Religious Obligation Research Articles

Halal food standard implementation: are Malaysian firms proactive or reactive?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the reasons behind halal food standard (HFS) implementation among food manufacturers in Malaysia. Additionally, it examines whether firms in the Malaysian food manufacturing industry are proactive or reactive in implementing HFS.Design/methodology/approachA field survey was conducted in 210 halal-certified food manufacturers. A partial least squares structural equation modeling technique was used to examine the relationships between the reasons and implementation of HFS.FindingsThe empirical assessments revealed that organization’s commitment, operational improvement and marketing functions are the internal reasons. Meanwhile, government intervention and consumer pressure are the external reasons to implement HFS. Findings also indicated that Malaysian food manufacturers are proactive in implementing HFS.Practical implicationsThe knowledge from this research could encourage non-certified firms to implement HFS and entices halal-certified firms to remain certified. It guides managers toward adopting a better strategy, particularly in prioritizing the internal factors and resources for a more sustainable and positive implication.Originality/valueThis research is among the few studies that scrutinized the rationale behind the rapid growth of halal food industry. It argues that the pursuit of HFS is not solely a religious obligation, but it is also driven by safety, quality and marketing motives.

Contrasting attention to mutual knowledge in English and Mopan Mayan conversation: Schooling, orality, and cultural cosmology

AbstractClassroom training for attention to utterance recipients’ likely states of knowledge is useful in order to compensate for the situations of reduced co-presence that characterize literate communication at a distance. But many aspects of the Mopan (Mayan) philosophy of language resonate instead with non-schooled practices of Mopan socialization that support oral and not literate transmission of knowledge. In Mopan, everyday speech and action are evaluated with reference to a more-than-human moral order in which what counts is fidelity to ancestral prescriptions rather than to one’s own or others’ momentary mental states. Such cultural differences in beliefs about the (non-)importance of mental states are known to enter into institutionalized moralities such as those governing legal decisions or religious obligations. At the same time, many unconscious and embodied aspects of meaning-making in interaction are clearly conducted without apparent input from differing cultural beliefs. The present study shows how cultural attitudes about meaning-making play out at a level intermediate between these two apparently contradictory extremes. Mopan farmers and US English university students engaged with an interactional matching task in which visual common ground is occluded and speakers must describe a photograph in such a way that the listener succeeds in picking out that very photograph from among a set of similar ones. Schooled US English participants rarely describe any attributes of the photos other than their minimum distinguishing features, and they almost always mention those features. In contrast, Mopan participants often construe the interactional task as one that requires accurate and complete description of single items one at a time, rather than requiring identification of key attributes that will uniquely identify the target referent in its current context to a particular listener. Significant differences in strategic approaches to real-time construction of conversational reference is thus shown to correspond to contrasting cultural belief systems about the making of meaning, themselves related to literate versus oral modes of knowledge transmission.

Vocation, Expressive Conduct, and Religious Liberty

Recent scholarship on religious liberty claims, perhaps following the lead of litigants raising claims for religious exemptions in the wake of Obergefell, has largely focused on arguments that certain forms of business activity are “expressive conduct” that government cannot compel. This Note aims to shift the focus of the debate, by arguing that the expressive conduct line of argument distracts from the real collision these cases involve, between two kinds of identity that are both worthy of protection. This Note's argument is twofold. First, it invokes the concept of vocation, understood as a religious obligation or set of obligations regarding work-related conduct, to suggest that, for many, how one acts in one's work is a key part of one's religious identity. Second, it argues that the concept of vocation can, and does, impose meaningful limits on the availability of exemptions from anti-discrimination laws, mitigating the fear that allowing such exemptions will eviscerate the law's ability to protect against discrimination.

Sexuality in the Babylonian Talmud, Christian and Sasanian Contexts in Late Antiquity by Yishai Kiel

Reviewed by: Sexuality in the Babylonian Talmud, Christian and Sasanian Contexts in Late Antiquity by Yishai Kiel Judith Hauptman Yishai Kiel. Sexuality in the Babylonian Talmud, Christian and Sasanian Contexts in Late Antiquity. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016. 302 pp. Having mastered the languages and literature of ancient Iran, Yishai Kiel reads Bavli texts in their Sasanian or Iranian setting, a growing corner of rabbinics research in recent years. Kiel’s volume is a welcome addition. It neatly subdivides into two sections: part 1 presents close readings of rabbinic texts on sexuality in the context of Christian and Zoroastrian texts; part 2 focuses on the treatment of incest in rabbinic and Zoroastrian writings. The main thrust of the volume is to “put the nail in the coffin” of those who read the rabbis only internally, ignoring the culture of which they were a part. As Kiel states, a rabbinic text can be “significantly illuminated by its contextual reading against the backdrop of contemporaneous Zoroastrian practice and doctrine” (246). Babylonian rabbis, Kiel says in part 1, viewed marital sex not just as a means for procreation but as a way to extinguish desire, which they regard as a demonic force. Zoroastrian texts, he then demonstrates, show the same split attitude, which probably means that the rabbis assimilated these “dichotomous” views from contact with their neighbors. Both sets of religious texts also display an ambivalence toward the phenomenon of married scholars leaving their wives for long periods of time to go away and study. True, there is criticism of this practice in the Bavli, Kiel notes, but also romanticization, as in the story of R. Akiba and his wife Rachel, whom he abandons for twenty-four years. In his discussion of sex in the daytime, Kiel argues that although a rabbinic text in B. Niddah 17a frowns on the practice, requiring darkness for sex, the same passage then praises the members of the household of Monobaz of Adiabene, a convert to Judaism according to the Talmud, for engaging in sex in the daytime. To resolve this glaring discrepancy, the anonymous talmudic editor suggests that sex at night can be problematic. Kiel understands the discussion differently. In an innovative and insightful reading of the Monobaz text, he suggests that the Talmud chose to praise a former Zoroastrian for engaging in daytime sex in order to effectively undermine its own legislation that opposed such a practice. The reason for this shift is that the Talmud was responding to the Zoroastrian teaching that sex should ideally take place in the light of the sun or of a domestic fire. The second part of the book, which is much tighter in its organization, is even more enlightening. Kiel shows that, in sharp contrast to Jewish teachings, the founding myths of Zoroastrianism strongly encourage incest between parents and children and between siblings. By keeping good qualities in the family, incest leads to purity of the “seed.” Zoroastrianism even goes so far as to consider incest to be a religious obligation. Kiel reads the Noahide laws in the light of these Zoroastrian teachings: as presented in the Talmud Yerushalmi, the Noahide laws ban incest for Jews and non-Jews alike; when the same laws are presented in the Babylonian Talmud, they ban incest among Jews but permit it among non-Jews. This change shows that Babylonian rabbis were not just responding to the Yerushalmi’s teachings but to their own cultural context. [End Page 212] Kiel states, in a later chapter, that the Zoroastrian practice of confession of sin to a rad, a religious authority, could result in his prescribing penitential procedures, such as remorse, confession, monetary compensation (where relevant), or other punishments. The author recounts several stories from Persian literature in which these features appear. He then turns to the Bavli story about a woman who confessed to R. Ḥisda that her younger son was the result of an incestuous encounter with her older son (B. Avodah Zarah 17a). Although in Zoroastrianism incest is considered so meritorious that it cancels the most serious offenses, R. Ḥisda viewed incest in precisely the opposite way: it is so serious a sin that only death can atone for it...

Yishai Kiel. Sexuality in the Babylonian Talmud, Christian and Sasanian Contexts in Late Antiquity. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016. 302 pp.

Reviewed by: Sexuality in the Babylonian Talmud, Christian and Sasanian Contexts in Late Antiquity by Yishai Kiel Judith Hauptman Yishai Kiel. Sexuality in the Babylonian Talmud, Christian and Sasanian Contexts in Late Antiquity. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016. 302 pp. Having mastered the languages and literature of ancient Iran, Yishai Kiel reads Bavli texts in their Sasanian or Iranian setting, a growing corner of rabbinics research in recent years. Kiel’s volume is a welcome addition. It neatly subdivides into two sections: part 1 presents close readings of rabbinic texts on sexuality in the context of Christian and Zoroastrian texts; part 2 focuses on the treatment of incest in rabbinic and Zoroastrian writings. The main thrust of the volume is to “put the nail in the coffin” of those who read the rabbis only internally, ignoring the culture of which they were a part. As Kiel states, a rabbinic text can be “significantly illuminated by its contextual reading against the backdrop of contemporaneous Zoroastrian practice and doctrine” (246). Babylonian rabbis, Kiel says in part 1, viewed marital sex not just as a means for procreation but as a way to extinguish desire, which they regard as a demonic force. Zoroastrian texts, he then demonstrates, show the same split attitude, which probably means that the rabbis assimilated these “dichotomous” views from contact with their neighbors. Both sets of religious texts also display an ambivalence toward the phenomenon of married scholars leaving their wives for long periods of time to go away and study. True, there is criticism of this practice in the Bavli, Kiel notes, but also romanticization, as in the story of R. Akiba and his wife Rachel, whom he abandons for twenty-four years. In his discussion of sex in the daytime, Kiel argues that although a rabbinic text in B. Niddah 17a frowns on the practice, requiring darkness for sex, the same passage then praises the members of the household of Monobaz of Adiabene, a convert to Judaism according to the Talmud, for engaging in sex in the daytime. To resolve this glaring discrepancy, the anonymous talmudic editor suggests that sex at night can be problematic. Kiel understands the discussion differently. In an innovative and insightful reading of the Monobaz text, he suggests that the Talmud chose to praise a former Zoroastrian for engaging in daytime sex in order to effectively undermine its own legislation that opposed such a practice. The reason for this shift is that the Talmud was responding to the Zoroastrian teaching that sex should ideally take place in the light of the sun or of a domestic fire. The second part of the book, which is much tighter in its organization, is even more enlightening. Kiel shows that, in sharp contrast to Jewish teachings, the founding myths of Zoroastrianism strongly encourage incest between parents and children and between siblings. By keeping good qualities in the family, incest leads to purity of the “seed.” Zoroastrianism even goes so far as to consider incest to be a religious obligation. Kiel reads the Noahide laws in the light of these Zoroastrian teachings: as presented in the Talmud Yerushalmi, the Noahide laws ban incest for Jews and non-Jews alike; when the same laws are presented in the Babylonian Talmud, they ban incest among Jews but permit it among non-Jews. This change shows that Babylonian rabbis were not just responding to the Yerushalmi’s teachings but to their own cultural context. [End Page 212] Kiel states, in a later chapter, that the Zoroastrian practice of confession of sin to a rad, a religious authority, could result in his prescribing penitential procedures, such as remorse, confession, monetary compensation (where relevant), or other punishments. The author recounts several stories from Persian literature in which these features appear. He then turns to the Bavli story about a woman who confessed to R. Ḥisda that her younger son was the result of an incestuous encounter with her older son (B. Avodah Zarah 17a). Although in Zoroastrianism incest is considered so meritorious that it cancels the most serious offenses, R. Ḥisda viewed incest in precisely the opposite way: it is so serious a sin that only death can atone for it...

Hygienic beauty: discussing Ottoman-Muslim female beauty, health and hygiene in the Hamidian Era

ABSTRACTThis article examines discussions on Ottoman-Muslim female beauty, health and hygiene in the Hamidian Era (1876–1909). Analysing the Hamidian popular press, advice literature and textbooks for girls, the article argues that these discussions were more than just female ‘physical culture’ debates, involving larger issues of late-Ottoman regeneration. Wars, epidemics, massive migration movements and fluctuations in population pushed the late-Ottoman state to create healthy generations as a productive force to secure the Empire's future in general and the Ottoman Muslim population's welfare in particular. Maintaining good health expanded from a religious obligation into now also becoming a patriotic duty incumbent upon Ottoman subjects knowing and applying modern hygienic principles. Focus on Ottoman-Muslim women's procreativity shifted female beauty into a public discussion, now defined as a reflection of health. The new hygienic beauty discourse distinguished between preserving vs. harming one's health in the face of Western fashions and cosmetics: healthy beauty mirrored a ‘good complexion’.

Droits de l’homme, droits de Dieu : Une inévitable tension ?

The conflicts between rights of God and human rights are on the rise. On the one hand, there are some rights that are qualified as human rights in the most important international conventions and in many national constitutions. As such, they are to be respected always and everywhere. On the other hand, there are rights that are directly or indirectly attributed to the will of God. Their respect is regarded as a religious obligation to be upheld even when it implies the violation of human rights. These are the terms of the conflict and the fact that they sink their roots in non-negotiable beliefs – rights related to the very nature of man vs. rights dependent on the will of God–makes this conflict particularly serious and complex. This article discusses the structural and historical causes of this conflict and proposes a few strategies to reduce the tensions between these two sets of rights.

Expanding the theory of planned behaviour to predict Chinese Muslims halal meat purchase intention

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of halal meat consumption within the population of Chinese Muslims in China using the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) as a conceptual framework. The role of self-identity as a Muslim, dietary acculturation in the host culture, moral obligation to purchase halal meat and trust on the authenticity of halal meat are explored.Design/methodology/approachCross-sectional data were collected through a survey with 378 Chinese Muslims, currently living in Beijing and Xian cities. Data were analysed by means of correlations and stepwise multiple regressions to test the model and the moderating effects of self-identity, dietary acculturation, moral obligation and trust on behavioural intention.FindingsA positive personal attitude towards the consumption of halal meat, personal conviction, motivation to comply, perceived control over consuming halal meat and perceived availability of halal meat predict the intention to eat halal meat among Chinese Muslims.Research limitations/implicationsLimitations include the focus on only four individual characteristics related to religious food consumption, namely, self-identity, dietary acculturation, moral obligation and trust. Additional individual characteristics such as individualism-collectivism and involvement or values could improve the predictive power of the model.Practical implicationsPractical implications extend to food marketers and food policy decision-makers who might pursue identity, acculturation, trustworthiness and moral obligation-related strategies in their distribution and communication efforts targeted at the growing halal food market segments across China and worldwide.Originality/valueThe current study addresses the important limitation of previous studies regarding the inclusion of additional possible individual characteristics such as moral obligation and trust in the TPB model to investigate the determinants of halal meat consumption within a food-religion context.

The Concept of Ecological Balance and Environmental Conservation: An Islamic Perspective

The environment in which the man and other organisms live is called the biosphere. The biosphere is made up of different regions that have different types of flora (plants) and fauna (animals). The organisms, in addition to being dependent on the environment for their needs, are also dependent on each other. However, man tries to modify the environment to suit his needs unlike the other components of the ecosystem. This has upset the delicate balance being maintained in the environment. Every day there are stories about pollution, global warming and animal species facing extinction. Although human beings are seen as the most intelligent life form on earth, they are responsible for almost all the damage done to the planet. The problem of the environment is one of today’s most serious problems. Many contemporary thinkers and scientists have stated that religion has an important role to play in overcoming these problems and in the development of comprehensive and integral environmental consciousness. The influences of religions on social activities need no introduction. Most of the religions in their holy books make references to the environment protection and its creatures. Furthermore, in all the revealed religions including Islam, human beings are considered the core of the world. In this paper we have made an attempt to discuss the importance, the religion of Islam attaches to the environmental issues, and tried to distil the Islamic imperatives, concerning environmental conservation, laid down in the Quran and expressed in the practice of Prophet of Islam (PBUH). The paper concludes with the observation that environmental protection is an important aspect of Islam. Islam is in principle for conservation and against wastage of resources.. The Islamic perspective on environment protection reflects a positive image about Islam The conservation of the environment is therefore not only a human obligation but also a religious obligation. Indeed, believers should undertake this responsibility more than anyone else.

The Road to Healing: Pilgrimage and the Vietnam War in Let Their Spirits Dance

The Road to Healing:Pilgrimage and the Vietnam War in Let Their Spirits Dance Nadia Avendaño Current research on pilgrimage shows that travel in search for clarification or quest is drawn from either traditional practices within established religions or from rituals that can be melded with new contemporary forms of spirituality. Studies show that pilgrimage is therapeutic in biological, psychological, social, and spiritual ways. When one thinks of pilgrimage, religion generally comes to mind, however, secular pilgrimages have emerged as a viable means of connecting deeply in an existential manner. Upon completion of the journey, pilgrims generally experience life as significantly more meaningful and their psychological or spiritual woe is overcome. In the novel, Let Their Spirits Dance (2003) by Chicana author Stella Pope Duarte, the Ramírez family has lost a loved one in the Vietnam War. They have never healed from this tragedy and some 27 years later, Alicia, the matriarch of the family, claims to hear voices in the night that she believes to be of Jesse, her dead son. This study draws on current anthropological scholarship on pilgrimage to analyze the theme of pilgrimage and its' therapeutic capabilities in the Ramírez family. In the Catholic tradition pilgrims embark on journeys to a specific place with the purpose of venerating it, in order to ask for supernatural aid or to fulfil a religious obligation (Dubisch and Winkelman xiii).1 A less overtly religious definition of pilgrimage is simply put as "outer action with inner meaning" (Clift 12). Both definitions are particularly helpful in understanding the relationship between the Ramírez family's journey and pilgrimage. Alicia, an extremely religious woman is motivated by a religious calling to touch her son's name on the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial in Washington, D.C. She declares: "I vow this day, before all the hosts of Heaven, before God, una manda. I'll get to the Wall before I die and touch my son's name. If it's the last thing I do on this earth, I promise I'll touch Jesse's name!" (93). Her daughter, Teresa, the protagonist-narrator, devoid of a religious obligation, is experiencing her own need for healing, still mourning her brother's death, and accompanies her mother on this pilgrimage, along with several other family members and friends. Alicia insists that the whole family go as well as Jesse's fellow veteran friends. What begins as one mother's quest to fulfil a promise, becomes a family's collective search for healing, and results in a search for both an individual and national identity. According to sociologist Raymond Michalowski and cultural anthropologist Jill Dubish, pilgrimage begins with the idea of a journey, and that traveling to a different or [End Page 104] special place will bring about a change in one's life, in one's viewpoint, in one's state of being. The physical journey is thus paralleled by a spiritual or psychological one. Both the journey and destination are important and incorporate a mixture of religious and secular motives (163). Almost any journey may be termed "a pilgrimage" these days, its meaning defined by inner feelings and motivation rather than by external institutionalized forms (Dubish and Winkelman xvii). While many kinds of places can become the object of a pilgrimage, such sites whether religious or secular, tend to have what anthropologist James Preston has termed "spiritual magnetism" (Preston 33). Whereas some pilgrimage sites are associated with major mythological or historical events within a specific religious tradition, or are established spontaneously because of miraculous occurrences at the site, in some cases, a pilgrimage site was not intended or foreseen, such as is the case with the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial in Washington, D.C. Since its inauguration in 1982, it has become an important pilgrimage destination for veterans and nonveterans alike (Dubish and Winkelman xix). For example, the "Run for the Wall" that started in 1989 is the largest annual pilgrimage to the Memorial Wall consisting of Vietnam Veterans, friends and supporters all traveling on motorcycles. Turning now to the novel Let Their Spirits Dance, Teresa believes she is taking her mother on this trip to fulfill a vow, but...

Gender, Vulnerability, and the Optics of Violence: The Case of Afiya Siddiqui

Gender, Vulnerability, and the Optics of ViolenceThe Case of Afiya Siddiqui Khanum Shaikh (bio) To call the frame into question is to show that the frame never quite contained the scene it was meant to limn, that something was already outside, which made the very sense of the inside possible, recognizable. The frame never quite determined precisely what it is that we see, think, recognize, and apprehend. Something exceeds the frame that troubles our sense of reality; in other words, something occurs that does not conform to our established understanding of things. Judith Butler, Frames of War, 9 introduction In March 2003 the FBI issued an alert requesting information about Afiya Siddiqui, a Muslim woman of Pakistani origin who had been living in the United States since 1990. The FBI alert claimed that Khalid Sheikh Mohammad—one of the masterminds of the 911 attacks on the US—had implicated Siddiqui as someone who had provided administrative support for Al-Qaeda operations in the US. This was the first time the FBI had issued a notice linking a woman with Al-Qaeda’s operations. Then Attorney General John Ashcroft named Siddiqui as one of the seven most wanted Al-Qaeda fugitives and described her as “armed and dangerous” and as a “terrorist facilitator.”1 The US media also began circulating Siddiqui’s name, referring to her often as “Lady Al-Qaeda” or “Al-Qaeda Mom” or “Mata Hari of Al-Qaeda,” and casting her as a dangerous female terrorist.2 Seven years later, in 2010, a US criminal court convicted Siddiqui for attempted assault against US Army personnel in Afghanistan. What is especially noteworthy about this case is that Siddiqui was never charged with or convicted of terrorist activity, even as she has continued to [End Page 29] serve an eighty-six-year prison sentence for her criminal conviction since 2010 at the Federal Medical Center, Carswell, in Fort Worth, Texas. Siddiqui’s controversial case animated two contrasting discourses about Muslim women in the war on terror in the US and in Pakistan. In the US criminal case Siddiqui emerged as a threat to US national security and as a potentially dangerous agent of violence with links to global terrorist networks. Conversely, in Pakistan, her trial ignited a movement of protest among religio-political groups who deemed the criminal trial to be a cover-up for her enforced abduction and secret detention in joint US-Pakistan counterterrorism operations. In these mobilizations, Siddiqui is deployed as an injured and pious daughter of Pakistan who has suffered violations at the hand of US imperial power and its collaborations with a corrupt and weak Pakistani state rather than as an agent of violence herself. In this essay I juxtapose the mobilizations of Afiya Siddiqui as a deeply violated victim-subject of the war on terror among her supporters in Pakistan, on the one hand, with her emergence in the US criminal trial as an agent of violence and a threat to US national security, on the other. My review draws on feminist analyses of nationalism and nationalist movements and the centrality of the gendered body to the articulation of religio-political and nationalist projects.3 In Pakistan I examine the political and emotional force of her deployment within an “Islam vs. West” binary that posits Siddiqui’s imprisonment in the US as Western domination over an emasculated Pakistani state, and her recovery as a religious and moral obligation. I also build on Ramzi Kassem’s analysis of the gendered erasures in the war on terror, in which he examines how the US government’s strategy of regulating the optics of the violence in the extraterritorial front of the war on terror (i.e., its policies of rendition, detentions in secret prisons, interrogation practices, civilian deaths by drone strikes, etc.) is central to it self-production as a beacon of women’s rights, human rights, and democracy. To consider how various moments in her US trial produce her as a “possibly terrorist” subject who does not elicit sympathy, I draw on Judith Butler’s analysis of the mechanisms through which certain populations are “cast as threats to human life as we know it rather...

Effect of ramadan fasting on glycemic control and other essential variables in diabetic patients.

Background:Fasting during the holy month of Ramadan is a religious obligation for all Muslims who represent 1.8 billion of the world population (24%). This study explores the effect of Ramadan fasting on the blood glucose, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), lipid profile, sleeping quality, and essential lifestyle parameters and also explores the safety of fasting for a whole month among diabetic patients.Aim:The aim of the present study was to assess the impact of Ramadan fasting on the blood glucose, HbA1c, lipid profile, sleeping quality, and lifestyle parameters among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in Turkey.Subjects and Methods:A total of 1780 diabetic patients were approached, and 1246 (70%) participated in this cross-sectional study carried out during the period from May 27, 2017, to June 24, 2017. Data analysis comprised sociodemographic features, lifestyle habits, blood pressure measurements, serum lipid profiles, serum calcium, Vitamin D 25-hydroxy, uric acid, and HbA1c at before 4 weeks and after 12 weeks from Ramadan.Results:Out of 1246 patients, 593 (47.6%) were male and 653 (52.4%) were female. The mean ± standard deviation age of the patients was 50.39 ± 15.3 years. Males were significantly older than females (51.53 ± 12.56 vs. 49.26 ± 14.4; P = 0.003, respectively). Significant differences were found in Vitamin D, blood glucose, HbA1c level, creatinine, bilirubin, albumin, total cholesterol, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (female), low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (male), uric acid, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure after and before the holy month of Ramadan (P < 0.05 for each). HbA1c (P < 0.001), physical activity (P < 0.001), hours of sleeping (P < 0.001), systolic blood pressure (BP) (mmHg) (P = 0.007), BMI (P = 0.016), diastolic BP (mmHg) (P = 0.018), family history (P = 0.021), and smoking (P = 0.045) were identified as significantly associated with Ramadan fasting as contributing factors.Conclusion:In one of the largest studies of its kind, we show that Ramadan fasting has positive effects on T2DM patients as it reduces their blood pressure, blood glucose, HbA1C, and BMI. Furthermore, there are improvements in the duration of sleep and physical activity, the role of Ramadan fasting in diabetes therapy has been confirmed.

How Religion Influences Peacemaking

Although a large amount of scholarly and popular attention has been devoted to understanding the relationship between religion and violence, comparatively less attention has been paid to the relationship between religion and peace. Yet, there are many reasons to believe that religion can be a powerful force for peacemaking. Qualitative research indicates that religious leaders and religious people are often credible peace brokers who are respected in their communities, have ready access to cultural peace-promoting concepts like reconciliation and forgiveness, and may be motivated by non-partisan factors like fulfilling religious obligations or furthering God’s will. Despite this promising research, little large-scale quantitative data has yet been collected from individuals engaged in peacemaking. In this study, the relationship between religion and peacemaking is explored using survey data collected from 171 international peacemakers, the majority of whom are Christian and white. The results indicate that religion influences peacemaking in at least two non-mutually exclusive ways: through motivating religious individuals to participate in peacemaking and through the use of religious tactics by those engaged in peacemaking. Through both means, religion influences commitment to continuing peacemaking, subjective evaluations of success by peacemakers, and hope for success in the future.

The Influence of Knowledge, Islamic Religiosity and Self-Efficacy on the Intention to Pay Income Zakat among Public Educators in Kedah, Malaysia

Zakat is not only a religious obligation which must be complied by all eligible Muslims but also plays a very important role in Islamic fiscal system, specifically as a major source of income and could be used as an instrument to finance certain programs in order to achieve social, political and economic development among Muslim communities. However, the issue which arises is that zakat collection including income zakat is still low which hinders the effectiveness of zakat in playing a more significant role in the state of Kedah. Therefore, this study examines determinants of compliance behavior of income zakat by adding Islamic religiosity and moral obligation to the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) in order to gain more understanding of determinants of employment income zakat. The sample size used in this study is 372. This study uses PLS-SEM bootstrap and blindfolding technique in order to examine the relationship, effect size and predictive relevance of the variables of the study. This study proves that attitude, selfefficacy, moral obligation and religiosity have significant relationships and positive influence on intention. However, it is revealed there is no significant relationship between subjective norms, knowledge, perception towards promotional exposure, perception towards law, perception towards service quality, and perception towards equity in zakat distribution, tax rebate, and intention. Furthermore, the finding of this study demonstrates that Islamic religiosity plays a significant role in moderating the relationships between (i) moral obligation and intention and (ii) promotion and intention. Moreover, this study verifies that intention not only has a significant relationship but also significant and large effect size and large predictive relevance on compliance behavior. The findings of this study have important implications not only for knowledge but also to zakat institutions. The empirical evidence has important implications for theory as well as policy. Using a new method, PLS-SEM, this study is able to provide empirical evidence which is in line with findings of previous studies as well as new findings which expand the boundary of knowledge in the area of compliance behavior of zakat. The important contribution of this study is that the factors identified as significant determinants of compliance behavior of income zakat such as attitude, self-efficacy, moral obligation and Islamic religiosity could be useful as a guide for relevant authorities and policy makers to formulate suitable strategies to increase zakat collection in the future.

Influencing consumer boycott: between sympathy and pragmatic

PurposeThis paper aims to examine consumers’ responses to products that are influenced by their moral justification. Specifically, this paper examines the factors related to consumers’ moral response and choices, including religious affiliation and obligation, group memberships, group reference, type of product and link of egregious conduct to particular products. This study explicates Adam Smith’s concept of people’s proprietary emotion that potentially affects their purchasing behavior.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses focus group discussion with nine consumers across ethnic groups in Malaysia. A recent boycott case was used to stimulate the group discussion. Their statements are displayed in the findings to show their expressions verbatim.FindingsThe findings outline that consumers’ participation in the boycott of products is influenced by their moral judgment with frequent addressing of the religious affiliation and obligation, group reference and group membership factors. Additionally, there is a tendency that certain issue(s), although perceived as a universal humanistic issue, would be relatively closer to people with backgrounds similar to the majority of the victims of a particular issue. However, such a boycott action has issues such as duration of action, consistency of action and choice of pragmatic over moral decision that weigh the efficacy of the boycott action toward products related to certain egregious actions. Overall, the non-participation decision had been attached to factors such as type of product, boycotting cost, brand attraction and function or usefulness of products. These factors may also moderate consumers’ sentiment to boycott a particular product(s) in the long term.Originality/valueThis paper offers new insight regarding factors influencing participation in the boycott of products which were suspected to have link with egregious conduct towards certain Muslim groups. This paper offers a different perspective by integrating ethical theory into the discussion. In addition, it explores the influence of Muslims’ brotherhood concept on participation in boycott activities.

Moral Distress at the End of a Life: When Family and Clinicians Do Not Agree on Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator Deactivation

A 63-year-old man with end-stage ischemic cardiomyopathy presented with incessant ventricular tachycardia. He had been hospitalized multiple times in the past year for severe heart failure. As he approached end of life and was regularly receiving defibrillator shocks, his care team recommended deactivation of his implantable cardioverter-defibrillator. However, his family did not wish to allow deactivation, reporting a religious obligation to prolong his life, regardless of the risk of suffering. The patient was unable to adequately participate in the decision-making process. An implantable cardioverter-defibrillator can serve to avoid sudden death but may lead to a prolonged death from heart failure. This possibility forces the examination of values regarding prolongation of life, sometimes producing disagreement among stakeholders. Although ethical consensus holds that defibrillator deactivation is legal and ethical, disagreements about life prolongation may complicate decision making. The ethical, technical, and medical complexity involved in this case speaks to the need for clear, prospective communication involving the patient, the patient's family, and members of the care team.

American Muslim Philanthropy after 9/11

Following 9/11, American Muslim philanthropy has generally been framed in terms of national security and civil liberties. In practice, however, American Muslims’ charitable giving has neither posed a threat to national security nor has the government’s closing of some of the largest Muslim relief organizations after 9/11 had the chilling effect that many predicted it would have had on American Muslims’ religious obligation of giving to charity. This article argues that the American Muslim philanthropy post-9/11 belies enduring presuppositions about Islam’s rigidity and religion’s interiority, which resulted in widespread misapprehensions about the nature of Muslim philanthropy in America after 9/11. American Muslim philanthropy post-9/11 highlights the polyvalence and fluidity of the public practice of Islam. In the fluid space of practice, American Muslims have brought together Islamic vocabularies of charity and American legal and sociopolitical norms regarding philanthropy to forge new relations across groups of varying social, religious, political, cultural, and economic backgrounds.

Female Preachers and the Public Discourse on Islam in Malaysia

This paper explores Malaysia’s activist female preachers (pendakwah) by highlighting the religious authority and leadership in preaching that they have attained due to their firm grounding in Islam’s fundamental sources and Arabic. I analyze their recorded online lectures, radio talks, and interviews to identify their common preaching styles and highlighted themes. The study finds that their highest objective is to help create a sound moral and ethical society via the fulfillment of moral and religious obligations. To that end, they deal primarily with spiritual development and family management issues, as well as draw spiritual and religious conclusions from important historical events. The paper concludes that they keep their activism within the confines of expected social norms and the bureaucracy of religious authority. By adhering to social and religious orthodoxy, they continue to gain authority and trust from both the established religious authorities and the public.

Is Hijab a fashion statement? A study of Malaysian Muslim women

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to analyze the motivation behind the hijab behavior in a multicultural environment of Malaysia; it is a religious obligation or fashion behavior. In an analytic thinking of motivation in influencing women in wearing a hijab, learning from the social environment on religious obligation and fashion in hijab has been discussed.Design/methodology/approachQuantitative analysis has been conducted for 100 hijab-wearing female students in the University of Malaya.FindingsThe findings were tabulated and the outcomes proved that most of the women took the hijab as a religious obligation instead of fashion motivation. Muslim women are still taking on the religious obligation in styling up the hijab. Modification in the hijab can be accepted in Malaysia, but the substantial design to wear the hijab is an obligation.Originality/valueThis study exclusively discusses the hijab as fashion and religious obligation within the context of Malaysia.

The Islamification of antiretroviral therapy: Reconciling HIV treatment and religion in northern Nigeria

Access and adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) are essential to HIV treatment success and epidemic control. This article is about how HIV-positive Muslims and providers balance ART with religious tenets and obligations. I conducted 17 months of multi-site ethnographic research between 2007 and 2010, including participant-observation in an urban HIV clinic in Kano, Nigeria and a support group for people living with HIV, as well as in-depth interviews with 30 HIV-positive men and 30 key informants with caregiving, clinical, or policy roles related to HIV/AIDS. Patients migrated from Islamic prophetic medicine to ART when it became more widely available in the mid-2000s through the U.S. PEPFAR program. At the same time, a conceptual shift occurred away from considering HIV immediately curable through spiritual and herbal-based Islamic prophetic medicine toward considering HIV as a chronic infection that requires adherence to daily pill regimens. Hope for a complete cure and encouragement from some Islamic prophetic healers resulted in some patients forgoing ART. Patients and providers adapted biomedical treatment guidelines to minimize disruption to religious practices also considered essential to Muslims' wellbeing, irrespective of HIV status. Providers discouraged patients on second-line ART from fasting because such patients had fewer treatment options and, often, poorer health. However, patients’ medication adherence was affected by the desire to fulfill fasting obligations and to avoid questions from family and friends unaware of their HIV-positive status. This study is one of few ethnographic accounts of HIV treatment in a Muslim-majority society and contributes to understanding the significance of religion for HIV treatment in northern Nigeria. It has implications for public health programming and clinical approaches to HIV treatment in medically pluralistic Muslim societies.