The subject of this reading response concerns the relationship between Islam and national identity. The readings for next week, one by David Radford, and two by myself (I was not able to scan the Borbieva chapter, unfortunately) give us very different perspectives on what this relationship looks like.
Please write 200-250 words comparing Radford and Artman’s perspectives on the relationship between Islam and national identity. What were their main arguments? Where do they agree? Where do they disagree? Please also discuss how some of the readings from week 11 (Peshkova, Rasanayagam, Privratsky) might inform our understanding of the debate about national identity and religion. Which perspective did you find most persuasive? (and you don’t have to agree with me just because I wrote some of the readings – remember what we’ve learned in class: it’s ok to disagree!). What did you find most interesting about the readings for these two weeks?
1
CONTEMPORARY MODES OF ISLAMIC DISCOURSE IN
KYRGYZSTAN: RETHINKING THE MODERATE - EXTREMIST
DUALITY
CAP PAPERS 170
(CERIA SERIES)
Vincent M. Artman1
Islam’s growing political, cultural, and social influence in Central Asia has become a major
preoccupation of analysts and policymakers since 1991. Much of this discussion, however, has
focused on questions related to security, extremism, and terrorism.2 A characteristic motif in
this literature is the juxtaposition of “moderate Islam” with “Islamic extremism.” The struggle
between moderates and extremists, in turn, works to shape a broader geopolitical metanarrative
in which Central Asia is constructed as a place of instability, violence, and political repression.3
Some have even depicted the region as being faced with the possibility of a Eurasian “Arab
Spring” scenario.4
Not surprisingly, the actual religious landscape in Central Asia is substantially more complex
than this binary admits: rather than a stark division between local moderates and foreign
extremists, closer inspection reveals a myriad of different theologies, religious groups and
1 Vincent M. Artman is is an instructor in the Center for Peace & Conflict Studies at Wayne State
University. He holds a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Kansas. His publications include
“Documenting Territory: Passportisation, Territory, and Exception in Abkhazia and South Ossetia” in the
journal Geopolitics and a co-authored piece entitled “Territorial Cleansing: A Geopolitical Approach to
Understanding Mass Violence” in Territory, Politics, Governance.
2 An example of this genre is R. Sagdeev, Islam and Central Asia: An Enduring Legacy or an Evolving
Threat? Washington, DC: Center for Political and Strategic Studies, 2000. See also S.F. Starr, “Moderate
Islam? Look to Central Asia,” New York Times, February 26, 2014.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/27/opinion/moderate-islam-look-to-central-asia.html; A.
Masylkan.
Rethinking islamist politics, culture, the state and islamism by salwa ismailtopbottom1
This document provides an overview and summary of the book "Rethinking Islamist Politics" by Salwa Ismail. Some key points:
- The book aims to provide an account of Islamist activism by examining the socio-political contexts and "infrastructures of action" rather than invoking Islam as a unitary entity.
- It focuses on both macro-level factors like state structures, but also micro-level processes like how Islamist activists mobilize at the neighborhood level and engage with communities.
- The book examines the heterogeneity of Islamist movements and how their discourses generate meanings in relation to historical contexts rather than referring to sacred texts alone.
- The author argues against generalizations about the
ORIENTALIST APPROACHES TO ISLAMICJERUSALEM: A CRITICAL STUDY OF THE RELIGIOUS...islamicjerusalem
This article summarizes and critiques Orientalist approaches to studying Islamic Jerusalem. It discusses how some Orientalists and Israeli academics have political and religious biases that have led them to deny or distort Muslim historical accounts of early Islamic rule in Jerusalem. Their claims seek to minimize Islam's significance in Jerusalem in order to support political agendas related to Israeli control over the city. The article analyzes specific examples of these biased claims and debates them, arguing for the need for balanced and objective scholarship on Islamic Jerusalem's history and importance.
THE RACIALIZATION OF MINORITIZEDRELIGIOUS IDENTITYCONST.docxarnoldmeredith47041
THE RACIALIZATION OF MINORITIZED
RELIGIOUS IDENTITY:
CONSTRUCTING SACRED SITES AT THE
INTERSECTION OF WHITE AND
CHRISTIAN SUPREMACY
JAIDEEP SINGH
INTRODUCTION
Among the most dynamic sources of diversity in the United States is thatemanating from the numerous religious groups that are flourishing under
the relative religious freedom offered by this country. While there cannot be
an official state religion in the United States, Christianity has historically
been given unofficial sanction and privilege in virtually every sphere of
American life. Resulting from this long tradition of Christian dominance is a
strong sense of entitlement and xenophobic entrenchment in significant and
powerful sections of the population.
In 1997, Henry Jordan of the South Carolina Board of Education retorted
to those who objected to a prominent display of the Ten Commandments in
the State’s public schools: “Screw the Buddhists and kill the Muslims.”
Jordan later explained his strong reaction in the following manner: “I was
expressing frustration.... [Schools] can teach any kind of cult. Buddhism is a
cult. So is Islam. I’m getting a little tired of it.” Meanwhile, undeterred by
the opposition of these “cultists,” Nebraska Governor Benjamin Nelson pro-
claimed May 17 of the same year “March for Jesus Day.”1
And in August 2001, Rep. Don Davis, a white, Republican state legislator
in North Carolina, forwarded via email a letter to every member of the state
House and Senate that stated:
87
06 Singh 7/15/02 1:51 PM Page 87
“Two things made this country great: White men & Christianity....
Every problem that has arrisen [sic] can be directly traced back to our
departure from God’s Law and the disenfranchisement of White men.”2
While he later distanced himself from the remarks, Davis initially explained
his reason for forwarding the email as: “There’s a lot of it that’s truth, the way
I see it. Who came to this country first—the white man—didn’t he? That’s
who made this country great.”
As evidenced by these examples, religion has become a particularly power-
ful method of classifying the “enemy” or “other” in national life in recent
years, impacting primarily non-Christian people of color. For instance,
Muslims have become among the most demonized members of the
American polity, as a result of international events and domestic actions by a
miniscule handful of their co-religionists. In return, their religion has repeat-
edly been characterized in an inaccurate, misleading, and blatantly racist
fashion in the media and public discourse; their property and religious sites
have been vandalized; and their bodies have been targeted for hate crimes in
alarming numbers. As the venerable scholar Edward Said has noted, the last
sanctioned racism in the United States is that directed at followers of the reli-
gion of Islam.3
The validity of this statement was evident in March of 2000, when
Reverend Jerry Falwell, a powerful and influential Christian minister with a
.
THE RACIALIZATION OF MINORITIZEDRELIGIOUS IDENTITYCONST.docxhelen23456789
THE RACIALIZATION OF MINORITIZED
RELIGIOUS IDENTITY:
CONSTRUCTING SACRED SITES AT THE
INTERSECTION OF WHITE AND
CHRISTIAN SUPREMACY
JAIDEEP SINGH
INTRODUCTION
Among the most dynamic sources of diversity in the United States is thatemanating from the numerous religious groups that are flourishing under
the relative religious freedom offered by this country. While there cannot be
an official state religion in the United States, Christianity has historically
been given unofficial sanction and privilege in virtually every sphere of
American life. Resulting from this long tradition of Christian dominance is a
strong sense of entitlement and xenophobic entrenchment in significant and
powerful sections of the population.
In 1997, Henry Jordan of the South Carolina Board of Education retorted
to those who objected to a prominent display of the Ten Commandments in
the State’s public schools: “Screw the Buddhists and kill the Muslims.”
Jordan later explained his strong reaction in the following manner: “I was
expressing frustration.... [Schools] can teach any kind of cult. Buddhism is a
cult. So is Islam. I’m getting a little tired of it.” Meanwhile, undeterred by
the opposition of these “cultists,” Nebraska Governor Benjamin Nelson pro-
claimed May 17 of the same year “March for Jesus Day.”1
And in August 2001, Rep. Don Davis, a white, Republican state legislator
in North Carolina, forwarded via email a letter to every member of the state
House and Senate that stated:
87
06 Singh 7/15/02 1:51 PM Page 87
“Two things made this country great: White men & Christianity....
Every problem that has arrisen [sic] can be directly traced back to our
departure from God’s Law and the disenfranchisement of White men.”2
While he later distanced himself from the remarks, Davis initially explained
his reason for forwarding the email as: “There’s a lot of it that’s truth, the way
I see it. Who came to this country first—the white man—didn’t he? That’s
who made this country great.”
As evidenced by these examples, religion has become a particularly power-
ful method of classifying the “enemy” or “other” in national life in recent
years, impacting primarily non-Christian people of color. For instance,
Muslims have become among the most demonized members of the
American polity, as a result of international events and domestic actions by a
miniscule handful of their co-religionists. In return, their religion has repeat-
edly been characterized in an inaccurate, misleading, and blatantly racist
fashion in the media and public discourse; their property and religious sites
have been vandalized; and their bodies have been targeted for hate crimes in
alarming numbers. As the venerable scholar Edward Said has noted, the last
sanctioned racism in the United States is that directed at followers of the reli-
gion of Islam.3
The validity of this statement was evident in March of 2000, when
Reverend Jerry Falwell, a powerful and influential Christian minister with a
.
Shia Islam and Religious Forbearance among students in Iran A qualitative stu...inventionjournals
The main questions of this study is why there is no sign of serious conflicts over religious beliefs in Iran, while other Muslim countries are almost all at war. We assumed that there is something to do with the Shia sect of Islam because in comparison of Iran and other Muslim countries, the most important difference is that the majority of people in Iran is Shia. We defined a concept, religious forbearance, and tried to find out, first if it is rooted to Shia Islam, and second if it is a social norm in Iran or not. We interviewed about twenty five students from two national universities of Iran, University of Tehran and Amirkabir University of Technology. To select our cases and conduct our study, we used judgment sampling and unstructured interviews. Using the norm model of three essential attributes, we find out that we can call our concept of religious forbearance a social norm which regulate and diminish the religious conflict in a Shia society like Iran. By explaining the cognitive situation we find out that this norm have a greater chance of emerging in the context of Shia Islam than of Sunni Islam. By investigating the system condition we found out that the spread of the means of communication could have a positive impact on the emergence of this norm. Also, we understood that the main value behind this norm is that people, now in Iran, consider the mutual interests to be more important than religious interests.
Muslims in the Media: Room for Moderation?Heather Risley
This document summarizes research on media representations of Muslims. It discusses qualitative research that argues Western media often depicts Muslims and Islam negatively through stereotypes. It reviews literature on how increased engagement with the Muslim world after 9/11 has not changed public opinion, which remains skeptical of Islam. The document also summarizes quantitative content analysis studies that empirically examined news coverage, generally finding it to be more negative and focused on crises. It discusses the need for more quantitative research to test assumptions from qualitative studies.
Rethinking islamist politics, culture, the state and islamism by salwa ismailtopbottom1
This document provides an overview and summary of the book "Rethinking Islamist Politics" by Salwa Ismail. Some key points:
- The book aims to provide an account of Islamist activism by examining the socio-political contexts and "infrastructures of action" rather than invoking Islam as a unitary entity.
- It focuses on both macro-level factors like state structures, but also micro-level processes like how Islamist activists mobilize at the neighborhood level and engage with communities.
- The book examines the heterogeneity of Islamist movements and how their discourses generate meanings in relation to historical contexts rather than referring to sacred texts alone.
- The author argues against generalizations about the
ORIENTALIST APPROACHES TO ISLAMICJERUSALEM: A CRITICAL STUDY OF THE RELIGIOUS...islamicjerusalem
This article summarizes and critiques Orientalist approaches to studying Islamic Jerusalem. It discusses how some Orientalists and Israeli academics have political and religious biases that have led them to deny or distort Muslim historical accounts of early Islamic rule in Jerusalem. Their claims seek to minimize Islam's significance in Jerusalem in order to support political agendas related to Israeli control over the city. The article analyzes specific examples of these biased claims and debates them, arguing for the need for balanced and objective scholarship on Islamic Jerusalem's history and importance.
THE RACIALIZATION OF MINORITIZEDRELIGIOUS IDENTITYCONST.docxarnoldmeredith47041
THE RACIALIZATION OF MINORITIZED
RELIGIOUS IDENTITY:
CONSTRUCTING SACRED SITES AT THE
INTERSECTION OF WHITE AND
CHRISTIAN SUPREMACY
JAIDEEP SINGH
INTRODUCTION
Among the most dynamic sources of diversity in the United States is thatemanating from the numerous religious groups that are flourishing under
the relative religious freedom offered by this country. While there cannot be
an official state religion in the United States, Christianity has historically
been given unofficial sanction and privilege in virtually every sphere of
American life. Resulting from this long tradition of Christian dominance is a
strong sense of entitlement and xenophobic entrenchment in significant and
powerful sections of the population.
In 1997, Henry Jordan of the South Carolina Board of Education retorted
to those who objected to a prominent display of the Ten Commandments in
the State’s public schools: “Screw the Buddhists and kill the Muslims.”
Jordan later explained his strong reaction in the following manner: “I was
expressing frustration.... [Schools] can teach any kind of cult. Buddhism is a
cult. So is Islam. I’m getting a little tired of it.” Meanwhile, undeterred by
the opposition of these “cultists,” Nebraska Governor Benjamin Nelson pro-
claimed May 17 of the same year “March for Jesus Day.”1
And in August 2001, Rep. Don Davis, a white, Republican state legislator
in North Carolina, forwarded via email a letter to every member of the state
House and Senate that stated:
87
06 Singh 7/15/02 1:51 PM Page 87
“Two things made this country great: White men & Christianity....
Every problem that has arrisen [sic] can be directly traced back to our
departure from God’s Law and the disenfranchisement of White men.”2
While he later distanced himself from the remarks, Davis initially explained
his reason for forwarding the email as: “There’s a lot of it that’s truth, the way
I see it. Who came to this country first—the white man—didn’t he? That’s
who made this country great.”
As evidenced by these examples, religion has become a particularly power-
ful method of classifying the “enemy” or “other” in national life in recent
years, impacting primarily non-Christian people of color. For instance,
Muslims have become among the most demonized members of the
American polity, as a result of international events and domestic actions by a
miniscule handful of their co-religionists. In return, their religion has repeat-
edly been characterized in an inaccurate, misleading, and blatantly racist
fashion in the media and public discourse; their property and religious sites
have been vandalized; and their bodies have been targeted for hate crimes in
alarming numbers. As the venerable scholar Edward Said has noted, the last
sanctioned racism in the United States is that directed at followers of the reli-
gion of Islam.3
The validity of this statement was evident in March of 2000, when
Reverend Jerry Falwell, a powerful and influential Christian minister with a
.
THE RACIALIZATION OF MINORITIZEDRELIGIOUS IDENTITYCONST.docxhelen23456789
THE RACIALIZATION OF MINORITIZED
RELIGIOUS IDENTITY:
CONSTRUCTING SACRED SITES AT THE
INTERSECTION OF WHITE AND
CHRISTIAN SUPREMACY
JAIDEEP SINGH
INTRODUCTION
Among the most dynamic sources of diversity in the United States is thatemanating from the numerous religious groups that are flourishing under
the relative religious freedom offered by this country. While there cannot be
an official state religion in the United States, Christianity has historically
been given unofficial sanction and privilege in virtually every sphere of
American life. Resulting from this long tradition of Christian dominance is a
strong sense of entitlement and xenophobic entrenchment in significant and
powerful sections of the population.
In 1997, Henry Jordan of the South Carolina Board of Education retorted
to those who objected to a prominent display of the Ten Commandments in
the State’s public schools: “Screw the Buddhists and kill the Muslims.”
Jordan later explained his strong reaction in the following manner: “I was
expressing frustration.... [Schools] can teach any kind of cult. Buddhism is a
cult. So is Islam. I’m getting a little tired of it.” Meanwhile, undeterred by
the opposition of these “cultists,” Nebraska Governor Benjamin Nelson pro-
claimed May 17 of the same year “March for Jesus Day.”1
And in August 2001, Rep. Don Davis, a white, Republican state legislator
in North Carolina, forwarded via email a letter to every member of the state
House and Senate that stated:
87
06 Singh 7/15/02 1:51 PM Page 87
“Two things made this country great: White men & Christianity....
Every problem that has arrisen [sic] can be directly traced back to our
departure from God’s Law and the disenfranchisement of White men.”2
While he later distanced himself from the remarks, Davis initially explained
his reason for forwarding the email as: “There’s a lot of it that’s truth, the way
I see it. Who came to this country first—the white man—didn’t he? That’s
who made this country great.”
As evidenced by these examples, religion has become a particularly power-
ful method of classifying the “enemy” or “other” in national life in recent
years, impacting primarily non-Christian people of color. For instance,
Muslims have become among the most demonized members of the
American polity, as a result of international events and domestic actions by a
miniscule handful of their co-religionists. In return, their religion has repeat-
edly been characterized in an inaccurate, misleading, and blatantly racist
fashion in the media and public discourse; their property and religious sites
have been vandalized; and their bodies have been targeted for hate crimes in
alarming numbers. As the venerable scholar Edward Said has noted, the last
sanctioned racism in the United States is that directed at followers of the reli-
gion of Islam.3
The validity of this statement was evident in March of 2000, when
Reverend Jerry Falwell, a powerful and influential Christian minister with a
.
Shia Islam and Religious Forbearance among students in Iran A qualitative stu...inventionjournals
The main questions of this study is why there is no sign of serious conflicts over religious beliefs in Iran, while other Muslim countries are almost all at war. We assumed that there is something to do with the Shia sect of Islam because in comparison of Iran and other Muslim countries, the most important difference is that the majority of people in Iran is Shia. We defined a concept, religious forbearance, and tried to find out, first if it is rooted to Shia Islam, and second if it is a social norm in Iran or not. We interviewed about twenty five students from two national universities of Iran, University of Tehran and Amirkabir University of Technology. To select our cases and conduct our study, we used judgment sampling and unstructured interviews. Using the norm model of three essential attributes, we find out that we can call our concept of religious forbearance a social norm which regulate and diminish the religious conflict in a Shia society like Iran. By explaining the cognitive situation we find out that this norm have a greater chance of emerging in the context of Shia Islam than of Sunni Islam. By investigating the system condition we found out that the spread of the means of communication could have a positive impact on the emergence of this norm. Also, we understood that the main value behind this norm is that people, now in Iran, consider the mutual interests to be more important than religious interests.
Muslims in the Media: Room for Moderation?Heather Risley
This document summarizes research on media representations of Muslims. It discusses qualitative research that argues Western media often depicts Muslims and Islam negatively through stereotypes. It reviews literature on how increased engagement with the Muslim world after 9/11 has not changed public opinion, which remains skeptical of Islam. The document also summarizes quantitative content analysis studies that empirically examined news coverage, generally finding it to be more negative and focused on crises. It discusses the need for more quantitative research to test assumptions from qualitative studies.
American Muslims Da Wah Work And Islamic ConversionEmily Smith
This document summarizes previous scholarly literature on the topic of conversion to Islam in America. It discusses six main types of studies: (1) whether conversion is passive or active, (2) social, familial and psychological factors, (3) pursuit of social justice and equality, (4) gender studies focusing on female converts, (5) social functions perspectives, and (6) different forms of preaching Islam. The document also provides examples from previous research on how these factors have influenced Americans to convert to Islam, such as disliking aspects of Western culture, seeking psychological comfort, and being attracted to Islam's teachings of equality.
The document discusses how Islam is often excluded from courses on Asian religions despite its significant historical presence and influence across Asia. It notes that after an initial period of expansion, the Islamic empires of the Safavids, Ottomans, and Mughals rose to prominence in Asia between the 12th-16th centuries. During this time, Islam became firmly established across Southeast Asia as well. However, Islam is regularly left out of surveys of Asian religions and incorrectly grouped with Judaism and Christianity as a "religion of the West". The author argues that any comprehensive understanding of Asian civilizations must include Islam given its central role throughout the region for over a millennium. Excluding Islam presents an inaccurate view of Asian history
Post-Islamist Intellectual Trends in Pakistan: Javed Ahmad Ghamidi and His Di...HusnulAmin5
Eurocentric and essentialist approaches are applied to make sense of the complex
Muslim societies. These approaches reduce complex social processes to certain
immutable, fixed and unchanging traits. With such reductive theoretical lens, such
readings of Islam, presuppose an inherent rigidity in the nature of Islamic text. When
Muslim societies and its social trajectories are understood in the light of such
immutable texts, as a logical conclusion, Islam turns out to be incompatible with
modern values of liberty and democracy. Islam and Muslim societies are constructed
as entities essentially distinct from Europe and the West. Even if a transition from
authoritarian form of political order to a more democratic one is intended, it will
have to be a secularized form of Islamic democracy wherein the separation of religion
and state is ensured. However, in the recent past, a growing number of academic
enquiries have challenged the validity of such reductive and essentialist approaches
toward understanding Muslim societies and its societal trajectories. Multiple
intellectual voices and social trends have been identified that construct harmonious
relationship between Islam and democracy, and in more general terms, between Islam
and modernity. Some scholars argue that reformation of religious thought followed by
the articulation of an “Islamic Theory of Secularism” may pave the way for
democratization in Muslim societies. As intermediaries, between the Divine text and
the general public, the role of scholars, institutions and social movements is thus
crucial in creating bonds of complicity (or otherwise) between Islam and democracy.
As an empirical example, this research explores and highlights the emergence of an
intellectual community in Pakistan led by a religious scholar Javed Ahmad Ghamidi.
The genesis, intellectual biography and unprecedented popularity gained by Ghamidi
and his close associates, also reveal mutation, discontinuity and change from their
previous religious position. The present paper aims to achieve two humble purposes: to
discuss the emergence of a post-Islamist intellectual trend with specific focus on
Ghamidi, and to provide a descriptive analysis of Ghamidi’s post-Islamist turn, and
the way he and his interpretive community construct a harmonious relationship
Project on globalization and religious nationalizom in indiaMd Shane Azam Rony
The document discusses Catarina Kinnvall's book "Globalization and Religious Nationalism in India, The search for ontological security". The book analyzes how globalization has increased feelings of insecurity and uncertainty for individuals and groups. It examines how religion and nationalism provide a sense of security and identity. Specifically, it compares the development of Sikh and Hindu nationalism in India, and why Hindu nationalism has been more successful in fusing religious and nationalist identities. The book presents a nuanced perspective on the relationship between globalization, identity formation, and religious nationalism.
10 Amazing Personal Declaration Of Independence Ideas 2024. Declaration of Independence Essay Essay on Declaration of .... Custom Essay amazonia.fiocruz.br. Declaration of Independence Essay by Dr Bs Mart TpT. Declaration of Independence Essay Prep. Essay on declaration of independence. Essay On Declaration Of .... Declaration Of Independence Essay Telegraph. Declaration of independence research essay template. declaration of independence information essay. essay examples: declaration of independence essay. Writing Your Own Declaration of Independence. Declaration of independence examples. Declaration of independence .... Declaration of independence essay. Declaration of Independence Essay .... How To Write The Declaration Of Independence In An Essay - Ainslie Hand. 90-Day Study Essay Schedule 2021 - Constituting America. Declaration of Independence Essay Example Topics and Well Written .... Research paper: Declaration of independence essay. Custom Writing Service www.fuste.pt. Online Essay Help amazonia.fiocruz.br. 020 Essay Example Declaration Of Independence Reflective Thatsnotus. Archaicawful Declaration Of Independence Essay Thatsnotus. Declaration of independence essay assignment. Declaration essay independence. 003 Declaration Of Independence Essay Background Knowledge Thatsnotus. Essay on declaration of independence. Declaration of independence essay introduction. Read a Summary ... Declaration Of Independence Essay Declaration Of Independence Essay
This document discusses the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and Salafism through the process of globalization. It argues that Salafism emerged in response to feelings of lost glory and cultural imposition from the West. Salafism aims to return Islam to a puritanical past and resist Western influence. The document examines how globalization has spread Salafism and allowed militant groups like Al-Qaeda to gain influence. However, it notes that terrorism is often a response to geopolitical and socioeconomic issues rather than religious doctrine alone. Alienated members of Western societies may be most prone to radicalization, feeling torn between cultures. Overall, the document analyzes how global interconnectedness has contributed to the rise and spread of Islamic fundamentalism
Provisional program with full abstracts of the conference on Shia minorities ...Encyclopaedia Iranica
The conference brings together researchers working on Shia minorities outside of the so-called “Muslim heartland” (North Africa, Middle East, Central and South Asia). The conference focuses on Shia minorities in Western and Eastern Europe, North and South America, Sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia that emerged out of migration from the Middle East and South Asia in the 20th and 21st centuries, in particular. The papers presented at the conference offer unique comparative insights into Shia minorities in a variety of contexts across the globe. The conference is organised by the new Chester Centre for Islamic Studies and held in conjunction with a research project on transnational Shia networks that operate between Britain and the Middle East, funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation.
For more information, see: http://www.chester.ac.uk/node/35376.
To register or further queries, email ccis@chester.ac.uk.
This summary provides a high-level overview of the key events and developments in early Islamic history outlined in the document's chronology:
- The birth of the Prophet Muhammad in 570 CE and major events in his life including the Hijra in 622 which marked the beginning of the Islamic calendar.
- The rapid expansion of the Muslim empire through military conquests under the first three caliphs - Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman - reaching as far as Egypt and Persia by the mid-7th century.
- The rise of sectarian divisions and power struggles following the death of the Prophet, culminating in the assassination of Uthman in 656 and the Battle
Australia S Moral Compass And Societal WellbeingStephen Faucher
This document provides an overview of Wendy Mayer's theory about the intersection between morality, cognition, and language and its implications for Australian societal wellbeing. The theory is informed by Mayer's research in three areas: 1) the capacity of early Christian sermons to radicalize audiences over time; 2) the reception of Graeco-Roman moral philosophy in preaching and its impact on the human person; and 3) the history and theory of religion. Mayer argues that her theory can help explain recent trends in Australian society like the rise of Islamophobia and right-wing politics. The theory is concerned with moral psychology rather than ethics, and addresses societal trends at a macro level by describing how people unconsciously make moral judgments.
A Sense of Siege The Geopolitics of Islam and the West.pdfccccccccdddddd
This document provides an introduction and overview of the geopolitical relationship between Islam and the West. It argues that while "Islam" and the "West" are broad terms encompassing diversity, the West's global dominance since the end of the Cold War has led some to view Islam as a potential counterweight. However, Islam is not a monolith and there are many sources of diversity within the religion across different countries and regions. The document aims to analyze what is meant when referring to the relationship between Islam and the West without treating either as a single unified entity.
Islam And Chinesness: A Closer Look at Minority Moslem in Modern China Histor...Episteme IAIN Tulungagung
Artikel ini akan menyajikan pembahasan historiografi tentang bagaimana ilmuwan non-Cina (maksudnya Barat) menjelaskan keberadaan kaum minoritas Muslim Cina (Hui) dalam penulisan sejarah Cina modern. Empat karya ilmuwan Barat tentang Muslim Cina tersebut akan dibandingkan.
Sekalipun kelompok Hui Muslim secara formal telah diakui sebagai bagian dari mayoritas Han, narasi sejarah tentang Hui masih kalah banyak dibandingkan dengan kelompok mayoritas. Karya-karya yang ada saat ini tentang Hui baik ditulis oleh ahli asli Cina maupun asing masih belum memadai, tetapi penting untuk disajikan. Terdapat dua pendekatan di kalangan akademisi yang dominan digunakan, yakni kesesuaian dan ketidaksesuaian Islam dan tradisi Cina dalam menjelaskan keberadaan Islam dan Cina yang diwakili masing-masing oleh kelompok Hui dan kelompok Han. Setelah membandingkan keempat karya akademisi non-Cina atas Hui, akan ditutup dengan usulan pentingnya menggunakan berbagai pendekatan dalam memahami sejarah lokal Hui, yang sepatutnya peranan mereka harus lebih ditonjolkan dalam konteks keterkaitan antara minoritas dengan sejarah mayoritas dan dunia Islam.
This document provides an overview of the topics that will be covered in HIST 4325 Israeli-Palestine Conflict. It includes brief definitions of Orientalism and some of its key critiques. It also touches on competing narratives between Jews, Palestinians, and Christians over claims to the Holy Land. The first paragraphs of the Israeli and Palestinian declarations of statehood are presented. Finally, it provides a short history of Palestine from the 9th century BCE to the present.
Dr Sadek Hamid A Mapping of Islamist trends in the UK final version for CCEYahyaBirt1
Dr Hamid's 2019 commissioned paper for the Commission for Countering Extremism in the UK which was not published. It is published here for the sake of academic freedom.
Islamic State the Product of a Bridging Between Regional Competitions and Isl...QUESTJOURNAL
ABSTRACT: The Islamic state that was formed in 2006 in territories outside the control of two war-torn countries, with the capture of the city of Mosul in 2014 was world famous and be of interest to all news circles across the globe. This state used extremely cruel methods in relation to its prisoners of war, which is not a venue to discuss in this paper, came more than ever to fill the headlines of newspapers and online media. After a period of relative silence news, now with fighting to retake the city of Mosul, the "Islamic state" is once again under the focus of the news circles. This paper intends to review primarily on the formation of the "Islamic State" and introduce a summary of the main factors involved in forming this state with a slightly different perspective than the views have been described earlier.
Class Name Nonprofit Management I have a Presentation First.docxclarebernice
Class Name: Nonprofit Management
I have a Presentation
First
1: read the whole article clearly
2: summarize the article to the most important points that the author talks about and be specific THEN
Do PowerPoint Slides
3: you MUST include in your summary slides head topics OF 5 things:
a) Introduction
b) Aim of paper
c) Literature Review
d) There are 2 Charts you should explain what each one MEANS
Explain them in numbered point too
E) Conclusion
Include Speakers note under each slide to explain the points
4: you must write under each head: specific point that the author includes
You should cover the article keywords :
Philanthropy Community American Muslims Identity
I am going to present the article in front the class so please be clear
And Use easy wording cause I am an international Student
1 23
VOLUNTAS: International Journal
of Voluntary and Nonprofit
Organizations
Official journal of the International
Society for Third-Sector Research
ISSN 0957-8765
Voluntas
DOI 10.1007/s11266-015-9553-7
New Styles of Community Building and
Philanthropy by Arab-American Muslims
Sabith Khan
1 23
Your article is protected by copyright and all
rights are held exclusively by International
Society for Third-Sector Research and The
Johns Hopkins University. This e-offprint is
for personal use only and shall not be self-
archived in electronic repositories. If you wish
to self-archive your article, please use the
accepted manuscript version for posting on
your own website. You may further deposit
the accepted manuscript version in any
repository, provided it is only made publicly
available 12 months after official publication
or later and provided acknowledgement is
given to the original source of publication
and a link is inserted to the published article
on Springer's website. The link must be
accompanied by the following text: "The final
publication is available at link.springer.com”.
O R I G I N A L P A P E R
New Styles of Community Building and Philanthropy
by Arab-American Muslims
Sabith Khan
! International Society for Third-Sector Research and The Johns Hopkins University 2015
Abstract Among Arab-American Muslims, secular ethnic and humanitarian giv-
ing, focused on ‘results’ and ‘measurable impact,’ is displacing religiously inspired
giving, that is driven by ‘charity’ and ‘love of mankind.’ This trend is supported by
evidence of the way donors position themselves and philanthropic organizations
appeal to their donor base. The case is supported by qualitative data drawn from
interviews with key informants and from trend data on giving. I propose a new
model of giving based on identity and giving, using Grounded Theory methods.
This model challenges our understanding about the connection between community
and philanthropy and proposes that philanthropy can create ‘community.’
Résumé Je propose un nouveau modèle de charité basé sur l’identité et le don à
l’aide des méthodes de la théorie ancrée. C
Stephen Pevar, Chapter 8 Criminal Jurisdiction in Indian Country.docxsusanschei
Stephen Pevar, “Chapter 8: Criminal Jurisdiction in Indian Country” (from textbook)
Stephen Pevar, “Chapter 9: Civil Jurisdiction in Indian Country” (from textbook)
1
The Religious Environment: Worldview,
Ritual, and Communal Status
Islam and Conversion
The process of conversion to Islam remains on the whole poorly studied
in either its social and historical, or affective and personal/psychologi-
cal, aspects. Despite the relatively recent and signal contributions of
Nehemiah Levtzion I and Richard Bulliet 2 who have advanced inno-
va tive classificatory, methodological, and analytical strategies in the
framework of comparative and more localized approaches toward
Islamization, the complex of problems associated with conversion to
Islam still has not drawn sufficient attention from specialists on all
"fronts" of Islamization to allow a synthetic treatment of conversion to
Islam from either a theoretical or historical perspective. 3 If old notions
of forced conversion and the choice of "Islam or the sword" have been
abandoned, at least in scholarly literature, little serious analytical work
I. See above all the volume Conversion to Islam, ed. Nehemia Levtzion (New YorklLondon:
Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1979), and Levtzion's contributions therein, "Toward a Com-
parative Study of Islamization" (pp. 1-23) and "Patterns of Islamization in West Africa" (pp.
207-216), as well as his bibliography (pp. 247-265), in which Central and Inner Asia are pre-
dictably poorly represented; cf. also his "Conversion under Muslim Domination: A Comparative
Study," in Religious Change and Cultural Domination, ed. D. N. Lorenzen (Mexico City: El
Colegio de Mexico, 1981), pp. 19-38.
2. See his seminal work, Conversion to Islam in the Medieval Period: An Essay in Quantitative
History (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979), and more recently his "Process and Status
in Conversion and Continuity," introducing Conversion and Continuity: Indigenous Christian
Communities in Islamic Lands Eighth to Eighteenth Centuries, ed. Michael Gervers and Ramzi
Jibran Bikhazi (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1990), pp. 1-12, and his
"Conversion Stories in Early Islam" in the same volume (pp. 123-133).
3. For important theoretical considerations on conversion to Islam in historical surveys see,
for example, Marshall Hodgson's The Venture of Islam, vol. 2 (The Expansion of Islam in the
18 Islamization and Native Religion
has been done as a means of replacing older models and assumptions of
how Islam was adopted and appropriated in specific contexts; nor, in
general, have primary sources been tapped or reevaluated with an eye to
the particular issue of Islamization.
In the case of Inner Asia we are remarkably ill-served with regard to
studies of conversion to Islam; specialists on Islam in sub-Saharan Africa
and on South Asian Islam4 for instance, have recognized the importance
of conv.
Write a scholarly paper in which you apply the concepts of epide.docxarnoldmeredith47041
This document provides requirements for an epidemiology paper that analyzes a communicable disease. Students must choose a communicable disease, describe it thoroughly including causes, transmission, symptoms, treatment and complications. They must discuss the population most affected by the disease and the determinants of health related to it. Students must also identify the epidemiologic triad of host, agent, and environmental factors for the disease and discuss the role of public health nurses in finding, reporting, collecting, analyzing data, and following up on the disease. The paper requires a minimum of three references and 1250 words in APA format.
Write a S.M.A.R.T. goal to improve the Habit 5 Seek First to .docxarnoldmeredith47041
This document outlines a goal to improve the ability to seek first to understand others rather than be understood according to Habit 5. The author acknowledges they are able to communicate but struggles with listening skills. The goal is to practice actively listening and understanding what people are saying rather than being focused on themselves.
Write a Risk Management Plan for a School FacilityInclude th.docxarnoldmeredith47041
Write a Risk Management Plan for a School Facility
Include the following topics listed below
Write at least one page per topic, double spaced, Times Roman, Font Size 12
Provide References.
Use the APA Format
·
Personnel Management
·
Indemnification Waiver
·
General Supervisory Practices
·
Crowd Management Plan
.
Write a review that 750 - 1000 words in length about one chapter in .docxarnoldmeredith47041
Write a review that 750 - 1000 words in length about one chapter in the Niebuhr textbook. Half will be a summary and half will be the student’s personal reflection. The reflection should include points that the student agrees and disagrees with Niebuhr about and why.
Niebuhr, H. Richard. (2001).
Christ and Culture
. New York: Harper and Row.
.
write a resume using the example belowCONTACT INFOFirs.docxarnoldmeredith47041
write a resume using the example below
CONTACT INFO
First and Last Name
City, State (Optional) | Best Phone Number to Reach You | Appropriate Email Address
SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS
· 3-5 sentences describing why you would be a great fit for the position.
· Describe your relevant accomplishments, strengths, knowledge, experience, skillsets, and languages.
· This is the “preview to the movie.” Highlight your best qualifications so they choose to read the rest of the resume.
· Use bullet points to distinguish each sentence if more aesthetically pleasing.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
· List jobs you have held in the past 10 years; only list older jobs if they are directly related to desired job.
· Do NOT list a job if you worked at a place of employment for less than 3 months.
· If you have some jobs that are related to your desired position/field and others that are not, only list the related jobs in this section. Create an “Additional Work History” section at the end of the resume for the non-related jobs.
· Use bullet points to list achievements, results, recognitions, and duties for each job.
Company Name - City, State
Job Title
Start Year - End Year or Present
3-5 achievements, results, recognitions, and duties
INTERNSHIP / EXTERNSHIP / CLINICAL EXPERIENCE
· This section should take priority over others unless you have previous work history in exact field.
Company Name - City, State
Title or Role
Month Year - Month Year
2-3 Main Responsibilities/Duties
CERTIFICATIONS and LICENSURES
Name of Certification/License
Issuing Company or Organization
Certification/License Number
Expiration Month Year
EDUCATION
· Only include schools that you received a degree or relevant certifications from, or are currently attending.
· Do NOT include your high school.
School Name - City, State
Major/Area of Study
Degree Earned
Graduation Year/Estimated Graduation Month Year
CORE COMPETENCIES
· List 6-9 competencies, skills, traits, and/or areas of proficiency that directly relate to the job.
· Utilize the job description to find the types of preferred and/or required skills and traits.
· This is a great area to match keywords from the job description that may not otherwise be easily listed in your resume.
· Use bullet points and columns to make this section more aesthetically pleasing and organized.
RELEVANT COURSEWORK
· List the core courses you have already completed and are currently in.
· Use bullet points to list each course.
VOLUNTEER WORK / AFFILIATIONS
Organization
City, State
example of resume
SHARKLY BRUCE, COTA/L
Amity Island, FL | (975) 206-1120 |
[email protected]
SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS
· Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant with two 8-week rotations of Level II OTA fieldwork, as well as 3 years of previous healthcare experience in a hospital setting.
· Extensive direct care experience assisting patients after treatment of traumatic wounds from local wildlife attacks.
· Proven track record o.
More Related Content
Similar to The subject of this reading response concerns the relationship bet.docx
American Muslims Da Wah Work And Islamic ConversionEmily Smith
This document summarizes previous scholarly literature on the topic of conversion to Islam in America. It discusses six main types of studies: (1) whether conversion is passive or active, (2) social, familial and psychological factors, (3) pursuit of social justice and equality, (4) gender studies focusing on female converts, (5) social functions perspectives, and (6) different forms of preaching Islam. The document also provides examples from previous research on how these factors have influenced Americans to convert to Islam, such as disliking aspects of Western culture, seeking psychological comfort, and being attracted to Islam's teachings of equality.
The document discusses how Islam is often excluded from courses on Asian religions despite its significant historical presence and influence across Asia. It notes that after an initial period of expansion, the Islamic empires of the Safavids, Ottomans, and Mughals rose to prominence in Asia between the 12th-16th centuries. During this time, Islam became firmly established across Southeast Asia as well. However, Islam is regularly left out of surveys of Asian religions and incorrectly grouped with Judaism and Christianity as a "religion of the West". The author argues that any comprehensive understanding of Asian civilizations must include Islam given its central role throughout the region for over a millennium. Excluding Islam presents an inaccurate view of Asian history
Post-Islamist Intellectual Trends in Pakistan: Javed Ahmad Ghamidi and His Di...HusnulAmin5
Eurocentric and essentialist approaches are applied to make sense of the complex
Muslim societies. These approaches reduce complex social processes to certain
immutable, fixed and unchanging traits. With such reductive theoretical lens, such
readings of Islam, presuppose an inherent rigidity in the nature of Islamic text. When
Muslim societies and its social trajectories are understood in the light of such
immutable texts, as a logical conclusion, Islam turns out to be incompatible with
modern values of liberty and democracy. Islam and Muslim societies are constructed
as entities essentially distinct from Europe and the West. Even if a transition from
authoritarian form of political order to a more democratic one is intended, it will
have to be a secularized form of Islamic democracy wherein the separation of religion
and state is ensured. However, in the recent past, a growing number of academic
enquiries have challenged the validity of such reductive and essentialist approaches
toward understanding Muslim societies and its societal trajectories. Multiple
intellectual voices and social trends have been identified that construct harmonious
relationship between Islam and democracy, and in more general terms, between Islam
and modernity. Some scholars argue that reformation of religious thought followed by
the articulation of an “Islamic Theory of Secularism” may pave the way for
democratization in Muslim societies. As intermediaries, between the Divine text and
the general public, the role of scholars, institutions and social movements is thus
crucial in creating bonds of complicity (or otherwise) between Islam and democracy.
As an empirical example, this research explores and highlights the emergence of an
intellectual community in Pakistan led by a religious scholar Javed Ahmad Ghamidi.
The genesis, intellectual biography and unprecedented popularity gained by Ghamidi
and his close associates, also reveal mutation, discontinuity and change from their
previous religious position. The present paper aims to achieve two humble purposes: to
discuss the emergence of a post-Islamist intellectual trend with specific focus on
Ghamidi, and to provide a descriptive analysis of Ghamidi’s post-Islamist turn, and
the way he and his interpretive community construct a harmonious relationship
Project on globalization and religious nationalizom in indiaMd Shane Azam Rony
The document discusses Catarina Kinnvall's book "Globalization and Religious Nationalism in India, The search for ontological security". The book analyzes how globalization has increased feelings of insecurity and uncertainty for individuals and groups. It examines how religion and nationalism provide a sense of security and identity. Specifically, it compares the development of Sikh and Hindu nationalism in India, and why Hindu nationalism has been more successful in fusing religious and nationalist identities. The book presents a nuanced perspective on the relationship between globalization, identity formation, and religious nationalism.
10 Amazing Personal Declaration Of Independence Ideas 2024. Declaration of Independence Essay Essay on Declaration of .... Custom Essay amazonia.fiocruz.br. Declaration of Independence Essay by Dr Bs Mart TpT. Declaration of Independence Essay Prep. Essay on declaration of independence. Essay On Declaration Of .... Declaration Of Independence Essay Telegraph. Declaration of independence research essay template. declaration of independence information essay. essay examples: declaration of independence essay. Writing Your Own Declaration of Independence. Declaration of independence examples. Declaration of independence .... Declaration of independence essay. Declaration of Independence Essay .... How To Write The Declaration Of Independence In An Essay - Ainslie Hand. 90-Day Study Essay Schedule 2021 - Constituting America. Declaration of Independence Essay Example Topics and Well Written .... Research paper: Declaration of independence essay. Custom Writing Service www.fuste.pt. Online Essay Help amazonia.fiocruz.br. 020 Essay Example Declaration Of Independence Reflective Thatsnotus. Archaicawful Declaration Of Independence Essay Thatsnotus. Declaration of independence essay assignment. Declaration essay independence. 003 Declaration Of Independence Essay Background Knowledge Thatsnotus. Essay on declaration of independence. Declaration of independence essay introduction. Read a Summary ... Declaration Of Independence Essay Declaration Of Independence Essay
This document discusses the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and Salafism through the process of globalization. It argues that Salafism emerged in response to feelings of lost glory and cultural imposition from the West. Salafism aims to return Islam to a puritanical past and resist Western influence. The document examines how globalization has spread Salafism and allowed militant groups like Al-Qaeda to gain influence. However, it notes that terrorism is often a response to geopolitical and socioeconomic issues rather than religious doctrine alone. Alienated members of Western societies may be most prone to radicalization, feeling torn between cultures. Overall, the document analyzes how global interconnectedness has contributed to the rise and spread of Islamic fundamentalism
Provisional program with full abstracts of the conference on Shia minorities ...Encyclopaedia Iranica
The conference brings together researchers working on Shia minorities outside of the so-called “Muslim heartland” (North Africa, Middle East, Central and South Asia). The conference focuses on Shia minorities in Western and Eastern Europe, North and South America, Sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia that emerged out of migration from the Middle East and South Asia in the 20th and 21st centuries, in particular. The papers presented at the conference offer unique comparative insights into Shia minorities in a variety of contexts across the globe. The conference is organised by the new Chester Centre for Islamic Studies and held in conjunction with a research project on transnational Shia networks that operate between Britain and the Middle East, funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation.
For more information, see: http://www.chester.ac.uk/node/35376.
To register or further queries, email ccis@chester.ac.uk.
This summary provides a high-level overview of the key events and developments in early Islamic history outlined in the document's chronology:
- The birth of the Prophet Muhammad in 570 CE and major events in his life including the Hijra in 622 which marked the beginning of the Islamic calendar.
- The rapid expansion of the Muslim empire through military conquests under the first three caliphs - Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman - reaching as far as Egypt and Persia by the mid-7th century.
- The rise of sectarian divisions and power struggles following the death of the Prophet, culminating in the assassination of Uthman in 656 and the Battle
Australia S Moral Compass And Societal WellbeingStephen Faucher
This document provides an overview of Wendy Mayer's theory about the intersection between morality, cognition, and language and its implications for Australian societal wellbeing. The theory is informed by Mayer's research in three areas: 1) the capacity of early Christian sermons to radicalize audiences over time; 2) the reception of Graeco-Roman moral philosophy in preaching and its impact on the human person; and 3) the history and theory of religion. Mayer argues that her theory can help explain recent trends in Australian society like the rise of Islamophobia and right-wing politics. The theory is concerned with moral psychology rather than ethics, and addresses societal trends at a macro level by describing how people unconsciously make moral judgments.
A Sense of Siege The Geopolitics of Islam and the West.pdfccccccccdddddd
This document provides an introduction and overview of the geopolitical relationship between Islam and the West. It argues that while "Islam" and the "West" are broad terms encompassing diversity, the West's global dominance since the end of the Cold War has led some to view Islam as a potential counterweight. However, Islam is not a monolith and there are many sources of diversity within the religion across different countries and regions. The document aims to analyze what is meant when referring to the relationship between Islam and the West without treating either as a single unified entity.
Islam And Chinesness: A Closer Look at Minority Moslem in Modern China Histor...Episteme IAIN Tulungagung
Artikel ini akan menyajikan pembahasan historiografi tentang bagaimana ilmuwan non-Cina (maksudnya Barat) menjelaskan keberadaan kaum minoritas Muslim Cina (Hui) dalam penulisan sejarah Cina modern. Empat karya ilmuwan Barat tentang Muslim Cina tersebut akan dibandingkan.
Sekalipun kelompok Hui Muslim secara formal telah diakui sebagai bagian dari mayoritas Han, narasi sejarah tentang Hui masih kalah banyak dibandingkan dengan kelompok mayoritas. Karya-karya yang ada saat ini tentang Hui baik ditulis oleh ahli asli Cina maupun asing masih belum memadai, tetapi penting untuk disajikan. Terdapat dua pendekatan di kalangan akademisi yang dominan digunakan, yakni kesesuaian dan ketidaksesuaian Islam dan tradisi Cina dalam menjelaskan keberadaan Islam dan Cina yang diwakili masing-masing oleh kelompok Hui dan kelompok Han. Setelah membandingkan keempat karya akademisi non-Cina atas Hui, akan ditutup dengan usulan pentingnya menggunakan berbagai pendekatan dalam memahami sejarah lokal Hui, yang sepatutnya peranan mereka harus lebih ditonjolkan dalam konteks keterkaitan antara minoritas dengan sejarah mayoritas dan dunia Islam.
This document provides an overview of the topics that will be covered in HIST 4325 Israeli-Palestine Conflict. It includes brief definitions of Orientalism and some of its key critiques. It also touches on competing narratives between Jews, Palestinians, and Christians over claims to the Holy Land. The first paragraphs of the Israeli and Palestinian declarations of statehood are presented. Finally, it provides a short history of Palestine from the 9th century BCE to the present.
Dr Sadek Hamid A Mapping of Islamist trends in the UK final version for CCEYahyaBirt1
Dr Hamid's 2019 commissioned paper for the Commission for Countering Extremism in the UK which was not published. It is published here for the sake of academic freedom.
Islamic State the Product of a Bridging Between Regional Competitions and Isl...QUESTJOURNAL
ABSTRACT: The Islamic state that was formed in 2006 in territories outside the control of two war-torn countries, with the capture of the city of Mosul in 2014 was world famous and be of interest to all news circles across the globe. This state used extremely cruel methods in relation to its prisoners of war, which is not a venue to discuss in this paper, came more than ever to fill the headlines of newspapers and online media. After a period of relative silence news, now with fighting to retake the city of Mosul, the "Islamic state" is once again under the focus of the news circles. This paper intends to review primarily on the formation of the "Islamic State" and introduce a summary of the main factors involved in forming this state with a slightly different perspective than the views have been described earlier.
Class Name Nonprofit Management I have a Presentation First.docxclarebernice
Class Name: Nonprofit Management
I have a Presentation
First
1: read the whole article clearly
2: summarize the article to the most important points that the author talks about and be specific THEN
Do PowerPoint Slides
3: you MUST include in your summary slides head topics OF 5 things:
a) Introduction
b) Aim of paper
c) Literature Review
d) There are 2 Charts you should explain what each one MEANS
Explain them in numbered point too
E) Conclusion
Include Speakers note under each slide to explain the points
4: you must write under each head: specific point that the author includes
You should cover the article keywords :
Philanthropy Community American Muslims Identity
I am going to present the article in front the class so please be clear
And Use easy wording cause I am an international Student
1 23
VOLUNTAS: International Journal
of Voluntary and Nonprofit
Organizations
Official journal of the International
Society for Third-Sector Research
ISSN 0957-8765
Voluntas
DOI 10.1007/s11266-015-9553-7
New Styles of Community Building and
Philanthropy by Arab-American Muslims
Sabith Khan
1 23
Your article is protected by copyright and all
rights are held exclusively by International
Society for Third-Sector Research and The
Johns Hopkins University. This e-offprint is
for personal use only and shall not be self-
archived in electronic repositories. If you wish
to self-archive your article, please use the
accepted manuscript version for posting on
your own website. You may further deposit
the accepted manuscript version in any
repository, provided it is only made publicly
available 12 months after official publication
or later and provided acknowledgement is
given to the original source of publication
and a link is inserted to the published article
on Springer's website. The link must be
accompanied by the following text: "The final
publication is available at link.springer.com”.
O R I G I N A L P A P E R
New Styles of Community Building and Philanthropy
by Arab-American Muslims
Sabith Khan
! International Society for Third-Sector Research and The Johns Hopkins University 2015
Abstract Among Arab-American Muslims, secular ethnic and humanitarian giv-
ing, focused on ‘results’ and ‘measurable impact,’ is displacing religiously inspired
giving, that is driven by ‘charity’ and ‘love of mankind.’ This trend is supported by
evidence of the way donors position themselves and philanthropic organizations
appeal to their donor base. The case is supported by qualitative data drawn from
interviews with key informants and from trend data on giving. I propose a new
model of giving based on identity and giving, using Grounded Theory methods.
This model challenges our understanding about the connection between community
and philanthropy and proposes that philanthropy can create ‘community.’
Résumé Je propose un nouveau modèle de charité basé sur l’identité et le don à
l’aide des méthodes de la théorie ancrée. C
Stephen Pevar, Chapter 8 Criminal Jurisdiction in Indian Country.docxsusanschei
Stephen Pevar, “Chapter 8: Criminal Jurisdiction in Indian Country” (from textbook)
Stephen Pevar, “Chapter 9: Civil Jurisdiction in Indian Country” (from textbook)
1
The Religious Environment: Worldview,
Ritual, and Communal Status
Islam and Conversion
The process of conversion to Islam remains on the whole poorly studied
in either its social and historical, or affective and personal/psychologi-
cal, aspects. Despite the relatively recent and signal contributions of
Nehemiah Levtzion I and Richard Bulliet 2 who have advanced inno-
va tive classificatory, methodological, and analytical strategies in the
framework of comparative and more localized approaches toward
Islamization, the complex of problems associated with conversion to
Islam still has not drawn sufficient attention from specialists on all
"fronts" of Islamization to allow a synthetic treatment of conversion to
Islam from either a theoretical or historical perspective. 3 If old notions
of forced conversion and the choice of "Islam or the sword" have been
abandoned, at least in scholarly literature, little serious analytical work
I. See above all the volume Conversion to Islam, ed. Nehemia Levtzion (New YorklLondon:
Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1979), and Levtzion's contributions therein, "Toward a Com-
parative Study of Islamization" (pp. 1-23) and "Patterns of Islamization in West Africa" (pp.
207-216), as well as his bibliography (pp. 247-265), in which Central and Inner Asia are pre-
dictably poorly represented; cf. also his "Conversion under Muslim Domination: A Comparative
Study," in Religious Change and Cultural Domination, ed. D. N. Lorenzen (Mexico City: El
Colegio de Mexico, 1981), pp. 19-38.
2. See his seminal work, Conversion to Islam in the Medieval Period: An Essay in Quantitative
History (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979), and more recently his "Process and Status
in Conversion and Continuity," introducing Conversion and Continuity: Indigenous Christian
Communities in Islamic Lands Eighth to Eighteenth Centuries, ed. Michael Gervers and Ramzi
Jibran Bikhazi (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1990), pp. 1-12, and his
"Conversion Stories in Early Islam" in the same volume (pp. 123-133).
3. For important theoretical considerations on conversion to Islam in historical surveys see,
for example, Marshall Hodgson's The Venture of Islam, vol. 2 (The Expansion of Islam in the
18 Islamization and Native Religion
has been done as a means of replacing older models and assumptions of
how Islam was adopted and appropriated in specific contexts; nor, in
general, have primary sources been tapped or reevaluated with an eye to
the particular issue of Islamization.
In the case of Inner Asia we are remarkably ill-served with regard to
studies of conversion to Islam; specialists on Islam in sub-Saharan Africa
and on South Asian Islam4 for instance, have recognized the importance
of conv.
Similar to The subject of this reading response concerns the relationship bet.docx (17)
Write a scholarly paper in which you apply the concepts of epide.docxarnoldmeredith47041
This document provides requirements for an epidemiology paper that analyzes a communicable disease. Students must choose a communicable disease, describe it thoroughly including causes, transmission, symptoms, treatment and complications. They must discuss the population most affected by the disease and the determinants of health related to it. Students must also identify the epidemiologic triad of host, agent, and environmental factors for the disease and discuss the role of public health nurses in finding, reporting, collecting, analyzing data, and following up on the disease. The paper requires a minimum of three references and 1250 words in APA format.
Write a S.M.A.R.T. goal to improve the Habit 5 Seek First to .docxarnoldmeredith47041
This document outlines a goal to improve the ability to seek first to understand others rather than be understood according to Habit 5. The author acknowledges they are able to communicate but struggles with listening skills. The goal is to practice actively listening and understanding what people are saying rather than being focused on themselves.
Write a Risk Management Plan for a School FacilityInclude th.docxarnoldmeredith47041
Write a Risk Management Plan for a School Facility
Include the following topics listed below
Write at least one page per topic, double spaced, Times Roman, Font Size 12
Provide References.
Use the APA Format
·
Personnel Management
·
Indemnification Waiver
·
General Supervisory Practices
·
Crowd Management Plan
.
Write a review that 750 - 1000 words in length about one chapter in .docxarnoldmeredith47041
Write a review that 750 - 1000 words in length about one chapter in the Niebuhr textbook. Half will be a summary and half will be the student’s personal reflection. The reflection should include points that the student agrees and disagrees with Niebuhr about and why.
Niebuhr, H. Richard. (2001).
Christ and Culture
. New York: Harper and Row.
.
write a resume using the example belowCONTACT INFOFirs.docxarnoldmeredith47041
write a resume using the example below
CONTACT INFO
First and Last Name
City, State (Optional) | Best Phone Number to Reach You | Appropriate Email Address
SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS
· 3-5 sentences describing why you would be a great fit for the position.
· Describe your relevant accomplishments, strengths, knowledge, experience, skillsets, and languages.
· This is the “preview to the movie.” Highlight your best qualifications so they choose to read the rest of the resume.
· Use bullet points to distinguish each sentence if more aesthetically pleasing.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
· List jobs you have held in the past 10 years; only list older jobs if they are directly related to desired job.
· Do NOT list a job if you worked at a place of employment for less than 3 months.
· If you have some jobs that are related to your desired position/field and others that are not, only list the related jobs in this section. Create an “Additional Work History” section at the end of the resume for the non-related jobs.
· Use bullet points to list achievements, results, recognitions, and duties for each job.
Company Name - City, State
Job Title
Start Year - End Year or Present
3-5 achievements, results, recognitions, and duties
INTERNSHIP / EXTERNSHIP / CLINICAL EXPERIENCE
· This section should take priority over others unless you have previous work history in exact field.
Company Name - City, State
Title or Role
Month Year - Month Year
2-3 Main Responsibilities/Duties
CERTIFICATIONS and LICENSURES
Name of Certification/License
Issuing Company or Organization
Certification/License Number
Expiration Month Year
EDUCATION
· Only include schools that you received a degree or relevant certifications from, or are currently attending.
· Do NOT include your high school.
School Name - City, State
Major/Area of Study
Degree Earned
Graduation Year/Estimated Graduation Month Year
CORE COMPETENCIES
· List 6-9 competencies, skills, traits, and/or areas of proficiency that directly relate to the job.
· Utilize the job description to find the types of preferred and/or required skills and traits.
· This is a great area to match keywords from the job description that may not otherwise be easily listed in your resume.
· Use bullet points and columns to make this section more aesthetically pleasing and organized.
RELEVANT COURSEWORK
· List the core courses you have already completed and are currently in.
· Use bullet points to list each course.
VOLUNTEER WORK / AFFILIATIONS
Organization
City, State
example of resume
SHARKLY BRUCE, COTA/L
Amity Island, FL | (975) 206-1120 |
[email protected]
SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS
· Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant with two 8-week rotations of Level II OTA fieldwork, as well as 3 years of previous healthcare experience in a hospital setting.
· Extensive direct care experience assisting patients after treatment of traumatic wounds from local wildlife attacks.
· Proven track record o.
Write a resume and cover letter for the following positionOnline.docxarnoldmeredith47041
Write a resume and cover letter for the following position
Online Marketing Strategist
Riverside, CA 92507
Full-time, Contract
Raincross is seeking a full time marketing rockstar to manage client accounts, devise and implement strategies and craft winning content daily. Candidates must be extremely motivated, possess excellent research and writing skills and pay very close attention to detail.
Requirements
Master the art of creating content: blog articles, updates on social sites, press releases, infographics (or at least the concepts behind them for our design team to create) are all part of the ideal candidates daily tasks
Research and analyze the latest data to uncover gaps; stay up to date on the latest trends and be quick enough to jump on them before they pass
Convert through compelling CTA’s: Create copy for signage, newsletters, email campaigns, online promotions, ads, etc to help brand reach their goals
A/B test: Do you know what works and what doesn’t?
Craft brand strategies: Figure out what they’re doing right, what they’re doing wrong and create strategies to implement. Research to include competitor marketing, trends, etc. Come up with creative new ways to help clients grow and become more successful
Social advertising: Run ads on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and any other social platform that allows us to
Responsibilities
Bachelors Degree in Communications, Marketing or similar
Excellent written and verbal communication and customer service skills
Must take initiative, possess creativity, be hands on and a team player
Should be open-minded, a fast learner, enthusiastic, and adaptable
Experience in writing, copy-writing, researching trends, analyzing data, a/b testing, brand strategies and running social ads and campaigns a huge plus
.
Write a response to the peers post based on the readings. Origi.docxarnoldmeredith47041
Write a response to the peer's post based on the readings.
Original Prompt:
Compare Carroll's strategies for creating sound in
Jabberwocky
with those used by Swenson in
A Nosty
Fright.
Pay attention to connotative and denotative meanings of the words and how the poet plays with sound.
Edilzon Ramirez
Response to Prompt:
In both poems there is a common element. And that is a wordplay to make nonsense poetry. The effect of this, is that we must think more in depth to figure out the real meaning behind the works of literature. In Jabberwocky, the writer begins by setting up the mood giving us the background of the events that are about to occur. The use of exclamation marks throughout the poem afterwards, are what in my opinion, give it the sound. For example, “O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!” suggests sort of a proud/relived cry. Which is furthered backed up by the whimsical words that have a positive connation to them due to the slaying of the jabberwocky, who terrorized the people.
While in “A Nosty Fright” another poem with nonsense words or portmanteau the mood is sad, and it only becomes gloomier. Like Miss Brill, the poet describes things together, in the first stanza “roldengod and the soneyhuckle” and jumps to a lonely chipmunk, suggesting that it has lost its companion. There is hope for it when it meets the grasshopper. Ultimately, it comes to an end “Here we part,” said the hassgropper. “Pere we hart,” mipchunk, too”. All hope is lost for the chipmunk and is waiting for the winter to come. This symbolizes death because during the months of October, November, and December many mammals including the chipmunks hibernate and its almost like it wanted to go to sleep permanently remarking things like “Will it ever be morning, Nofember virst”.
Some say, that the chipmunk is a representation of the author and her sexuality. She like the chipmunk, was alone and the typhoon that was mentioned earlier, was her losing her mind. The words and the sounds they make, further makes this evident because it is gibberish written by someone who is broken.
(Your response to your peer should add or extend the point given by your peer.)
.
Write a response to the following prompt.Analyze the characteriz.docxarnoldmeredith47041
Write a response to the following prompt.
Analyze the characterization Shakespeare employed in
Julius Caesar
, paying particular attention to the role of women. (50 pts) Remember, as you write, to use the language of characterization as we have discussed in class.
.
Write a response to a peers post that adds or extends to the discus.docxarnoldmeredith47041
Write a response to a peer's post that adds or extends to the discussion point of your peer by Friday 07/24/2020.
This week's discussion prompt:
Explain how Faith in "Young Goodman Brown," Georgiana in "The Birthmark," and Elizabeth in "The Black Minister's Veil" are use to reveal some truth about the central male characters in each story. Describe the similarities that you see among these women characters.
Peer's Post:
-Emily Seide
In each of the three short stories, the female characters play a large role in the character development of the three male protagonists (Goodman, Aylmer, and Hooper). Throughout each story, the women leave a lasting impact on their significant other’s mentality of the world and perception of others. In “Young Goodman Brown”, Brown is faced with troubling sights that make him alter his point of view on his town and the townspeople. Brown was introduced to the true form of some nasty people, including his wife, Faith. When he returns home the next morning from a place of sinister evil, his encounter with Faith and his townspeople has made him a hardcore skeptic of anyone and everyone around him. Goodman Brown never trusted a soul after that night because he was forced to believe that evil resides in everyone. In “The Birthmark”, Aylmer goes insane trying to remove his wife, Georgiana’s, birthmark. Even after hearing how beautiful and well liked she is, Georgiana agrees to get her birthmark removed. Rather than seeing this as a perfect part of her, Aylmer sees the birthmark as a flaw that gives her an imperfect complexion. Later in the story, as the birthmark fades and she wakes up, she states that he should’ve admired what he had in the first place, then dies. This made Aylmer realize that he took time for granted, and now he lives a life without Georgiana due to his impatience with her already beautiful complexion. And finally, in “The Minister’s Black Veil”, Reverend Hooper consistently wears a black veil that covers the majority of his face. Several people were afraid and intimidated by it, except for his fiancée, Elizabeth. After further questioning, she begins to fear the veil due to what it symbolizes- the sin in all human beings. Hooper’s plea for Elizabeth to stay reveals the extent of which he is willing to sacrifice, and the decision for him to continue to wear the veil reveals great sorrow; “Do not leave me in this miserable obscurity forever!” (Hawthorne, 36). In each of the short stories, each female character, always a love interest, is first skeptical of the main character’s choice of actions, then later comply. In each short story, a life lesson is learned for each male character.
Readings are attached!
.
Write a response mini-essay of at least 150 to 300 words on the dis.docxarnoldmeredith47041
Write a response mini-essay of at least 150 to 300 words on the discussion topic identified below. Take a position and defend it. (Specify a thesis and support it very briefly with evidence)
The response essay should provide one example from the contemporary world to support your
Position. Ideally you have a source reference for your example. You must have a source reference if you
Refer to any material which is neither common knowledge nor personal experience. essay should be typed using
APA style
feature with a title page and list of references if any are used.
Topic:
Technology changes education
Postman argues that television technology substantively changes aspects of culture such as news, politics, religion, and education in ways that suit the technology, not the human culture that uses the technology. It is a point others have made as well, though it is still contested by many other philosophers and social critics. One excellent example of technological change is on-line course delivery. While there are some who say that the new medium does not provide an education, others (such as your instructor) believe they can accomplish a better education in some subject areas. What have you noticed? What differences are there in on-line education that are due to the way it is technologically mediated? What differences do they make in the education you are receiving? Do you think this is a better or worse education? Why might your instructor think it can be better (and not just because he manages the class while in his pajamas)?
.
Write a response for each document.Instructions Your post sho.docxarnoldmeredith47041
Write a response for each document.
Instructions:
Your post should be a thoughtful response and should include outside reference material from the internet or primary literature. That reference should be referred to specifically with an in-text citation (author, year) and your post should have a bibliography with those outside sources you used cited in APA format.
.
write a resonse paper mla styleHAIRHair deeply affects people,.docxarnoldmeredith47041
write a resonse paper mla style
HAIR
Hair deeply affects people, can transfigure or repulse them. Symbolic of life, hair bolts from our head. Like the earth, it can be harvested, but it will rise again. We can change its color and texture when the mood strikes us, but in time it will return to its original form, just as Nature will in time turn our precisely laid-out cities into a weed-way. Giving one's lover a lock of hair to wear in a small locket [3] around his neck used to be a moving and tender gesture, but also a dangerous one, since to spell-casters, magicians, voodoo-ers, and necromancers of all sorts, a tuft of someone's hair could be used to cast a spell against them. In a variation on this theme, a medieval knight wore a lock of his lady's pubic hair into battle. Since one of the arch-tenets of courtly love was secrecy, choosing this tiny memento instead of a lock of hair from her head may have been more of a practical choice than a philosophical one, but it still symbolized her life-force, which he was carrying with him. Ancient male leaders wore long flowing tresses as a sign of virility (in fact,
"kaiser" and "tsar" both mean "long-haired"
). In the biblical story of Samson, the hero's loss of hair brings on his weakness and downfall, just as it did for the hero Gilgamesh before him. In Europe in more recent times, women who collaborated with the enemy in World War II were humiliated by having their hair cut short. Among some orthodox Jews, a young woman must cut off her hair when she marries, lest her husband find her too attractive and wish to have sex with her out of desire rather than for procreation. Rastafarians regard their dreadlocks as "high-tension cables to heaven." These days, to shock the bourgeoisie and establish their own identity, as every generation must, many young men and women wear their hair as freeform sculpture, with lacquered spikes, close-cropped patterns that resemble a formal garden maze, and colors borrowed from an aviary or spray-painted alley. The first time a student walked into my classroom wearing a "blue jay," it did startle me. Royal-blue slabs of hair were brushed and sprayed straight up along the sides of his head, a long jelly roll of white hair fell forward over his eyebrows, and the back was shiny black, brushed straight up and plastered close to the head. I didn't dislike it, it just seemed like a lot to fuss with each day. I'm sure my grandmother felt that way about my mother's "beehive," and I know my mother feels that way about the curly weather system which is my own mane of long thick hair. One's hairstyle can be the badge of a group, as we've always known -- look at the military's crew cut, or the hairstyles worn by some nuns and monks. In the sixties, wearing long hair, especially if you were a man, often fetched a vitriolic outburst from parents, which is why the musical Hair summed up a generation so beautifully. The police, who seemed so clean-cut and cropped then, were succee.
Write a response about the topic in the reading (see attached) and m.docxarnoldmeredith47041
Write a response about the topic in the reading (see attached) and make sure you include the following:
1. Brief summary of the reading
2. What was intersting?
3. The main points highlighted and what do you think of the reading?
( 2 page response)
.
Write a research report based on a hypothetical research study. Con.docxarnoldmeredith47041
Write a research report based on a hypothetical research study. Conducting research and writing a report is common practice for many students and practitioners in any of the behavioral sciences fields.
A research report, which is based on scientific method, is typically composed of the different sections listed below:
Introduction:
The introduction states a specific hypothesis and how that hypothesis was derived by connecting it to previous research.
Methods:
The methods section describes the details of how the hypothesis was tested and clarifies why the study was conducted in that particular way.
Results:
The results section is where the raw uninterpreted data is presented.
Discussion:
The discussion section is where an argument is presented on whether or not the data supports the hypothesis, the possible implications and limitations of the study, as well as possible future directions for this type of research.
Together, these sections should tell the reader what was done, how it was done, and what was learned through the research. You will create a research report based on a
hypothetical
problem, sample, results, and literature review. Organize your data by creating meaningful sections within your report. Make sure that you:
Apply key concepts of inferential hypothesis tests.
Interpret the research findings of the study.
Examine the assumptions and limitations of inferential tests.
Develop a practical application of the research principles covered in this course.
Focus of the Research Report
To begin, create a hypothetical research study (you do not have to carry out the study; you will just have to describe it) that is based on the three pieces of information listed below. Once you have your hypothetical study created, write a three- to four-page research report (excluding title and reference pages) that outlines the study. You are encouraged to be creative with your research study, but be sure to follow the format outlined below and adhere to APA formatting as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
Your hypothetical research study should be based on the following information:
Recent research has indicated that eating chocolate can improve memory. Jones and Wilson (2011) found that eating chocolate two hours before taking math tests improved scores significantly. Wong, Hideki, Anderson, and Skaarsgard (2009) found that women are better than men on memory tests after eating chocolate.
There were 50 men and 50 women who were randomly selected from a larger population.
A
t
-test was conducted to compare men and women’s performance on an assessment after eating chocolate. The results showed an independent
t
-test value of
t
.05(99) = 3.43;
p
< .05
Your research study must contain the following:
Title Page
Title of your report
Your name
The course
Instructor
Date
Introduction
Introduce the research topic, explain why it is important, and present the purpose of the paper and the resea.
Write a Research Paper with the topic Pregnancy in the adolesce.docxarnoldmeredith47041
Write a Research Paper with the topic: Pregnancy in the adolescent life.
The conditions are:
APA format
Double space
One inch margin on all sides
All paragraph in the body are indented
The title is centered on the page with your name and school institution
Paragraph 2, 3, and 4 need another inch more
All pages should be numbered and with citation
Apart of the Research paper write the topic sentence (a question or a statement) & the THESIS of the Research Paper. Write 3 citations for your Research Paper.
.
Write a Research Paper with the topic Autism a major problem. T.docxarnoldmeredith47041
Write a Research Paper with the topic: Autism a major problem.
The conditions are:
APA format
Double space
One inch margin on all sides
All paragraph in the body are indented
The title is centered on the page with your name and school institution
Paragraph 2, 3, and 4 need another inch more
All pages should be numbered and with citation
Apart of the Research paper write the topic sentence (a question or a statement) & the THESIS of the Research Paper.
Write 3 citations for your Research Paper.
.
Write a research paper that explains how Information Technology (IT).docxarnoldmeredith47041
Write a research paper that explains how Information Technology (IT) promotes getting people who are affected by policies involved in the policy-making process. Cite specific examples.
1000- 1200 words APA format and
Create a powerpoint presentation using 5 slides on the main points covered in your research paper. You may use a title slide and a reference slide.
Please find the attached text book.
.
Write a research paper outlining possible career paths in the field .docxarnoldmeredith47041
Write a research paper outlining possible career paths in the field of Human Resources Management (HRM) and based upon independent research discuss how different organizations might develop and implement a strategic HRM plan.
Research Paper Instructions:
IMPORTANT!!
Submit your work as an MS WORD ATTACHMENT in either a .doc, .docx, or .rtf format.
Please support your ideas, arguments, and opinions with independent research, include at least three (3) supporting references or sources (NOT Wikipedia, unknown, or anonymous sources), format your work in proper APA format, include a cover page, an abstract, an introduction and a labeled conclusion in accordance with the course rubric, a minimum of 3 FULL pages of written content, and a reference section. Double space all work and cite all listed references properly in text in accordance with the 6th edition of the APA manual, chapters 6 & 7.
.
Write a Research paper on the Legal issues associated with pentestin.docxarnoldmeredith47041
Write a Research paper on the Legal issues associated with pentesting.
Paper Specifics
3000 words (not counting citations)
APA format
Max team size of two
Minimum 5 academic sources
Provides clear summary and introduction to project scope; includes coherent discussion of key concepts, principles, and problem statement; develops clear context between project tasks and performing security testing in a virtual environment
Provides a thorough and concise summary of the project by listing the purpose and results of each test conducted; or research summary; clearly links the results with recommendations/research, which are supported by test data and external references
.
Write a research paper on one of the following topics .docxarnoldmeredith47041
Write a research paper on
one
of the following topics:
1. What are the effects of corruption on capitalism and foreign investment? (Unit II)
Be sure to include at least the following points in your paper:
What are the types of corruption?
What are effects of corruption on MNCs?
How can MNCs deal effectively with these problems?
2. How can MNCs effectively negotiate with local employees, local suppliers, and local governments in the Middle East? (Unit IV)
Be sure to include at least the following points in your paper:
What are some examples of negotiation cases in the Middle East?
How do MNCs use negotiation to solve problems?
What roles do different cultures have in negotiation?
3. Discuss the problems MNCs face when assigning expatriates to an Eastern European country and how they should support the expatriates. (Unit VII)
Be sure to include at least the following points in your paper:
What are problems for international assignments in Eastern Europe?
What are solutions for the problems?
What are strategies MNCs can implement to support their expatriates?
Directions:
The paper should be at least 750 words in length.
You are required to use a minimum of three scholarly sources for the paper.
All sources used must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying APA citations.
.
Strategies for Effective Upskilling is a presentation by Chinwendu Peace in a Your Skill Boost Masterclass organisation by the Excellence Foundation for South Sudan on 08th and 09th June 2024 from 1 PM to 3 PM on each day.
Chapter wise All Notes of First year Basic Civil Engineering.pptxDenish Jangid
Chapter wise All Notes of First year Basic Civil Engineering
Syllabus
Chapter-1
Introduction to objective, scope and outcome the subject
Chapter 2
Introduction: Scope and Specialization of Civil Engineering, Role of civil Engineer in Society, Impact of infrastructural development on economy of country.
Chapter 3
Surveying: Object Principles & Types of Surveying; Site Plans, Plans & Maps; Scales & Unit of different Measurements.
Linear Measurements: Instruments used. Linear Measurement by Tape, Ranging out Survey Lines and overcoming Obstructions; Measurements on sloping ground; Tape corrections, conventional symbols. Angular Measurements: Instruments used; Introduction to Compass Surveying, Bearings and Longitude & Latitude of a Line, Introduction to total station.
Levelling: Instrument used Object of levelling, Methods of levelling in brief, and Contour maps.
Chapter 4
Buildings: Selection of site for Buildings, Layout of Building Plan, Types of buildings, Plinth area, carpet area, floor space index, Introduction to building byelaws, concept of sun light & ventilation. Components of Buildings & their functions, Basic concept of R.C.C., Introduction to types of foundation
Chapter 5
Transportation: Introduction to Transportation Engineering; Traffic and Road Safety: Types and Characteristics of Various Modes of Transportation; Various Road Traffic Signs, Causes of Accidents and Road Safety Measures.
Chapter 6
Environmental Engineering: Environmental Pollution, Environmental Acts and Regulations, Functional Concepts of Ecology, Basics of Species, Biodiversity, Ecosystem, Hydrological Cycle; Chemical Cycles: Carbon, Nitrogen & Phosphorus; Energy Flow in Ecosystems.
Water Pollution: Water Quality standards, Introduction to Treatment & Disposal of Waste Water. Reuse and Saving of Water, Rain Water Harvesting. Solid Waste Management: Classification of Solid Waste, Collection, Transportation and Disposal of Solid. Recycling of Solid Waste: Energy Recovery, Sanitary Landfill, On-Site Sanitation. Air & Noise Pollution: Primary and Secondary air pollutants, Harmful effects of Air Pollution, Control of Air Pollution. . Noise Pollution Harmful Effects of noise pollution, control of noise pollution, Global warming & Climate Change, Ozone depletion, Greenhouse effect
Text Books:
1. Palancharmy, Basic Civil Engineering, McGraw Hill publishers.
2. Satheesh Gopi, Basic Civil Engineering, Pearson Publishers.
3. Ketki Rangwala Dalal, Essentials of Civil Engineering, Charotar Publishing House.
4. BCP, Surveying volume 1
How to Manage Your Lost Opportunities in Odoo 17 CRMCeline George
Odoo 17 CRM allows us to track why we lose sales opportunities with "Lost Reasons." This helps analyze our sales process and identify areas for improvement. Here's how to configure lost reasons in Odoo 17 CRM
How to Setup Warehouse & Location in Odoo 17 InventoryCeline George
In this slide, we'll explore how to set up warehouses and locations in Odoo 17 Inventory. This will help us manage our stock effectively, track inventory levels, and streamline warehouse operations.
Reimagining Your Library Space: How to Increase the Vibes in Your Library No ...Diana Rendina
Librarians are leading the way in creating future-ready citizens – now we need to update our spaces to match. In this session, attendees will get inspiration for transforming their library spaces. You’ll learn how to survey students and patrons, create a focus group, and use design thinking to brainstorm ideas for your space. We’ll discuss budget friendly ways to change your space as well as how to find funding. No matter where you’re at, you’ll find ideas for reimagining your space in this session.
The subject of this reading response concerns the relationship bet.docx
1. The subject of this reading response concerns the relationship
between Islam and national identity. The readings for next
week, one by David Radford, and two by myself (I was not able
to scan the Borbieva chapter, unfortunately) give us very
different perspectives on what this relationship looks like.
Please write 200-250 words comparing Radford and Artman’s
perspectives on the relationship between Islam and national
identity. What were their main arguments? Where do they
agree? Where do they disagree? Please also discuss how some
of the readings from week 11 (Peshkova, Rasanayagam,
Privratsky) might inform our understanding of the debate about
national identity and religion. Which perspective did you find
most persuasive? (and you don’t have to agree with me just
because I wrote some of the readings – remember what we’ve
learned in class: it’s ok to disagree!). What did you find most
interesting about the readings for these two weeks?
1
CONTEMPORARY MODES OF ISLAMIC DISCOURSE IN
KYRGYZSTAN: RETHINKING THE MODERATE -
EXTREMIST
DUALITY
CAP PAPERS 170
(CERIA SERIES)
2. Vincent M. Artman1
Islam’s growing political, cultural, and social influence in
Central Asia has become a major
preoccupation of analysts and policymakers since 1991. Much
of this discussion, however, has
focused on questions related to security, extremism, and
terrorism.2 A characteristic motif in
this literature is the juxtaposition of “moderate Islam” with
“Islamic extremism.” The struggle
between moderates and extremists, in turn, works to shape a
broader geopolitical metanarrative
in which Central Asia is constructed as a place of instability,
violence, and political repression.3
Some have even depicted the region as being faced with the
possibility of a Eurasian “Arab
Spring” scenario.4
Not surprisingly, the actual religious landscape in Central Asia
is substantially more complex
than this binary admits: rather than a stark division between
local moderates and foreign
extremists, closer inspection reveals a myriad of different
theologies, religious groups and
1 Vincent M. Artman is is an instructor in the Center for Peace
& Conflict Studies at Wayne State
University. He holds a Ph.D. in Geography from the University
of Kansas. His publications include
“Documenting Territory: Passportisation, Territory, and
Exception in Abkhazia and South Ossetia” in the
journal Geopolitics and a co-authored piece entitled “Territorial
Cleansing: A Geopolitical Approach to
Understanding Mass Violence” in Territory, Politics,
Governance.
3. 2 An example of this genre is R. Sagdeev, Islam and Central
Asia: An Enduring Legacy or an Evolving
Threat? Washington, DC: Center for Political and Strategic
Studies, 2000. See also S.F. Starr, “Moderate
Islam? Look to Central Asia,” New York Times, February 26,
2014.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/27/opinion/moderate-islam-
look-to-central-asia.html; A.
Masylkanova, “Radicalization in Kyrgyzstan is No Myth,” The
Diplomat, June 22, 2016.
http://thediplomat.com/2016/06/radicalization-in-kyrgyzstan-is-
no-myth/
3 For more on this “discourse of danger,” see: J. Heathershaw,
N. Megoran, “Contesting Danger: A New
Agenda for Policy and Scholarship on Central Asia,”
International Affairs 87:3 (2011), pp. 589-612.
4 R. Kaplan, L. Goodrich, “Central Asian Tensions,” Stratfor,
January 30, 2013.
https://www.stratfor.com/weekly/central-asian-tensions
2
movements, and discourses about the proper role of religion in
society. In the end, attempts to
conceptualize Islam in terms of generalized moderate and
extremist variants obscures the very
real diversity that exists within such categories. The end result
is an inaccurate and unhelpful
depiction of the role of religion in Central Asia today.
The focus of this brief will be Kyrgyzstan, where government
regulation of religion has typically
been less severe than in neighboring states, affording greater
freedom for debates within the
4. religious sphere to occur openly. Indeed, one of the most
striking developments in Kyrgyzstan
since the 1990s has been the growth of popular interest in Islam
and the increasingly visible
participation of Muslims in the public sphere. At the time of the
Soviet collapse, however,
Kyrgyzstan was widely considered by Western observers to be
one of the most secularized
republics in the Soviet Union.5 Even as late as 1999, one
scholar wrote, “At first glance, there is
no obvious sign that Islam is the official religion of the Kyrgyz.
When you walk in the street of
the capital, you feel only the cold breeze of ‘Scientific Atheism’
blowing in your face.”6
Such an assessment would make little sense today: even in the
country’s cosmopolitan capital,
Bishkek, it is common to see people in modern professional
attire walking side by side with
friends wearing fashionable, brightly-colored hijabs. 7 Vendors
sell Islamic literature on the
streets and in public markets, and stores advertise their stocks
of halal products.8 Theologians
hold popular seminars in conference centers in the city center,
which are attended by hundreds
of young men and women, and parents can send their children to
any number of Islamic
schools.9 Consumers can now do business with any of several
Islamic banks, and universities,
government offices, and even bazaars often set aside space for a
namazkhana, or prayer room.
On Fridays, the streets around Bishkek’s Central Mosque are
even more choked with traffic than
usual, while the mosque itself is usually filled beyond capacity.
During warmer seasons
hundreds of men lay their prayer rugs on the ground in the
5. courtyard and perform prayers
(namaz) under the open sky.
The growing conspicuousness of such conventional markers of
religiosity, however, only tells
part of the story, and it would be a mistake to interpret these
developments as evidence of a
general consensus about the role of Islam in Kyrgyzstan today.
After all, the so-called “Islamic
revival”10 in Central Asia has never been a uniform
phenomenon. Historically, there have always
been many competing streams of Islamic discourse and practice
in the region. A full accounting
of this diversity is well beyond the scope of this paper. 11
Instead, what follows is a brief
5 A typical assessment notes: “The Kyrgyz received Islam late,
and lightly, and Soviet rule left them with a
vague conception of being ‘Muslim,’ as much in a cultural as a
religious sense.” R. Lowe, “Nation Building
in the Kyrgyz Republic,” in T. Everett-Heath (ed.), Central
Asia: Aspects of Transition, New York:
RoutledgeCurzon, 2003, p. 122.
6 M. Gardaz, “In Search of Islam in Kyrgyzstan,” Religion 29:3
(1999), p. 276.
7 As in many other countries, the practice of veiling has taken
on a political dimension in Kyrgyzstan. See
N. Schenkkan, Kyrgyzstan: Hijab Controversy Charges Debate
over Islam’s Role in Society,” Eurasianet,
October 12, 2011. http://www.eurasianet.org/node/64306
8 There are several competing standards for halal certification
in Kyrgyzstan, a fact which has caused
some confusion for consumers. See “Kyrgyzstan: Rival Halal
Standards Means ‘Trust with Your Eyes
Closed,’” Eurasianet, January 15, 2014.
6. http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67943
9 B. De Cordier, “Kyrgyzstan: Fledgling Islamic Charity
Reflects Growing Role for Religion,” Eurasianet,
December 8, 2010. http://www.eurasianet.org/node/62529
10 M. Haghayeghi, “Islamic Revival in the Central Asian
Republics,” Central Asian Survey 13:2 (1994), pp.
249-266.
11 To get a sense of this diversity during the post-Soviet era
see: A. Khalid, Islam after Communism:
Religion and Politics in Central Asia, Berkeley: University of
California Press, 2007; M. Louw, Everyday
Islam in Post-Soviet Central Asia, London: Routledge, 2007; B.
Privratsky, Muslim Turkistan: Kazak
3
examination of some of the many cleavages and perspectives
that make up the contemporary
religious scene in Kyrgyzstan, where the meaning of terms like
extremist and moderate is
everything but self-evident.
Textualists
Much of the literature on Islam in Central Asia devotes a
disproportionate amount of attention
to a motley assortment of what are called “Islamic extremist”
organizations. At different times
this list has included groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir, Tablighi
Jama’at, the Islamic Movement of
Uzbekistan, the Islamic Jihadist Union, al-Qaeda, and, most
recently, the Islamic State. It is
worth noting several key points about these organizations,
which are in many respects quite
7. different from one another. First, not all of them embrace
violence, and those that are violent
have had a negligible impact in Central Asia. For example,
according to one account, “From
2001-2013, there were three attacks that have apparently been
claimed by such groups, with a
total of 11 deaths.” 12 Despite their apparent impotence, the
fear of violent extremism has
nevertheless been seized upon by governments in the region as a
convenient justification both
for domestic political repression and as a means of “ensuring
the cooperation and support of the
West but also of Russia and China.”13
A second crucial point is that the very designation of extremist
likely obscures more than it
explains. Indeed, one of the few characteristics held in common
among the various extremist
groups in Central Asia is a perspective on Islam that might be
referred to as “textualist” or
“originalist.” This perspective tends to understand the Qur’an
and Hadith (accounts of the words
and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad) as the only authoritative
source of religious norms and
rejects much of the broader Islamic scholarly tradition that
developed over the centuries. From
the textualist point of view, moreover, local customs and
traditions that came to characterize the
practice of Islam in various geographical and social contexts are
condemned as bid’a, or
“unwelcome innovations.” Textualists of all stripes, meanwhile,
typically claim to represent a
more pure and authentic form of Islam; however it is not a
given that this purist perspective
necessarily constitutes extremism.
8. A third, related, point is that the term “extremist” is misleading
because it usually serves as an
umbrella label that conflates truly violent radical organizations
like the Islamic Movement of
Uzbekistan, non-violent, albeit revolutionary, movements like
Hizb ut-Tahrir, and wholly
apolitical groups like the Tablighi Jama’at. While this kind of
terminological fuzziness often
works to the advantage of state regimes interested in controlling
the religious sphere, it tells us
little about the nature of the organizations in question.
Hizb ut-Tahrir, for example, is banned throughout Central Asia
because the group’s propaganda
advocates the establishment of an Islamic caliphate. Moreover,
the group is often viewed as an
“Uzbek phenomenon” 14 in Central Asia. In Kyrgyzstan, this
perception plays into prevalent
Religion and Collective Memory, London: Routledge, 2001; J.
Rasanayagam, Islam in Post-Soviet
Uzbekistan: The Morality of Experience, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2011.
12 J. Heathershaw, D. Montgomery, “The Myth of Post-Soviet
Muslim Radicalization in the Central Asian
Republics,” London: Chatham House, 2014, p. 14.
13 B. Balci, D. Chaudet, “Jihadism in Central Asia: A Credible
Threat after the Western Withdrawal from
Afghanistan?” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace,
2014.
http://carnegieendowment.org/2014/08/13/jihadism-in-central-
asia-credible-threat-after-western-
withdrawal-from-afghanistan
14 E. Karagiannis, Political Islam in Central Asia: the
Challenge of Hizb ut-Tahrir, London: Routledge,
9. 2010, p. 58.
4
narratives regarding the potential for a repeat of the traumatic
inter-ethnic violence akin to that
which ravaged the country in 2010.15 At the same time, Hizb
ut-Tahrir has won many adherents
by providing social goods that the Kyrgyz state has been unable
to supply.16 Thus, while Hizb ut-
Tahrir’s goal of establishing a caliphate is shared with violent
organizations like the Islamic
State, its non-violent, gradualist methods are not; simply
grouping both together as “extremist”
obscures the very real differences between them.
In a similar fashion, the case of the Tablighi Jama’at clearly
illustrates the difficulties in using
the broad, overarching terminology of “extremism” to refer to
textualist Islamic movements. The
group, whose name loosely translates as “the society of
spreading the message,” was founded in
the 1920s in India, and its primary mission is “faith renewal…to
make nominal Muslims good
practicing Muslims by helping them to get rid of un-Islamic
accretions and observe Islamic
rituals faithfully.” 17 However, like Hizb ut-Tahrir, the
Tablighi Jama’at is banned as an
“extremist” organization throughout most of Central Asia,
despite the fact that it is non-violent
and expressly apolitical. In most cases, the unstated motivation
behind such restrictions is a
desire on the part of governments to maintain a monopoly over
the religious sphere.18
10. In Kyrgyzstan, however, the Tablighi Jama’at operates openly,
and in fact appears to be widely
influential. In some respects, the group’s appeal is not difficult
to understand: its message of
helping Muslims to practice a more “pure” Islam based solely in
the Qur’an and Hadith, attracts
many who are in search of what they feel to be a more authentic
religious experience. Moreover,
the fact that the Tablighi Jama’at is an apolitical movement
means that participation in its
activities, especially daavat,19 the act of inviting fellow
Muslims to pray at the mosque, provides
a risk-free avenue for exploring and expressing a self-
consciously Islamic identity rooted in the
foundational texts of the religion.20
Yet, even in Kyrgyzstan the Tablighi Jama’at is not entirely
without detractors. Adherents have
sometimes provoked controversy for wearing what are
sometimes derided as “Pakistani” styles
of dress – “long tunics, baggy pants and turbans in emulation of
the Prophet Mohammed.”21
Many Kyrgyz consider such clothes to be culturally
inappropriate, or even a potential sign of
extremist beliefs. In response to the controversy, members of
Tablighi Jama’at have been
encouraged to adopt more familiar “national” styles, including
the traditional Kyrgyz kalpak hat.
15 I. Rotar, “Situation in Southern Kyrgyzstan Continues to
Smolder Two Years Since Ethnic Riots,”
Eurasia Daily Monitor 9:115 (2012).
http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews[tt_ne
11. ws]=39507
16 E. McGlinchey, “Islamic Revivalism and State Failure in
Kyrgyzstan,” Problems of Post-Communism
56:3 (2009), pp. 16-28.
17 M. Ayoob, The Many Faces of Political Islam: Religion and
Politics in the Muslim World, Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan Press, 2008, p. 135.
18 G. Saidazimova, “Uzbekistan: Tabligh Jamaat Group Added
to Uzbek Government's Blacklist,” Radio
Free Europe/Radio Liberty, December 20, 2004.
http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1056505.html
19 Davaat is the local pronunciation of the Arabic word dawa.
So prevalent is this activity in Kyrgyzstan
that members of Tablighi Jama’at are colloquially referred to as
daavatchilar.
20 Numerous other Islamic funds and organizations also operate
in Kyrgyzstan, including the Turkey-
based Nurçular (also known as the Gülen movement),
Mutakallim, an Islamic women’s organization, and
Adep Bashati, a Kyrgyz group whose leadership received
training at the renowned Al Azhar University in
Egypt. Like the Tablighi Jama’at, these organizations often
operate schools and medresehs, run charities,
and provide other kinds of social services. The Kyrgyz
government maintains a list of officially registered
organizations, which can be found here:
http://www.religion.gov.kg/ru/muslim.html
21 N. Schenkkan, “Kyrgyzstan: Islamic Revivalist Movement
Quietly Flourishing,” Eurasianet, 2011.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/64378
5
While such compromises appeased some critics, officials in the
12. State Commission for Religious
Affairs continue to express skepticism about the group’s
ultimate goals. Some suggest that the
Tablighi Jama’at could be “laying the groundwork” for radical
extremist movements.22 Other
observers, such as the popular Kyrgyz theologian Kadyr
Malikov and Emil Nasritdinov, a
professor of anthropology who has himself participated in
daavat, 23 argue that the group
actually siphons potential recruits away from more violent
groups by providing Kyrgyz Muslims
with an apolitical avenue for exploring the possibilities of faith
renewal.24 Nevertheless, the
Kyrgyz government is still considering the possibility of
following the example of its Central
Asian neighbors and banning the Tablighi Jama’at as an
extremist organization alongside the
Islamic State and al-Qaeda.
In the end, such overly broad and politically arbitrary
definitions of what constitutes extremism
ultimately reinforce the notion that the term itself is usually of
limited analytical value.
Normative Hanafism
If the word “extremist” lacks definitional clarity, then the term
“moderate” is similarly imprecise.
For example, in Kyrgyzstan the definition of “moderate Islam”
is in many respects a product of
the mobilization of theology in the service of state policy.
According to an official report entitled
the “Conception of State Policy of the Kyrgyz Republic in the
Religious Sphere 2014-2020”: “[I]n
order to ensure national security and cultural identity, the state
is creating conditions for the
13. strengthening and development of traditional forms of moderate
Sunni Islam, based on the
religious-legal school of Hanafism and the Maturidi creed.”25
To this end, the government has
begun to promote what it calls “traditional Kyrgyz Islam,”
which “does not place in opposition
Islamic beliefs and national traditions and customs, and has an
ideological basis for the
development of partnership with the state.”26
As a secular entity the government is constrained in the degree
to which it directly intervenes in
theological issues. Nevertheless, the State Commission for
Religious Affairs, a secular body
under the jurisdiction of the President of Kyrgyzstan, has broad
authority to “regulate the
religious sphere or other activities of religious organizations
through laws and other normative
legal acts.”27 At the same time, Kyrgyzstan also has an
“official” Islamic governing body, which is
called the Muslim Spiritual Authority of Kyrgyzstan. Although
this institution, which is also
known as the Muftiate, is legally separate from the Kyrgyz
government, in practice it cooperates
closely with the state. Moreover, unlike the State Commission
for Religious Affairs, the Muftiate
is an explicitly religious body, and it is composed of ulema, or
Islamic scholars.
22 Personal communication.
23 E. Nasritdinov, “Spiritual Nomadism and Central Asian
Tablighi Travelers,” Ab Imperio 2 (2012), pp.
145-167.
24 Personal communications.
25 Kontseptsiia gosudarstvennoi politiki Kyrgyzskoi Respubliki
14. v religioznoi sfere na 2014-2020 gody
(2014), p. 17.
http://www.president.kg/files/docs/kontseptsiya_na_rus._priloje
nie_k_ukazu_pkr-1.pdf.
The Hanafi madhhab is one of the four major schools of Islamic
jurisprudence, and the one that is most
widespread in Central Asia. Typically, Hanafism allows for
more consideration of local customs and
practices than other madhhabs, and is sometimes interpreted as
advocating political quietism.
Maturidism is a philosophical doctrine that grew out of the
teachings of Abu Mansur Muhammad al-
Maturidi, a tenth century philosopher from Samarkand.
Maturidism affords a greater role to human
reason and free will than some other schools of thought.
26 Ibid,. p. 10.
27 Chotaev, Z., Isaeva, G., Tursubekov, Z. “Metodicheskie
materialy: gosudarstvennaya politika v
religioznoi sfere: zakonodatel'nye osnovy kontseptiya i
"traditsionnyi islam" v Kyrgyzstane,” Bishkek:
Gosudarstvennaya komissiya po delam religii Kyrgyzskoi
Respubliki, 2015, p. 12.
6
A significant proportion of the Muftiate’s activities is aimed at
spreading “correct” knowledge of
Islam among Kyrgyz Muslims.28 In addition to holding classes
on the basics of the Qur’an and
Hadith, the Muftiate also publishes religious literature, much of
which is devoted to outlining
the basics of Islamic belief and ritual, providing answers to
common questions about religion,
15. giving religiously-grounded advice on topics like marriage,
child-rearing, and so forth. But the
Muftiate’s efforts to promote knowledge of Islam are not
limited to remedial religious
instruction; they are also intended to foster the development of
patriotic, nationalist, political
quietist, and moderate Kyrgyz Muslims.
The Muftiate thus provides important theological underpinning
to the state’s broader efforts to
combat extremism. For example, along with representatives
from the president’s Security
Council and the State Committee for Religious Affairs, the
Muftiate now evaluates imams on
their “knowledge of Islam.”29 The tacit goal of this process is
to ensure that imams are not
spreading religious extremism, which is defined as “adherence
to violence and radical acts
directed towards the unconstitutional change of the existing
order, and threatening the integrity
and security of the state, society, or individuals using religious
rhetoric.” 30 Similarly, the
Muftiate argued that “real sacred ‘jihad’ is…a struggle against
‘terrorism,’ which is accursed by
God and the angels.”31 In 2015 the Muftiate hosted an
international symposium on “Extremism
and Takfirism32 as a Threat to Modern Society.” This
symposium brought together religious
officials from across the Central Asian region, as well as from
countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait, India, and Pakistan, to discuss the problem of
extremism and terrorism. Among the
resolutions adopted by the delegates were a declaration that
terrorism and violence are contrary
to the teachings of Islam and calls to put an end to communal,
tribal, and sectarian divisions
16. among Muslims.33
Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev himself used the
symposium as an occasion to remind
people of the nature of traditional Kyrgyz Islam. In remarks
from a local newspaper, which were
reproduced in the preface to the symposium proceedings,
Atambayev noted, “The Kyrgyz people
were never religious fanatics. That our forefathers belonged to
the Hanafi madhab was not a
coincidence. I would like to stress one feature of the Hanafi
madhab. In modern parlance: it was
tolerant.”34 Similarly, an analyst in the Kyrgyz Commission for
Religious Affairs, commented:
“Maturidism is [our] traditional Islam. It says that Islam and the
state should live in harmony
and that there is no necessity to build a caliphate.”35 The
“Conception of State Policy” also
highlights the patriotic and quietist character of Maturidism,
noting that “[t]his school, which is
28 N. Kurbanova, “Islamic Education in Kyrgyzstan,” Central
Asia and the Caucasus: Journal of Social
and Political Studies 15:1 (2014), pp. 90-103.
29 “Kyrgyzstan Testing Clerics’ Knowledge of Islam,”
Eurasianet, May 28, 2015.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/73636
30 “Kontseptsiia gosudarstvennoi politiki Kyrgyzskoi
Respubliki v religioznoi sfere na 2014-2020 gody,”
op. cit., p. 34.
31 F. Yusupov, “Musul’manin ne terrorist – terrorist ne
musul’manin, paralelli mezhdu dzhikhadom i
terrorismom,” March 17, 2016.
http://muftiyat.kg/ru/article/musulmanin-ne-terrorist-terrorist-
ne-
17. musulmanin-paralleli-mezhdu-dzhihadom-i-terrorizmom
32 To accuse someone of takfir is to accuse them of being an
unbeliever, even of they call themself a
Muslim. “Takfirism” is thus not a coherent ideology, as the
name might suggest, but rather a label that
refers to a broad spectrum of purist or extremist viewpoints that
categorize many, if not most, other
Muslims as having been corrupted by un-Islamic ideas and
practices.
33 “‘Ekstremizm zhana takfirizm koomgo keltirgen
korkunuchu’: I el aralyk simpoziumu,” Bishkek, April
16, 2015.
http://muftiyat.kg/sites/default/files/books/simozium_2015_fina
l_akyrky.pdf
34 Ibid., p. 3.
35 Personal communication.
7
shared by the majority of the citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic,
has a historically proven capacity
for tolerance, good-neighborliness, and respect in conditions of
ethnic and religious diversity.”36
The defection of what constitutes moderate Islam in Kyrgyzstan
today therefore effectively
conforms to the government’s preferred qualities: politically
inert, loyal to the state and the
existing order, and unreceptive to extremist ideologies like
“takfirism” or calls to establish a
caliphate in Central Asia. It is important to recognize, however,
that the fact that traditional
Kyrgyz Islam is rooted in the venerable Hanafi tradition imbues
it with a theological legitimacy
18. that is independent of its political utility. However, the
traditional Kyrgyz Islam promoted by the
state and the Muftiate is not the only form of moderate,
culturally authoritative Islam in
Kyrgyzstan.
Traditionalists
According to a report published by the State Commission for
Religious Affairs, Islam, “[h]aving
become an integral part of our culture and history…exists in
harmony with the customs and
traditions that spread in Kyrgyzstan over the course of
centuries.”37 From the perspective of the
state and the Muftiate, “tradition” refers to moderate, tolerant
Hanafism. But for many Kyrgyz,
the concept of tradition also refers to a broad constellation of
beliefs and practices that are
linked to the concept of kyrgyzchylyk, which translates roughly
as “the essence of Kyrgyzness.”
Although it is a somewhat vague concept, kyrgyzchylyk
typically includes practices like
divination, performing ziyarat to mazars,38 attending to the
spirits of the ancestors, and various
other practices, many of which are linked with the Kyrgyz
people’s nomadic past. Importantly,
for many Kyrgyz such traditional practices are also closely
intertwined with Islam. Although the
two are not necessarily conceived of as being identical, the
boundaries that separate one from
the other are often indistinct. It is important to note, however,
that this “traditionalist Islam”
does not constitute an organized movement or group; rather it
should be understood as a
perspective on the faith that is less concerned with bid’a than it
is with honoring Kyrgyz customs
19. and traditions.
Not surprisingly, many practices associated with kyrgyzchylyk,
and thus with traditionalist
Islam, are frequently excoriated as “un-Islamic” or as
“shamanism” by textualists and others.
For example, members of the Tablighi Jama’at sometimes argue
that people who engage in
fortune telling derive their powers from djinni, or evil spirits.39
The supernatural powers of
healing and fortune telling manifested by clairvoyants, from this
perspective, are simply
intended to mislead people and tempt them into shirk (idolatry
or polytheism). Similarly, the
Muftiate itself has argued, “There are still many superstitions in
Kyrgyzchilik [sic] that go
against Islam and are sinful…The one who commits shirk
certainly can expect to be thrown into
the fires of hell.”40
36 “Kontseptsiia gosudarstvennoi politiki Kyrgyzskoi
Respubliki v religioznoi sfere na 2014-2020 gody,” op.
cit., p. 17.
37 Chotaev et al., op cit. p. 19.
38 Ziyarat is the practice of performing a pilgrimage to a mazar,
or a sacred place. Mazars can include the
graves of ancestors or saints, as well as natural sacred sites like
springs, trees, or stones, which are said to
have a special holy quality. Visiting mazars is an important
aspect of religious practice throughout Central
Asia.
39 Personal communication.
40 Quoted in N. Borbieva, “Parallel Worlds: Male and Female
Islam in the Central Asian Republics,”
20. presented at “The Turks and Islam: An International
Conference,” Bloomington, Indiana, 2010, p. 7.
8
Traditionalism’s historical connection with Kyrgyz culture and
identity, however, also imbues it
with prestige and authority. Many traditionalists view both
textualist interpretations of Islam
and the normative Hanafism promoted by the Muftiate as posing
a threat to authentic Kyrgyz
Islamic customs. As one traditionalist argues, “Pure Qur’an is
good. But today’s Islam is a
negative influence. It is destroying all our traditions. Women
have started wearing the hijab.
People are wearing Pakistani clothes. The number of mosques
has grown in villages. Mullahs are
prohibiting crying and saying koshok [mourning of the dead] at
funerals. Our ancestors
accepted pure Islam. It didn’t contradict our culture.”41
Suggestions that traditional practices are somehow not
consistent with Islam are often met with
confusion and scorn. As one practitioner argues, “[W]e perform
namaz, read and recite the
Qur’an, we often do feasts of sacrifice, and perform alms.
[Islam] is in our blood, and it is passed
to us from our ancestors from seven generations ago.”42 Indeed,
despite pressures from the
Muftiate to conform to normative Hanafism, one observer notes
that people with “pieces of
crucial local knowledge – knowledge of texts in Farsi and
Chagatay Turkic, knowledge of rituals
at mazars, local vernacular poetry, and songs and epics – have
21. asserted their voices as
purveyors of real and legitimate Central Asian Islamic
traditions.”43
Traditionalism thus represents another authoritative modality of
Islamic belief and practice in
contemporary Kyrgyzstan, one that has strong roots in culture,
history, and tradition. At the
same time, however, traditionalism occupies a peculiar position
outside the boundaries both of
extremism and normative moderate Hanafism. But, since
traditionalists do not constitute an
organized group or movement, they have not attracted the
attention of the state. Consequently,
disputes over belief and practice between traditionalists and the
Muftiate tend to play out on the
theological and rhetorical planes, rather than in the realms of
politics and national security.
Conclusion
The meta-discourse about the nature and threat of Islamic
extremism, both in Central Asia and
elsewhere, is likely to continue unabated. However, as the furor
over President Obama’s refusal
to blame “radical Islam” in wake of the June 2016 massacre in
Orlando has made clear, the act
of labeling extremism is not neutral.44 Some have accused the
President of ignoring the reality of
the threat posed by extremists, while others, including the
President himself, have countered by
pointing out that simply using the label “radical Islam” achieves
little of substance. Much the
same argument could be made regarding the habit of classifying
Islam in Central Asia into
moderate and extremist varieties: as the foregoing has
22. demonstrated, just what these labels
mean is not always self-evident, and their apparent homogeneity
begins to break down upon
closer inspection.
In the end, “moderate” and “extremist” are essentially political
categories, not descriptive or
analytical ones. Such labels not only mask the considerable
diversity of religious practice and
theological perspectives in Central Asia, but they also work to
perpetuate dominant geopolitical
metanarratives about the region as a zone of danger and
instability. Understanding Islam’s role
in contemporary Central Asia will therefore require us to
reassess the value of these labels and
41 Personal communication.
42 Personal communication.
43 V. Schubel, “Islam's Diverse Paths: Seeking the ‘Real Islam’
in Central Asia, in G. Aitpaeva & A.
Egemberdieva (eds.), Sacred Sites of Ysyk-Köl: Spiritual
Power, Pilgrimage, and Art, Bishkek: Aigine,
2009, pp. 281.
44 C. Amidon, “Why We’re Debating the Term ‘Radical Islam’
in the Wake of Orlando,” Huffington Post,
June 17, 2016. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kicker/why-
were-debating-the-ter_b_10488686.html
9
the ideological baggage they come freighted with. Once we have
freed ourselves from the
necessity of deciding who counts as an “extremist” and who
23. counts as a “moderate” we can begin
to turn our attention to the more difficult – and more rewarding
– project of trying to make
sense of the ways in which different actors mobilize Islamic
authority, mapping the fault lines
that separate disparate modalities of belief and practice, and
observing how these contestations
shape policy, theology, and public discourse.
Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at
https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journal
Code=ceas20
Europe-Asia Studies
ISSN: 0966-8136 (Print) 1465-3427 (Online) Journal homepage:
https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ceas20
‘My Poor People, Where Are We Going?’: Grounded
Theologies and National Identity in Kyrgyzstan
Vincent M. Artman
To cite this article: Vincent M. Artman (2019): ‘My Poor
People, Where Are We Going?’:
Grounded Theologies and National Identity in Kyrgyzstan,
Europe-Asia Studies, DOI:
10.1080/09668136.2019.1656167
To link to this article:
https://doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2019.1656167
24. Published online: 25 Sep 2019.
Submit your article to this journal
View related articles
View Crossmark data
https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journal
Code=ceas20
https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ceas20
https://www.tandfonline.com/action/showCitFormats?doi=10.10
80/09668136.2019.1656167
https://doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2019.1656167
https://www.tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?journalC
ode=ceas20&show=instructions
https://www.tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?journalC
ode=ceas20&show=instructions
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/mlt/10.1080/09668136.2019.1
656167
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/mlt/10.1080/09668136.2019.1
656167
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1080/09668136.20
19.1656167&domain=pdf&date_stamp=2019-09-25
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1080/09668136.20
19.1656167&domain=pdf&date_stamp=2019-09-25
‘My Poor People, Where Are We Going?’:
Grounded Theologies and National Identity
in Kyrgyzstan
VINCENT M. ARTMAN
25. Abstract
Although Islam is described as a fundamental aspect of Kyrgyz
national identity, its theological aspects are
generally elided in nationalist discourse. However, as Islam
becomes more prominent in Kyrgyz society,
anxieties about ‘Arabisation’ and the weakening of national
traditions permeate popular and political
discourse. These anxieties operate simultaneously in the
national and religious registers, suggesting the
extent to which theological beliefs inform national identity,
even in secular states. Examining a recent
controversy over veiling in Kyrgyzstan, this article argues that
theology is both linked to nationality and
also a site of contestation over the terms of nationalism itself.
IN THE DECADES SINCE THE SOVIET COLLAPSE,
SOCIAL, CULTURAL, economic and
political landscapes across Eurasia have been dramatically
refashioned. However, along
with sometimes halting and geographically uneven integration
into the global economy
(Laruelle & Peyrouse 2013), the most transformative processes
affecting this region have
arguably been nation-building and the revival of religion in the
public sphere. These
developments, importantly, have not occurred in isolation from
one another, and the
numerous zones of interpenetration between religion,
secularism, and ethnic and national
identities have attracted substantial interest from scholars
working on Central Asia
(Laruelle 2007; Louw 2012; Thibault 2013; Montgomery 2016;
McBrien 2017).
A recurrent theme in this literature has been a critique of the
27. “abode of Islam”. Those who have adopted it are viewed as
modernisers, whereas those
who reject it are considered to be traditionalists’ (Tibi 1997, p.
10). By contrast, other
scholars have sought to highlight the dynamic and often
contradictory roles that Islam
plays in the modern nation-state, as well as in the articulation
and performance of national
identity itself (Piscatori 1986; Hashmi 2002; Rasanayagam
2011). Indeed, there is growing
recognition that the spheres of ‘the political’ and ‘the religious’
are not as alienated from
one another as classical theories that link nationalism with
secularisation would hold
(Hobsbawm 1990; Gellner 2006).1 This is to say, putatively
secular ideologies like
nationalism are often bound up with notions of religious
solidarity (van der Veer 1994),
and collective memories of national origins are frequently
rooted in religious stories,
myths and symbols (DeWeese 1994; Smith 2003). Rather than
an antagonism between
religion and nationalism, we instead find that religion, national
identity and the nation-
state overlap in sometimes unexpected ways.
In Central Asia, for example, Islam has often been described as
an inalienable part of the
cultural patrimony of the titular nationalities (Haghayeghi 1994;
Tazmini 2001; Hann &
Pelkmans 2009; Rasanayagam 2011; Olcott 2014). At the same
time, Islam has
occasionally been characterised as playing an ‘instrumental’
role for Central Asian
governments (Peyrouse 2007; Omelicheva 2016), insofar as they
are seen as trying to
28. invoke religious heritage to bolster their own legitimacy.
However, while nationalist
ideology has undeniably made use of religious symbols and
rhetoric for political purposes
(recall the late Uzbek president, Islam Karimov, taking his oath
of office on the Qur’ān),
the intensity and frequency of such mobilisations has been
geographically uneven and has
varied substantially over time. The Karimov government, for
example, went from
emphasising Islam to imposing harsh controls over the religious
sphere in reaction to the
perceived threat posed by radical groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir
and the Islamic
Movement of Uzbekistan (Rasanayagam 2006). Similarly, the
Islamic Renaissance Party
of Tajikistan (Hizbi Nakhzati Islomii Tojikiston), long the only
legal Islamic political party
in Central Asia, was outlawed in 2016 and many of its members
imprisoned.2 In
Kyrgyzstan, meanwhile, Islam has never figured prominently in
the state’s official ideology.
We must also be wary of too readily accepting the oft-repeated
dictum that being Kyrgyz/
Uzbek/Kazakh/etc., means being a Muslim (Khalid 2007, p.
107; Omelicheva 2011, p. 246;
Radford 2015, p. 55). This dictum explains neither how that
relationship has been constructed
and articulated, nor the emotional and spiritual resonance with
which it has become imbued.
Instead, it is necessary to examine how discourses surrounding
national identity shape the
ways in which people think about religion, and vice versa. How
are these discourses
embodied and performed? How do the connections between
29. religion and national identity
implicate the secular nation-state? This article seeks to address
these questions by using
controversies over the hijāb as a lens through which to examine
how theological ideas and
1See Zubrzycki (2010) and Tse (2014) for a critique of this
paradigm.
2‘Shuttered Tajik Islamic Party Branded As Terrorist Group’,
29 September 2015, Radio Free Europe/
Radio Liberty, available at:
http://www.rferl.org/content/tajikistan-islamic-party-terrorist-
organization/
27277385.html, accessed 15 July 2016.
2 VINCENT M. ARTMAN
http://www.rferl.org/content/tajikistan-islamic-party-terrorist-
organization/27277385.html
http://www.rferl.org/content/tajikistan-islamic-party-terrorist-
organization/27277385.html
arguments can become interwoven with discourses surrounding
national identity. What we
find is that nationalist narratives, even in secular states like
Kyrgyzstan, often contain
religious arguments and are in fact grounded in particular
theological formations.
Furthermore, the debate over veiling practices suggests that the
theology/nationality nexus
is also a site for renegotiating the meaning of national tradition
and its relationship with
religion.
30. The majority of the data analysed in this article was collected
over a five-month period,
August–December 2014. Fieldwork consisted of participant
observation as well as semi-
structured interviews with government officials, representatives
of the muftiyat,3
theologians, local scholars and ordinary Muslims. Subsequent
data were obtained from
publicly available primary documents, including religious
literature, government
documents and published interviews.
The article begins by looking at how the objectification of
Muslim consciousness has
transformed the nation-state into an arena for contestation
between putatively ‘national’
and ‘foreign’ Islamic practices. It takes as an example an
ongoing debate in Kyrgyz
society over the propriety of veiling, a debate that came to a
head with the appearance of
a series of controversial billboards in Bishkek in the summer of
2016. As we will see, the
billboards’ critique of veiling was couched in nationalist
paranoia about cultural
‘Arabisation’, which is in turn connected with fears that
conservative forms of Islam are
poised to overwhelm the moderate and tolerant forms of Islam
that are depicted as being
traditional among Kyrgyz. The article then turns to an
examination of this ‘traditional
Kyrgyz Islam’, arguing that it effectively constitutes a semi-
official ‘national theology’
that is supported by the state and promulgated by Kyrgyzstan’s
religious authorities.
Traditional Kyrgyz Islam, which is rooted in the Hanafi school
31. of Islamic jurisprudence, is
tied to discourses surrounding Kyrgyz national identity through
appeals to genealogy, as
well as the fact that it incorporates various customs and rituals
associated with Kyrgyz
ethnic traditions. As an objectified theology, it is contrasted
with other forms of Islam,
which are often depicted as being foreign or hostile to Kyrgyz
culture. The final section of
the article returns to the question of veiling, and examines how
the hijāb has become a
focal point in the renegotiation of Kyrgyz national identity
itself, in some ways
challenging, or at least revising, the ways in which the
relationship between Islam and
national identity has traditionally been conceived in
Kyrgyzstan.
Religion, the nation-state and the objectification of Muslim
consciousness
Despite the profound influence that the ‘secularisation
paradigm’ has exerted on the social
sciences (Tschannen 1991), it has become apparent that the
‘death of religion’, long
regarded as ‘conventional wisdom in the social sciences during
most of the twentieth
3The word muftiyat is derived from the term mufti, an Islamic
legal expert. The Kyrgyz Muftiyat is currently
headed by Mufti Maksat azhi Tokotmushev, who is assisted by a
board of deputy muftis. Organisationally, the
Kyrgyz Muftiyat is the descendant of a Soviet-era institution,
the Dukhovnoe upravlenie Musul’man Srednei
Azii i Kazakhstana, or the Spiritual Administration of the
Muslims of Central Asia and Kazakhstan
32. (SADUM), which administered Islamic religious affairs from its
inception in 1943 until the dissolution of
the Soviet Union in 1991. See Saroyan (1997a, 1997b) and Ro’i
(2000).
‘MY POOR PEOPLE, WHERE ARE WE GOING?’ 3
century’ (Norris & Inglehart 2004, p. 3), has not come to pass.
Across a literature that ranges
from critical reassessments of the idea of secularisation
(Hadden 1987; Swatos & Christiano
1999; Berger 2012), attempts to theorise a ‘post-secular’ order
(Habermas 2008; Gorski et al.
2012) and explorations of religion vis-à-vis modernity
(Casanova 1994; Asad 1999; Lambert
1999), scholars have taken note of the seemingly anomalous
persistence of religious belief in
a modern, industrialised and disenchanted world. Increasingly,
the very notion of a ‘great
divide’ (van der Veer 1994) between ‘traditional religion’ and
‘rational modernity’ appears
antiquated: the faithful today are visible and assertive
participants in social and
(geo)political discourses throughout the world (Westerlund
1996; Eisenstadt 2000; Petito
& Hatzopoulos 2003; Thomas 2005). Thus, as Cavanaugh and
Scott remind us,
‘theological discourse has refused to stay where liberalism
would prefer to put it.
Theology is politically important, and those who engage in
either theology or politics
ignore this fact at their peril’ (Cavanaugh & Scott 2004, p. 1). It
should be noted from the
outset that the term ‘theology’, as employed in this article, does
33. not (necessarily) refer to
the systematic study of the nature of the Divine. Rather, the
article draws upon Tse’s
(2014, p. 202) conceptualisation of ‘grounded theologies’,
which are defined as
‘performative practices of place-making informed by
understandings of the transcendent’.
According to Tse, grounded theologies:
remain theologies because they involve some view of the
transcendent, including some that take a
negative view toward its very existence or relevance to spatial
practices; they are grounded
insofar as they inform immanent processes of cultural place-
making, the negotiation of social
identities, and the formations of political boundaries, including
in geographies where theological
analyses do not seem relevant. (Tse 2014, p. 202)
Importantly for the present discussion, Tse makes clear that
grounded theologies ‘are not
abstract speculations, for they have concrete implications for
how practitioners understand
their own existence in ways that inform their place-making
practices’ (Tse 2014, p. 208).
The notion of ‘grounded theologies’, then, is a useful lens
through which to make sense of
the ways in which ‘the religious’ intersects with secular forces
such as nationalism while
freeing us from the epistemological baggage carried by the term
‘religion’ (Asad 1993).
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Islam has become an
increasingly prominent factor in
Kyrgyzstan’s social, cultural and political discourse. However,
if Islam has assumed a role that
34. was impossible under communism, then, as Hann and Pelkmans
note, ‘the new religious
marketplaces’ that emerged in the 1990s have nevertheless been
shaped by the political
imperatives of the governments in the region (Hann & Pelkmans
2009, p. 1518). Although
this ‘framing’ has sometimes been described as the
‘instrumentalisation’ (Peyrouse 2007) or
even ‘étatisation’ (Hann & Pelkmans 2009, p. 1519) of religion,
it may be more helpful to
understand it through the lens of what Eickelman and Piscatori
refer to as the ‘objectification
of Muslim consciousness’. This term refers to ‘the process by
which basic questions come to
the fore in the consciousness of large numbers of believers:
“What is my religion?” “Why is it
important to my life?” and “How do my beliefs guide my
conduct?”’ (Eickelman & Piscatori
1996, p. 38). Objectification is an outcome of widespread
literacy, mass education and the
growing availability of multiple forms of mass media
(increasingly including social media),
which have changed the ways in which Muslims think about and
discuss their own beliefs:
4 VINCENT M. ARTMAN
‘Like mass communications, mass education and publishing
contribute to objectification by
inculcating pervasive “habits of thought.” They do so by
transforming religious beliefs into a
conscious system, broadening the scope of religious authority,
and redrawing the boundaries
of the political community’ (Eickelman & Piscatori 1996, pp.
35. 41–2).
What has emerged out of this process is a way of thinking about
Islam as a self-contained
system of beliefs and practices, one that can be readily
described and compared against other
belief systems—or, indeed, against other forms of Islam
(Eickelman 1992). As we will see in
this article, both the Kyrgyz state and the religious authorities
have contributed to and
leveraged the objectification of Muslim consciousness by
defining what has often been
referred to as ‘traditional Kyrgyz Islam’, arguably a sort of
‘national theology’ that is
counterpoised with other forms of Islam. As the name suggests,
traditional Kyrgyz Islam
is explicitly connected with notions of Kyrgyz ethnic and
national identity and is
portrayed as being bound up with Kyrgyz history, genealogy
and traditions. Meanwhile,
other forms of Islam, particularly those espousing more
conservative or rigidly textualist
theologies, are depicted as at best culturally incongruous, and at
worst as extremist and a
threat to social cohesion and state survival.
An interesting example of this dynamic can be found in a
controversy that erupted over a
series of billboards that suddenly appeared around Bishkek in
the summer of 2016. The
billboards provoked heated debate because they openly
criticised the more conservative
veiling practices that have become increasingly conspicuous
among many Muslim women
in Kyrgyzstan. This critique, importantly, was framed in
explicitly national terms: the
36. implication was that such forms of veiling were associated with
Arabs, Bengalis or
Pakistanis—outsiders, in short—and were thus inappropriate for
Kyrgyz women. While
the ‘billboard controversy’ was ultimately short-lived, it
nevertheless suggests the degree
to which objectified theological assumptions, grounded at a
variety of scales, from the
individual body to the national community, have become
embedded in normative
conceptions of Kyrgyz national identity.
The hijāb and Kyrgyz national identity
In August 2016, the then president of Kyrgyzstan, Almazbek
Atambaev, held a long press
conference during which he addressed a variety of important
topics, ranging from
proposed constitutional reforms, the closure of the US military
base at Manas Airport and
the political pressure emanating from Turkey to close schools
operated by the Gülen
movement. The event’s most notable moments, however,
transpired when the president
began discussing the topic of veiling. Invoking the spectre of
terrorism, Atambaev
lamented the growing popularity of the hijāb among Kyrgyz
women, linking it with
religious extremism and even terrorism:
‘MY POOR PEOPLE, WHERE ARE WE GOING?’ 5
in Kyrgyzstan in the 1950s, women went about in mini-skirts,
but it did not occur to one of them to
37. put on a ‘martyrdom belt’ and blow someone up. You can go
around if you like with a boot on your
head, but do not blow anyone up. Because this is not religion.4
President Atambaev’s remarks added fuel to a controversy that
had been smouldering in
Kyrgyzstan since the appearance of several billboards along
Bishkek’s major thoroughfares
earlier that summer (see Figure 1). The billboards depicted
three contrasting images: the
leftmost panel showed a group of smiling Kyrgyz women
wearing traditional national
costumes; the middle picture portrayed women wearing white
hijābs; and the final panel
depicted a group of women fully covered by black chadors, with
only their eyes visible.
Beneath the pictures were the portentous words ‘My poor
people, where are we going?’
(‘Kairan elim, kaida baratabyz?’) superimposed upon a red
arrow that pointed ominously
towards the black-clad women on the right (Nasritdinov &
Esenamanova 2017). In the
end, the billboards, though they only lasted a few weeks, laid
bare the thorny issues
surrounding secularism, Islam and national identity in Kyrgyz
society.
Not surprisingly, Kyrgyzstan’s official Islamic authority, the
Muftiyat, denounced the
banners, calling them ‘divisive’ and ‘provocative’ for offending
the sensibilities of pious
Muslims (Shuvalov 2016).5 At the same time, however, many
politicians and other public
figures expressed their support for the anti-hijāb message;
President Atambaev even
endorsed the notion of placing similar billboards throughout the
38. entire country.6 The
popular television host Meerim Shatemirova argued that the
billboards struck a blow for
the principles of secularism and women’s rights: ‘If I’m being
honest, I would have hung
up the banners myself … . I want to live in a society that is
based on the law of the
Constitution, not upon religion!’.7 Curiously, a few days later,
several new billboards
appeared, emblazoned with the same slogan, but this time
juxtaposing women in
traditional Kyrgyz clothing with those in more revealing
‘Western’-style mini-skirts. They
were quickly removed, and the whole affair came to an
ignominious close (Nasritdinov &
Esenamanova 2017).
Although a local controversy over a short-lived series of
billboards defending Kyrgyz
national costume against the Islamic headscarf may seem like a
somewhat idiosyncratic
affair, it is emblematic of the complex and ambiguous role that
religion often plays in
Kyrgyzstan’s putatively secular political sphere. Wearing the
hijāb—or choosing not to—
is ‘an embodied spatial practice through which women are
inserted into relations of power
in society’ (Secor 2005, p. 204), and as such is a political act
irrespective of intent.
Veiling, as both a symbol and as a grounded theological
practice that engages practitioners
4‘Atambaev: Pust’ luchshe khodyat v mini-yubkakh, no nikogo
ne vzryvayut’, ASIA-Plus, 2 August 2016,
available at: https://news.tj/ru/node/228994, accessed 29 July
2019.
39. 5‘DUMK: banner “Kayran elim, kayda baratabiz?” mozhet
naverit’ edinstvu’, Sputnik, 13 July 2016,
available at:
http://ru.sputnik.kg/society/20160713/1027634490.html,
accessed 28 November 2016.
6‘Kyrgyzstan: President Throws Weight Behind Anti-Veil
Posters’, Eurasianet, 14 July 2016, available at:
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/79661, accessed 16 September
2016; ‘Atambaev poruchil povesit’ bannery
“pro parandzhu” po vsei strane’, Sputnik, 14 July 2016,
available at: http://ru.sputnik.kg/society/20160714/
1027672085.html, accessed 28 November, 2016.
7‘Snyat’ nel’zya ostavit’! 7 avtoritetnykh mnenii o
skandal’nykh bannerakh’, Sputnik, 13 July 2016,
available at:
http://ru.sputnik.kg/opinion/20160713/1027636498.html,
accessed 28 November 2016.
6 VINCENT M. ARTMAN
https://news.tj/ru/node/228994
http://ru.sputnik.kg/society/20160713/1027634490.html
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/79661
http://ru.sputnik.kg/society/20160714/1027672085.html
http://ru.sputnik.kg/society/20160714/1027672085.html
http://ru.sputnik.kg/opinion/20160713/1027636498.html
in the ‘contestations that continually shape everyday human
geographies’ (Tse 2014, p. 205),
therefore exists in dialogue with other social and ideological
currents, including nationalism,
secularism and prevailing religious norms. Thus, even though
40. 96% of Kyrgyz report that they
were ‘raised Muslim’ (Bell 2012), and while many Muslim
women in Kyrgyzstan cover
themselves in some fashion, wearing the hijāb remains a
contested practice owing to its
ambivalent status vis-à-vis Kyrgyz national tradition.
During the Soviet period, veiling was virtually non-existent, an
outcome of the prevailing
anti-religious atmosphere of the times, as well as of Soviet
campaigns to ‘liberate’ women
from what were portrayed as harmful and backwards customs
(Northrop 2004). Indeed,
ending the practice of veiling was linked with what was viewed
as ‘one of the biggest
triumphs of Soviet modernizing campaigns—women’s
emancipation’ (McBrien 2017,
p. 117). However, the disappearance of the atheist regime in
1991 resulted in a
‘deprivatisation’ of religion (Casanova 1994) in a place where
many religious people
simply practised their faith in private to avoid mistreatment by
the state. Since
independence, Islam has re-entered the public sphere as both a
source of moral and
spiritual authority and as a publicly embodied set of practices,
even if many people lack a
precise understanding of what constitutes Islam.
For many, an interest in rediscovering ‘authentic Islam’, which
was felt to have been lost
during the Soviet period (Simpson 2009; McBrien 2017), has
encouraged, among other
things, the adoption of self-consciously ‘Islamic’ styles of
dress. Wearing the hijāb has thus
become increasingly commonplace in Kyrgyzstan, even though
41. activists are still fighting the
stigma surrounding veiling, which has manifested in restrictions
on wearing the hijāb in
schools and in the workplace and other forms of discrimination
(Shenkkan 2011; Nasritdinov
FIGURE 1. ANTI-VEILING BILLBOARD IN BISHKEK
Source: ‘DUMK: Banner “Kairan elim, kaida baratabyz?”
mozhem navredit’ edinstvu’, Sputnik, 13 July 2016,
available at:
https://ru.sputnik.kg/society/20160713/1027634490.html,
accessed 29 July 2019.
‘MY POOR PEOPLE, WHERE ARE WE GOING?’ 7
https://ru.sputnik.kg/society/20160713/1027634490.html
& Esenamanova 2017). Nevertheless, by the end of the 2000s,
the sight of women wearing the
hijāb, even in cosmopolitan Bishkek, no longer seemed as
remarkable as it had in 1992.
But if the hijāb is no longer an uncommon sight, then it is not a
practice that all Kyrgyz
people are comfortable with. As Mohira Suyarkulova explains:
‘as women wearing various
styles of hijāb and veils became more numerous and visible on
the streets of Bishkek after
independence, many citizens and authorities reacted with
irritation, and often the
discomfort with this new practice was expressed in ethnic
terms’ (Suyarkulova 2016,
p. 258). Particularly among older generations raised during the
Soviet period (McBrien
42. 2017; Nasritdinov & Esenamanova 2017), as well as among
nationalists concerned with
defending ‘authentic’ national traditions, the veil is interpreted
as ‘fundamentally at odds
with the Kyrgyz character’ (Murzakulova & Schoeberlein 2009,
p. 1240).
Ethno-nationalist anxieties related to the hijāb can partly be
seen as by-products of the
Kyrgyz state’s efforts to articulate a coherent ‘national idea’.
Such efforts have welded
Kyrgyz cultural memory and its attendant myth-symbol complex
(notably the Manas epic)
with a teleological narrative of the modern Kyrgyz nation-state
as the political-territorial
culmination of the Kyrgyz nation’s historical destiny (Akaev
2003; Gullette 2008). This
process has been accompanied by deliberate efforts to revive
Kyrgyz epic poetry, nomadic
customs,8 indigenous sports and musical styles, and distinctive
national costumes. In an
ideological environment like this, the politics and symbolism
invested in national costume
can become particularly intense (Suyarkulova 2016, p. 247);
choosing to wear the hijāb
may be interpreted as an affront to national identity.
Consequently, the juxtaposition on
the billboards of traditional Kyrgyz clothing with hijābs and
chadors served as a potent
reminder of the apparent erosion of Kyrgyz national culture.
With this in mind, the response of Tynchtykbek Chorotegin, the
director of the Muras
Foundation, which is dedicated to the study and preservation of
Kyrgyz historical and
cultural heritage, to the hijāb controversy and, more broadly,
43. Islam’s role in Kyrgyz
society, is particularly revealing:
We are not against Islam, and we respect the historical choices
of our ancestors. But we are against
mankurtism and the imposition on us of alien clothing, since
[clothing is] an important part of the
culture of every nation. … [People have] only just begun to
openly support and develop their
culture and wear clothes with Kyrgyz ornaments. So, at this
moment there is a real threat of what
is known as ‘Arabisation’. … But we are Kyrgyz Hanafis, who
managed to preserve all our
Muslim and non-Muslim traditions through hundreds of
centuries. … We hope that our citizens,
regardless of the depths of their religious beliefs, will
understand correctly the meaning of the
billboards [that read] ‘My poor people, where are we going?’
We have always had our own
Kyrgyz headscarves, elecheks, embroidered kalpaks, and
skullcaps. … Our grandmothers and
great-grandmothers never wore black chadors or parandzhas.
(Begalieva 2016)9
8Many people, for instance, will decamp to a jailoo, or high
mountain pasture, to live in yurts during the
summer.
9A chador is a garment that covers the entire body, apart from
the face. A parandzha, like the burqa, covers
the face and eyes.
8 VINCENT M. ARTMAN
44. Chorotegin’s invocation of mankurtism in the context of his
warnings about ‘Arabisation’ is
particularly notable. Coined by the revered Kyrgyz author
Chingiz Aitmatov, the term mankurt
refers to a person who ‘did not know who he had been, whence
and from what tribe he had
come, did not know his name, could not remember his
childhood, father, or mother—in short,
he could not recognise himself as a human being’ (Aitmatov
1983, p. 126). The figure of the
mankurt has been widely interpreted as a thinly veiled allegory
for Russified Kyrgyz, who, in
adopting the modern Soviet (or Russian or Western) way of life,
had ‘forgotten who they
were’. Chorotegin’s implication that veiling constitutes a form
of ‘mankurtism’ that rejects
ancestral traditions in favour of ‘Arabisation’ thus works as
powerful nationalist appeal that is
also grounded in particular theological traditions; that is,
‘Kyrgyz Hanafism’.
From whence does this implicit connection between ‘Kyrgyz
Hanafism’ and Kyrgyz
nationalism derive in the first place? As the next section
describes, both the secular state
and the religious authorities in Kyrgyzstan have objectified
particular theological traditions
and combined them with narratives about Kyrgyz history and
national identity. The result
has been the articulation of what has sometimes been referred to
as ‘traditional Kyrgyz
Islam’, which in many respects functions as a de facto national
theology.
‘Traditional Kyrgyz Islam’ as a national theology
45. Since independence, the Kyrgyz state has worked to foster a
cohesive nationalist ideology,
though such efforts have been inconsistent and have shifted in
response to changing political
circumstances (Marat 2008; Laruelle 2012). Significantly, the
idea that Islam constitutes an
important part of the cultural and historical patrimony of the
Kyrgyz nation has been a
prominent, though ambiguously represented, feature of this
project (Murzakulova &
Schoeberlein 2009; Chotaev et al. 2015a, p. 4). Consequently,
despite being cast as ‘an
indispensable, central element of Kyrgyz identity’ (Hann &
Pelkmans 2009, p. 1530), Islam’s
‘intrinsic qualities … as a faith [are] rarely mentioned in
official rhetoric’ (Hann & Pelkmans
2009, p. 1528). Islam, moreover, has not played a major role in
Kyrgyz nationalist rhetoric or
ideology, which has often focused instead on romantic
reconstructions of Kyrgyz history,
genealogy and the Manas epic (Akaev 2003; Biard & Laruelle
2010; Gullette 2010).
However, the ambivalent place of Islam vis-à-vis Kyrgyz
nationalism, which is as much a
reflection of the Kyrgyz state’s commitment to secular values as
it is an indication of the
leadership’s lingering Soviet-conditioned scepticism about
religion, does not mean that
religion is irrelevant to how national identity is constructed.
Indeed, the backlash against
the hijāb suggests that nationalist anxieties regarding
‘Arabisation’ are overlaid with
religious anxieties as well. ‘Traditional Kyrgyz Islam’, for
example, is portrayed as having
been the religion of the ancestors of the modern Kyrgyz people.
46. In religious terms, it is
grounded in the Hanafi tradition, and characterised as tolerant
and pluralist, politically
quietist and open to rational thought, scientific inquiry and
cooperation with the government.
Theology and the secular state
One of the most important actors involved in the delineation of
traditional Kyrgyz Islam is not
a religious body, but the state. In particular, the Kyrgyz
Respublikasynyn Prezidentine
Karashtuu Din Ishteri Boyuncha Mamlekettik Komissiyasy,
hereafter the State
‘MY POOR PEOPLE, WHERE ARE WE GOING?’ 9
Commission for Religious Affairs, which is tasked with
registering and regulating religious
organisations operating in Kyrgyzstan, plays a leading role in
the formulation of government
policy toward the religious sphere.10 Mirroring similar
initiatives elsewhere in Central Asia
(Epkenhans 2011; Rasanayagam 2011; Yemelianova 2014), the
Kyrgyz government has
defined ‘traditional Islam’ as being ‘closely interwoven’ with
Kyrgyz national traditions.
In fact, policies pertaining to religion are viewed as being
central to the project of nation-
building itself, effectively blurring the boundaries between the
secular and the religious.
Thus, according to the ‘Conception of State Policy in the
Religious Sphere, 2014–2020’:
47. State policy concerning religion and religious organisations in
the Kyrgyz Republic is aimed at the
development and strengthening of Kyrgyz statehood, the
preservation of state sovereignty and the
unity of the nation. … While maintaining a neutral stance
towards religious institutions, assuming
certain religious, cultural and national particularities, the state
will implement its policy by
respecting traditional moral values, and will create conditions
for the consolidation and
development of the spiritual potential and cultural heritage of
the people of Kyrgyzstan.
(Emphasis added)11
Rather than amounting to the simple appropriation of religious
discourse for raisons d’état,
however, state interventions into the religious sphere have had
quite real theological
implications.
Traditional Kyrgyz Islam is explicitly grounded in the Hanafi
juridical school. As one of
the four Sunni madhabs,12 Hanafism constitutes a rich
theological tradition associated with
broader Islamic philosophical and legal currents. In Kyrgyzstan,
Hanafism has been
positioned as ‘traditional’, largely on account of its historical
prevalence in Central Asia.13
More specifically, however, its legitimacy as a normative
national theology is rooted in
genealogy and Kyrgyz cultural memory. One report, entitled
‘State Policy in the Religious
Sphere: Legislative Bases, Concept, and “Traditional Islam” in
Kyrgyzstan’, notes that:
48. for every Muslim, the teachings followed by his ancestors [are
considered to be] traditional, because
in Kyrgyzstan all people who consider themselves to be
Muslims, in addition to performing prayers
and other religious rites in accordance with the teachings of
Abu Hanafi, also follow the example and
borrow from the experiences of their elders. (Chotaev et al.
2015a, p. 31)
10It is worth noting that, while the commission’s purview
extends to all religious groups, a disproportionate
focus has been placed on Islam. The reason for this, according
to one analyst working at the commissions is that
Islam is more politically important since most of the population
are Muslim (Personal communication with
Z. Tursunbekov, Bishkek, 2 December 2014).
11Kontseptsiya gosudarstvennoi politiki Kyrgyzskoi Respubliki
v religioznoi sfere na 2014–2020 gody,
2014, available at: http://www.gov.kg/wp-
content/uploads/2014/11/Kontseptsiya-na-rus-prilozhenie-k-
Ukazu-PKR.docx, accessed 16 November 2015.
12Madhabs are schools of Islamic jurisprudence. In Sunni
Islam, the four main madhabs are the Hanbali,
Shafi, Maliki and Hanafi schools.
13Kontseptsiya gosudarstvennoi politiki Kyrgyzskoi Respubliki
v religioznoi sfere na 2014–2020 gody,
2014, available at: http://www.gov.kg/wp-
content/uploads/2014/11/Kontseptsiya-na-rus-prilozhenie-k-
Ukazu-PKR.docx, accessed 16 November 2015.
10 VINCENT M. ARTMAN
http://www.gov.kg/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Kontseptsiya-
49. na-rus-prilozhenie-k-Ukazu-PKR.docx
http://www.gov.kg/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Kontseptsiya-
na-rus-prilozhenie-k-Ukazu-PKR.docx
http://www.gov.kg/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Kontseptsiya-
na-rus-prilozhenie-k-Ukazu-PKR.docx
http://www.gov.kg/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Kontseptsiya-
na-rus-prilozhenie-k-Ukazu-PKR.docx
Another official document describes the syncretic nature of
traditional Kyrgyz Islam in
similarly historicised terms:
After the birth of a male child into a family, along with a prayer
he will receive a name and be
circumcised; during marriage, rituals will be performed; when a
person dies prayers will be read,
and in order to receive the blessings of the ancestors the Qur’an
is read, and so forth, and that is
how the elements of the religion of Islam, combined with the
way of life of our people, have
become traditional religion. Therefore, the traditional character
of Islam, which was adhered to by
our ancestors, is considered the spiritual patrimony of the
Kyrgyz, passed through the centuries
from generation to generation. For the Muslims of Kyrgyzstan,
the traditional values of Islam are
the Hanafi madhab of the Maturidi school. (Chotaev et al.
2015b, p. 23)
As this passage suggests, within the broader Hanafi tradition,
traditional Kyrgyz Islam is
also marked by the kalam (theology) of Abu Mansur Muhammad
al-Maturidi, a tenth-century
theologian from Samarkand. Indeed, the ‘Conception of State
Policy’ specifically calls for the
50. ‘strengthening and development of a traditional and moderate
form of Sunni Islam on the
basis of the Hanafi religio-legal school and the Maturidi
creed’.14 Maturidi theology is
notable among other kalam schools in Sunni Islam, notably
Ash‘arism, for emphasis on
human reason, free will and scientific inquiry (Glassé 1989;
Özervarli 2004). Maturidism
thus affords believers:
a relatively large degree of freedom for rational speculation to
act. The intellect is said to be capable
of proving the existence of God from His creation and knowing
what good and bad acts are. This
greatly distinguishes al-Maturidi’s epistemology from that of
[the influential Sunni theologian] al-
Ash‘ari, who did not give human though a comparable type of
autonomy and fundamentally
restricted the priority of the intellect in favor of transmission
[of knowledge from authoritative
sources]. (Rudolph 2015, p. 232)
These ‘rationalist’ aspects of Maturidi thought have become a
cornerstone of the normative
national theology in Kyrgyzstan, while Imam Maturidi himself
is held up as an exemplary
Islamic intellectual, one whose ideas are still relevant:
[Imam Maturidi’s] main methods in the study and understanding
of religion were rationalism, reason,
and thinking. … He, relying on logic and kalam, which is one of
the methods of decision-making in
the Sharī‘a, sought … to widely disseminate religion in a multi-
confessional society. … Imam
Maturidi began his work with an analysis of socially significant
phenomena: politics, religion, law
51. (shariat), society, and social life. … [He] relied, first of all on
the verses of the Qur’an and
hadiths of the Sunna of the Prophet. At the same time, he
continued his attention on the mind,
evidence, theory, and logic. … Imam Maturidi believed that for
the development of religious
education, reason and morality are necessary as two important
sources, not opposed to one
another, but complementing each other. (Chotaev et al. 2015a,
p. 25)
14Kontseptsiya gosudarstvennoi politiki Kyrgyzskoi Respubliki
v religioznoi sfere na 2014–2020 gody,
2014, available at: http://www.gov.kg/wp-
content/uploads/2014/11/Kontseptsiya-na-rus-prilozhenie-k-
Ukazu-PKR.docx, accessed 16 November 2015.
‘MY POOR PEOPLE, WHERE ARE WE GOING?’ 11
http://www.gov.kg/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Kontseptsiya-
na-rus-prilozhenie-k-Ukazu-PKR.docx
http://www.gov.kg/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Kontseptsiya-
na-rus-prilozhenie-k-Ukazu-PKR.docx
One analyst at the State Commission for Religious Affairs even
explained connections
between Maturidi perspectives on rational thought and free will
in terms of the Kyrgyz
people’s nomadic heritage: ‘Maturidism accorded with the
nomadic way of life. Nomads
were used to being free, to thinking freely, to expressing their
opinions. Islam could not
put us in a box’.15
Importantly, within the paradigm of ‘traditional Kyrgyz Islam’,
52. Maturidi-Hanafism has
also been imputed with rather contemporary concerns, including
tolerance (for other
religions and among different ethnic groups), respect for
national traditions, as understood
through the lens of modern ethno-nationalism, and an
ideological predisposition for
scientific inquiry and cooperation with the state (Chotaev et al.
2015a). Indeed, the
Kyrgyz government has played a crucial role in fixing the
boundaries of acceptable
religious discourse in ways that are compatible with official
perspectives on Kyrgyz
nationalism. By emphasising the Kyrgyz nation’s historical
affiliation with Hanafi Islam,
portraying Islam’s natural entanglement with national
traditions, and by appealing to
genealogy, specific theological positions have been interwoven
with broader discourses
surrounding secularism and Kyrgyz national identity, even
while religion itself is largely
omitted from official nationalist ideology.
Religious education and national theology
Although the state is a key arbiter in Kyrgyzstan’s religious
economy, it lacks the kind of
religious authority possessed by the Kyrgyzstan
Мusulmandaryndyn Din Bashkarmalygy
(Muslim Spiritual Authority of Kyrgyzstan). This institution,
often simply referred to as
the Muftiyat, is composed of ulama (religious scholars), whose
opinions carry religious
authority. Importantly, while the Muftiyat is legally separate
from the government, it is
nevertheless a registered religious organisation, classified by
53. the State Commission for
Religious Affairs as a ‘public organisation uniting and
regulating all Muslims, Muslim
religious organisations, communities, mosques, educational
institutions, funds, and other
Islamic structures in the territory of the republic’ (Chotaev et
al. 2015a, p. 31).16
Talal Asad has suggested that the concept of orthodoxy refers
not to ‘a mere body of
opinion but a distinctive relationship of power. Wherever
Muslims have the power to
regulate, uphold, require, or adjust correct practices, and to
condemn, exclude, undermine,
or replace incorrect ones, there is the domain of orthodoxy’
(Asad 1986, p. 15). As the
preeminent Islamic religious authority in Kyrgyzstan, the
Muftiyat wields precisely this
sort of power. It does so through its control over the sermons
delivered in mosques and
the curricula taught in religious schools, the power to issue
authoritative fatwas (religious
15Personal communication with Z. Tursunbekov, Bishkek, 2
December 2014.
16It is important to note that, while the Muftiyat is independent
from the state and derives the majority of
funding from the Muslim community itself (Isci 2010), the
government has not hesitated to intervene in its
business. Despite its complex relationship with the state,
however, the Muftiyat largely ‘enjoys
independence and regulates its own affairs’ (Isci 2010, pp. 77–
8). Moreover, while there have at times been
tensions between the government and the Muftiyat, the Deputy
Kazi of the Bishkek Central Mosque
54. maintains that ‘there is no strict control [by the state]. There is
no contradiction between the followers of
Islam and those who are in power’ (Personal communication
with Imam Almanbet, Bishkek, 11 November
2014).
12 VINCENT M. ARTMAN
opinions), as well as through its publication of religious
literature and, not inconsequentially,
its relationship with the state, all of which are used to inculcate
the norms of traditional
Kyrgyz Islam in the population.
This is not to suggest that the Muftiyat is a monolithic body: the
religious authorities do
attempt to accommodate, or even co-opt, the activities of
reformist groups such as the
Tablighi Jama’at, which is based on a belief system that
conflicts in some respects with
those of the religious authorities. Within the Muftiyat, there are
also conflicting views on
conservative streams of Islam, such as Salafism. As Mirsaiitov
points out, ‘for some
ulama, Salafism is simply a sect that has departed from
traditional Islam’, while others,
like Kadyr Malikov, a member of the Muftiyat’s Council of
Ulama, argue that Salafism
‘poses a threat to the most traditional school of Islam, based on
Abu Hanafi’ (Mirsaiitov
2013, pp. 49–51). Despite the Muftiyat’s internal diversity,
however, the national theology
to which it lends its religious authority remains based on a
fairly circumscribed
55. interpretation of what constitutes traditional Kyrgyz Islam.
For example, the Muftiyat tests imams for their command of
Arabic and their knowledge
of sharī‘a law.17 Such tests are not merely intended to ensure
that imams possess sufficient
knowledge and skills to properly do their jobs: they are carried
out in conjunction with the
security services and the State Commission for Religious
Affairs, and their primary
purpose is ‘to train imams to preach traditional norms of Islam’,
to combat religious
‘ignorance’, and to prevent the spread of ‘radical extremism’.18
In other words, in addition
to evaluating basic competencies, such appraisals are a means
of signalling the normative
religious conventions that imams are expected to adhere to and
transmit.
The norms of traditional Kyrgyz Islam are also communicated
through various forms of
religious education. The Muftiyat pursues various initiatives,
such as hosting Qur’ān readings
and classes covering the ‘basics’ of Islam that are aimed at the
general public and are intended
to circulate and instil in believers sanctioned religious beliefs.
The Muftiyat also oversees the
operations of Islamic schools throughout Kyrgyzstan. In
addition to providing limited
funding to such schools,19 the Muftiyat effectively controls
their curricula. Subjects
typically include a three-year course in Arabic, the Qur’ān and
sharī‘a law, as well as
secular subjects. Taken as a whole, this course of study helps to
ensure that the next
generation of students will be habituated to the Muftiyat’s
56. interpretation of orthodox Islam
—that is, traditional Kyrgyz Islam.
The Muftiyat also publishes a wide range of religious literature.
Some of these works
include hadith collections, manuals of Qur’anic interpretation,
treatises on the origins of
the Sunni madhabs, and other serious theological writings. A
significant proportion of this
literature, however, is aimed instead at a broader, and perhaps
less religiously
sophisticated, audience. Many pamphlets and handbooks
published in this popular genre
17‘Kyrgyzstan Testing Clerics’ Knowledge of Islam’,
Eurasianet, 28 May 2015, available at: http://www.
eurasianet.org/node/73636, accessed 16 November 2016.
18Personal communication with Z. Tursunbekov, Bishkek, 2
December 2014.
19The director of one madrasah located on the outskirts of
Bishkek explains that the Muftiyat provides the
school with money based on enrolment, and periodically
allocates funds for activities linked to Ramadan and
holidays such as Kurman Ait, the Feast of Sacrifice. The
director also noted, however, that most of the school’s
funding was still derived from the community. Personal
communication with M. Sulaymanov, Chong Aryk, 9
October 2014.
‘MY POOR PEOPLE, WHERE ARE WE GOING?’ 13
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/73636
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/73636
57. consist of compilations of catechisms, collections of important
prayers, short booklets
explaining how Islam relates to important family affairs
(funerals, marriage, child-rearing),
and even instructional manuals outlining how to properly
perform namaz (prayer).
Additionally, popular theologians such as Kadyr Malikov
publish their own books. Some
of these works address, in an accessible way, issues like the
true meaning of jihād, the
importance of ijtihād (independent reasoning), tolerance in a
multi-confessional state, the
differences between ‘official, traditional Islam’ and so-called
‘folk Islam’, and the
relationship between religion and national tradition (Malikov
2014).
These sorts of publications may appear somewhat quotidian and
unremarkable, and in
many respects they are. However, their focus on rudimentary
religious knowledge is
precisely why they constitute such a crucial channel through
which the national theology
can be widely disseminated: their focus on basic questions of
belief and practice serves to
concretise objectified understandings of traditional Kyrgyz
Islam in a way that is easily
comprehensible by ordinary believers. At the same time, the
doxa and practice of
traditional Kyrgyz Islam is subtly politicised and contrasted
against other, more putatively
‘radical’ theologies. Kadyr Malikov’s Kratkoe posobie po
Islamu (A Short Handbook on
Islam), for example, contains a chapter on ‘political
organisations, movements, jamaats
58. (groups), and parties’, but the chapter is largely devoted to
explaining concepts such as
jihād, terrorism and takfirism (accusations of unbelief), as well
as condemning
organisations like the Islamic State, Hizb ut-Tahrir and the
Islamic Movement of
Turkestan (Malikov 2014, pp. 100–35). The implication is that
beliefs and practices
associated with traditional, moderate Kyrgyz Islam naturally
diverge from the extremist
theological positions espoused by such groups.
In tandem with the state, Kyrgyzstan’s religious authorities play
a crucial role in
objectifying and propagating traditional Kyrgyz Islam as a
national theology. Alongside
the sermons delivered at Friday mosque and the various
religious opinions delivered by
the ulama, it is educational initiatives, ranging from curricula
taught in Islamic schools to
religious instruction in mosques and the publication of various
forms of religious
literature, that serve as the cornerstone of its efforts. Of course,
while the Muftiyat is not
publicly concerned with nationalism as such, the interplay
between religion, national
identity and the nation-state is nevertheless subtly embedded in
the Maturidi-Hanafi
theology it embodies. As we will see, however, traditional
Kyrgyz Islam is not a static set
of beliefs. In the next section, the article discusses how the
dispute over veiling, which
came to a head with the appearance of the controversial
billboards, reveals the fissures in
the national theology and makes clear how the meaning of being
Kyrgyz and Muslim is
59. constantly being contested.
Veiling and the renegotiation of traditional Kyrgyz Islam
Objectified notions about traditional Kyrgyz Islam are in many
respects at the heart of
anxieties about the imposition of non-Kyrgyz religious customs
and their potential for
undermining Kyrgyz national identity. Veiling has played a
central role in these debates.
On the one hand, the hijāb functions as a ‘universal’ marker of
Islam, insofar as veiling is
understood by Muslims and non-Muslims alike as being a sign
of Islamic piety
(Mahmood 2005; Fernando 2010; Gökarıksel & Secor 2012;
McBrien 2017). At the same
14 VINCENT M. ARTMAN
time, attitudes towards veiling vary substantially among
Muslims with different philosophies,
beliefs and cultural backgrounds. These divergences, of course,
frequently have an ethno-
national dimension. As Kadyr Malikov explains:
We do not have a conflict between religion and national
tradition … we have conflict between
[different] national understandings [of Islam] … . For example,
traditions [concerning] the hijāb
are a big cultural problem … . First of all, the black colour is an
Arabic [custom]. And [their]
hijāb is worn over the [whole] body. Of course, this is not a
problem [in general], but it is a
[particular] form of wearing [the hijāb]. It is not Kyrgyz.20
60. Malikov’s perspective speaks to an objectified understanding of
Islam, wherein fault lines
over the hijāb emerge from the friction generated by the
confrontation of incommensurate
religious beliefs and practices shaped by different cultural
contexts. The dissonance
engendered by conservative modes of veiling thus stems from
how ‘foreign’ modes of
practising Islam introduce symbolic elements into the Kyrgyz
religious economy that are
recognised as universal while also being experienced by some
as incongruous with the
local customs that are said to characterise traditional Kyrgyz
Islam.
As a pan-Islamic symbol, the hijāb is not viewed as
objectionable in and of itself, although
many secular-minded Kyrgyz and others may indeed see it as a
worrisome sign of deepening
social conservatism and religious influence in the public sphere.
However, the association of
certain forms of veiling with Arab, Pakistani or even Uzbek
culture, which tend to be coded
as ‘conservative’, ‘fundamentalist’ or ‘radical’ (Rashid 2001;
ICG 2012; Tromble 2014),
suggests that those forms of veiling are interpreted as an
implicit challenge to dominant
narratives about ‘authentic’ Kyrgyz religious traditions.
For many hijābis, then, the decision to wear the veil collides
with social expectations and
narratives surrounding national tradition. Ainura, for example,
is a young hijābi who lives in
Bishkek. She reports that, despite progress in recent years, the
social stigma surrounding
61. veiling remains palpable, particularly among older generations,
for whom the hijāb is a
sign of religious zealotry, or even extremism.21 Ainura went to
school in a madrasa
operated by the Tablighi Jama’at, a group that originated in
South Asia and adheres to a
conservative, textualist interpretation of Islam. Despite the fact
that it is strictly apolitical
and devoted primarily to da’wa (calling Muslims to the
mosque), the group is banned as
an extremist organisation in most of Central Asia and Russia;
however, with the approval
of the Muftiyat and the State Commission for Religious Affairs,
it operates freely in
Kyrgyzstan.
However, the Tablighi Jama’at has still attracted controversy.
Its conservative views mean
that it has been accused by some, including the State
Commission for Religious Affairs, of
‘laying the ground for the development of radical extremist
movements’.22 This
assessment has been disputed by others, who note that the
organisation does not involve
itself in politics and may therefore give people who might
otherwise join more politicised
Islamist organisations, such as Hizb ut-Tahrir, an avenue to
explore a textualist
20Personal communication with K. Malikov, Bishkek, 17
December 2014.
21A pseudonym. Personal communication with Ainura, Bishkek,
1 October 2014.
22Personal communication with Z. Tursunbekov, Bishkek, 2
December 2014.
62. ‘MY POOR PEOPLE, WHERE ARE WE GOING?’ 15
interpretation of Islam in a politically disengaged way
(Ismailbekova & Nasritdinov 2012,
p. 181; Malikov 2013).
Tablighi Jama’at has come under fire from Kyrgyz nationalists
as well. In the past,
members of the group have been criticised for wearing loose-
fitting pants and skirts, long
beards and skullcaps, which some people view as alien to
Kyrgyz culture. As one
observer protested: ‘these are Pakistani clothes, these are not
Kyrgyz clothes’ (quoted in
Ismailbekova & Nasritdinov 2012, p. 189). Such complaints
about dress styles, which
invoke both religious and nationalist anxieties, mirror the fears
about the hijāb being a
vector for Arabisation and mankurtism. And while members of
Tablighi Jama’at have
altered their attire to better conform to Kyrgyz sensibilities,
stereotypes, particularly those
surrounding the hijāb, persist. According to Ainura:
People who lived in Soviet times do not understand our religion.
They criticise us and say, ‘since you
are Kyrgyz you should not wear the hijāb’. But youth have a
good understanding about Islam. [Older
people] claim that Kyrgyz women never covered themselves … .
Some people say, ‘I am not a
Muslim, I am a Kyrgyz’. But being a Kyrgyz means being a
Muslim. A long time ago the
Kyrgyz prayed to fire and to stones. But today we are
Muslims.23
63. For Ainura, as for many other Muslim women, wearing the hijāb
is a central aspect of the
performance of Muslim subjectivity. She does not perceive any
contradiction between
donning a headscarf and being Kyrgyz. What this suggests is
that veiling has become not
just a focal point for debates about religion and national
identity, but also a site of
contestation over the terms of that debate.
Today, the notion that the hijāb can and should be reimagined
as consistent with Kyrgyz
national culture is being articulated daily by activists and
ordinary women like Ainura, for
whom the supposed contradiction between piety and nationality
is largely irrelevant. Thus,
when World Hijāb Day was celebrated in Bishkek in February
2017, posters for the event
depicted a silhouetted hijābi, her headscarf fashioned from a
map of the world—an image
that in many respects symbolised the universality of the Muslim
community. At the same
time, however, the event’s slogan was ‘We are different, but we
are united!’.24 This motto
acknowledged the umma’s aspirational wholeness while
simultaneously recognising its
manifest national and cultural diversity.
The hijāb was thus subtly reimagined as part of Kyrgyz Islam;
meanwhile, ‘traditional’
Kyrgyz styles are being reimagined as being part of the broader
Islamic cultural heritage.
During the event, the fashion designer Aizhan Akylbekova
alluded to this duality, noting
that wearing the veil was ‘not just a sign of obedience to Allah,
64. but a tribute to the history
and traditions of the Kyrgyz nation’.25 However, while
Akylbekova was dressed in
traditional Kyrgyz clothes including a traditional elechek
headdress, many participants wore
other, more concealing forms of the hijāb. Concerns about the
‘appropriateness’ of veiling
23Personal communication with Ainura, Bishkek, 1 October
2014.
24‘Mezhdunarodnyi Den’ Platka V Bishkeke’, Umma. Islamskii
zhurnal, 2017, available at: http://
ummamag.kg/ru/news/752_mezhdunarodnyi_den_platka_v_bish
keke, accessed 2 February 2017.
25‘Vsemirnyi Den’ Platka Obedinil Bolee Trekhsot Zhenshin’,
Umma. Islamskii zhurnal, 2017, available at:
http://ummamag.kg/ru/news/757_vsemirnyi_den_platka_obedini
l_bolee_trehsot_zhenschin, accessed 14
April 2017.
16 VINCENT M. ARTMAN
http://ummamag.kg/ru/news/752_mezhdunarodnyi_den_platka_v
_bishkeke
http://ummamag.kg/ru/news/752_mezhdunarodnyi_den_platka_v
_bishkeke
http://ummamag.kg/ru/news/757_vsemirnyi_den_platka_obedini
l_bolee_trehsot_zhenschin
vis-à-vis Kyrgyz national traditions, however, were essentially
moot. For the participants of the
World Hijāb Day events in Bishkek, wearing the hijāb—or the
elechek—is part of a lived
65. theology that integrates the universal and the particular, the
religious and the national.
‘We are different, but we are united!’ can thus be read not only
as a testament of
Kyrgyzstan’s inclusion in the Islamic world, but also an appeal
against the tendency to
draw distinctions between the hijāb and ‘authentic’ Kyrgyz
forms of veiling. The slogan
also carried an implicit message of peace and inter-ethnic
harmony. Photographs from the
event depicted a multi-ethnic group of women, some of whom
were not veiled at all. The
women held signs bearing messages like ‘We are citizens of the
same country!’, ‘Dispute
and strife—this is not us!’ and ‘Contrary to stereotypes, we
have peace and friendship!’.26
Veiling was thus portrayed as a means of uniting people from
different backgrounds and
cultures, thereby strengthening the country, not undermining
unity. So, much like the anti-
veiling billboards, the World Hijāb Day events in Bishkek
operated on both the national
and the religious registers simultaneously.
What all of this suggests is that veiling is a grounded
theological practice that is gradually
being reconciled, often uncomfortably, with normative
understandings of what it means to be
Kyrgyz; indeed, what it means to be a Kyrgyz Muslim. The
cultural landscape of Kyrgyzstan
is changing inexorably as a result. Scholars in the 1990s could
write of the ‘cold breeze of
scientific atheism’ blowing down Bishkek’s wide boulevards
and call into question
66. whether Kyrgyzstan ‘is a Muslim country or not’ (Gardaz 1999,
p. 276). Today, Islam’s
dynamic and evolving place in Kyrgyz society is inscribed on
the urban landscape as a
matter of everyday life: in the hijābis on the street and in the
throngs of worshippers at
mosques throughout the city on Friday afternoons, of course,
but also in the vendors
selling Islamic literature in the bazaars; in the Islamic banks
springing up around the
country; in the markets that advertise their selection of halal
products; in the signs that
point the way to a public namazkhana (prayer room); and in the
amulets and rosaries that
hang from the rear-view mirrors of Kyrgyzstan’s endlessly
circulating marshrutki.
These quotidian images, however, are indicative of larger
social, cultural and political
shifts. Jürgen Habermas has pointed out that ‘the collective
identity of a liberal
community cannot remain unaffected by the fact of the political
interaction between
religious and non-religious parts of the population’ (Habermas
2011, p. 224). In other
words, as Kyrgyz people’s relationship with, and understanding
of, Islam evolves—
guided, perhaps, by the normative discourses promoted by the
state and the Muftiyat, but
also by religious and popular media, da’wa and so forth—so too
will ideas and arguments
about how to articulate their identities at various scales, from
the personal to the
neighbourhood and the city, to the national, the international, or
even in disembodied
cyber spaces. The hijāb and the controversies about national
67. identity that surround it
constitute part of a broader, ceaseless negotiation of what it
means to be Kyrgyz.
Moreover, while ‘traditional Kyrgyz Islam’ is conceived of in
objectified terms, it is not a
static discourse. Rather, it is a theology that is constantly
shifting in dialogue with social
26‘Mezhdunarodnyi Den’ Platka V Bishkeke’, Umma. Islamskii
zhurnal, 2017, available at: http://
ummamag.kg/ru/news/752_mezhdunarodnyi_den_platka_v_bish
keke, accessed 2 February 2017.
‘MY POOR PEOPLE, WHERE ARE WE GOING?’ 17
http://ummamag.kg/ru/news/752_mezhdunarodnyi_den_platka_v
_bishkeke
http://ummamag.kg/ru/news/752_mezhdunarodnyi_den_platka_v
_bishkeke
currents, political pressures and the evolving perspectives of the
faithful themselves. Far from
occupying separate spheres, the secular and the sacred are
inextricably bound together.
Conclusion
As Muhammad Qasim Zaman reminds us, ‘not long ago,
contrasts between “tradition” and
“modernity” were a convenient shorthand way of explaining
what traditional societies had to
get rid of in order to become part of the modern world’ (Zaman
2002, p. 3). In a world of
secular nation-states, religion has usually been consigned to the
realm of the ‘traditional’,
68. and so the persistence of religious identities and worldviews has
often been treated as
anomalous and a threat to the normative nationalism that
underpins the modern sovereign-
territorial regime. Islam in particular is often held to be
incompatible, or at least uneasy
with, the nation-state. But, as Justin Tse noted, the term
‘religion’ is largely ‘a
construction that in the modern era has demarcated an illusory
line between matters of
faith and secular spaces of the purely social and political’ (Tse
2014, p. 214). The notion
of ‘tradition’ itself, moreover, is neither static nor uncontested
(Zaman 2002, p. 3;
Salvatore 2009). The inclusion of religious perspectives in
democratic discourse not only
highlights the relevance of religion to the formation of the
modern nation-state, but in the
process, it also renegotiates religion’s meaning and
significance. Social, cultural and
political battlegrounds such as national identity cannot help but
be affected by the
outcomes of such negotiations. The secular and the religious not
only overlap, but are in
fact crucial in constituting one another: if ‘we are the nation,
and the nation is us’ (Hallaq
2013, p. 106), then who ‘we’ are, and thus ‘who’ the nation is,
is constantly in a state of
becoming.
In April 2017, the theologian Kadyr Malikov was selected to
become a member of the
Muftiyat’s Council of Ulama. When asked what issues the
council should address, he
responded that religious authorities needed to accomplish ‘the
reform of Islamic education,
69. the preparation among young cadres of an Islamic intelligentsia,
[and] the development of
theological and legal issues that take into account modern
realities … [in order] to ensure
that the norms of the shariat can successfully respond to the
challenges of modern
society’ (Bolotbekova 2017). Malikov, who is active on social
media, hinted at what some
of these modern challenges might be. In a post to his followers,
he noted that one of the
primary challenges facing young Kyrgyz Muslims today is how
to answer such questions
as: ‘Who am I? First a Muslim and then Kyrgyz? Or am I
Kyrgyz first and then a
Muslim?’.27 As the debates surrounding the hijāb suggest, these
sorts of questions are far
from settled. What is clear, however, is that many Kyrgyz
Muslims are already articulating
ways of not having to choose.
As a final note, it should be recognised that the argument
presented in this article is not
intended to suggest that traditional Kyrgyz Islam is hegemonic
in either the religious or
political spheres. Normative Hanafism exists in a broad field of
grounded theologies that
are embodied and performed daily by Christians, committed
secularists, Tengrists and
27‘Segodnya my mozhem tochno skazat’’, Facebook, 4 January
2017, available at: https://www.facebook.
com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1454650814547905&id=731591
116853882, accessed 30 January 2017.
18 VINCENT M. ARTMAN