Nations tell stories about themselves that tend to cohere around a shared language and a history unique to a particular land. South and West Asia--regions that shared Persian as a language of social, cultural and political power and prestige for centuries, until the early 19th c…
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This study explores Islamic and Islamist revivalism in Ba ́thist Syria. It addresses how the secular regime of both Hafez al-Asad and Bashar al-Asad paradoxically paved the way towards Syria's current Islamization. The study examines the following questions: Who are today's Syria…
In this project I examine how socially conservative, politically active Muslims (who I refer to as islamiyun ) in Morocco articulate and enact democracy. Based on nearly two years of fieldwork and conversations with over 100 interlocutors, I argue that there are two modes of inv…
This study looked at the experience of religion and the formation of a contemporary ethnoreligious identity in the lives of first generation Pakistani Muslim immigrant men and women who have been residents of Canada for five to ten years. The present research explored the life e…
The Islamic Moral Economy is a utopian economic, social and political idea where all forms of riba are absent; in a contemporary context, this includes the elimination of all financial interest and usury, utilization of full-reserve banking models, an asset-based money using a c…
This is a work of normative political philosophy that offers a broad philosophical framework for conceptualizing progressive and modern governance in a contemporary Islamic state. The model offered places primacy on traditional Islamic sources in organizing the state. However, i…
In this qualitative study I have explored the contemporary rise in Islamic fundamentalism. The case of two countries are examined, Sudan and Pakistan. Islamic fundamentalism is looked at and its definition discussed, and the causes of its rise are examined. This is followed by t…
This dissertation analyzes structural features that enabled the Syrian Ba'th regime to sustain its authority and rule over Syria since 1963 as well as to play a vital role in regional politics today. A deeper understanding of the nature of the regime in terms of its meaning of n…
This paper is an exploration of al-Ghazali's attack on philosophy by way of an examination of his autobiographical epistle, "The Rescuer from Error." In this text written late in his life, al-Ghazali advises a young student about the best way to pursue knowledge. The thesis argu…
In Canada, Muslim communities turn to Muslim spiritual caregivers, especially to imams, for help with various problems. Research has shown that many Muslim spiritual caregivers are familiar with the Arabic language and Islamic values but have limited practice in Islamic counseli…
In this study, I examine the oppositional configuration of public figures around the poles of "proper" Muslimness and "authentic" Kyrgyzness in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. I ask: Why are public actors defining their positions in opposition to the other? Why do such opposing positions t…
THE PROBLEM. This study first aimed to provide a holistic picture of the challenges faced by Muslim women in the United States. Second, it offered an explanation on the differences between Islam and culture. Third, it highlighted the status of Muslim women in Islam versus cultur…
This dissertation examines contemporary Islamic debates about the ethics and legality of Sufism (Islamic mysticism) within a globally influential movement based at the Islamic seminary (madrasa ) known as Dar al-`Ulum Deoband in northern India. Two overarching, and interrelated,…
This is an ethnographic study of what it means to be a Muslim woman in post-war and post-socialist Bosnia and Herzegovina. Almost two decades after the end of inter-ethnic wars that led to the dissolution of socialist Yugoslavia in the 1990s, Bosnia's inhabitants are undergoing …
In Indonesia--the world's largest Muslim-majority country and third largest secular democracy--fierce ideological battles are taking place between two groups of Muslims seeking hegemony in the nation. The first group, the conservative Muslims, believes that Islam offers the best…
While most studies of Islam in West Africa have focused on the spread and nature of Sufi Islam, there has been a recent dramatic transformation in the political and social influence of Sufi Islam long-believed to characterize "African Islam." The forces of globalization and soci…
The purpose of this research is to examine the Ahmadiyyat Muslims' understanding and acceptance of the justice of God and its correlated concepts of sin and sacrifice. This research is designed to compare Islamic teachings and Christian teachings from the anthropological view. T…
In this MA thesis, I examine the history of the princely state of Hyderabad from 1927 to 1951. Drawing from memoirs, newspapers, oral histories, and autobiographies, I find that in these years leading up to the forcible accession of Hyderabad to the Indian Union in a police acti…