Thesis (D. Min.)--Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, 1988. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 242-265).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Duquesne University, 2005. / Title from document title page. Abstract included in electronic submission form. Includes bibliographical references (p. 194-200) and index.

Thesis (doctoral) - Universität, Tübingen, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 199-221).

While extramarital affairs and bao ernai have gained notoriety in Chinese society, the phenomena of xiaosan and ernai have been explosive in academic and legal spheres. Yet, these social phenomena among ethnic minority groups in China are unknown. This study is the first to explore the experiences of extramarital relations outside official marriage among the Hui ethnic group in China. The extramarital relations in the specific dual (Han/Hui) cultural context are interpreted and understood diversely due to the interplay among a host of conditioning factors –interests, beliefs, norms, legal codes, moral sanctions. By using the snowball sampling method, this study has deployed in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with 41 Hui men and women living in either the capital or in a the small town oin Qinghai Province in western China. This thesis examines the way in which Islamic religious values are played out in the context of Chinese law and extramarital relations. It also examines why, given the Hui knowledge of their religious and ethnic position, the Hui engage in extramarital affairs outside official marriage. Thus, it seeks to understand the Hui with respect to their intimacy and sexual relations both within and outside official marriage in contemporary China. This study argues that, in the local context, the Hui preserve their religious beliefs and Islamic values to differentiate themselves from other ethnic groups. Islam is a key marker of their ethnicity, functioning as religious law to culturally validate their behavior. Local knowledge of legal pluralism enables the Hui to act defiantly, despite the state’s disapproval of their practices of extramarital intimacy and sex. The interaction between the state and customary law is under the unilateral control of the state. Instead of coexisting, this legal unilateralization shows that customary law usually gives way to state law wherever they intersect. As a result, the interplay of the two legal cultures – that of the Chinese state and that of Islam – produces crime, but also makes extramarital relationships in the Hui context possible. I argue that Islamic beliefs cannot fully explain the individualism and subjectivity of Muslims in the context of extramarital practices, especially within a transforming China and a globalizing economy. The Hui articulate and negotiate their multiple affective, sexual, and material desires to raise their self-awareness of aspirations and construe their autonomy and self-representation in order to justify their behavior. Individual desires also play a pivotal role in interpreting their practices, and are in turn played out in the intersection of intimacy, gender, ethnicity, social status, and age. The interplay of ethnicity and desires helps us to better understand these experiences in a cultural context that includes increased ethnic consciousness among the Hui and the emergence of varied desires among them within desiring China. / published_or_final_version / Sociology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

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Thesis advisor: Raymond G. Helmick / Examines Christian-Muslim relations in Tanzania. / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

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The research question this thesis asks is what accounts for the intra state variation of mosque building projects in Western Europe, using as case studies Britain, France, Germany and the Netherlands. Two mosque projects are considered in each case study state and two theories are proposed and tested: resources mobilization theory and opportunity structure theory.

My dissertation is the first empirically based study to closely examine the impacts of 9/11 on Canadian Muslim youth. It develops a critical analysis of how the general public supported by state practices, undermine the citizenship of Canadian Muslims, thereby impacting their identity formation. Conducting qualitative analysis, through the use of 50 in-depth interviews with Canadian Muslim men and women, aged 18 to 30, I have arrived at several important findings. These include findings related to citizenship, the racialization of gender identities and identity formation. First, despite having legal citizenship, Canadian Muslims often do not have access to substantive citizenship (the ability to exercise rights of legal citizenship), revealing the precarious nature of citizenship for minority groups in Canada. My research shows that the citizenship rights of Canadian Muslims may be undermined because they do not have access to allegiance and nationality, important facets of citizenship. Second, young Canadian Muslims are racialized and othered through increasingly stereotypical conceptions about their gender identities. Muslim men are perceived as barbaric and dangerous and Muslim women are imagined as passive and oppressed by their communities. As a result of these dominant conceptions, in their struggle against racism, young Canadian Muslims have to invest a great deal of time establishing themselves as thinking, rational, educated and peaceful persons. Third, to cope with their marginalization, many young Canadian Muslims have asserted their Muslim identities. In order to understand this social process, I extend the work done on ‘reactive ethnicity’ and theorize Muslim identity formation in a post 9/11 context, something not yet been done in academic literature. To do so, I coin the term ‘reactive identity formation,’ and illustrate that the formation of reactive identities is not limited to strengthening ethnic identity and that religious minority groups can experience a similar phenomenon. Furthermore, I find that while claiming their Muslim identity, most of my interviewees also retain their Canadian identity in order to resist the notion that they are not Canadian. By doing so, they attempt to redefine what it means to be Canadian.