This thesis studies the formation of the basic ideology of the Muh&dotbelow;ammadiyah during the period 1912--1942, analyzing in particular the fundamental aspects of its religious and social beliefs. The words and deeds of its leaders were crucial during the period in forming the Muh&dotbelow;ammadiyah's ideology, for these alone provided the basis for the movement's program. Their religious outlook reflected the movement's philosophical view of this world and the role of reason in understanding religion. This view was marked by openness, tolerance, and pluralism in dealing with other ideas, and a belief in the salutary character of change. What set the Muh&dotbelow;ammadiyah apart from other reformist groups was its insistence that the way to revive belief in and observance of Islamic injunctions was not limited to merely purifying certain aspects of religious practice ('ibadah), especially khilafiyah (controversial) matters such as takhayyul (fancy), bid`ah (innovation), and khurafah (superstition), but in pursuing social reform in line with a theology of practical action. For the Muh&dotbelow;ammadiyah, basic Islamic teachings served to encourage social responsibility; religious principles thus underlay every action.

The present thesis is a study of one of Motinggo Busye's numerous popular novels, Anna Soen Nio (1984). The key analytical concepts selected here are social discourse, interdiscursivity, and intertextuality. The main argument running throughout the thesis is that Anna Soen Nio is a narrative reworking of contemporaneous debates, pervasive in Indonesian society, on Indonesian identities: Muslimhood, Indonesian-ness (especially Minangkabau-ness), and Chineseness. / The introduction contains an overview of the sociocritical approach as well as a preliminary discussion on Indonesian social discourse. Chapter 1 discusses the contemporary position of the Sino-Indonesians as a minority group with a complex status. / Chapter 2 presents an overview of Motinggo Busye's life and works as well as an analysis of paratextual elements related to Anna Soen Nio. / Chapter 3 is a narratological analysis of M. Busye's novel. / Chapters 4 and 5 are closely related: they both focus on the novel's ideological discourse on Indonesian identities. In chapter 4, this is done at the level of the novel's personal onomastics (characters' names). Chapter 5 uses another sociocritical tool, the sociogram, in order to decipher the "image of the Chinese" in Anna Soen Nio and stress its interdiscursive and intertextual character. / In the conclusion, Lotman's concept of the hero is used to show that the novel's hero is not its eponymous character. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

This thesis is a study of the history of Islam in China during the T'ang and Song periods, based on Chinese and Arabic sources. After investigation of the early contacts between the Muslims and China during the T'ang era (618--907), the thesis analyzes the reasons for the spread of Islam into southern Chinese Turkistan. The thesis then goes on to examine the Muslim commercial activities in Song China (960--1276). This study will lead to the conclusion that Muslim military campaigns in Chinese Turkistan and Muslim merchants' commercial activities in China's south-east coastal provinces during the T'ang and Song dynasties contributed to the early spread and development of Islam in China.

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I wanted to focus this essay on the operative’s perspective of running religious organizations in the city of Karlstad and to see positive and negative aspects of their day-to-day life working with their organization, following up with a comparison of the difference and the similarities between those groups. After delimitating which groups I was going to examine, I implemented a qualitative study of four people, from two different religious groups, whom I performed interviews with. My method of performing these interviews and understanding the perspective of the informants, I had a semi structured interview guide along with a recent study that was opting for similar conclusions, only in a different county and with different input perspective. The result of my study showed a difference in establishment of their region but with a lot of similarities in problems with their religious and structural premises. Consequently, the difference of the organizations size and membership does not mean that they are treated different by the community, rather that they share a need for structural upgrades and contributions from the state.

This paper investigates the presentation of Islam in textbooks used in the study of religion in high schools. The papers focus on two main questions concerning the ways in which Islam is presented in the analysed textbooks, and how the new curriculum has influenced the portrayal of Islam in the materials. Here, the paper utilizes a method of critical discourse analysis with Faircloughs three-dimensional analysis. The paper then concludes that the presentation of Islam is negative in nature, with the content and view of Islam having been simplified and stereotyped. Often the textbooks studied frame Islam as being an aggressive and oppressive religion, especially in matters con-cerning women. Furthermore, the descriptions given in textbooks can be interpreted as presenting the content of the Islamic faith as fundamentally incompatible with the values of the Swedish society. This paper claims that the wider impact of these teach-ings can be found in how we speak, write, and talk about Islam in the Swedish society. In order to overcome this, constructive discussions both in and around the content provided in the textbooks are necessary, especially in areas where such negative views of Islam are presented.

By looking at the hijab in context in the political, social, and domestic spheres of Tunisia, one gains a clearer understanding of the hijab’s complexity and a clearer understanding of each of those spheres. Politically, the condemnation of the hijab reveals the tension between the dominant, secular party and the Islamist movement, and the political oppression still prevalent in Tunisia. Socially, the wearing of the hijab reveals the tension between Orientalist perceptions of the hijab and the desire of Muslim feminists to create an authentically Islamic meaning of the hijab compatible with feminist ideas. Domestically, the hijab reveals the tension that remains between localized structures of patriarchy and individual women’s pursuit of liberation beyond emancipation and secularization. Despite the reforms established in the Personal Status Code and the secularization campaign by the government, they are not enough to completely alter negative domestic perceptions of women.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how Islam and Muslims are portrayed a) in results from studies on Swedish teaching materials, and b) in articles in Swedish media newspapers. The study was conducted through two separate studies. In the first study, five previous research reports on how Islam and Muslims are portrayed in Swedish teaching materials were analysed in order to discern the main results regarding the portrayal of Islam and Muslims. In the second study, newspaper articles from 11 Swedish newspapers were analysed in order to discern which central themes emerge in the description of Muslims and Islam in said newspaper articles, as well as which properties and features are attributed to Muslims and Islam in the articles studied. In both studies, the data was analysed inductively through a qualitative content analysis. The theory used was Edward W. Said´s theory on Orientalism. The result indicates that in Swedish teaching materials, Muslims commonly are portrayed as ”The Other”, and that what is Christian is oftentimes used as a referential point. As regards the research of the newspaper articles, the result indicates that the portrayal of Islam and Muslims is relatively one-sided, wherein Islam and Muslims are associated with religious extremism and terrorism abroad. The study suggests that there are orientalistic tendencies in the investigated material, although there is also a small tendency to portray Swedish Islam and Muslims in a different, more personal manner. This serves to highlight the importance of teaching source criticism in school as well as the fact that teaching materials may require the complementation of additional educational aids and materials.

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No description available.