This dissertation expands the body of research available on the Muslim minority in Thailand, particularly in regard to conflicts in the Lower South. Working within the framework of moderate multiculturalism and secularism, the dissertation seeks to understand how Muslim professionals see the relationship between Islamic representative bodies and the Thai state, the roles of Islamic institutions and their religious conduct in relation to wider Thai society. The fieldwork conducted in 2008 and 2009 shows similarities and differences between Muslim professionals inside and outside of the Lower South in relation to these issues. In general, Muslim professionals support national integration and multiculturalism. In the Lower South in particular, they support national integration on the condition that it supports Muslim identity. Most interviewees believe that Islamic representative bodies play integrative roles. However, this is not seen as beneficial to the Muslim community and improvements are widely desired. Where the government and the representative bodies have not been able to resolve the unrest in the Lower South, local civil society organizations have taken an active peace-making role, with the aim of promoting Muslim identity under the Thai Constitution. This dissertation also examines attitudes to mosques and Islamic education through interviewees' perspectives. The research shows that Muslim professionals expect mosques to perform a community-based role. More specifically, interviewees in the Lower South suggested cooperation between local administrative organizations and mosque committees, whereas those based elsewhere in Thailand recommended that mosques should provide social services inclusive to non-Muslim society. On Islamic education, most wished to see improvements. Some interviewees, mainly outside the Lower South, shared the government's view regarding connections between the unrest in the southernmost provinces and traditional and private Islamic schools, in consideration of which they believed that the government itself should take the leading role in providing Islamic education. On the other hand, interviewees in the Lower South mainly took the view that Islamic school development is obstructed by the unrest which the government has not been able to resolve. Therefore, their suggestions involved improving secular curricula and introducing more meaningful and integrative religious teachings, aimed at academic excellence. The research further shows that the religious conduct of Muslim professionals and their perspectives on it are significantly connected to their social environment. While Muslim interviewees both inside and outside the Lower South do not limit themselves to consuming halal-signed food only, those living outside the Lower South, where Muslims are a minority, showed a greater willingness to compromise in relation to eating and drinking. Most women professionals outside the Lower South do not wear hijabs for justifiable reasons, while virtually all women in the Lower South do. Although most interviewees marry within the Muslim community, in principle they also accept inter-religious marriage. Marriage between Muslims from different sects is viewed as more controversial, although this conviction is held less strongly outside the Lower South. Overall, the interviewees are committed to preserving their Muslim identity, but with less strict trends outside the Lower South. This might well reflect moderate multiculturalism and secularism in Thailand where the identity of religious minorities and the majority Buddhist population are subject to negotiation.

Ce travail doctoral analyse les conséquences socio-spatiales du pogrom anti-musulmans survenu à Ahmedabad (Gujarat) en 2002 et orchestré par les autorités. Ce pogrom a donné lieu à la formation d'un ghetto, soit une localité économiquement mixte et ethniquement homogène, remettant ainsi en cause les modalités traditionnelles d'organisation de l'espace en Inde. Cette remise en cause est notamment due à l'arrivée des classes musulmanes supérieures dans la localité conséquemment au pogrom, et transformant la localité en ghetto, analysé comme tel grâce aux travaux de L. Wacquant. Ce ghetto est initialement pensé comme un dispositif foucaldien de pouvoir visant à imposer la domination de la minorité musulmane. Par son truchement, le pouvoir y déploie un certain nombre de stratégies de domination de la minorité, consubstantielles à la forme ghetto.Néanmoins, à partir de 2004, les classes supérieures se mobilisent. Leurs actions, coordonnées ou pas, et analysées comme des "entreprises de mobilisation sociales" (O. Fillieule) sont autant d'initiatives de self-help conduisant au développement du ghetto. De fait, elles deviennent des "tactiques de résistance" aux stratégies de domination du pouvoir. Celles-ci apportent du changement social dans le ghetto, ce dernier étant analysé et qualifié. On en conclue notamment à la prééminence du récit identitaire séculariste, au dépend de celui islamique. On observe aussi l'existence de plus en plus prégnante des clivages de castes au sein du ghetto; ce que matérialise la formation de quartiers, dans le ghetto. / This dissertation deals with the socio-spatial consequences of the anti-Muslim pogrom of Ahmedabad (Gujarat). This took place in 2002 and was mainly masterminded by the local authorities. Encouraging the migration of Muslim high classes for security purpose, this State-led violence led to the formation of a ghetto in the outskirts of Ahmedabad, in Juhapura. Originally a deprived locality economic-wise, it becomes a ghetto following the definition coined by L. Wacquant. This ghetto is thought as a “dispositive of power”, after Michel Foucault’s work. It aims at dominating the Muslim minority. Through the ghetto, the authorities therefore applied several “strategies of power” to the Juhapura’s inhabitants. But from 2004 on, the Muslim high classes had started to get mobilized. They initiated several self-help initiatives in order to develop the area and bring basic amenities into it. They indeed lead to the development of Juhapura. These actions are thus considered as “tactics of resistance” that oppose the strategies of power. They also bring social change in Juhapura: the secularist identity discourse slowly replaces the Islamic one. In addition, the importance of caste cleavages is growing within the ghetto. This is spatialized by the formation of different districts, laid-out following the socio-economic level of their inhabitants.

Mediation is a type of dispute resolution in which a third party intervenes to help disputing parties reach a mutually satisfactory agreement. In recent years, individuals and organizations have begun advertising Islamic mediation services. The development of this field has important implications for Muslims living in Western countries, as Muslim minority communities have long sought ways to resolve disputes according to their personal religious beliefs. Avenues for family dispute resolution—including the civil courts, informal Islamic courts, family counseling, and informal mediation by an imam—each have distinct drawbacks. Professional Islamic mediation could fill a significant gap in services. Although some work has been done on theoretical models of Islamic conflict resolution, little information exists on the current practice of professional Islamic mediation in Muslim minority communities. This study addresses this gap in knowledge through case studies of practicing Islamic mediators. Results indicate wide variation in the field in terms of how practitioners themselves define Islamic mediation. There were also distinct differences in the role the mediators played in relation to the disputing parties, what types of cases they mediated, and how they organized and funded their services. The lack of standardization in the field may be a positive thing, however, as different services may fill different needs in Muslim communities. / text

This thesis aims to explore the role of social practice in the production of space within an anthropological perspective. In particular I drew my empirical data from my fieldwork in the site of Banyabashi Mosque. Banyabashi Mosque is the only active mosque which is located at the very representative, cultural and commercial center of Bulgaria&rsquo / s capital city, Sofia. The historical background of Bulgaria together with its current socio-political situation as the country having the largest historically indigenous Muslim population among the EU member states and its geopolitical location make it an intriguing geography to study the dynamism of Islam in the European context. In regard with this socio-political background this study seeks to understand the transformation of meaning through spatial practice within the perspective of the congregation of the only mosque in Sofia, Bulgaria. It is a cultural and political expression itself as Islam in Bulgaria in its broadest sense is represented as part of daily interactions of everyday urban life. Seeing the built environment as a system of conjoining parts, looking at the spatial practices and the established relations through the site of Banyabashi Mosque this study aspires to provide a perspective on having a better insight on the causal relationships between power, society and culture. In the pursuit to reveal the production and reproduction of power relations, difference, identities and their maintenance this thesis puts Banyabashi Mosque in the center of the study as a meeting point where all those relations manifest themselves through spatial practice and discourse.

This thesis examined how Turkish perception of insecurity, which was based on its suspicions about Greek and Bulgarian intentions and politics towards its territorial integrity and stability of its regime, shaped its view of Turkish/Muslim minorities living in these two states in the early Republican period. Using a wealth of archival material and newspapers, it questioned to what extent these physical and ideological concerns of the Turkish Republic played a role in its approach to these minorities in the period between 1923 and 1938. Turkey perceived the Greek and Bulgarian maltreatment of these minorities as a part of these states&rsquo / hostile intentions regarding the new Turkish state. Thus, what this thesis argued is that Turkey responded to pressure on Turkish/Muslim minorities in these two states not only because of humanitarian concerns but according to its security concern, which became an important factor to determine Turkish interventionist approach to the minority issues in Greece and Bulgaria in this period.