476 research outputs found
Islam in diaspora: the Australian case
No full textThis chapter explores the question of Islam in diaspora from a time-space perspective, specifically the interpretations and manifestations of Islam among Muslims who today reside outside of the classical Dar al-Islam or lands under Muslim rule, in non-Muslim-ruled liberal, democratic, “Western” nation-states. The chapter begins with a discussion of the scholarly literature on the Islamic and Muslim diaspora, including classical Islamic thought on Muslims residing in non-Muslim lands. It then presents findings from the 2019 Islam in Australia survey (Rane et al. 2020), which is the most recent and comprehensive examination of how a Western Muslim population identifies with, understands, interprets and expresses Islam. These findings are discussed in relation to other studies of Islam and diaspora Muslim populations in Europe and North America. Against a backdrop of growing opposition to Islamist politics in the broader Muslim world as well as Islamophobia and securitization in the West, this chapter offers a nuanced perspective in relation to discourses that link Muslims in the West to national security concerns. Islam in diaspora shows a liberal, progressive understanding of the faith, based on a preference for Islamic ethics over law, derived from a contextual and maqasid-oriented reading/ interpretation of the Qur’an and Sunna , that seeks peaceful, respectful coexistence with nonMuslims and is conducive to the Western/Australian sociopolitical context.No Full Tex
Islamic and Muslim Studies in Australia
No full textThe eight articles published in this Special Issue present original, empirical research, using various methods of data collection and analysis, in relation to topics that are pertinent to the study of Islam and Muslims in Australia. The contributors include long-serving scholars in the field, mid-career researchers, and early career researchers who represent many of Australia’s universities engaged in Islamic and Muslim studies, including the Australian National University, Charles Sturt University, Deakin University, Griffith University, and the University of Newcastle. The topics covered in this Special Issue include how Muslim Australians understand Islam (Rane et al. 2020); ethical and epistemological challenges facing Islamic and Muslim studies researchers (Mansouri 2020); Islamic studies in Australia’s university sector (Keskin and Ozalp 2021); Muslim women’s access to and participation in Australia’s mosques (Ghafournia 2020); religion, belonging and active citizenship among Muslim youth in Australia (Ozalp and Ćufurović), the responses of Muslim community organizations to Islamophobia (Cheikh Hussain 2020); Muslim ethical elites (Roose 2020); and the migration experiences of Hazara Afghans (Parkes 2020)
Islamic and Muslim Studies in Australia
No full textThe eight articles published in this Special Issue present original, empirical research, using various methods of data collection and analysis, in relation to topics that are pertinent to the study of Islam and Muslims in Australia. The contributors include long-serving scholars in the field, mid-career researchers, and early career researchers who represent many of Australia’s universities engaged in Islamic and Muslim studies, including the Australian National University, Charles Sturt University, Deakin University, Griffith University, and the University of Newcastle. The topics covered in this Special Issue include how Muslim Australians understand Islam (Rane et al. 2020); ethical and epistemological challenges facing Islamic and Muslim studies researchers (Mansouri 2020); Islamic studies in Australia’s university sector (Keskin and Ozalp 2021); Muslim women’s access to and participation in Australia’s mosques (Ghafournia 2020); religion, belonging and active citizenship among Muslim youth in Australia (Ozalp and Ćufurović), the responses of Muslim community organizations to Islamophobia (Cheikh Hussain 2020); Muslim ethical elites (Roose 2020); and the migration experiences of Hazara Afghans (Parkes 2020)
Introduction to the Special Issue “Islamic and Muslim Studies in Australia”
No full textThe field we call Islamic studies has a long history that could be said to date from the 8th and 9th centuries in the Middle East when Muslim scholars, including Quran exegetes, hadith compilers, jurists and historians, began to systematically write about the teachings of Islam [...
Australia’s Muslims strongly reject an association between Islam and violent extremism
No full textThe association of Islam with violent extremism ranks highly among the defining issues and events of the 21st century so far. A 2019 study by the Pew Research Center found the threat of Islamist extremism topped the list of global concerns in a number of countries and ranked second in Australia after climate change.
Thinking about Islam in this way has been a major factor in perpetuating feelings of insecurity and the securitisation of society. However, Muslim Australians strongly reject an association between Islam and violent extremism, according to the findings of a recent national survey.Full Tex
Peaceful interreligious relations in Islam derive from covenants and treaties
No full textWhat Muslims and non-Muslims think about Islam matters for peaceful interreligious relations. Islam is predicted to be the world’s most followed religion by the latter half of this century, surpassing Christianity for the first time. So far this century, the world’s fastest growing religion has been viewed by many non-Muslims with antipathy and fear, often in reference to historic conflicts between Muslim and Christian empires and in response to more recent acts of violent extremism and terrorism. The centrality of fulfilling covenants and treaties in Islam has been understated in discourses about Islam, yet it is mentioned in the Qur’an alongside the religion’s most central tenets including belief in God and the Day of Judgement, prayer and charity to define righteousness (Q2:177) and the characteristics of a believer (Q23:2-9). This article looks at covenants in the Qur’an and historic documents, that recent research indicates were issued by the Prophet Muhammad (d. 632) to Christian and other communities of his time, to offer some deeper insights into interreligious relations in Islam.Full Tex
Media Framing of the Muslim World: Conflicts, Crises and Contexts
No full textMedia Framing of the Muslim World is a fascinating account of how news about Islam and the Muslim world is produced and consumed, and how it impacts on relations between Islam and the West. The topics addressed in this book include how news values and media frames contribute to Western audiences' perceptions and understandings of Islam and Muslims; the extent to which historic conceptions of orientalism remain salient and are manifested in Islamophobia; how reporting on terrorism and asylum seekers impacts on public opinion and policy making; how the relationship between mass and social media contribute to the changing socio-political landscape of the Middle East and our understanding of the Muslim world; and how journalism and audiences have evolved in the decade since 9/11. Together, these topics make essential reading for scholars, students and anyone interested in the Western media's coverage of the Muslim world and its impact on Islam-West relations.Arts, Education & Law Group, School of Humanities, Languages and Social SciencesNo Full Tex
Muslim typologies in Australia: Findings of a national survey
No full textNumerous researchers in the field of Islamic and Muslim Studies have proposed various typologies to categorize Muslims in relation to their understanding of and identification with Islam. However, to date few studies have conducted the necessary empirical work to determine the numbers of Muslims that identify with the typologies that have been constructed. This article is the first to present findings based on a comprehensive study of Muslims in relation to a spectrum of discursive typologies. The authors conducted a national survey of Islam in Australia among Muslim citizens and permanent residents in 2019. This article examines Muslim Australians across a spectrum of 10 typologies in relation to various demographic factors, questions concerning shariah and political Islam, sources of influence, preferences for interpreting the Qur’an, views on various ethical, social, and theological issues, engagement with non-Muslims, and openness to new knowledge about Islam. Contrary to stereotypical views of Islam and Muslims, the article’s findings point to a strong presence for liberal and progressive typologies and interpretations of the Islamic tradition among Muslim Australians.Full Tex
Interfaith Actor Reception of Islamic Covenants: How ‘New’ Religious Knowledge Influences Views on Interreligious Relations in Islam
No full textThe historicity of early Islamic diplomatic documents, referred to as the covenants of Prophet Muhammad, has received considerable scholarly attention over the past decade. This article is the first to present a critical examination of the reception of the Prophet’s covenants among interfaith actors. An educative intervention instrument was used to examine how research on the historicity of the Prophet’s covenants influences participants’ thinking about interreligious relations in Islam. With reference to Stuart Hall’s audience reception theory, the study found that most participants adopted the ‘preferred’ reading of the educative intervention material, while minorities adopted ‘negotiated’ or ‘oppositional’ readings. This article discusses these findings, highlighting that participants’ openness to new religious knowledge, prior views on interreligious relations in Islam, and knowledge of primary Islamic sources influence reception of the Prophet’s covenants
“Cogent Religious Instruction”: A Response to the Phenomenon of Radical Islamist Terrorism in Australia
No full textOver the past 15 years, 47 Muslim Australians have been convicted for terrorism offences. Australian courts have determined that these acts were motivated by the offenders’ “Islamic„ religious beliefs and that interpretations of Quranic verses concerning jihad, in relation to shariah, caliphate, will of God and religious duty contributed to the commission of these crimes. This paper argues that these ideas, derived from certain classical-era Islamic jurisprudence and modern Islamist thought, contradict other classical-era interpretations and, arguably, the original teachings of Islam in the time of the Prophet Muhammad. In response to the call for “cogent religious instruction„ to combat the phenomenon of radical Islamist terrorism, this paper outlines a deradicalization program that addresses late 20th- and early 21st-century time-period effects: (1) ideological politicization associated with Islamist jihadism; (2) religious extremism associated with Salafism; and (3) radicalization associated with grievances arising from Western military interventions in Muslim-majority countries. The paper offers a counter narrative, based on a contextualized reading of the Quran and recent research on the authentication of the Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad. It further contends that cogent religious instruction must enhance critical-thinking skills and provide evidence-based knowledge in order to undermine radical Islamist extremism and promote peaceful coexistence
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