The making of public Islam: piety, agency, and commodification on the landscape of the Indonesian public sphere
by Hasan, Noorhaidi
Over the last three decades, Islam has demonstrated its vitality as a system of symbolic and collective identity that informs the social and political dynamics of Indonesian society. It has increasingly served as the most important frame of reference for many Indonesians to reflect upon the socio-political and cultural system they imagined capable of bringing about justice and attaining veritable development. Keeping pace with the growing influence of Islam among the emerging Indonesian Muslim middle class, it has even gradually emerged as a symbol of elitism, associated with the road to success. Its strength lies in the fact that it has developed into some sort of network that enables large numbers of people from different …
Danish cartoon controversy in the Chinese context: transnational Islam and public visibility of Hong Kong Muslims
by Ho, Wai-Yip
Placed within the wider Chinese context of Muslims’ reticent response to the publication of twelve cartoons by Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, this paper attempts to understand the transnational impact of global Muslim protests against the Danish cartoons, which resulted in the re-emergence of Hong Kong Muslims in the public sphere. By discussing the genesis of the public appearance of Hong Kong Muslims in response to the Danish Cartoon affair, this paper argues that the controversy has resulted in a heightened sense of Islam in the Chinese public sphere. Framing the emerging Islamic voices in a context where the Chinese government has a coherent rationale towards religious policy in its domestic politics, and its unprecedented …
Geographical contributions to understanding contemporary Islam: current trends and future directions
by Hopkins, Peter
In recent years, geographers have been giving increasing attention to religion—and Islam in particular—yet such work is rarely referred to within the broader social science literature about Islam and Muslims. This paper seeks to promote interdisciplinary dialogue, discussion and debate by highlighting the contributions that human geographers are making to understandings of contemporary Islam. In particular, I draw upon research within urban, social, cultural and feminist geographies to review current trends within geographical scholarship about Muslims individuals and communities. I then use this paper to suggest ways in which interdisciplinary research—in collaboration with human geographers—might seek to advance contemporary understandings of the social and spatial experiences of Muslim families and communities. I propose that a …
Farhang Rajaee, Islamism and modernism: the changing discourse in Iran
by Barzegar, Abbas
DOI: 10.1007/s11562-009-0094-y
Online Date: 9/23/2009
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Bringing the mosque home and talking politics: women, domestic space, and the state in the Ferghana Valley (Uzbekistan)
by Peshkova, Svetlana
In this article I argue that domestic space has to be theorized as an important center of religious practice and socio-political activism. Born-again and devout Muslim women in the Ferghana Valley (Uzbekistan) use domestic space as an important sacred place for religious observance and socialization equal to the mosques. This sacred place has a special meaning for born-again and devout Muslims as it carries a promise of personal and social change. In the context of religious and political persecution by the Uzbek state, domestic space is experienced as a politically safe place and as a critically important site of socio-political criticism and activism, as some intimate in-house discussions about religious, political, and social oppression take …
David Cook, Contemporary Muslim apocalyptic literature
by Varisco, Daniel Martin
DOI: 10.1007/s11562-009-0092-0
Online Date: 7/24/2009
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Oliver Schlumberger (ed): Debating arab authoritarianism: dynamics and durability in nondemocratic regimes
by Bellin, Eva
DOI: 10.1007/s11562-009-0090-2
Online Date: 7/21/2009
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Sylvia Wing Önder, We have no microbes here: Healing practices in a Turkish Black Sea village
by Shively, Kim
DOI: 10.1007/s11562-009-0091-1
Online Date: 7/21/2009
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Islam and sexuality: orthodoxy and contestations
by Yip, Andrew Kam-Tuck
DOI: 10.1007/s11562-008-0073-8
Online Date: 2/12/2009
Print publication date: 4/1/2009
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Silence, pleasure and agency: sexuality of unmarried girls in Dakar, Senegal
by Eerdewijk, Anouka
The article investigates the way unmarried Muslim girls in contemporary Dakar construct their sexuality. It explores in what way and to what extent female sexuality is being silenced, and if any, in what way pleasure and sexual agency are present in the narratives of those girls about their intimate lives. Such an analysis is called for in relation to understanding young people’s safe sex practices and concerns about reproductive health and HIV/AIDS. Women’s own experiences and understandings are often downplayed in studies that focus on and reproduce the dominant discourse of patriarchal control. This article shows the silencing in a male-centered construction of pre-marital sexuality in Dakar, but also reveals female pleasure and sexual agency. …
