Intellectual Discourse (Journal)
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Malaysia and forced migration
Get PDFThis paper analyzes the phenomenon of “forced migration” in Malaysia. It examines the nature of forced migration, the challenges faced by Malaysia, the policy responses and their impact on the country and upon the forced migrants. It considers forced migration as an event hosting multifaceted issues related and relevant to forced migrants and suggests that Malaysia has been preoccupied with the issue of forced migration movements. This is largely seen in various responses invoked from Malaysia due to “south-south forced migration movements.” These responses are, however, inadequate in terms of commitment to the international refugee regime. While Malaysia did respond to economic and migration challenges, the paper asserts that such efforts are futile if she ignores issues critical to forced migrants
Anglo-French rapprochement and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Nigeria in the 1950s
Get PDFThe dawn of the 1950s in Nigeria witnessed an increase in the rise of Islamic religious fundamentalism, especially in the Northern parts of the country. This paper explores the different dimensions to the problem of Islamic religious fundamentalism in Nigeria in the 1950s, including an attempt by Britain to involve the French government in the search for solutions to the problem. The paper argues that the problem of Islamic fundamentalism in Nigeria in the 1950s revolved around the doctrinal schism between the two foremost Sufi brotherhoods (the Qādiriyyah and the Tijāniyyah) in West Africa. The fact that the problem arose at a time when Britain was preparing Nigeria for independence merely increased attention to the problem. The paper suggests that even though Britain and France had similar religious experiences in their colonies, the approaches made to solve the problems arising from the issues were similar in content though different in implementation. The paper concludes that although Britain accepted in principle to adopt the French approach, the eventual solution to the problem of religious fundamentalism was arrived at through a combination of local (home-grown) approaches, as well as the domestication of the French ideas
Feminism as Islamophobia: A review of misogyny charges against Islam
Get PDFOne important feature of Islamophobia is to caricaturize Islam as misogynistic and oppressive to women and thus to advance imperialist hegemony. This “gendered Islamophobia” stigmatizes the religion even though, compared to other world religions, its treatment of women is arguably preferable and more enlightened. Historically, one treasonous use of feminism has been to misappropriate it in order to serve colonial interests and support imperialist wars of occupation that repress subjugated people including women and children. This article argues that ignorance about, and prejudice against, Islam contribute to portraying it as a misogynistic creed. Wrong notions of Islam lead many feminists in Muslim societies to denigrate Islamic teachings and borrow Western ideas to advance women’s causes. Lampooning Islam and replicating Western feminist ideas in Muslim lands have served neither women nor feminism. Such feminist tendencies rather give a bad name to the women’s rights movement and fuel controversy, anger and resentment among Muslims
From al-Shāṭibī’s legal hermeneutics to thematic exegesis of the Qurʾān
Get PDFWritings on al-Shāṭibī have focused on his views on maṣlaḥah (utility) and Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah (objectives of the Sharīʿah). His approach to the interpretation of the Qurʾān (the main source of the Sharīʿah) and the implications of such an approach have only rarely been heeded. This study addresses this aspect of al-Shāṭibī’s work. It essentially asserts that in restructuring Islamic legal theory (uṣūl al-fiqh) around the idea of Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah, al-Shāṭibī brought jurists and Qurʾān commentators closer to one another. It further argues that his contribution went beyond the interest of jurists centred on legal reasoning by holding a comprehensive hermeneutical view of the Qurʾān informed by belief in the thematic unity of its sūrahs and verses. Taking such unity as the cornerstone of a sound understanding of the Qurʾān capable of grasping its eternal values and universal principles, he developed a methodology that has inspired a few eminent contemporary Muslim scholars who have developed what has come to be known as thematic interpretation of the Qurʾān (al-tafsīr al-mawḍūʿī). This article discusses al-Shāṭibī’s hermeneutics of the Qurʾān by delineating his epistemic and methodological propositions. Thus, the author aims to show the existence of semantic unity and epistemic interconnectedness among different disciplines in Islamic scholarship
