‘We are equals’; datum or delusion: perceptions of Muslim women academics in three Malaysian universities

Islam underlines equality between women and men regarding their spiritual and intellectual potential. However, given interpretations of religious texts are often availed to suppress women in most Muslim societies, with serious implications for gender equality in the domestic and the professional spheres. This article draws on data from a study of Muslim women academics from three Malaysian universities to highlight the impact of dominant discourses on these women’s professional lives and their perceptions of gender equality, and discusses its implications for their professional journeys. The article argues that the feudal patriarchal structures of most Muslim societies, reinforced by vested interpretations of religious texts, validate a powerful discourse of male authority which contributes to the perception that submitting to male authority is a Muslim woman’s religious obligation. The seductive power of these discourses couched in religious authority influences the terms of their professional engagement and their conceptualisations and understanding of gender equality.     

论秃黑鲁·帖木儿与伊斯兰教在新疆地区的传播

十四世纪时期,察合台汗后裔秃黑鲁·帖木儿在阿克苏继承察合台汗国汗位。此后,秃黑鲁.帖木儿汗接受了伊斯兰教,并使十六万蒙古人皈依伊斯兰教,使伊斯兰教在新疆地区掀起了又一次的传播高潮。同时,秃黑鲁.帖木儿汗在接受伊斯兰教后,也借助于宗教势力恢复了汗权,达到了维护自己统治的目的。     

A place for informal learning in teaching about religion: The story of an experienced non-Muslim teacher and her learning about Islam

Teacher learning about religion has remained an under-researched topic in spite of the professional accountability placed on teachers to teach about religion in a constitutionally permissible and pedagogically sound way. Using data collected from interviews, the purpose of this study is to describe and examine how and what an experienced Non-Muslim teacher of the world’s religions learned about Islam in today’s climate of accountability and negative imagery of Islam. The findings of this study suggest that informal learning through independent reading and interaction with a local Muslim community can be a means to enculturate teachers of world religions into ways of learning about Islam.     

Shaping futures and feminisms: Qur’anic schools in West African francophone fiction

This article examines the representation of female education in Qur’anic schools in a selection of West African francophone novels. I argue that in being the earliest form of education for most Muslim women and also a neglected topic of scholarly interest, the Qur’anic school shapes their feminisms in more significant ways than has been acknowledged since scholarly attention to Islamic education in West Africa has mostly focused on the experience of boys in Qur’anic schools, and since theories on feminism in Islam have primarily articulated feminism as a politically oriented project. Using Islamic feminism as a disposition that is not always coterminous with activist objectives within the sociohistorical context of Islamic education in West African Muslim societies, this paper emphasizes the need to focus on forms of female literacy other than secular education.     

The politics of gender segregation and women's access to higher education in the Islamic Republic of Iran: the interplay of repression and resistance

One of the significant achievements of the Islamic Republic of Iran has been the increasing access of women to all levels of education. This paper focuses on women's access to higher education and its unexpected and paradoxical outcomes. Today women in Iran represent over 60% of university students at the undergraduate level. Against the dominant social imaginary of Muslim women, this paper explores how the contradictions and complexities of politics within the Islamic Republic impact women's lives and how women themselves have been able to bring gender justice to the core of Iranian politics.     

试论伊斯兰教的产生与阿拉伯统一国家形成的关系

伊斯兰教的产生是７世纪阿拉伯半岛政治、经济发展的产物。它的诞生不仅以严格的一神信仰,结束了半岛分裂割据局面,而且还以宗教为纽带,将分散的阿拉伯诸部落统一成为强大的穆斯林国家,从而使默默无闻的阿拉伯人走向世界。伊斯兰教亦由半岛的民族宗教发展为今天的世界三大宗教之一。     

Conversion Anxieties in the Crown of Aragón in the Later Middle Ages

The conversion of Christians to Islam caused significant anxiety in the Crown of Aragón in the later middle ages. Some of this fear was caused by genuine concern over the eternal salvation of the convert, but there were other reasons as well. This article looks at three distinct causes that served to foster and maintain this fear of conversion. First, Christian authorities sometimes purposefully used the spectre of Christians converting to Islam to galvanise support for some of their political, diplomatic, and military initiatives. Secondly, apostates posed a significant spiritual danger to those Christians who lived as minorities in Muslim regions. Finally, converts presented a danger to the Crown of Aragón from a practical and military point of view.     

Challenging Authority: Al-Balādhurī and al-Ṭabarī on Khārijism during the Reign of Muʿāwiya b. Abī Sufyān1

ABSTRACT

Khārijite resistance to Umayyad authority during the caliphate of Mu?āwiya b. Abī Sufyān (r. 661–680) is represented in detail in the works of the early Muslim scholars A?mad b. Ya?yā al-Balādhurī (d. c. 892) and Mu?ammad b. Jarīr al-?abarī (d. 923). While the Khārijites are overwhelmingly depicted by both authors as religious fanatics whose excessive piety caused widespread bloodshed and who thus should be condemned, a closer look reveals that Khārijites serve specific and distinct narrative purposes: al-Balādhurī uses them mainly to illustrate Umayyad tyranny, while al-?abarī addresses the consequences of Khārijite revolts for communal and imperial stability. The latter's work is also marked by a dichotomy between activist and quietist Khārijism, implying that al-?abarī is not so much opposed to Khārijism as a set of “heretic” religious ideas, but rather to its violent expression of politico-religious opposition.     

From Traders to Caliphs: Prosopography,Geography and the Marriages of Muḥammad's Tribe

ABSTRACT

When viewed prosopographically, the marriages of the Umayyad caliphs recorded within the Arabic genealogical literary tradition present us with a compelling insight into the evolution of the early Islamic polity. Following a brief outline of the methodology, this paper will then extract the marriages of the Umayyad caliphs and their sons and use these data to illustrate trends in marriage behaviour over the course of their dynastic reign. This will then be compared with the marriage behaviour of two other cohorts: those of Mu?ammad and the early Muslims, and those of the Quraysh of Mu?ammad's father's generation. By comparing the behaviour of these three groups we shall demonstrate the efficacy of the methodology and the accuracy of the source material and ultimately develop our narrative of Islamic history prior to the fall of the Umayyads.     

Islam,state and society in Singapore

Abstract

Muslims are a politically significant religious minority in Singapore. This is compounded by the fact that an overwhelming number of Malays are also Muslims. This conflation of Malay ethnicity and religious identity has led to assumptions of homogeneity when addressing Islam in Singapore. This paper argues for greater care in understanding Muslims in Singapore. It tries to show how the conflation of ethnic and religious identities is a product of historical and political factors. It explores the growing pluralism within Islam as Singaporean Muslims are exposed to processes of modernization, globalization and Islamization. Ultimately, the paper argues that growing heterogeneity is leading to new tensions in the vertical linkages between Islam and the State in Singapore. New contestations for religious authority are producing pressures to de-link ethnic and religious identity in political representation.