the Safavid Iran: “En Orient, après Averroès … ” Revisited

Abstract Tracing the possible ways in which the thought of Ibn Rushd (Averroes, d. 595/1198) was transmitted within Muslim contexts can be such a “frustrating” and “depressing” task that it may have contributed to the near absence of his name in the lists of influential philosophers of Islam in the eastern part of the Islamic world. This article, through the consultation of original texts and manuscripts sets out to throw some light on this seeming absence. It offers a revision of Henry Corbin’s famous assertion about Ibn Rushd’s fate in the East by addressing the various receptions of Ibn Rushd’s texts in North Africa, Egypt, and the Levant, examining available manuscript catalogs of Ibn Rushd’s writings in Iran, and analyzing an important work by ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Lāhījī (d. 1072/1661–1662), one of the most famous philosophers of the 17th century.

“Religious” and “Gamer”: Negotiating the Legitimacy of Video Games in a Muslim Context

Individuals who self-identify as “religious gamers” constitute a relatively new and niche category. This study aims to understand how these individuals evaluate their video game-playing activities in the face of their religious beliefs and commitments. To this end, we conducted semistructured interviews with 15 participants. The data suggests that for the participants, the religious status of video games is based on a broader evaluative framework than the religious one. The “vain act–beneficial act” dichotomy, which we conceptualized in this study, explains the difficulties and contradictions that religious gamers experience in legitimizing their gaming activities because they consider the game a vain act even though they play it with enthusiasm. Based on the evidence gathered, we concluded that religious gamers do not consider playing games illegitimate, either religiously or morally. However, they cannot conclusively legitimize it either—a delicate situation that drags them into a strange predicament.

The invisible other: Rituals and Egyptian perception of the unknowable

AbstractThis paper is positioned within broader scholarly debates about ritual‐religious and psychological elements underlying the phenomenon of altered states of mind in Egyptian Muslim contexts. This research examines the intricate relationships between ritual, consciousness, and the unseen/unknowable world reflected in the imagination and practices of urban and rural communities belonging administratively to the city of Tanta in Egypt. This comparative study proposes that the image of the embodied invisible Other, in both benevolent and malevolent forms, impacts the state of consciousness of persons participating in two different rituals, the zikr (remembrance of God) and the zār (the exorcism of spirits). This inquiry concentrates on the transformation of the states of people's consciousness, namely the majzūb (those mystically attracted to God) and the malbūs (those possessed by spirits), through embodied engagement with the invisible Other that is made visible through participation in the ritual performances of the zikr and/or the zār. Rituals performed by Egyptians, particularly those who experience altered states of consciousness, display both a psychic (emotional) experience and an encounter with the invisible Other that may be depicted as divine or otherwise non‐divine. Each case of the zikr ritual and zār cult relates to its participants' perception of reality.

Leaving Javanese Shadow Theatre (Wayang Kulit) Religiously Unlabelled

Wayang Kulit, the shadow theatre tradition on the island of Java, combines ancient Javanese and Indian myths in a Muslim context and therefore poses as a wonderful example of how religious traditions intertwine with works of art. This article explores the religious appropriation and acculturation at work in the history of Javanese shadow theatre. It also grants a behind-the-scenes look at the curatorial challenges involved in preparing a Wayang Kulit exhibition at the Museum Rietberg in Zurich, in particular how to convey the complex intermingling of cultures and religions so that audiences can understand it. Finally, we call into question some narratives and concepts traditionally used in Western museums to tell the story of Southeast Asian art.

“Gender Justice” versus “Gender Equality”

Abstract Much of the literature on women’s-rights activism in the Muslim world presents such activism as employing discourses either of egalitarianism (secular) or of complementarianism (religious). This article analyzes the recent framing of demands for women’s right to political office by elite Islamic women in Iran and Turkey in terms outside this dichotomy. Drawing on data gathered from personal interviews as well as on careful study of public statements and publications by elite women, or those backed by state institutions, this article demonstrates the inadequacy of understanding women’s activism in Muslim contexts as employing either an egalitarian or a complementarian approach by highlighting a more nuanced conceptualization of women’s-rights framing and organizing in accordance with shifting contexts and political ideologies. Specifically, it shows how Islamic women’s-rights activists who are closely affiliated with their governments at times strategically adopt a “gender justice” framing, as opposed to “gender equality,” to appeal to more conservative sectors of their society. This strategy can have important policy implications and lead to shifts in political discourse about women and politics. However, elite women’s backing from and affiliation with conservative ruling elites can lead some groups, particularly secular feminists, to perceive their use of gender justice discourse differently and to be dismissive of their efforts.

Embracing precarity across species: Muslim ethics and care for stray dogs in Russia

AbstractDrawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Saint Petersburg between 2015 and 2016, this article puts work on postsocialist precarity in conversation with scholarship on piety and interspecies care in Muslim contexts to explore how Aliya, a low‐income Slavic convert to Islam, responded to social and economic hardships by tending to stray dogs. In doing so, she did not turn away, turn inwards, or turn political in the conventional sense of the word. Instead, she engaged in what I term ‘embracing precarity’, which I define as a response to uncertainty, grounded in Islamic spirituality, ethics, and care. By embracing canine tactility – often in departure from cultural norms concerning stray dogs in Islam and at the risk of deepening her own vulnerability – Aliya embarked on a path towards God with nonhuman others. The emergent relatedness between her and the dogs illustrates how striving for an ethical Muslim life amid uncertainty may open one up to experimentation, improvisation, and becoming with precarious others in a pursuit of a relationship with God and a favourable afterlife.

Gender equality of privacy protection in the use of urban furniture in the Muslim context of Iran

ABSTRACT The issue of gender inequality in relation to the impartial usage of urban infrastructure has become a factor that influences social sustainability in Muslim contexts. This study aimed to investigate the matter of gender inequality in relation to the privacy protection created in the spatial configuration of urban furniture based on a case study of Rasht, Iran. To achieve this end, the framework of gender equality in relation to privacy protection in the use of urban furniture was established with respect to various physical, social and cultural dimensions. Accordingly, a mixture of methods, including a questionnaire and quantitative methods using space syntax, was adopted for this empirical study. Unlike the previous literature that has considered the profound impact of Islamic principles on the privacy demands of Muslim citizens, the present research suggests that religious principles do not have a notable influence on the privacy demands of men and women within a Muslim community. Moreover, the present study found that privacy demands can be a universal phenomenon with the ability to reflect cultural and contextual particularities. The results also suggest that men and women diverge significantly in their privacy demands, and that the provision of gender equality in privacy protection will facilitate the establishment of social justice and fair interactions within a Muslim society. The implications of this research can be considered as a guideline for implementing the goals of social justice and sustainability within urban spaces in Muslim settings.

The Thermometer Broke! Digital Purdah, Class, and Gender Transgressions on Pakistani TikTok

Research on women’s social media practices in Muslim societies has primarily focused on middle-class or elite women, such as influencers, activists, and members of online communities. However, we know little about working-class women’s use of social media in Muslim contexts. Using ethnography and interviews, I analyze TikTok’s early popularity with working-class women in Pakistan and report three main findings. First, TikTok’s initial reception in Pakistan was fractured across class lines; whereas middle-class and elite women dismissed it, working-class women flocked to it, and TikTok became associated with a “low-class” femininity. Second, women engaged in a range of gender transgressions on TikTok. Third, women simultaneously crafted new practices of “digital purdah,” or veiling, on TikTok. I contribute to scholarship on digital purdah by, first, showing how women combine tools available on TikTok with other veiling strategies to conceal their identity while expressing their sexuality and second, arguing that “digital purdah” is compatible, rather than incongruous, with gender transgressions on TikTok. By showing how co-constituted class and gender dynamics shaped the simultaneous popularity and moral disapproval of TikTok in Pakistan, I argue for increased attention to class dynamics in studies of new social media platforms.