The purpose of this paper is to examine how gender in Islam and Hinduism are described in textbooks for high school. The study was conducted using a qualitative content analysis and also using a feminist gender theory and postcolonial feminist theory. All textbooks are written or revised after 2011 when The Swedish National Agency for Educations’ new curriculum came into force. Previous research in this area shows that it is most common that gender is treated in isolated parts within the chapters, but that there are textbooks that allows the gender perspective permeate the entire text. It also shows that the male perspective has been allowed to become the starting point or the neutral perspective in religion, while the female perspective has been described as the exception. In this paper the results shows that some textbooks describe gender in isolated sections of the chapters and other textbooks let the gender perspective permeates entire chapters. The textbook authors are in most cases consistent with explaining the different gender aspects based on other factors, such as traditions and geographical areas. However, there are exceptions where gender is not connected to external factors. There are descriptions in which the female is described on the basis of the male, just like the results of previous research. The discussion may need not only be about what is written about gender in textbooks, but also how it is presented in them.

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Note: / This work has been undertaken beacuse os the fascinating mixed-religious social set up it offers in the town, the model it is likely to serve to the Nigerian community in this aspect of co-existence of religions. Even though all the three strong religious beliefes existing in the country - traditional, Muslim and Christian - have strong footing and long standing in this town, yet religion has been reduced to a secondary position on the social activities of the people; so much so that there is hardly any family which is exclusively Muslim or Christian or traditional. [...]

The central and pivotal doctrine of the Imamate in the Twelver Shii creed maintains that the Imams are endowed with the exclusive prerogative to assume the authority and functions of the Prophet in both the temporal and religious domains. This is so by virtue of explicit designation (nass) received by each Imam from his predecessor to act as custodian, protector and expositor of divine teachings. Unfavourable political circumstances during the 'Umayyad and 'Abbasid dynasties forced the Imams to adopt a quietist attitude and to opt for accommodation with the illegitimate authorites. The inaccessibility of the Imams and their inability to guide their followers in distant places resulted in delegation of certain functions of the the Imams to the 'ulama' to guide the community. The prolonged occultation of the twelfth Shii Imam led the jurists to arrogate to themselves the right to act as his indirect deputies (na'ib al-Imam). Establishment of Imami Shiism as the state religion by the Safavids in the early sixteenth century, the victory of the Usuli school over the Akhbaris and the formulation of the institutions of marja'iya and a'lamiya paved the way for Ayatullah Khumayni to lay the grounds for the jurist's assumption of all-comprehensive authority (al-wilaya al-mutlaqa) by extrapolating arguments from tradition reports. The combination of the marja'iya and leadership (rahbar) of the Islamic State in the person of Ayatullah Khumayni had the potential of marshalling the Shii 'ulama' and masses to support for a political cause. However, bifurcation of these two roles in the 1989 revised Constitution of Iran forebodes the separation of the secular and the religious spheres.

My thesis argues that in 1982-2008, “state Islam” created a pluralistic Indonesia and an anti-pluralistic Malaysia. The rubric of “state Islam” is a political alliance of secular politicians, religious bureaucrats, and Islamic socio-religious organizations. During these twenty-five years, state policy in Indonesia repressed Islam through the political marginalization of the formal and informal institutions of Muslim piety and practice. On the other hand, state policy in Malaysia accommodated Islam through promoting similar institutions. The rise of Islamic political and cultural consciousness in 1979 had triggered leadership transition and elite factionalism in 1982 in Malaysia and in 1989 in Indonesia, during which a new Islamic-centric force of entrepreneurs drove policy change. From 1982 to 2008, Indonesia and Malaysia created new state religious bureaucracies that regulated Islam, persecuted minority Islamic sects, and curbed the political autonomy of socio-religious organizations embedded in Islam. Chapter 1 constitutes a literature review and outlines my argument and key variables, while Chapter 2 provides the historical context of Islam in pre and post-independence Indonesia and Malaysia. The next chapter takes us to Indonesia in 1982-1994, when the Suharto government embarked on its institutional repression of Islam. Chapter 4 demonstrates how in 1982-1994 the Mahathir government in Malaysia launched its parallel institutional accommodation of Islam. Returning to Indonesia, Chapter 5 shows how Suharto’s institutional repression from the late 1990s directly created the conditions for a pluralist Indonesia today. Chapter 6 examines how the Mahathir government, previously locked in a close relationship with Islam through institutional accommodation in the late 1990s to early 2000s, produced a contemporary Malaysia resolutely hostile to political and socio-cultural pluralism. The final chapter explores the concept of unintended consequences and suggests comparative and cross-regional implications for my findings.

Outsiders, such as Lebanese and Syrian Shi‘is often refer to Twelver Shi‘is in the Syrian shrine-town as ‘traditional,’ and even ‘backward.’ They are not the only ones. Both Saddam Hussein and Ayatollah ‘Ali Khamenei have called the bloody flagellation practices, which have only increased in popularity in Sayyida Zaynab over the past few decades, ‘backward’ and ‘irrational.’ Why do these outsiders condemn these Twelver Shi‘is and their Muharram rituals? Why are ‘traditional’ practices popular in the Syrian shrine-town of Sayyida Zaynab? What does ‘tradition’ mean in this context? This dissertation begins with the last question regarding the notion of ‘tradition’ and examines seminary pedagogy, weekly women’s ritual mourning gatherings, annual Muharram practices, and non-institutionalized spiritual healing. Two theoretical paradigms frame the ethnography. The first is Talal Asad’s (1986) notion that an anthropology of Islam should approach Islam as a discursive tradition and second, various iterations of the Karbala Paradigm (Fischer 1981). The concepts overlap, yet they also represent distinct approaches to the notion of ‘tradition.’ The overarching argument in this dissertation is that ‘tradition’ for Twelver Shi‘is in Sayyida Zaynab is not only a rhetorical trope but also an intimate, inter-subjective practice, which ties pious Shi‘i to the members of the Family of the Prophet. The sub-topics are changing patterns in religious pedagogy, the role of embodiment, self, and inter-subjectivity in women’s ritual mourning gatherings, and the applicability of Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of the carnivalesque (1984). Inspired by Frederick M. Denny (1985), who coined the term ‘orthopraxy’ to describe the importance of ritual practice in Islam, this dissertation refers to transgressive and carnivalesque religious performances as ‘heteropraxy.’ In particular, the emphasis on ‘heteropraxy’ is a critique of recent research on Arab Muslim women’s piety by Saba Mahmood (2005) and Lara Deeb (2006).

This thesis deals with Islam and nation formation in Indonesia. It attempts to describe the particular relationship between Islam and the development of the Indonesian nation. It examines the role of Islam in promoting the process of nation formation in Indonesia until the early 1930's. Since the coming of Islam to the Archipelago, the 'ulama' and their writings played a central role in the integration of the Malay world. The use of the Malay language as a lingua franca accelerated the process of integration as well as the process of mutual understanding among the people, the majority of whom were Muslim. When European colonialism appeared on the scene, the Muslims resisted it labelling the foreigners as non-Muslims. Opposition came from the royal, the aristocratic and the 'ulama' sectors. All in their way demonstrated resistance to every aspect of imperialism and colonialism. At the beginning of the 20th century, Muslims began to turn to socio-religious organizations in their efforts to achieve independence. This was a period of significant Muslim contributions to Indonesian nationalism. Some favored a structural approach while others pursued a cultural means. Indeed, people began to think in more democratic terms, and began to realize their inferior position within the colonial system. The response of the colonial government helped, in spite of itself, to foster national unity. The significance of this thesis lies in the fact that there has not yet been any attempt to trace the background of the formation of the Indonesian state with particular reference to the role of Islam.

The discussion concerning the prospects for democratization in Muslim-majority countries has been revived in recent years. It has been widely argued that the repression and exclusion of Islamic movements from the political process in Muslim countries breeds radicalism, while political engagement and inclusion, however, encourages moderation and compromise. The fact that only few Muslim states have been affected by the recent global wave of democratization has raised many questions concerning the impact of Islam and Islamic activism on democratization. Does Islam or Islamic activism hinder democratization and strengthen authoritarianism in the Muslim-majority countries? Can democratization progress in Muslim countries without the full inclusion of the major Islamic forces in the formal political process?

This thesis examines how reason and freedom have been expressed in Islam through a study of the Mu'tazilite movement in 8th century Persia, the Indonesian Islamic scholar and educator Harun Nasution and the Liberal Islam Network formed in Indonesia in 2001.