Muslim Social Scientists Research Articles

Toward Islamic English by Ismā‘īl Rājī al Fārūqī

Dr. Ismā‘īl Rājī al Fārūqī (1339-1406 A.H/1921-1986 A.C) is widely recognized as an authority on Islam and comparative religion. Dr. al Fārūqī was a dedicated and active academician. His educational training in Philosophy took place at Indiana and Harvard University. He also engaged in the post-graduate study of Islam at al-Azhar University and Christianity and Judaism at McGill University. He co-founded the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) and the Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS). Among his significant intellectual and academic contributions is his consistent emphasis on the Islamization of knowledge and result-oriented inter-faith dialogues. The present book, Toward Islamic English, extends the same discourse on the Islamization of knowledge. However, the paradigm in which the book’s theme is described is more academic and relates to the methodological dimensions of studying Islamic Studies as an academic discipline.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MAN AND NATURE IN IBN KHALDUN’S MUQADDIMAH

Ibn Khaldun, one of the most prominent Muslim social scientists of the Middle Ages, is famed for his historical ideas and unique insights into the emergence and collapse of civilisations. This study aims to explore the relationship between man and nature in light of Ibn Khaldun’s greatest work, The Muqaddimah. A vast number of scholars have examined human civilisation from various perspectives as expounded in the Muqaddimah but works dedicated to the relationship between man and nature are still few. As a result, this article investigates Ibn Khaldun’s view of the relationship between man and nature through a qualitative content analysis of the Muqaddimah. Since Ibn Khaldun was a great Muslim thinker who had a deep effect on the Muslim world, his concept of the relationship between man and nature is readily accepted by Muslims and may play a constructive role in environmental conservation in the Muslim world. After reading and analysing the Muqaddimah, this article concluded that Ibn Khaldun’s examination of the link between man and nature can be found in every chapter. He thinks that the environment has a significant impact on individuals and human civilisation, as well as he advocates that man should respect nature and utilize it rationally to sustain civilisation’s healthy development.

In Conversation With Dr. Hisham Altalib

In Conversation With Dr. Hisham Altalib about the Legacy of Professor AbdulHamid A. AbuSulayman Alyaa Ebbiary and Dr. Hisham Altalib introduction This interview article is a slight departure in form from those in previous issues of JEMS. Thus far we have used this section as a space to explore the thought and work of academic educationalists who work on research about, or in, the Muslim world, with a view to broadening intellectual debates on matters of interest to our readership. In this issue we interview Dr. Hisham Altalib, a cofounder of IIIT—the organization that inspired this journal—and a mentee-friend of the late Prof. AbdulHamid AbuSulayman, who is memorialized in this issue. Both these personalities were pivotal in the institutionalization of new Islamic research and education initiatives over the last 50 years, and the interview gives us an insight into the influence of the late AbdulHamid AbuSulayman, in particular. Dr. Hisham Altalib (b. 1940) is the current president of the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT). He graduated in 1962 with a B.Sc. in electrical engineering from Liverpool University, UK, and after serving in Iraq in the petroleum industry, he pursued graduate studies in electrical engineering at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana, where he obtained his M.A. (1972) and Ph.D. (1974). Throughout his student career, he was active in Islamic work, first in the UK and then in North America. He has continued his advocacy for Islam and Muslims as an activist and author to this day. He established the Leadership Training Department of the Muslim Students Association of the United States and Canada (MSA) and became its first full-time director, serving from 1975 to 1977. He held several leadership positions in Islamic organizations, such as Secretary-General of the International Islamic Federation of Student Organizations [End Page 132] (IIFSO), in 1976. He was a founding member and a director of the SAAR Foundation, from 1983 to 1995, and he was also a founding member of the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) in 1981. Dr. Altalib has conducted many leadership training camps and seminars in the United States and abroad. His published works include Training Guide for Islamic Workers; Inviting to Islam: Ethics of Engagement; and Parent-Child Relations: A Guide for Raising Children (coauthored with AbdulHamid AbuSulayman and Omar Altalib; 2013). He is a father and grandfather. Dr. AbdulHamid AbuSulayman (1936–2021) was a scholar, activist, educationalist, and institution builder. His varied career spanned 60 years, and he will be remembered as a leading intellectual and creative thinker in the Muslim world. He obtained a B.A. in Commerce from the University of Cairo (1959), an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Cairo (1963), and a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania (1973). He held various positions throughout his career, including founding member and President of the Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS) in the United States and Canada (1972); Secretary-General, World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (1973–1982); Chairperson, Department of Political Science at King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (1982–1984); and Rector, International Islamic University (IIU), Malaysia (1988–1999). He was instrumental in organizing many international academic conferences and seminars. He was concerned with the alarming condition of Muslims in the modern world and heavily invested in reform on a number of levels. His many books include The Islamic Theory of International Relations: New Directions for Islamic Methodology and Thought; Crisis in the Muslim Mind; Revitalizing Higher Education in the Muslim World; The Qur'anic Worldview: A Springboard for Cultural Reform; and Parent-Child Relations: A Guide for Raising Children (coauthored with Hisham Altalib and Omar Altalib). He is survived by his wife, five children, and many grandchildren. Alyaa Ebbiary: You have had a varied career and worked in very different fields. How would you describe yourself and what you do? As an academic, scholar, writer, activist, educationalist, trainer, or otherwise? Hisham Altalib: I am an electrical engineer who also became an activist, trainer, writer, businessman, and educationalist. I became active in "Islamic work" (faith-inspired activism and community organizing) when I was growing up in Iraq. This...

Muslim Communities in Europe and North America: Contemporary Developments and Challenges

Muslim Communities in Europe and North America:Contemporary Developments and Challenges Layla Sein (bio) On September 27, 2019, the 48th Annual Conference of the North American Association of Islamic and Muslim Studies (NAAIMS) was held at Boston University (BU) Boston, MA. It was cosponsored by BU's Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs (CURA) of the Pardee School of Global Studies. The theme focused on "Muslim Communities in Europe and North America: Contemporary Developments and Challenges." The Conference Program Chair, Timothy P. Longman, director of CURA welcomed the panelists and guests, and introduced NAAIMS Interim President, Malik Mufti, Tufts University, Medford, MA. In his introductory remarks, Mufti spoke of the recent passing of NAAIMS President, Jon Mandaville (August 5, 2019), and briefly highlighted the major challenges that transpired under his tenure (2011-2019) beginning with formalizing the long-awaited and frequently discussed official name-change of the former Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS) to NAAIMS in 2013; upgrading its website; and launching its successful bi-annual publication (May 2016), published by Indiana University Press: the Journal of Islamic and Muslim Studies (JIMS), among other developments. As a side note, our name-change was revisited by previous boards over the past decade for the following reasons: (1) its conference themes and topics addressed the humanities, not just the social sciences, as indicated by its former name AMSS; (2) its broad appeal called [End Page 122] for a name that reflects more accurately the identity of, and the true legacy of AMSS by establishing a forum for annual conferences held in academic settings; and finally it created (3) a unique space for academics specializing in the study of Islam and Muslim societies. This event drew a crowd of seasoned and junior scholars, and doctoral students. Its four panel sessions focused on Law, Religion, and Immigration; Religiosity of Western Muslims; Western Muslims in Culture and Higher Education, and Self-Positioning of Western Muslims. The first panel session "Law, Religion, and Immigration" was moderated by the Panel Chair and Discussant, Ibrahim A. Warde (Tufts University, Medford, MA). The first presentation by Sharmin Islam Sadequee (Kennesaw State University, Atlanta, GA) examined the "Prosecution of Muslims and Discourses of Islamic Jurisprudence in U.S. Courts." She explained that after the "War on Terror," Muslims were prosecuted through "Preventive measures in U.S. courts," and that lawyers and legal experts used liberal legal categories to define Islam and Islamic law. She argued that based on "pre-established liberal legal categories, the trial process reproduces and constructs a monolithic understanding of Islam and Muslim in U.S. Law." Her presentation, which highlighted court cases concerning Islam and Muslims "within the larger colonial and historical context" actually provided the basis for her argument that the "use of 'Islam-related evidence' against the accused in these trials … regulated Muslims and [gave] rise to paradoxes in the liberal, secular legal order" which opened a venue through which "Euro-American societies maintain[ed] imperial hierarchy and power over minority racialized religious groups." This was followed by Sultan Doughan's (Boston University, Boston, MA) talk on "Conditional Tolerance and Muslim Aspirations for an Institutional Islam in Germany." Although there have been Muslim communities in Europe since the Middle Ages, they became a sizable part of the population of modern Western Europe after the 1950's. After World War II, Europe experienced a shortage of labor during the 50s, which resulted in a call to Muslims from Pakistan, the Maghreb, and Turkey to help stimulate Europe's economic recovery. Beginning with the 1960s, Western Europe (especially Germany, Britain, France and Belgium) began experiencing a large wave of Muslim immigrants from Turkey, the Maghreb (Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia), and South Asia (India and Pakistan) seeking employment opportunities and better education. According to Doughan, "The presence of guest-worker migrants in Germany since the 1960s triggered the question of how to accommodate Muslim religious practices in the absence of Islamic institutions. With the acknowledgment of migration as an enduring political reality in the late 1990s a different governmental task emerged vis-à-vis former migrants now mostly construed as Muslims." Due to the growing number of asylum seekers from the Muslim world, immigration was placed...

THE ISLAMISM OF SOCIAL RESEARCH, AND USE OF THE MODERN TECHNOLOGICAL MEDIA

Islamization of human sciences is a widely discussed topic in Islamic intellectual discourse since it does not work in opposition to modern science, but rather as an ally of it. Efforts are being undertaken to incorporate Islamic knowledge into current human/social science in order to promote Islamization. By assessing needs, prospects, and obstacles, Muslim social scientists have made major contributions to the field of human understanding Islamization, according to this study. According to a review of relevant literature, in order to develop and preserve Islamic Civilization, modern civilization must embrace Islamize human sciences. Many attempts have been made by Islamic sociologists from all around the Muslim world to introduce and incorporate Islamization into societies. These educational institutions, which have been established and curricula and courses implemented, are teaching Islamization of human sciences. Islamic sociology is one of the endeavours in the quest to comprehend society's faults from an Islamic perspective and how to address them in light of the Quran and Sunnah. Despite the excellent achievements of Muslim social scientists, several hurdles exist. Inadequate training and instruction to integrate Islamic philosophy into the curriculum are among them. Progress is hampered by issues in sociology, politics, economics, and religion. To advance Islamization of Human Sciences today, the Muslim Ummah should unite under an unified worldview and ideology. Keywords: Mulim, Islamic, Social Sciences, Intellectual, , Ummah

Islamic Economics and the Relevance of Al-Qawā‘id Al-Fiqhiyyah

Islamic economics, as part of the Islamic body of knowledge, has emerged as a new social science discipline that has gained currency and recognition in various institutions of higher learning in the contemporary Muslim world. Different sources of Islamic knowledge have significantly contributed to shape its evolution and development. The Islamic legal maxims, however, do not seem to have received much attention in terms of their contextualization in the present economic thinking. Using the content analysis approach, this article examines the relevance of qawā‘id al-fiqhiyyah, placing emphasis on the five normative maxims and some of their variants, to the understanding of Islamic economics. The aim is to assess their relevance to Islamic economic life and their contextualization within time and space. It was found that qawā‘id al-fiqhiyyah significantly contributes to the understanding of Islamic economics as a discipline in the Islamic tertiary educational pursuits. They help to understand certain economic theories from the Islamic ethical perspective. Therefore, it is concluded that if Muslim social scientists, especially, Muslim economists, embrace and pursue this branch of fiqh with an utmost concern and commitment, it would facilitate a better appreciation of economic theories from the Islamic perspective.

Intergenerational transmission of religious capital in a developing country

Purpose It is consensus among Muslim social scientists that religion as an informal institution plays a very important role in building the socio-economic structure of an Islamic state. The transmission of religiosity across generations has important economic implications for a family in particular and a society in general. The Tawhidi methodology is applied for a theoretical model and for the development of the model. The purpose of this study is to determine the transmission of religious capital in an Islamic society. Design/methodology/approach This study by using an index of religiosity for both parents and their offspring has explored the causal relationship between the religiosity across generations. By using three-tier analytical strategies, i.e. zero-order regression, model with control variables and model with mediating variables, this study has regressed two models for each control and mediating variable. Findings The findings for the core variable in all models confirmed the hypothesis of the study that parental religious traits are important determinants of the religiosity of their offspring. For the model of control variables, the variables of area, gender and age of the respondent along with the parental religious index are found to be significant with appropriate signs. For the model with mediating variables, only the variable of parental sharing of religious values along with the parental religious index are found to impact the religiosity of the offspring. Therefore, the nutshell of the findings is that the religious orientation of an offspring is highly influenced by the religious denominations of the parents. The formation of the religious capital is a continuous process and the ultimate result of divine knowledge. Research limitations/implications Data at the national level are not collected for this purpose by governmental organizations in a country like Pakistan because of shortage of funds. Therefore, data are collected by the authors. Practical implications This study will provide guidance to policy-makers for the formulation of their policies. Social implications Intergenerational transmission of religious capital plays a very important role in the moral development of an ideal society. Originality/value This is an original effort and is conducted for the first time in Pakistan.

Islamic Roots of Feminism in Egypt and Morocco

This paper documents the evolution of feminist works and struggle in the dual spheres of Islam and the Middle East, focusing on Morocco and Egypt. Foundational support for women’s advancement in Islam can be traced to Islam’s inception in the 7th century AD. Conservatism, first rejected by Islam, also evolved to become an instrument of social change. In post colonial contexts, conservatism opposed the import of foreign and culturally dissonant notions of gender relations, the presence of which subverted domestic feminist constructions. This paper will explore ideological constructions of far ends of the Islamic interpretive spectrum, the puritanical Wahhabists on one end and progressive and mainstream Muslim social scientists and leaders on the other. Throughout Islam’s history, scholars and lay people have sought to deconstruct misogynous interpretations and divide cultural interpretation from the tenets of the faith. Today's debate on women’s roles and livelihood in the Middle East North Africa region take place in a globalized and decolonized context, in which the image of women results from a composite constructed narrative. These empirical definitions impact current women's rights in the region, specifically through laws on marriage and family. These laws offer both a danger and an opportunity for feminist advancement, in the context of the Arab Spring.

Looking Beyond September 11

The Fortieth Annual AMSS (Association of Muslim Social Scientists ofNorth America) Conference, held at John Jay College at the City Universityof New York in New York City, marked a decade since September 11 by reviewingthe past ten years of the Muslim narrative, with particular focus onthe past year and the considerable social and political changes in the MiddleEast and North Africa. Welcomed by John Jay College Provost and SeniorVice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Jane Bowers, and by outgoingAMSS President Dr. Ali Mazrui ‒ the conference’s one-day format ensuredan intensive and stimulating session, which captured the energy of the participantsand attendees that filled the symposium. While a four-panel conferencefeaturing only twelve presenters may appear small in comparison tosome academic meetings, AMSS again proved that quality eclipsed quantityin offering a diverse, yet deep analysis of contemporary issues ‒ ranging fromthe Arab Spring to domestic discourses highlighting and targeting Muslims.A panel entitled, “The Arab Spring: Paths to Democracy in the MiddleEast and North Africa,” opened the day’s proceedings by assessing the veryfluid and evolving situation in the heart of the Arab world. Khalid Madhi(Adjunct Professor at St. Xavier University and PhD Student Researchand Teaching Assistant at the University of Illinois at Chicago) focused onhow the transformative movements in Tunisia and Egypt would be felt inMorocco by offering a study of the country’s Islamist efforts. Umar Oseni(Visiting Fellow at the Islamic Legal Studies Program at the Harvard LawSchool and Post-doctoral Scholar and Lecturer at the International IslamicUniversity Malaysia) shifted the discussion from a specific country to amore regional approach when he proposed a model for conflict managementthat is inherent within Islam itself. Finally, Mohamed Nimer (AssistantProfessor of International Relations at the School of International ...

Islamic Traditions and Comparative Modernities

From 25-26 September 2009, Thomas Jefferson’s academic village inCharlottesville, the University of Virginia (UVA), hosted the Thirty-EighthAnnual Conference of theAssociation of Muslim Social Scientists of NorthAmerica (AMSS). Cosponsored by the university’s Department of ReligiousStudies and the Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Languagesand Cultures, presenters and participants discussed “Islamic Traditions andComparative Modernities.”In his opening remarks, Conference Chair Abdulaziz Sachedina(Frances Myers Ball Professor of Religious Studies, UVA) underlined thedeliberate choice of traditions and modernities in the title to acknowledgethe multiplicity of these experiences in current academic disciplines.AMSSpresidentAli Mazrui (Binghamton University), the second opening speaker,focused on modernity, modernization, democratization, globalization, secularization,and other related concepts, all of which were invented anddefined by the West and are part of the dilemma of Islam’s confrontationwith it. Expanding upon globalization’s various forms, he opined that itsdominant category was comprehensive globalization, which represents all ofthe forces that have brought societies together in a globalized village. Heconcluded by stating that he was proud to launch this conference with theagenda of this changing dynamic of the present century ...

The Obama Administration and US Relations with the Muslim World

On 16 October 2009, the Institute of Global Cultural Studies (IGCS) atBinghamton, jointly with the Association of Muslim Social Scientists ofNorth America (AMSS), sponsored a symposium in Binghamton University’sMandela Hall on “The Obama Administration and US Relations withtheMuslimWorld: Prospects, Progress and Lingering Skepticism.” The presentationsaddressed Iran’s nuclear program, Arab-Israeli relations, Iraq andAfghanistan, Darfur, and studies comparing Obama with Malcolm X andJapan’s new prime minister Yukio Haroyama. Inevitably, there was alsosome debate as to whether Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize was legitimatelyearned or premature ...

Challenges Facing the New President in the Greater Middle East

In November 2008, students, scholars, and interested citizens convened inEast Lansing to hear experts speak about the Middle East. This event, “ChallengesFacing the New President in the GreaterMiddle East,” was hosted byMichigan State University’s Muslim Studies Program with generous cosponsorshipby the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU) andthe Association of Muslim Social Scientists of North America (AMSS).Speakers highlighted the topic’s timeliness, given the current global politicalclimate. Experts agreed that by heeding the nuances surrounding MiddleEastern issues and contextualizing them, a positive transformation ofAmericanpolicy can be achieved.Professor Mohammed Ayoob (Michigan State University) articulatedwhy the Middle East is significant: as the Muslim world’s spiritual and politicalheartland, understanding its politics is essential to understanding thatworld’s politics, and being the home ofmore than 60%of the world’s provenoil reserves and 40% of its natural gas makes it strategically important. Thisoverview contextualized the challenges facing the Obama administration onsuch critical regional issues as political Islam, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,and the Iraq War as well as the United States’ tenuous relations withPakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, and SaudiArabia ...

Crossing Boundaries

On 24-25 October 2008, the thirty-seventh annual conference of theAssociation of Muslim Social Scientists of North America (AMSS) washeld at the Harvard Divinity School, thanks to the efforts of the late Dr.Louis Cantori (an AMSS board member) and the gracious support of DeanWilliam Graham. Given the expanding role of religion in American foreignpolicy and public life, the conference’s seven panels were structured aroundfinding common ground in a religiously pluralistic world, healing inter-religiousand intra-religious rifts, and using religion to promote (or at least mitigate)international conflicts.AliA. Mazrui (Binghamton University, andAMSS President) welcomedthe audience and spoke of how America, the world’s “first and only universalcountry,” has not always welcomed non-Anglo/non-Christian immigrants.He contended that the country might be in the process of accommodatingIslam, as witnessed by the Clinton administration’s hosting of iftar dinnersand the Bush administration’s extension of Ramadan greetings to the MuslimAmerican community ...

Editorial

This year AJISS turns twenty-five. In 1983, during a meeting of the Associationof Muslim Social Scientists’ (AMSS) executive board in Plainfield,Indiana, the pros and cons of establishing a journal were discussed in greatdetail and at length. The board members, Dr.Waheed Fakri (president), Dr.Sulayman S. Nyang (vice president), and Dawood Zwink (treasurer) agreedthat the United States needed a Muslim-led and Muslim-organized scholarlypublication to address important issues at home and abroad. In theirvision, the journal would educate university and college students, as well aspolicymakers, with respect to the life and conditions ofMuslims in the socialsciences. In addition, the journal would be a vehicle for articulating andaggregating Muslim views and understanding of the social sciences.Another objective was to provide a forum for Muslim scholars, andespecially for those associated with the AMSS, to publish their research.At the time, it was felt that Muslim scholars engaged in social scienceresearch projects with an Islamic perspective found mainstream scholarlyjournals inhospitable. The board thought that the proposed journal wouldbecome – as it has – a forum for cutting-edge research in the social sciencesand the humanities, employing both the standard social scienceresearch methodologies as well as the Islamic theoretical and methodologicalperspectives.Two issues were critical: (1) obtaining the financial resources needed tosustain the proposed journal and (2) its viability and effectiveness. After thego-ahead decision had been taken, and in order to establish the journal, theboard members drew upon the intellect and services of AMSS members aswell as friends and sympathizers. With this in mind, Dr. Mumtaz Ahmad, arespected and activeAMSS member and friend of Dr. Nyang, was proposedas the journal’s co-editor. Dr. Nyang became the editor-in-chief and Dr.Ahmad, a former editor of a scholarly journal in Pakistan, became the editor.Several prominent Muslims were invited to serve on the advisory boardto widen the circle of involvement ...

Cosmopolitan Islamic Identity and Thought

The Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS) held its Third AnnualCanadian Regional Conference on “Cosmopolitan Islamic Identity andThought” on 24 November 2007 at Wilfrid Laurier University (Waterloo,ON). Opening the event with her keynote address, “Consumption andCosmopolitanism: The Veil, The Body, The Law,” Reina Lewis (Universityof East London) pointed out that in British culture, cosmopolitanism has notyet appropriated the Muslim veil as a desirable object of fashion consumptionfor the majority society, although Muslim women have appropriatedand indigenized some western fashions. However, this does not prevent themajority society from making interpretive “readings” of the veil relative todominant fashion cultures and participating in neo-Orientalist discourses.Despite the (shockingly) recent British legislation of 2003 that finallyexplicitly forbids religious discrimination, some recent prominent publicdiscourse on the veil in Britain has turned its attention to the issue of faceveiling as a potentially insidious fashion practice, arguing essentially (anduncritically) that visibility is equal to transparency, integrity, and truth ...

Editorial

In July 2007, the Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS) launchedits new website: www.amss.net. This event signals a reinvigorated AMSSthat seeks to update itself and enhance its professional image. The launchcomes after several years of hard work, conducted mostly behind the scenes,on behalf of the AMSS Executive Board. Under the guidance of Dr. RafikBeekun (president, AMSS), a recognized expert in strategic planning,AMSS has undergone a complete overhaul, from a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses,opportunities, threats) analysis to revising its by-laws and engagingin strategic planning, to implementation.In order to recognize the separate but related nature of Canada to theUnited States (it is not simply the 51st state!), as well as the prominent rolebeing played by Canadian social scientists in AMSS, the board has suggesteda new name: The Association of Muslim Social Scientists of NorthAmerica. This is, of course, contingent upon the membership’s pendingapproval of the new by-laws. In addition, this name change helps identifyus in relation to our sister organizations: AMSS-UK and AMSS-France.Each association is an independent entity sharing a common name, vision,and goals. The first AMSS international conference was held in Istanbul in2006.One theme of AMSS’ new mission statement is that the organizationwill serve as an enabling environment for critical dialogue and debatebetween Muslim and non-Muslim scholars about issues of importance tothe ummah and global society at large. The ability to dialogue is currentlynot one of the Muslim community’s strengths. Dialogue is about talking,about sitting down with people from different backgrounds in order tounderstand their perspective on often controversial issues. The point is notto convince them that your position is the “truth” or vice versa, but to hearthem as fellow human beings and have them hear you. As the NationalCoalition for Dialogue and Deliberation points out, “dialogue is not aboutwinning an argument or coming to an agreement, but about understandingand learning. Dialogue dispels stereotypes, builds trust and enables peopleto be open to perspectives that are very different from their own” (http://-thataway.org/index.php/?page_id=713) ...

US Government and American Muslims Engage to Define Islamophobia

On 4 December 2006, the American Muslims’ national leadership met withkey senior American government officials to discuss Islamophobia in thecountry and American-Muslim relations. The conference, organized by theBridging the Divide Initiative of the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution,was co-sponsored by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding(ISPU) and the Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS).As conference chair, I had to bring together two parties that did not seeeye-to-eye on this issue. While American Muslim leaders and participantsargued that Islamophobia was not only a reality but also a rapidly growingphenomenon in the United States, the government’s position was that whilethere have been increased incidences of anti-Muslim episodes in the country,the word Islamophobia deepens the divide between the two sides. Other government representatives also suggested that the fear to which Muslimswere referring was not that of Islam, but rather that of Muslim terrorism, asmanifested on 11 September 2001.Stephen Grand (director, United States-Islamic World program) welcomedall participants and launched the conference. The government wasrepresented by the Department of State, the Department of HomelandSecurity, and associated agencies. The morning keynote address was deliveredby Alina Romanowski (Deputy Assistant Secretary of State forProfessional and Cultural Affairs). She was introduced by AmbassadorMartin Indyk (director, the Saban Center), who proclaimed the importanceof such dialogues at a time when the gap between the United States and theMuslim world appears to be widening ...

Islam and Global Dialogue

Edited by Dr Roger Boase with Foreword by HRH Prince Hassan binTalal. Essays by John Bowden, Diana Eck, Muhammad Legenhausen,Francis Robinson, William Dalrymple, Akbar Ahmed, Fred Halliday,Jonathan Sacks, Antony Sullivan, Robert Crane, Khaled Abou El Fadl,Tony Bayfield, Norman Solomon, Marcus Braybrooke, Frank Gelli,Murad Hofmann, Roger Boase, Jeremy Henzell-Thomas, MahmudAyoub, Wendell Berry.SPEAKERSRoger Boase: The question that we are discussing this evening is “What rolecan religion play in promoting peace instead of war and other forms of violence?”This is the one of the main questions that my book Islam and GlobalDialogue seeks to answer.I began the book in October 2001 after participating in a conferenceorganised by the Association of Muslim Social Scientists, entitled “Unityand Diversity: Islam, Muslims, and the Challenge of Pluralism.” Alreadybefore 11 September 2001 Islam was widely portrayed in the media as a belligerentand intolerant religion, incompatible with democracy and civilisedvalues. Half of those who responded to an opinion poll in the United Statesin the year 2000 thought that Islam supported terrorism.There was, and still is, much discussion about holy war, as if war canever be holy! I do not now intend to define jihad. That would take too long ...

Contemporary Chaos and Muslim Youth

Why should I, your after-dinner speaker, a time for dessert – for sweetness– be the bearer of exclusively bad news, of chapters from the contemporarychaos that seemingly surrounds us. “The Darkness that Surrounds Us,” tocall upon the words of a great American poet Robert Creeley, who, I imagine,never would have imagined that his own troubling personal visionwould become an easily recognized metaphor to be invoked, as I invoke it,at a gathering of Muslim social scientists. Well, there are some good signs,like a nice after dinner mint that one discovers tucked just under one’s plateat the end of the meal, and I will get to them.My assumption is that I am really not here to tell you of things youknow, living as you do in the United States … things you know far betterthan I, particularly since, as a journalist, I feel on safest ground when I reportto you from personal experience. I cannot and will not even begin to addressthe many moments of humiliation and pain that many American Muslimshave experienced in the backlash to 9/11 and the events that have followed,precisely because I have been personally spared any those experiences. So,I will address experiences from which I have not been spared.I have lived abroad, in what could be called the Arab-Islamic world, forforty years. And for me, the trajectory of contemporary chaos and the crisisconfronting the Muslim youth has been a long one, long before 9/11. Morethan half of those years in the Middle East were spent as a journalist, mainly ...

The Thirty-fourth AMSS Annual Conference

This conference, held from Sept. 30 – Oct. 2, 2005 and co-sponsored byTemple University (Philadelphia), represented a homecoming for theAssociation of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS), for its source of inspiration,Dr. Isma`il al-Faruqi, taught religion there from 1968-1986. Elevenpanels addressed the theme, “Muslims and Islam in the Chaotic ModernWorld: Relations of Muslims among Themselves and with Others,” by coveringa wide range of topics, from Muslim minority groups, mutual understanding,and women, to modernity, family law, legal theory, education, andjust war. Due to space constraints, only a few of them will be covered here.After the welcoming and introductory remarks by Program ChairKhalid Blankinship (Temple University) and Rafik Beekun (University ofNevada), Abdul Mutualo (American University in Cairo) began the proceedingsby discussing the history of Islam as an “imported” religion in his nativeMozambique. Heol Choul Kim (Temple University) spoke on KoreanMuslims’ problems due to cultural traditions (e.g., ancestor worship) and thelack of an indigenous Muslim community. Robert Riggs (University ofPennsylvania) discussed how the White Fathers gave Algeria’s KabyleBerers a sense of national self-consciousness and how many of them, livingin small Christian communities, left Algeria after independence.The banquet’s keynote speaker, Abdullah Schleifer (American Universityin Cairo), reflected on his many years as a news reporter and producerin the Middle East. His talk received such an enthusiastic response that wehave included it in our “Forum” section. The winners of the AMSS BestGraduate Paper Awards were also announced: Zareena Grewal (first place),Maleeha Aslam (second place), and Kamran Hashimi (third place).Panel 4A featured, among others, Helena J. Kaler (George WashingtonUniversity), who revealed, probably to the surprise of many, commonalitiesbetween Ayman al-Zawahiri’s and Farid Esack’s responses to modernity.She said that while al-Zawahiri bases his worldview on grievances, Esack ...