Thesis (M.A.)--Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary, 1979. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 67-69).

This is the biography of the Zaydi Imam, 'Abdullah b. I:Iamzah, who stood against the Ayyfibid's rule in Yemen, of his time. The biography covers the Imam's life, family background and relations with other sects. These include the Shi'ah and the Zaydis, particularly those of the Mutarrafis. The biography also gives a detailed picture of the Imam's relations and conflicts with the local Ayyfibids in Yemen. As the author considered the Imam a great authority in the field of religion and thinking, we find a large amount of quotations from the Imam's works, both poetry and prose. The author, as the Imam did, gave special attention to the authority of the Fatimi 'Alawid's descendants in the field of religion, and in particular how the post of Imamate should be aquired only by them. The importance of this work comes from the fact that it is the only surviving complete biography of this Imam, written by one of his well known and distinguished contemporaries. The highly classical Arabic which the author used to write the biography, increased the prestige of the work, and added importance to it. This reflects AI-Mu1;lalli's authority in the fields of Arabic language, literature and history. The thesis consists of two main parts; Section A (or 1) is a short introduction and study to the text and its author, followed by the English translation of the Arabic text, while Section B (or 2) is the edited Arabic text (the biography). Finally the conclusion, will illustrate the main points in the whole work. I hope the work I produce can represent a valuable addition to Yemeni history, literature and beliefs.

Studies of phenomena classed as part of the New Age Movement have become increasingly common in recent years. This Thesis develops a new perspective on these through the use of anthropological and sociological analysis of structures of social power and the contextualisation of symbols and discourse. Research was based on a two and a half year ethnographic study of a network in Nottinghamshire, Britain, which included a meditation group and a spiritual fair. Spirit possession was seen as particularly important to these, in the forms of channelling and mediumship. The concept of nonformative spirituality was used to delineate the network as lacking enduring leadership and authority, such that participants' experiences varied within groups and practices. Thus, the network was not seen as part of a movement, but as a collection of informal groups linked through people's practices. Theory of bodily performance, with a critical analysis of the sociology of knowledge, was used to interpret the four sorts of practices in the network: channelling, meditation, holistic health therapies and divination. By paying attention to people's spiritual biographies, their careers of seekership were understood to develop through dissonant experiences. Nonformative spirituality was compared with those more formative groups which it drew upon, such as spiritualism, the Anthroposophical Society and occult study groups, thus providing a broader picture of its place in contemporary Britain.

The intention of preparing this thesis is an examination of Taziyeh, the passion play in Iran which appeared initially as part of the observance of Ashura for the sake of the commemoration of Imam Hussein and his family. Taziyeh as a part of the religious observance of Shiite Muslims exists in iran and different Islamic countries. Taziyeh during the course of centuries found a form of religious drama which made it feasible to be performed on other occasions than the Muharram ceremonies. The realisation of the existence of dramatic features and the appearance of several different types of Taziyeh, tragic and comic, created a ground for its existence to arouse the interest of travellers to Iran during the period of the last two centuries and Iranian and non-Iranian dramatists and schotars of the present century. These accounts and views first allow us to find the evidence for the date of the development of Taziyeh and second to assess the contemporary scholarly comments on the dramatic values of the Taziyeh. In this way Taziyeh has been found comparable with Greek, Medieval and Modem Drama. The Historical, Mythical and legendary grounds of the Taziyeh have been taken into consideration in this study in order to gain access to the true roots of the Taziyeh in the old land of Iran while the lack of a place for Taziyeh in Persian literature will become clear. The final part has been devoted to establishing the actual position of Taziyeh after the Islamic revolution in Iran by looking at the function of Taziyeh in Iranian society, theology and religious observance to-day. I have put my stress on an argument for a purifying of the Taziyeh to make it function more effectively in Iranian society.

The aim of this qualitative study of the New Age Movement (NAM) in Taiwan was to test the ideas about 'self-religion', 'reflexive modernisation' and 'globalisation' that underlie many sociological accounts of the New Age phenomena. It also explored the neglected issues of emotions and embodiment in New Age practices. By means of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 40 participants in New Age activities, participant observation in two New Age courses about healing and documentary analysis, my project produced the following four conclusions. First, the characteristics of New Age spiritualities in Taiwan, such as 'spiritual but not religious' and 'transformational but not salvational', differ from those of the country's main religions and new religious groups. But many people in the NAM seek a new balance between 'tradition and modernity' or 'new age spiritualities and "old age" religions'. Second, changes in emotional states are critical for participants in New Age activities in terms of 'being healed' through a process of self-transformation. Participants experience emotional identification, display and experience, whilst also internalising a set of feeling rules based on the 'emotion ideology' of New Age spiritualities. Third, analysis of interviewees' biographical reconstructions of their experiences shows that the New Age can be regarded as an integral part of late modern society in Taiwan. Not only is the NAM mainly about self-reflexivity but it also influences the life politics of its followers. It can therefore serve as a source of 'alternative' expert knowledge in late-modern society. Fourth, the structure of the NAM in Taiwan can be described as a loose, web-like network. Furthermore, the globalised aspects of the movement cannot be regarded simply as an expression of 'Westernisation' or 'Americanisation', but should be properly understood as a process of 'parallel glocalization'. This thesis is an original combination of conceptual analysis, theoretical ideas and empirical investigation. Its main contributions are, on the one hand, to have integrated the New Age in Taiwan into theorising about late-modernity and globalisation and, on the other, to have placed emotions and healing at the center of the study of New Age activities.

'Conversion of African Americans to Islam: A Sociological Analysis of the Nation of Islam Associated groups' is an empirical study of the religious experience of people who had/have distinctive features in terms of race, ethnicity and historical experience. The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate how African Americans' (AAs) conversion experience in general, and the Nation of Islam associated groups' conversion in particular, differ from the studies of recruitment and conversion in the sociology of religion and New Religion Movements (NRMs). More specifically, their recruitment and conversion experiences to Islam diverge from those who converted to mainstream Islam. The study investigates how AAs' historical experience, soci-economic difficulties and the racism they encountered shaped and influenced their religious understanding. Research methods involved participant observations, a survey questionnaire, interviews, conversations, personal communications and correspondence. To collect ethnographic data eleven months field research was conducted mainly in the Chicago area and on two short visits to Detroit, and three years continued communications with Muslim officials and academics in the area. During the field research and afterwards through personal communication 181 survey questionnaire responses were received, and 23 Muslim officials, academics and ordinary Muslims were interviewed through semi-structured, unstructured interviews, conversation and correspondence. The thesis begins with a brief history of Islam and Muslims in general and the African American Muslims (AAMs) in particular. More emphasis is given on the historical development of the Nation of Islam (NOl). Then in Chapter III, discussions of schisms in the history of the NOT are examined from sociological perspectives of social and religious movements. In Chapter IV I aimed to formulate my own perspective to analyse and study the conversion experiences of AAMs to Islam. I used a multivariate approach, considering selectively widely held conversion and recruitment theories in the sociology of the religion. I consider in Chapter V the predisposing conditions for AAMs that influence their decision-making to join in the NOT, for example, political and nationalistic sentiments and socio-economic deprivations. In Chapter VI I have applied different terms to describe their religious experiences, such as conversion, alteration and reversion. I have analysed further their encounters with the NOT, the methods of recruitment they used and their major motives for joining the NOT and converting to Tslam. In the concluding chapters (Chapter VII VTTT) I describe the different responses of AAMS to Islam following the death of Elijah Muhammad. It is found out that the Islamic appeal has polarised. While Farakhan's NOT appeared to continue the tradition and style of the old NOI with the emphasis on nationalistic and socio-economic factors, Tmam W. D. Mohammed's community turned more to the religious and spiritual aspects of Tslam. These different approaches led to a polarisation of the appeal of Tslam to AAMS. This thesis contributes to knowledge in four key areas; the sociology of religion and religious movements, the sociology of social and nationalistic movements, religious and Islamic studies.

Thesis (M.A.)--Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary, 1979. / This is an electronic reproduction of TREN, #090-0061. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 67-69).

Thesis (Th. M.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 1986. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [117]-127).

This thesis examines contemporary Sunni and Ahmadiyya views of Jesus in Ghana in the light of four pre-modern Islamic sources, namely, the Qur’an, the prophetic tradition (hadith), the exegetical tradition (tafsir) and the pre-modern Muslim anti-Christian polemical tradition. Overall, seventeen treatises comprising eleven Sunni and six Ahmadiyya works are examined in this thesis. Chapter 1 is about the background to the thesis. Chapter 2 explores the person of Jesus from the perspective of four pre-modern sources in Islam. Chapter 3 examines the divinity of Jesus, the Trinity, the Incarnation, the divine sonship of Jesus etc from the standpoint of the contemporary Sunni and Ahmadiyya works. Chapter 4 investigates the death of Jesus from the perspective of the contemporary Sunni and Ahmadiyya works. Chapter 5 summarises the previous four chapters. The first finding of this thesis is that there is substantial theological agreement between the contemporary and pre-modern sources in terms of their representation of Jesus. However, the one fundamental disagreement is that the Ahmadiyya polemicists reject the substitution hypothesis espoused by all the pre-modern sources which posits that Jesus survived death by crucifixion through a miraculous intervention by God resulting in the death of an unnamed substitute. Using Qur’anic, biblical and extra-biblical evidence, the Ahmadiyya polemicists argue that Jesus was crucified, that he swooned on the Cross and was taken down and buried. This theory continues that Jesus came out of the tomb on the third day and travelled to the regions around India where he died many decades later. The second finding is that there are stylistic and methodological differences between the pre-modern sources examined in Chapter 2 and the contemporary sources examined in Chapter 3 and Chapter 4. Chapter 2 shows a philosophically rigorous, theologically sophisticated and rationally robust critique of traditional Christology. By contrast, Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 are largely an aggregation of theological arguments against traditional views of both the divinity of Jesus and his death by crucifixion. Finally, this thesis concludes that the contexts of the pre-modern and contemporary sources, the lack of appreciation of the nuances of traditional Christology by the contemporary polemicists and the needs of the Ghanaian readers may partly account for the differences in the pre-modern and contemporary sources that are examined in thesis.

When a terror attack targets a multi-faith society, the rate of prejudice against the Muslim population suddenly increases. It was reported after the Oklahoma bombing in 1995 that there was a noticeable increase in prejudice against Arab Muslim Americans. Yet, it suddenly decreased after identifying the perpetrator as non-Arab/non-Muslim (Timothy McVeigh). This research argues that the misrepresentation of Islamic legal discourse, particularly jihad, participates in framing the cognitive aspect of prejudice against Muslims. It explains further that misrepresentation frames the mental representation of terrorism as 'Islamic terrorism'; an explicit crime that is committed by Muslims, motivated by jihad and targets the West. This thesis concludes that, due to the misrepresentation of jihad, terror attacks stimulate prejudice against Muslim populations. Misrepresented discourse confuses the receivers by activating the mental representation of a criminal act when using jihad instead of a legal rule, categorises the Muslim population as the out-group that threatens the security of the in-group, mainly the West. Ultimately, misrepresentation causes the domination of radical ideology and demonises the role of legal discourse and counter terrorism policies. This thesis makes recommendations regarding these issues. This research is library based; the researcher utilises her identity in the writing of this thesis (autoethnography). In addition to this, speech act theory is used as the main theory to reclaim the legal performative of “jihad” in Islamic international law by treating the Islamic legal discourse as an authoritative discourse. Other theories have a secondary role in examining the impact of misrepresentation on the social dynamics between the in-group and the out-group, especially after a terror attack; they are social psychology, frame theory, schema theory, discourse theory (pragmatic), and critical discourse analysis.