This thesis assesses fairness for Muslim religious value claims in liberal institutions aspiring to public neutrality. This is achieved though critically examining neutrality and religious equality in liberal political theory, national models of secularism, and instantiations at the local level of schools and workplaces. Through adopting a contextual approach to political theory, I argue for the situated nature of fairness. The aim of this approach is to utilise ideal theory to arrive at realistic guidelines fit for real (non-ideal) worlds. I therefore both address the limits of theory to practice and show how empirical contextualisation might inform revised theories better equipped to account for contextual variables. In order to address the shortcomings in existing models of neutrality and in existing ways of theorising about religious exemptions in contemporary liberal political theory, two arguments for accommodation are advanced: corrective grounds and reasonable access grounds. Corrective grounds stress the need to correct for existing inequities already in place privileging majoritarian groups, as we face the task of responding fairly to minority requests for accommodation. Reasonable access grounds emphasise the significance of environmental factors in exploring entitlement to religious exemptions from general rules and regulations. Both these accounts build on empirical contextualisation. Evidence supporting these arguments is derived from two national contexts – the U.S. and Sweden – and takes the form of semi-structured elite interviews with a range of individuals with expertise on questions of Muslim religious accommodation. Through this analysis, the thesis contends that the ‘costs’ associated with Muslim value claims in liberal institutions should not exclusively be attributed to inherent factors. On these grounds I argue for the remodelling of public institutions in order to facilitate the ease with which religious commitments are combined with access to, and participation in, public institutions aspiring to neutrality.

Using his own professional experiences and fieldwork in the north-east of London as a starting point, the author suggests that the time is now right to consider the place of Muslim supplementary education in a wider social and educational setting. He suggests that four factors support this: the growing public interest in the emergence of British Islam; the continuing debate about the efficacy of traditional forms of Islamic education; the increasing use of networking within the educational community; and the growing official recognition of the contribution made by supplementary schooling. Following a review of a wide range of relevant literary material, the author draws on a number of life-story interviews in order to portray the reality and variety of British Muslims' experience of Islamic education. The outcomes of ethnographic fieldwork are then used to describe and analyse what takes place in a British maktab (elementary mosque school). This includes a detailed explanation of how and why the Qur'an is learned, particularly by those individuals who are training to become huffaz (those who have committed the whole Qur'an to memory). The ways in which Muslim supplementary schools might form part of the wider social and educational community are then explored together with factors that might block or encourage the creation of such an ideal. Analysis includes a review of existing organisational attempts to promote the work of supplementary schooling. A case is also presented for the reappraisal of the role of memorisation as a distinct form of learning. The thesis ends with a concluding statement, focusing on the ideal of maktabs and mainstream LEA schools working together to mutual benefit, and a number of recommendations aimed at researchers and those involved in both Muslim and wider community schooling.

As Islam does not recognize the separation between sacred and secular matters, it requires all economics activities to be carried out in accordance to shariah. As a result, the need for shariah approved companies (SACs) becomes undeniable. Similar to the Western setting, Islamic CSR disclosure has also become an important issue for SACs. Nevertheless, studies on Islamic CSR disclosure are limited. Most of the prior studies focus on CSR disclosure by Islamic financial institution. They also tend to utilize the concept of CSR disclosure from the West, leading to the need for understanding CSR and its disclosure from an Islamic perspective. The aim of this study is to investigate Islamic corporate social responsibility disclosure by SACs in Organization Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries. Particularly, it is intended to achieve four specific objectives: firstly, to develop an Islamic CSR disclosure instrument that can measure the level of Islamic CSR disclosure; secondly, to document the content and level of Islamic CSR disclosure in the sample of OIC countries; thirdly, to identify the differences in Islamic CSR disclosure across OIC countries; and fourthly, to determine factors influencing Islamic CSR disclosure level in OIC countries. This study applied deductive reasoning based on the concept of tawhid and maqasid ashshari’ah as well as current literature on CSR disclosure to develop Islamic CSR disclosure instrument. Then, the instrument was used as a benchmark for documenting the content and level of Islamic CSR disclosure in annual reports of SACs through content analysis. A total of 90 SACs from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Pakistan were selected as the sample of the study. Next, qualitative comparison analysis was applied to identify the differences in the content of Islamic CSR disclosure across OIC countries. Additionally, quantitative comparison using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Kruskall Wallis test were also applied to identify whether there was any difference in the level of Islamic CSR disclosure across countries. Lastly, this study performed regression analyses to test six hypotheses formulated based on prior studies and the existing theories. In turn, the findings of the analyses were used to identify the determinants of Islamic CSR disclosure level in the sample of OIC countries. The empirical investigation observed several findings. Firstly, the results of the content analysis show that SACs in the sample countries disclosed 34% of the benchmark, on average. Employee category was considered as the most disclosed category followed by shareholder, community, environment, customer, government, debtor, supplier and other business partners. Secondly, there were noticeable differences in Islamic CSR disclosure by SACs from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Pakistan. In general, Indonesian SACs tended to focus their disclosure on social and environmental issues, whereas Malaysian SACs tended to focus on economical issues. For Pakistani SACs, their disclosure was more religious. Thirdly, the regression analyses found state-ownership, company size, and country variable as significant variables in determining Islamic CSR disclosure. In more specific analyses conducted by category, the results provided evidence for state-ownership, company size, country, profitability, industry sensitivity and media exposure as significant determinants of Islamic CSR disclosure level. All regression models observed in this study can be considered good as the values of adjusted R2 ranged from 37% to 59%. This study may have contribution for knowledge, methodological, theoretical and practical. In term of knowledge contribution, this study introduces the notion of dual responsibilities, Islamic CSR pyramid and Islamic CSR disclosure instrument. For methodological contribution, this study offers three different measurements to gauge the quality of Islamic CSR disclosure, which are quantitative index, comprehensiveness index, and Islamic index. With regard to the theoretical contribution, this study may provide an opportunity to understand CSR disclosure in a well-defined and different cultural that happens to be driven by religion. Additionally, it provides an initial conclusion that CSR from the West has a potential to bridge Islamic accounting and accounting from the mainstream theory. Lastly, the practical contribution of this study is that it may help Islamic capital market regulator in enhancing the screening process of SACs. Additionally, it may guide manager and business practitioners how to operate their business in accordance to shari’ah if they want to remain acceptable in Islamic countries or Muslim majority countries.

This thesis presents constructions of masculinities in Islamic traditions, societies and cultures with a specific focus on India and Pakistan between the 18th – 21st century. The basic premise of this thesis is through an understanding that masculinity, femininity, gender and sexuality are socially constructed yet interlinked and often shaped through biology. The focus of this thesis is exploring the many colourful and diverse images of masculinities in India and Pakistan. A key finding is that their appreciation or rejection within Islam is dependent upon idealized notions of masculinity, femininity, morality and ethics that are essentially derived from patriarchal structures, such as the ‘family’ and ‘procreation’. Through an elaboration of the Qur’ānic concept of Islamic spirituality, piety and submission to none other except God, using the prophet’s lives as examples, it becomes apparent that varieties of masculinities and femininities – including flawed and imperfect forms – need not be seen as a weakness but a strength, as multiplicity in all matters is presented as a means to strengthening individual relationship with God. At a time when there is much debate about the necessity of a reformation in Islam, it may just be the case that one finds the buried treasures that reformers seek through unveiling and appreciating the rich diversity of Islamic traditions, societies and cultures.

This thesis considers how second generation British Asian Muslim males negotiate arranged marriage, religion and leisure, and how this negotiation is a means to achieve a culturally prescribed goal. The culturally prescribed goal will be demonstrated to be the attainment of wealth and the maintenance of family bonds. An ethnographic study of thirty second generation British Asian Muslim males was conducted in order to understand how decisions regarding marriage and leisure are made. The modes of negotiation of marriage, leisure and religion are analysed using Merton’s (1938, 1957) Anomie and Strain theory as well as Murphy and Robinson’s (2008) concept of the maximiser. Empirical research is used to describe and analyse how the maximiser achieves the culturally prescribed goal mentioned above. It is argued that the maximiser uses both legitimate and illegitimate means in order to achieve a culturally prescribed goal. The legitimate means in this study are having an arranged marriage and abiding by rules of Islam and the family. It will be argued that through a process of intense socialisation, the means to achieve the culturally prescribed goal are learnt from childhood for some British Asian Muslims. It will be argued that culture is misrepresented as religion in order to facilitate this process of intense socialisation in some British Muslim communities which creates a pressure to conform. The modes of adaptation to this pressure including the conformist, the innovator, the Ritualist, the Retreatist and the Rebel are explored. The focus of the study is on the maximiser as it is argued that the maximiser reproduces a system of transnational consanguineous arranged marriages. The methods of negotiation are analysed using symbolic interactionist perspectives, namely Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (Goffman 1959) and Delinquency and Drift (Matza 1964). This process of negotiating marriage particularly when considering transnational consanguineous marriages, is referred to as the lifelong Business of Marriage. The Business of Marriage is defined as: a system in which transnational consanguineous marriages are taking place under the following conditions: (1) There is a process of intense socialisation where respect for parents and cultural practices are internalised (2) where British nationality is given to the incoming spouse (3) where financial and social support is given to the British husband. This thesis will demonstrate that British Asian Muslim males who fall under the category of the Maximiser are willing to forgo the opportunity of choosing their own spouses in order to inherit the family wealth and to keep bonds between families strong. It is also demonstrated that when a transnational marriage fails within the period required in order for the transnational wife to apply for a British visa, the British husband will stay legally married to his spouse in order to ensure the attainment of a permanent British visa. Finally, this research explores the future generations and argues that the Business of Arranged Marriage will end with the fourth generation of British Asian Muslim males. It is argued that this is the case because at this time, the first generation of south Asian Muslim immigrants into this country will not be present and the wealth of the families would have been passed on to the next generation. This thesis concludes by recommending further research into British Asian Muslim males and marriage, specifically around the areas of forced and arranged marriage.

This research aims to demonstrate how archaeology can contribute to the analysis of religion and religious change. By viewing religion as a social construct, that takes meaning within its own context, the analysis of material culture provides an opportunity to look at long term religious change. This is because while religion strongly influences material culture, it is also reproduced by it. In particular, the body is critical in recreating and negotiating ideology due to physical conformity to religious ideals, which actively constructs identity. As bone adapts to reflect the physical strain placed on it during life, the analysis of changes in activity-related skeletal modifications provides a mechanism for assessing whether religious identity, and therefore ideology, changed and adapted over time. When combined with other evidence from material culture and historic sources, this social-cultural approach explores the development of religion and its role as a structuring principle, but also how it is influenced by other social, political and historic factors. This was demonstrated through the analysis of physical activity patterns from skeletal material from early Medieval Islamic Iberia (al-Andalus) AD 711- 1200, a region that underwent rapid social change with the emergence of Islam into a previously Christian state. Islam, as a historicx religion, has well established religious traditions. A comparison of ideal behaviour and actual behaviour, as evidenced through activity patterns, was carried out in order to analyse the impact of other social factors on identity in the region. In particular, this thesis focused on whether ideals surrounding gender division and prayer were adhered to in al-Andalus. Entheseal changes, osteoarthritis, non-pathological particular modifications and bone morphology data from Islamic and pre-Islamic individuals from the Islamic cemetery at Écija, Sevilla, and the pre-Islamic basilica at Cortijo de Coracho, Córdoba were compared. A distinct hange in activity patterns occurred with the emergence of Islam. A greater gendered division of labour was identified in the Islamic group, as well as possible evidence for the adoption of ritual prayer and reduced female mobility. The emergence of an Islamic identity was supported by clear trends in burial data and historic sources. Diachronic analysis of Islamic data implied that adherence to Islamic tradition appeared to strengthen over time. Overall, this research appeared to support historical documentation which suggests an orthodox Islamic identity in Iberia. To understand the emergence of an orthodox Islamic Iberian entity, important social and political factors were considered. Firstly, proximity to Christianity meant the observance of Islamic tradition was important for creating a distinction between ‘us’ (Muslims) and ‘them’ Christians. This became more important later when religious tensions increased in Iberia, where the Christian north organised into a credible threat to the Islamic South, but also in the east, with the initiation of the crusades. Secondly, the arrival and staunch Caliphal support of Maliki law, which has strong emphasis on Qur’anic rituals. Thirdly, Écija, is close to Córdoba, the capital of al-Andalus, and traditions could have spread easily from Córdoba along well stablished trade routes. This research therefore demonstrated that Islamic identity, and therefore Islam in Iberia was a product of the interpretation of tradition in a particular context, thus demonstrating the unique nature of Iberian Islam.

This qualitative research study focuses on the negotiation of identity among British born Muslim women living in London in 2016. Semi-structured narrative interviews were carried out with five British Muslim women with the resulting data analysed using Critical Narrative Analysis. The analysis resulted in two overarching constructions; the construction of the Muslim woman and the construction of the British Muslim, underpinned by gender inequality. These intended to capture the rich and complex intra-psychic negotiations between identities for this population. The findings are discussed from a feminist perspective, and the impacts of broader social and cultural contexts were explored. Observations and suggestions were made in terms of implications for Counselling Psychology as a discipline, as well as the contribution of the study to therapeutic work, and avenues for future research were suggested.

Ramadan requires individuals to abstain from food and fluid intake between sunrise and sunset; physiological considerations predict that poorer mood, physical performance and mental performance will result. In addition, any difficulties will be worsened because preparations for fasting and recovery from it often mean that nocturnal sleep is decreased in length, and this independently affects mood and performance. Previous field studies have indicated that some of these predictions are borne out in practice; in the first study of the present thesis, a field study performed in Libya, these predictions were tested further by adding more physiological measurements and tests of performance. Findings indicated that Ramadan was associated with negative effects upon a wide range of variables, including rising urine daytime osmolality (indicative of progressive dehydration), subjective estimates of amounts of activities actually performed and those wished to be done (indicating less activity in the daytime), and metabolic and subjective responses to a short bout of exercise (increased effort required and metabolism tending towards fat rather than glucose catabolism). Because of the difficulties of performing a battery of tasks in a field study, two laboratory-based experiments were then performed, the second differing from the first in studying a greater range of variables and more time-points during the daytime. These two studies also differed from the situation in Ramadan in that non-Muslim students were volunteers and fasting was performed for only one day. Many of the changes previously found in Ramadan were duplicated in this work, so justifying the use of laboratory experiments lasting one day and using non-Muslim subjects as a model for some of the problems present in Ramadan. However, it was also found that preparations before the fast were often less marked than was the case with Muslims in Ramadan, a difference that can be attributed to subjects' lack of experience of fasting as well as the amount of time spent fasting. A difficulty of interpretation in all these studies was that changes could be due to fasting and/or the length of sleep, which tends to decrease. These two factors were separated in the final experiment, an intervention study performed in the laboratory. This study compared effects of different durations of fasting (4, 8 or 16 h) upon a wide variety of measures (including subjective and objective assessments of performance, dehydration and responses to a short bout of exercise) - but with an unchanged amount of nocturnal sleep and daytime naps not allowed. Many of the negative effects observed in previous studies were present in this experiment also. These findings indicate that fasting was responsible for much of the change previously observed, though some effect of sleep loss, particularly if occurring on successive days (as would occur in Ramadan) cannot be excluded. One finding common to all studies was that tests of performance that had shown variations due to the combination of circadian influences, time awake and sleep loss in other experiments (including grip strength, the Stroop test and accuracy at throwing darts) seemed little affected. Possible reasons for these negative findings are discussed, together with further experiments to separate out effects of sleep loss and fasting, and the role of subjects' experience in studies of fasting. In addition, more detailed studies to investigate changes in sleep and the type and level of physical activities when fasting are proposed.

Since the late 1980s Alevi identity has become increasingly visible in a transnational context. Alevis in Turkey and across various European countries have contributed to this process through active involvement in local, national and cross-border activities. From the 1980s on, mainly Kurdish and Alevi people from Central and Eastern parts of Turkey have migrated to Britain, established cultural centres and places of worship (cemevi) and gained cultural rights and public visibility. Through ethnographic research conducted mainly in London and partly in Istanbul, I explore Alevi identity building in Britain within a transnational context in which they strive to gain recognition both in Britain and in Turkey through equal citizenship (eşit vatandaşlık). My research contributes to Alevis’ visibility in academia and sheds light on the concepts of transnationalism and identity through empirical evidence. Alevi identity is a central motivation for mobilising Alevis and they construct their identity in a dynamic process that involves links with Turkey, symbolic attachment to homeland based identities and their new experiences in the receiving country, engaging in various cross-border practices on the supranational and transnational levels. The two levels interact; a universal human rights discourse and the institutions that promote it strengthen Alevi claims on the transnational level in both their interactions with the Turkish government and translocal activities. They not only use this human rights discourse instrumentally in their claims making but also argue that it is a component of their belief system. In both private and public spheres, Alevis continue to express their identity in opposition to, or difference from, the Sunni majority in Turkey through emphasising morality over religious practices, liberal gender attitudes and claiming their inherent compatibility with the host society’s norms. By integrating these principles into their communal activities, Alevis in Britain also construct their identity as one that is progressive, inclusive and in opposition to assimilation.

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