Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Asian Languages and Societies, Faculty of Arts, 2002. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 463-491).

This thesis argues that the Salman Rushdie controversy has a range of "entails" which focus and contribute to the need for a reconsideration of the complex constitutional nexus of religion, society and state currently embodied in the establishment of the Church of England. Chapter 1: The Introduction, acknowledges the academic and professional contexts that have informed the thesis. It clarifies the central research questions, defines the boundaries of the research and sets out the arguments in brief. Chapter 2: The Contours of the Controversy, charts the principal features of the controversy as it developed between 1988 and the end of 1995, primarily by highlighting the "critical incidents" during 1989. Chapter 3: The Controversy: Actions and Reactions outlines a range of positions taken up within the controversy and concludes by distilling five clusters of issues (social, religious, cultural, legal and political) which it is argued have "entails" for established religion in England. Chapter 4 on Established Religion, The Controversy and the Issues outlines the inheritance of established religion in England. It brings the identified clusters of issues into critical interaction with debates around this inheritance and the constitutional nexus which it represents for the contemporary relationships between religion(s), state and society in England. Finally, some alternative patterns for structuring these relationships are examined. Chapter 5 on Towards a New Socio-Religious Contract concludes the thesis by arguing that, in the context of the changed composition of English society and the public policies and community responses adopted in relation to these changes, the "entails" of the Rushdie controversy signal the arrival of a "kairos" for established religion and the need for negotiating a new "socio-religious contract. " Some alternative models are debated for symbolising, structuring and operationalising the relationships between religion(s), state and society in England within the UK, and a proposal is made for what is argued to be a more theoretically coherent and practically appropriate way forward than either the current form of established religion or the other identified possibilities.

This study seeks to contribute to a growing discussion about Islamic intellectual endeavours in the Middle Periods, providing new evidence from the genre of anti-innovation tracts (anti-bid‘a tracts) that has hitherto received relatively little modern scholarly attention. Specifically, this thesis examines tradition and innovation in Islam during the Mamluk period (648/1250 – 922/1517) through the lens of two jurists and their anti-innovation tracts. Ibn al-Ḥājj (d. 737/1336) was a Mālikī from North Africa who wrote Madkhal al-shar‘ al-sharīf. Ibn al-Naḥḥās (d. 814/1411), by contrast, was a Shāfi‘ī (and former Ḥanafī) from Damascus, who wrote a tract contained within his Tanbīh al-ghāfilīn, a work concerned with the duty of commanding right and forbidding wrong, and with naming and briefly discussing various sins and innovations. Ibn al-Ḥājj’s and Ibn al-Naḥḥās’ anti-innovation tracts are studied here for the first time in their own right, together with English translations of representative passages of their work that allow the reader to gain a direct impression of them. In addition to this, this thesis makes three unique arguments. First, anti-innovation tracts should be read as prescriptive yet flexible examples of furū‘. Second, the authors of the tracts investigated here, Ibn al-Ḥājj and Ibn al-Naḥḥās, were both ‘outsiders’ to Mamluk Egypt, who used this genre to define and regulate correct Muslim practices, in less formal ways that were both new and continuous with earlier thinking. Ibn al-Ḥājj’s programme - urging fledgling scholars, in almost encyclopaedic fashion, to know about and teach against innovative practices - was more important for him than addressing the topics of intention and innovation that feature in the full title of his work. Ibn al-Naḥḥās is an interestingly obscure figure. In an abbreviated and direct style, he urged non-specialists in Mamluk lands to censure innovations, and even to prevent them. Third, Ibn al-Ḥājj and Ibn al-Naḥḥās conceived of loyalty to their legal school in ways that require us to expand the terms of modern scholarly debates about such loyalty. This study contributes to the relatively recent, and fast-growing, literature on the Mamluk period in general, and its legal literature in particular. It supports a recent perspective on the Mamluk period, by illustrating the continuity and evolution of legal thinking during this period, which is both predicated upon, and differs substantially from, earlier periods of Islamic history. and deserves study in its own right.

This thesis conceptualises Islamist radicalisation in Europe as a process of occupational choice. It follows the approach to individual radicalisation as incremental development (process) with the consideration of multi-level factors and dynamics. The analysis leading to this multi-phase process is grounded in data, comparative and comprehensive since it adopts a perspective of individual life-stories. It conceptualises radicalisation phases and the whole process not as something specific but as a concrete variation of a more general process. It further accounts for gradual change in time instead of sudden and radical points of change from ‘normality’ to radicalism, at the same time clearly defining the phases of involvement and the main categories and conditions impacting on the Islamist occupational choice. The theoretical framework integrates rational choice and framing theory elements within a general approach to the phenomenon of interest as social process. The methodology used is grounded theory and the data sources are in the majority primary data from fieldwork in Austria, France and Germany, along with secondary data and literature as directed by theoretical sampling. The structure of the thesis develops as follows: a discussion and clarification of the radicalism and ‘radicalisation’ concepts; a review and critique of the main contributions in the literature on Islamist radicalisation in Europe; the outline, rationale and application of the methodology; the emergence and dynamics of the Islamist radical occupational choice process; the analysis of occupational choice categories; and the emergence and impact of interpretative frameworks in shaping occupational choice categories.

Thèse--Univ de Paris. / Publications de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale. "Bibliographie" p. [633]-664.

Thèse--Univ de Paris. / Publications de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale. "Bibliographie" p. [633]-664.

This thesis investigates the emergence of Medina in the Ḥijāz as a widely-venerated holy city over the first three Islamic centuries (seventh to ninth centuries CE) within the appropriate historical context, with special attention paid to the town’s ḥaram. It focuses in particular upon the roles played by the Prophet Muḥammad, Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs, and early Islamic legal scholars in this development. It shows that Medina’s emergence as a widely-venerated holy city alongside Mecca was a gradual and contested process, and one that was intimately linked with several important developments concerning legitimate political, religious, and legal authority in the Islamic world. The most important sources for this study have been Medina’s local histories, and Chapter One investigates the development of a tradition of local history-writing there. The Prophet Muḥammad first created a form of sacred space, a ḥaram, at Medina, and Chapter Two seeks to provide the context for this by investigating some forms of sacred and protected space found in the pre-Islamic Arabian Peninsula. Chapter Three then examines a rare early document preserved in the later Islamic sources, which deals in part with Muḥammad’s creation of Medina’s ḥaram, the so-called “Constitution of Medina”, and investigates why and how Muḥammad created that particular form of sacred space at Medina. The remaining two chapters deal with the history of Muḥammad’s ḥaram at Medina after his death as its original raison d’être disappeared. Chapter Four analyses some aspects of Muslim legal scholars’ discussions concerning Medina’s ḥaram, and demonstrates that certain groups disputed its existence. Chapter Five then seeks to understand why caliphs and other scholars invested so heavily in actively promoting its widespread veneration and Medina’s status as a holy city. It concludes that caliphs from the late first/early eighth century patronised Medina to associate themselves with legitimate political authority inherited from Muḥammad, and that from the late second/eighth century certain legal scholars argued for the continued existence of Medina’s ḥaram because of its association with the Prophet and his Companions who had come to be for them the ultimate source of legal authority.

This research paper aims to examine how local boroughs in the South suburbs of Stockholm work with matters relating to radicalism and violent extremism with roots in white power environments and Islam. The paper will look at the different challenges faced by the local Boroughs in tackling the problems in the future. The empirical material that forms the basis of this paper have been collected through semi structured interviews with local coordinators employed by three different boroughs within the South suburbs of Stockholm. The theoretical framework of the study is formed by a typological model that comprises different kinds of crime prevention exercises with backgrounds in superordinate values. The empirical material has been analyzed in relation to crime prevention as a societal phenomenon depending on what preventive method has been given the timely aspect related to primary, secondary or tertiary prevention. Results show that radicalism and violent extremism are phenomenon with substantial complexity, according to all participating coordinators, white power environments tend to be significantly more violent in their behaviour and serves as the primary local threat whereas activities relating to radical Islam is more limited. The coordinators speak about the necessity to work for an inclusive society rather than controlling which risks stigmatizing the individuals who could be considered in an already weak and resource scarce situations. The study show that the boroughs dominant prevention mechanisms are formed of structural and socialization prevention methods rather than effective reduction and/or controlling prevention. / Denna studie syftar till att undersöka hur kommuner i Stockholm söderort arbetar med frågor som rör sig kring radikalisering och våldsbejakande extremism rörande vit makt-miljöer och islamistisk extremism samt vilka utmaningar som deltagande kommuner uppger föreligga i framtiden. Det empiriska underlag som studien innefattas av är inhämtat genom semi-strukturella intervjuer med samordnare inom tre olika kommuner i Stockholm söderort.   Studiens teoretiska ramverk utgörs delvis av olika typer av en typologisk modell som innefattar olika typer av brottspreventiva åtgärder och hur dessa typer utgörs med bakgrund av olika överordnade värden. Studiens empiriska material är analyserat i anknytning till brottsprevention som samhällsfenomen i sig samt vilket avseende som preventiva åtgärder utgör i relation till insatsens tidsaspekt-primär/sekundär/tertiär prevention.   Studiens resultat redogör att radikalisering och våldsbejakande extremism är ett komplext fenomen. Samtliga samordnare som deltagit i studien poängterar för vit makt-miljöer som den våldsbejakande miljö som utgör det primära hotet i kommunerna samt att vetskapen gällande aktiviteter av islamistiska extremist-miljöer är mer begränsad. Samordnarna belyser nödvändigheten att arbeta för ett inkluderande samhälle som ska förebygga utanförskap snarare än kontrollutövande insatser som riskerar att stigmatisera individer som redan är i en resurssvag position.   Studien visar på att kommuners dominerande preventionsåtgärder utgörs av struktur och- socialisationsåtgärder snarare än effektiviseringsåtgärder och/eller kontrollåtgärder.

Diploma thesis "Islamic civilization: A comparison of representative interpretations" presents theoretical and historical approach to comparative study of Islamic society by interpretation and comparison of principal scholars in which the author lays emphasis on basic social patterns of this society in long-term and dynamic development as well as on its role within modernization transformations. The main goal is to contribute by selective reflexion to understanding of the long-term historical experiences, its peculiar world views and institutional patterns as well as the ways it participates in history of the world. For this purpose the author employs interpretations and comparisons of the selected authors with particular focus on conception of Muslim society in the writings of Ernest Gellner. The first part is engaged in definition of Islamic civilization concept as one of the largest socio-cultural complexes in Eurasian macro-region. The second part focuses on political traditions and transformations as well as to some extent on economic structure of Islamic civilization. The last part pursues Islamic society as prospective alternative modernity in comparison to diverse conceptions of Islam interpretations proposed by other social science scholars.

Over the last fourteen-hundred years, Muhammad ibn ʿAbd Allah (d. 632) has been depicted and portrayed in a variety of ways by numerous scholars, theologians, and polemicists. My dissertation offers a unique approach to the “historical Muhammad” as it develops a new method to examine extant primary sources related to his life. I include available sources that provide pertinent information on Muhammad’s life, including the Qur’an, hadith literature, sira-maghazi (biographies and expeditions), and non-Muslim accounts. My research is original because it adopts current historical Jesus scholarship, particularly modern cognitive studies of memory, and uses it on extant sources related to Muhammad’s life. More specifically, I explore how memory, oral tradition, and oral transmission play vital roles in understanding how Muslims remembered their Prophet and how the circumstances of later generations shaped and influenced their commemoration of his life. By adopting this scholarship, which will be contextualized to examine early Muslim literature, I offer a new perspective on surviving sources, the context of seventh-century Arabia, and the function of memory for the nascent Muslim community. I also apply my method on eight significant, polemical, or neglected events that are traditionally believed to have taken place during Muhammad’s life in Mecca and Medina. In sum, my dissertation offers a dynamic cross-disciplinary venture, encompassing the intersection of innovative, modern critical inquiry and early Islamic literature. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This dissertation examines the field of the “historical Muhammad” and applies a new method on extant primary sources related to Muhammad’s life. I conduct a literature review of scholars’ reconstructions of his life, beginning as early as the seventh century. I also explore numerous primary sources on Muhammad, pointing out their benefits and disadvantages. Next, I overview the quests for the historical Jesus and analyze methods that were established over the last hundred years. In my dissertation, I adopt historical Jesus scholarship, namely memory studies, to develop an original method that provides a unique understanding and fresh perspective of the historical Muhammad. Over the last two chapters, I conduct eight case studies employing my method on events from Muhammad’s life in Mecca and Medina. This dissertation demonstrates that we could reconstruct a reasonably coherent picture of events surrounding Muhammad’s life.