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Conversion of African Americans to Islam : a sociological analysis of the Nation of Islam and associated groups
No full text'Conversion of African Americans to Islam: A Sociological Analysis of the Nation of
Islam Associated groups' is an empirical study of the religious experience of people
who had/have distinctive features in terms of race, ethnicity and historical experience.
The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate how African Americans' (AAs) conversion
experience in general, and the Nation of Islam associated groups' conversion in
particular, differ from the studies of recruitment and conversion in the sociology of
religion and New Religion Movements (NRMs). More specifically, their recruitment
and conversion experiences to Islam diverge from those who converted to mainstream
Islam. The study investigates how AAs' historical experience, soci-economic
difficulties and the racism they encountered shaped and influenced their religious
understanding.
Research methods involved participant observations, a survey questionnaire, interviews,
conversations, personal communications and correspondence. To collect ethnographic
data eleven months field research was conducted mainly in the Chicago area and on two
short visits to Detroit, and three years continued communications with Muslim officials
and academics in the area. During the field research and afterwards through personal
communication 181 survey questionnaire responses were received, and 23 Muslim
officials, academics and ordinary Muslims were interviewed through semi-structured,
unstructured interviews, conversation and correspondence.
The thesis begins with a brief history of Islam and Muslims in general and the African
American Muslims (AAMs) in particular. More emphasis is given on the historical
development of the Nation of Islam (NOl). Then in Chapter III, discussions of schisms
in the history of the NOT are examined from sociological perspectives of social and
religious movements. In Chapter IV I aimed to formulate my own perspective to
analyse and study the conversion experiences of AAMs to Islam. I used a multivariate
approach, considering selectively widely held conversion and recruitment theories in the
sociology of the religion. I consider in Chapter V the predisposing conditions for AAMs
that influence their decision-making to join in the NOT, for example, political and
nationalistic sentiments and socio-economic deprivations. In Chapter VI I have applied
different terms to describe their religious experiences, such as conversion, alteration and
reversion. I have analysed further their encounters with the NOT, the methods of
recruitment they used and their major motives for joining the NOT and converting to
Tslam. In the concluding chapters (Chapter VII VTTT) I describe the different responses
of AAMS to Islam following the death of Elijah Muhammad. It is found out that the
Islamic appeal has polarised. While Farakhan's NOT appeared to continue the tradition
and style of the old NOI with the emphasis on nationalistic and socio-economic factors,
Tmam W. D. Mohammed's community turned more to the religious and spiritual aspects
of Tslam. These different approaches led to a polarisation of the appeal of Tslam to
AAMS.
This thesis contributes to knowledge in four key areas; the sociology of religion and
religious movements, the sociology of social and nationalistic movements, religious and
Islamic studies
Islam and the New Political Landscape: Faith Communities, Political Participation and Social Change
No full textIn this paper we consider the forms of democratic participation that revolve around issues of religious faith and Islam. The context of such work is one in which a concern with the levels of participation in the political institutions of Western Europe and North America feature prominently in both journalistic and academic debate. The paper speaks to debates that are concerned with the efficacy of specific forms of participation. In doing so we argue that we need to think carefully about the forms of social action that constitute participation in the democratic process. We also need to think precisely about definitions of the political with which people engage. If we take the political as a domain in which the ethical settlement of society is contestable the sorts of mobilisation around faith communities that this paper describes are clearly a form of political participation. Yet the paper argues that the reasons many become involved in these forms of social organisation in contemporary East London is precisely because they are seen as less complicit with mainstream political institutions of the British state
The Concept of Land Ownership in Islam and Poverty Alleviation in Pakistan
No full textLand ownership—in its ethico-legal and historical manifestations, reflects the importance of being a politico-economic institution. In the process of its development, it includes various heterogeneous elements of different systems of ownership. With the growth of the Ummah, the principles of laws of ownership represent and embody the relations, rights and duties to form the general law of obligations at the state as well as individual level. This is the case of economic and legal theory, regarding the ownership of land with implicative infrastructure to build social welfare institutions of Islam. It is generally and basically have been ordained that according to the teachings of Islam, Real ownership belongs to Allah Almighty. Man being the vicegerent holds property in trust for which he is accountable to him in accordance with the clearly laid down economic philosophy of Islam. Ownership of man is a concept alien to Islam as it belongs to Allah Almighty only.
High fertility regions in Bangladesh: A marriage cohort analysis
No full textBangladesh represents one of the few countries in south Asia where the pace of fertility decline has been unprecedented over the last three decades. Although there has been significant reduction in fertility levels at the national level, regional variations continue to persist, especially in Sylhet and Chittagong where the total fertility rates are well above the country average. Using data from three consecutive Bangladesh Demographic and Health Surveys (BDHSs) this paper assesses how fertility patterns in Sylhet and Chittagong differ from the rest of Bangladesh through a marriage cohort analysis of the parity progression ratios, and examines the factors determining the transition rates to higher parity in these two regions. Three cohorts of women are identified: those married during 1965–1974, 1975–84 and 1985–94. The results show that the probability that a woman from the recent cohort in Sylhet or Chittagong who had a third birth will have a fourth birth is nearly twice that of her counterpart in other regions. Social characteristics such as education, occupation, religion and residence have no effect on fertility in Sylhet and Chittagong. Additional period-specific analyses using the 2007 BDHS data show that women in Sylhet are considerably more likely to have a third or fourth birth sooner than those in other divisions, especially Khulna. The findings call for specific family planning policy interventions in Sylhet and Chittagong ensuring gender equity, promoting female education and delaying entry into marriage and childbearing
Sectarian influences within Islam in Britain with special reference to community
No full textAlthough much is heard from the Media of the Muslim `community' in Britain, the latter is in fact far from presenting a united front. There are divisions between
generations and ethnic origins, and a diversity of religious practice and doctrine. There are many different religious groups at work that originate from the subcontinent, and reflect this wide range. Organisations like Young Muslims UK, Tabligh-i Jamaat, and schools of thought represented by the Deobandis and Barehvis,
to name but four, play a vital role in the life of many Muslims. They both link them back to their roots in the subcontinent and influence the direction that Islam will take in Britain.
The Muslim population in Britain is approaching two million. It is involved in a process of redefining itself as a minority in an alien culture. For the older generation
the conflict has been cultural, their own ethnicity being under seige from the values of the receiving culture. Islam becomes an important ally of ethnic identity. For many
Muslims born in Britain, however, the process is more complex. Their parents' values can seem as strange, or even stranger, than the values of the receiving culture. For
this increasing percentage of the population, their religion can offer an identity. Stimulated by Islam's global revival and the West's reaction to it, some Muslims are attempting to discover a faith stripped of cultural accretions which are considered to be unlslamic. In the process they hope to find the universal Islam which can be practised in any environment. They feel that this is the key to establishing a successful British Islamic community.
The ideal of ammah has always been central in Islam, but now becomes an important concept in the development of Islam in Britain. There are several questions to
be considered: To what degree does an unmrah exist? What is its form? How is it likely to change? What effect will it have on the development of Muslims seeking a more localised identity in Britain? Within this context, what will be the effect of the various organisations and schools of thought at work amongst Muslims? To what degree will they shape the development of Islam in Britain? Are they free from
'cultural accretion' or are they firmly rooted in idiosyncratic local expressions of the faith? Will Islam in Britain be moderate, or strongly revivalist in nature under their influence? Are they unifying or divisive forces? Can they hope to resolve traditional differences and work together in the new environment of Britain?
In spite of the increasing interest in the Muslim presence in Britain, very few
major works have looked at the influence of these various groups in the context of these questions. I know for myself that I could have used this kind of study when working for my M. A. in Religious Studies, and I know of many students in the same position. I feel that this study will therefore contribute not only to the study of Islam but also to the study of the various minority faiths found in Britain
Introduction to section 1. Classical approaches : understanding Islam
No full textMy approach to the sociology of religion and to the study of Islam has been
continuously influenced by classical sociology. I saw Islam as a civilisation that raised important issues for sociological theory, and in contemporary social sciences it invoked issues about inter-civilisational analysis, Orientalism, universalism and cosmopolitanism which continue to have relevance to modern problems of analysis and interpretation. In short my sociological work, and hence this Reader, has been preoccupied by questions relating to historical and comparative research. It was inevitable that the sociology of Max Weber has occupied much of my career. Weber's comparative study of religion, society and politics across a range of cultures was for me an exciting and challenging approach. As a young student on a long journey
through Eastern Europe and Russia in 1962, I became attracted intellectually to the comparative study of capitalism and communism. However, in much contemporary
anthropology and sociology, the emphasis has increasingly been on the local, specific and the particular. My own work has largely departed from these trends and hence I often find myself writing against rather than with the grain
Understanding the stages of conversion to Islam : the voices of British converts
No full textThis thesis analyses data provided by face to face interviews with a sample of British converts to Islam to find out how and why they came to convert, and what
were the repercussions of their conversions. The work is placed in the context of the predominantly post-Christian British society in which they had spent the greater part of their lives and the existence of a sizeable community of British Muslims.
Influential studies of the psychology and sociology of religious conversion are reviewed and applied to the data. These tend to leave a series of loose ends and fail to pin down the causes or reasons for the conversions. The encounter and reaction with a proselytising group, a key finding in many previous studies, is found to be lacking in the evidence of the current sample of converts. A need is
found to broaden the analytic approach. A holistic academic framework is found that both enables the researcher to analyse the conversions as a process through time and allows for further fields of study to be incorporated in the analysis. Thus the stage model for analysing the conversion process proposed by Lewis Rambo (1993) is employed, with a minor modification. Rambo's stage model permits the researcher to include in the study the insights into the human predicament offered by classical Islam. Literature based on and including the Qur'an and sunnah is
reviewed. This provides a way of linking together some of the factors previous researchers have considered significant in the conversion process.
The degree of interaction with Muslims prior to conversion varied enormously. In all cases there had been some contact but it is not found possible to state that such
contact was necessary for the conversions to take place. The Islamic concept of hidayah is proposed as a unifying concept that can account for the disparate factors and apparently random coincidences identified as having been factors in the conversion processes. The Islamic concepts of tawheed and fitrah also contribute to a unifying view of the conversion phenomena. It is found that the
common factor in the 'interaction' and 'commitment' stages of conversion is not immersion in a group of people, but interaction with a book, the Qur'an. This proves to be the pivotal element in all the conversions in this study.
The post-conversion experiences of the converts as they became members of the Muslim ummah are found to be broadly similar in that they had been unprepared for the differences between their view of Islam, based mainly on the original texts, and that of the mainly South Asian Muslim community which included a history of cultural accretions. The success of their socialisation with the South Asian Muslim community varied a little from person to person, language and culture being the main stumbling blocks, but major differences were found that related to
the gender and ethnicity of the converts. Their relationships within the non-Muslim community continued with some modifications. Little evidence is found
that social problems, linguistic and cultural barriers, or what the future might hold, had, or would, deflect the converts from their faith. This may be because
they all came to Islam through the Qur'an. It is therefore suggested that research into the psychological effect the Qur'an has on its readers would shed further light on the phenomenon of conversion to Islam
Diffusion approximations of the geometric Markov renewal processes and option price formulas
No full textWe consider the geometric Markov renewal processes as a model for a securitymarket and study this processes in a diffusion approximation scheme. Weak convergenceanalysis and rates of convergence of ergodic geometric Markov renewal processes in diffusionscheme are presented. We present European call option pricing formulas in the case ofergodic, double-averaged, and merged diffusion geometric Markov renewal processes.Source type: Electronic(1
Ma‘d?m and Mumkin: Treatments of the Mu‘tazilah’s Concept of Non-Existent and Ibn S?n?’s Concept of Contingent
No full textBu makale Şehristânî’nin Nihâyetü’l-ikdâm’da dile getirdiği Mûtezile’nin “ma‘dûm”a şeylik atfetme noktasında filozoflardan etkilendiği ve onları yanlış anladıkları iddiasını değerlendirmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Bu doğrultuda öncelikle İbn Sînâ felsefesindeki “mümkün” anlayışıyla Mûtezile’deki “ma‘dûm” kavramı incelenmekte, iki kavram arasındaki ilişki ya da ilişkisizlik belirlenmeye çalışılmaktadır. Bu incelemede bilhassa İbn Sînâ’da mümkün varlığın tabiatı imkân ve Mûtezile’nin ma‘dûm anlayışı üzerinde durulmakta, İbn Sînâ’nın ma‘dûm anlayışına ise gerektiği ölçüde atıf yapılmaktadır. Yine bu tartışma düzleminde İbn Sînâ felsefesinde zihnî varlık anlayışı da Mûtezilî literatürdeki ma‘dûmla ilişkisi nispetinde incelenmektedir. Makalenin sonunda ise Mûtezilî anlayıştaki ma‘dûm ile İbn Sînâ’daki mümkün varlık anlayışları arasında irtibat bulunup bulunmadığı noktasında bir sonuca ulaşılmakta ve bu sonuç üzerinden, Şehristânî’nin iddiasının isabetliliği tartışılmaktadır.In this article, Shahrist?n?’s claim in his Nih?yah al-iqd?m that the Mu‘tazilah in considering the thingness of non-existent shay’iyya al-ma‘d?m was influenced by philosophers and misunderstood them is evaluated. To this end, first the idea of contingent mumkin in Ibn S?n?’s philosophy and the concept of non-existent ma‘d?m in Mu‘tazilah’s thought will be examined in order to establish whether there is a relationship or a non-relationship between the two concepts. The nature of contingent being imk?n in Ibn S?n? and the idea of ma‘d?m in the Mu‘tazilah will be emphasized in particular, and references to ma‘d?m in Ibn S?n? will be made when necessary. Also, the idea of mental existence al-wuj?d al-‘aql? in Ibn S?n?’s philosophy will be examined in relationship to ma‘d?m. Finally, the relationship, if any, between the Mu‘tazilah’s ma‘d?m and Ibn S?n?’s mumkin will be examined and based on this examination the accuracy of Shahrist?n?’s claim will be assesse
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