West African ʿulamāʾ and Salafism in Mecca and Medina: Jawāb al-Ifrῑqῑ – The Response of the African

Chanfi Ahmed
Brill, March 2015
http://www.brill.com/products/book/west-african-ulama-and-salafism-mecca-and-medina

Chanfi Ahmed shows how West African ʿulamāʾ, who fled the European colonization of their region to settle in Mecca and Medina, helped the regime of King Ibn Sa’ud at its beginnings in the field of teaching and spreading the Salafῑ-Wahhabῑ’s Islam both inside and outside Saudi Arabia. This is against the widespread idea of considering the spread of the Salafῑ-Wahhābῑ doctrine as being the work of ʿulamāʾ from Najd (Central Arabia) only. We learn here that the diffusion of this doctrine after 1926 was much more the work of ʿulamāʾ from other parts of the Muslim World who had already acquired this doctrine and spread it in their countries by teaching and publishing books related to it. In addition Chanfi Ahmed demonstrates that concerning Islamic reform and mission (daʿwa), Africans are not just consumers, but also thinkers and designers.

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to our members.

The Arab Revolution of 2011: A Comparative Perspective is just out:

http://www.sunypress.edu/p-5978-the-arab-revolution-of-2011.aspx

—

Said Amir Arjomand

Distinguished Service Professor of  Sociology 

Director of the Stony Brook Institute for Global Studies

Editor, Journal of Persianate Studies

State University of New York

Stony Brook, NY 11794

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The Muslim Struggle for Civil Rights in Spain Promoting Democracy through Migrant Engagement, 1985–2010

Aitana Guia

Sussex Academic, 2014

http://www.sussex-academic.com/sa/titles/history/Guia.htm

In this history of Spain since 1975, with the collapse of dictatorship and transition to democracy, Aitana Guia demonstrates that a key factor left out of studies on the period—namely immigration and specifically Muslim immigration—has helped reinvigorate and strengthen the democratic process. Despite broad diversity and conflicting agendas, Muslim immigrants—often linking up with native converts to Islam—have mobilized as an effective force. They have challenged the long tradition of Maurophobia exemplified in such mainstream festivities as the Festivals of Moors and Christians; they have taken to task residents and officials who have stood in the way of efforts to construct mosques; and they have defied the members of their own community who have refused to accommodate the rights of women.

Beginning in Melilla, in Spanish-held North Africa, and expanding across Spain, the effect of this civil rights movement has been to fill gaps in legislation on immigration and religious pluralism and to set in motion a revision of prevailing interpretations of Spanish history and identity, ultimately forcing Spanish society to open up a space for all immigrants.

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The Russian Orthodox Church, 1917-1948
From Decline to Resurrection
By Daniela Kalkandjieva
Routledge – 2015
http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9781138788480/

This book tells the remarkable story of the decline and revival of the Russian Orthodox Church in the first half of the twentieth century and the astonishing U-turn in the attitude of the Soviet Union’s leaders towards the church. In the years after 1917 the Bolsheviks’ anti-religious policies, the loss of the former western territories of the Russian Empire, and the Soviet Union’s isolation from the rest of the world and the consequent separation of Russian emigrés from the church were disastrous for the church, which declined very significantly in the 1920s and 1930s. However, when Poland was partitioned in 1939 between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, Stalin allowed the Patriarch of Moscow, Sergei, jurisdiction over orthodox congregations in the conquered territories and went on, later, to encourage the church to promote patriotic activities as part of the resistance to the Nazi invasion. He agreed a Concordat with the church in 1943, and continued to encourage the church, especially its claims to jurisdiction over émigré Russian orthodox churches, in the immediate postwar period. Based on extensive original research, the book puts forward a great deal of new information and overturns established thinking on many key points.

Daniela Kalkandjieva is a Researcher at the University of Sofia, Bulgaria

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Muslims in the Western Imagination By Sophia Rose Arjana

Oxford University Press, 2015

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/muslims-in-the-western-imagination-9780199324927?cc=us&lang=en#

Throughout history, Muslim men have been depicted as monsters. The portrayal of humans as monsters helps a society delineate who belongs and who, or what, is excluded. Even when symbolic, as in post-9/11 zombie films, Muslim monsters still function to define Muslims as non-human entities. These are not depictions of Muslim men as malevolent human characters, but rather as creatures that occupy the imagination –non-humans that exhibit their wickedness outwardly on the skin. They populate medieval tales, Renaissance paintings, Shakespearean dramas, Gothic horror novels, and Hollywood films. Through an exhaustive survey of medieval, early modern, and contemporary literature, art, and cinema, Muslims in the Western Imagination examines the dehumanizing ways in which Muslim men have been constructed and represented as monsters, and  the impact such representations have on perceptions of Muslims today.

The study is the first to present a genealogy of these creatures, from the demons and giants of the Middle Ages to the hunchbacks with filed teeth that are featured in the 2007 film 300, arguing that constructions of Muslim monsters constitute a recurring theme, first formulated in medieval Christian thought. Sophia Rose Arjana shows how Muslim monsters are often related to Jewish monsters, and more broadly to Christian anti-Semitism and anxieties surrounding African and other foreign bodies, which involves both religious bigotry and fears surrounding bodily difference. Arjana argues persuasively that these dehumanizing constructions are deeply embedded in Western consciousness, existing today as internalized beliefs and practices that contribute to the culture of violence–both rhetorical and physical–against Muslims.

Table of Contents

• Introduction: Islam in the Western Imagination
• Chapter 1: The Muslim Monster
• Chapter 2: Medieval Muslim Monsters
• Chapter 3: Turkish Monsters
• Chapter 4: The Monsters of Orientalism
• Chapter 5: Muslim Monsters in the Americas
• Chapter 6: The Monsters of September 11th

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Identity and Political Participation Among Young British Muslims: Believing and Belonging, by Asma Mustafa

Palgrave Macmillan, January 2015

http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/identity-and-political-participation-among-young-british-muslims-asma-mustafa/?K=9781137302526

The integration of British born young Muslims into wider society is one of the most topical issues challenging policy makers in modern Britain. As citizens with diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds they have aspirations, values and interests which may seem difficult to accommodate within a Western European social and political context. For an intelligent and well informed analysis of the dynamic nature of social and political integration, we need to listen to the voices of young British Muslims, males and females; and record the diversity of their experiences as citizens. Understanding their motivations and political concerns are key factors in illuminating their identity and predicting their political action. The challenge for informed policy-making is to avoid simple stereotyping of faith communities and examine more deeply the key drivers of identity formation and political engagement of young British Muslims.

Asma Mustafa is a Research Fellow in the Study of Muslims in Britain and Senior Tutor and Senior Research Fellow, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies and Linacre College, University of Oxford, UK

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A. Possamai, J.T. Richardson, B.S. Turner (Eds.) The Sociology of Shari’a: Case Studies from around the World

Series: Boundaries of Religious Freedom: Regulating Religion in Diverse Societies, Vol. 1

• Presents a comparative analysis of the application of Shari’a in contrasting countries with Muslim minorities and majorities
• Provides a global analysis of Shari’a and views Islamic law from a sociological perspective
• Explores some ground-breaking perspectives on the sociology of Shari’a, such as the application of the the theories of Chambliss and Eisenstadt 

This edited volume offers a collection of papers that presents a comparative analysis of the development of Shari’a in countries with Muslim minorities, such as America, Australia, China, Germany,  Italy, Singapore, South Africa and the Philippines, as well as countries with Muslim majorities, such as Malaysia, Bangladesh, Turkey, and Tunisia.

The Sociology of Shari’a provides a global analysis of these important legal transformations and  examines the topic from a sociological perspective. In addition, the third part of the book includes case studies that explore some groundbreaking applications of theoretical perspectives such as those from Chambliss and Eisenstadt.

See the attached flyer for information.

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Religion in Britain: A Persistent Paradox
Grace Davie
February 2015, Wiley-Blackwell
Religion in Britain: A Persistent Paradox (1405135964)

http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1405135964.html

Description
Religion in Britain evaluates and sheds light on the religious situation in twenty-first century Britain; it explores the country’s increasing secularity alongside religion’s growing presence in public debate, and the impact of this paradox on Britain’s society.

• - Describes and explains the religious situation in twenty-first century Britain
• - Based on the highly successful Religion in Britain Since 1945 (Blackwell, 1994) but extensively revised with the majority of the text re-written to reflect the current situation
• - Investigates the paradox of why Britain has become increasingly secular and how religion is increasingly present in public debate compared with 20 years ago
• - Explores the impact this paradox has on churches, faith communities, the law, politics, education, and welfare

Table of Contents
Part I Preliminaries
1 Introduction: A Framework for Discussion
2 Contexts and Generations
3 Facts and Figures
Part II Religious Legacies
4 Cultural Heritage, Believing without Belonging and Vicarious Religion
5 Territory, Politics and Institutions
6 Presence: Who Can Do What For Whom?
Part III Shifting Priorities: From Obligation to Consumption
7 An Emerging Market: Gainers and Losers
8 Proliferations of the Spiritual
Part IV Public Religion and Secular Reactions
9 Managing Diversity
10 Religion in Public Life
Part V Thinking Theoretically
11 Religion and Modernity Continued

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The Intimate: Polity and the Catholic Church. Laws about Life, Death and the Family in So-called Catholic Countries. KAREL DOBBELAERE & ALFONSO PÉREZ-AGOTE (eds.). KADOC Studies on Relgion, Culture and Society nr 15. Louvain: Leuven University Press: February 2015. http://upers.kuleuven.be

For centuries the Catholic Church was able to impose her ethical rules in matters related to the intimate, that is, questions concerning life (from its beginning until its end) and the family, in the so-called Catholic countries in Western Europe. When the polity started to introduce legislation that was in opposition to the Catholic ethic, the ecclesiastical authorities and part of the population reacted. The media reported massive manifestations in France against same-sex marriages and in Spain against the de-penalization of abortion. In Italy the Episcopal Conference entered the political field in opposition to the relaxation of several restrictive legal rules concerning medically assisted procreation and exhorted the voters to abstain from voting so that the referendum did not obtain the necessary quorum. In Portugal, to the contrary, the Church made a “pact” with the prime minister so that the law on same-sex marriages did not include the possibility of adoption. And in Belgium the Episcopal Conference limited its actions to clearly expressing with religious, legal, and anthropological arguments its opposition to such laws, which all other Episcopal Conferences did also. In this book, the authors analyse the full spectrum of the issue, including the emergence of such laws; the political discussions; the standpoints defended in the media by professionals, ethicists, and politicians; the votes in the parliaments; the political interventions of the Episcopal Conferences; and the attitude of professionals. As a result the reader understands what was at stake and the differences in actions of the various Episcopal Conferences. The authors also analyse the pro and con evaluations among the civil population of such actions by the Church. Finally, in a comparative synthesis, they discuss the public positions taken by Pope Francis to evaluate if a change in Church policy might be possible in the near future.

• Introduction. Karel Dobbelaere & Alfonso Pérez-Agote
• Euthanasia and the Belgian Catholic World, Liliane Voyé & Karel Dobbelaere
• “Mariage pour tous”: The Same-Sex Marriage Controversy in France, Céline Béraud & Philippe Portier
• The Italian Catholic Church and the Artificial-Insemination Referendum, Annalisa Frisina, Franco Garelli, Enzo Pace & Roberto Scalon
• Ethical Challenges of the Catholic Church in Portugal : The Case of Same-Sex-Marriage, Helena Vilaça & Maria João Oliveira
• The Catholic Church Faces Ethical Challenges in Spain : The Regulation of Abortion, Alfonso Pérez-Agote, Jose Santiago & Antonio Montañés
• Comparative Synthesis, Karel Dobbelaere, Alfonso Pérez-Agote & Céline Béraud

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