Abstract not available. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1981.

No description available.

The socio-political tranquility of Hyderabad-Deccan preceding 1948 facilitated much educational and cultural advancement. This rapidly developing environment provided Hamidullah with the ideal opportunity for educational growth, having earned five degrees related to the field of law by the age of 28 in 1936. He began writing at age 18, and thereafter he dedicated his life to literary pursuits. Today, he has written over 100 books and 900 articles; he speaks over 20 languages and writes in over 10 languages. Along with one of his major areas of focus, Islamic constitutional law, he has written on a variety of other subject areas, ranging from Islamic theology to Islamic history, from Qur'anic exegesis to Orientalism. / This thesis attempts to study five books in the field of Islamic constitutional law by Dr. Muhammad Hamidullah in order to provide a sample to judge and analyze his scholarship. Against the background of Hamidullah's historical and political context coupled with his high level of religiosity, the thesis will examine his utilization of the scientific approach throughout his writings. This thesis furthermore looks at the potential reasons he chose the path of study that he did, dedicating his entire life to the literary sphere and to a lesser degree the political sphere. It focuses on Hamidullah's thought and methodology as they emerged from his social and political background and as he expressed them in his literary achievements. This thesis, therefore, sets out to develop a critical analysis of Hamidullah's works, his philosophical perspective, and his contribution to contemporary scholarship. / Hamidullah has contributed to Islamic scholarship by making available Islamic literature to mixed audiences since he follows the scientific approach, writes in a variety of languages, and covers a wide range of unique topics. Indeed Dr. Muhammad Hamidullah is a well-esteemed scholar of formidable status and prestige in numerous fields of Islamic history.

No description available.

The Common-Link Theory, invented by Joseph Schacht and widely accepted in modern scholarship, argues that ḥadith authorities knowingly and purposefully placed traditions in circulation with little care to support these ḥadiths with satisfactory isnads. G. H. A. Juynboll, Michael Cook and other Schachtians subsequently embraced and elaborated upon this theory. This dissertation challenges the accuracy of Schacht's founding theory. / The first chapter traces back and elucidates the formation of Schacht's Common-Link Theory, demonstrating how it is related to his other theories. The second chapter examines the responses to Schacht's theory, arguing that its proponents do no more than either expand upon it, or apply it to other fields of Islamic studies. The third chapter employs a critical technique in examining the evidence cited by Schacht and Juynboll, which not only shows the theory's deficiency, but also confirms its flawed nature by the very evidence they use. Two other critical approaches are demonstrated in the fourth chapter. The first rests on an analysis of relevant terms and rules employed by muḥaddiths, thereby offering a workable alternative to Schacht's faulty hypothesis. The second demonstrates the flaws of Schacht's methodology through a synthesis of multiple critiques developed here as well as by other scholars. The last chapter elucidates how Schacht's other theories would collapse as a result of the faultiness of the Common-Link Theory. / Because of the interconnectedness of Schacht's many theses about ḥadith and Islamic law, the findings of this dissertation will not only challenge the significant Common-Link Theory in legal ḥadith studies, but will, perforce, also open the door for scholars to question other important theories held by Schacht and his followers with regard to larger issues in Islamic legal history.

This thesis investigates the Islamic response to modernization and its common dilemma as seen through the eyes of Nurcholish Madjid, one of the most influential and prominent Muslim thinkers in Indonesia today. He and his followers represent the most radical development in Indonesian Islamic religio-political discourse in recent decades. This study will survey the growth of his thought from his first involvement with the Islamic renewal movement in the early 1970s, or more precisely after the inception of the New Order era, until the mid-1990s. The movement that he has founded seeks to reformulate the positive nature of modernity and its essential affinity with the purpose and spirit of Islam. The general thrust of Madjid's contribution in the discourse on Islamic modernism in Indonesia is to call Indonesian Muslims to change their attitude and way of thinking in order to play a proper and realistic role in national development and in reinterpreting universal Islamic values to fit the specific socio-economic, political, and cultural values of the nation. In so doing, Madjid proposes his concept of reactualization of Islamic teachings through ijtihad and reinterpretation of the Qur'an using what is called a contextual or substantial approach in that he is associated with the legacy of the neo-modernist approach proposed by Fazlur Rahman, Madjid's chief mentor. According to him, this concept is essential to the survival of the universalism of Islam. Therefore, the basic principle of neo-modernism consists in reinterpreting Islam according to its historical context while making its universal and substantial principles as well as its basic goal and spirit the primary consideration.

This study examines Fazlur Rahman's understanding of Islamic philosophy by analyzing his attitude towards the works of Muslim philosophers and his belief in the value of the Qur'an's precepts. It pays specific attention to the relationship between his understanding of philosophy and his method of interpreting the Qur'an, since in Rahman's understanding, this method is the only means to satisfy the changing needs of society. It explores Rahman's definition of Islamic philosophy, which is strongly characterized by three religious terms, iman, islam, and taqwa. / The thesis furthermore looks at the reasons why Rahman borrowed certain philosophical expressions of the Muslim philosophers in his works when, at first glance, their doctrines contradict Rahman's own position. Special attention is paid to his book Major Themes of the Qur'an, wherein Rahman discusses human existence and his final destiny through his interpretation of the Qur'an. The thesis concludes that Rahman's Islamic philosophy is a moral one, which is practically oriented and based on his understanding of the Qur'an.

<p> The ongoing war in Syria is reaching its fourth year, and over 1.5 million people have been forced to leave their homes into surrounding countries. This thesis looks at the Syrian refugees that have traveled to neighboring Jordan, and how religion has kept them stable in diaspora. Looking at Thomas Tweed's theory on translocative religion, I will show how diasporic religion symbolically moves in time and space through the use of sacred artifacts and rituals. Emile Durkheim's lens will reflect why human-made objects are sacred. </p><p> The Muslim Syrian refugees that took part in this research always identified with a vision of what the Syrian nation should be: a nation where religion could be practiced and where sectarianism did not divide the people. Benedict Anderson's "imagined community" makes that nation accessible in the imagination, since the refugees cannot physically be there.</p>

<p> "Our war is not against Islam.....Our war is a war against evil&hellip;" -President George W. Bush. </p><p> Despite President Bush's rhetoric attempting to separate Muslims in general from terrorists who adhere to the Islamic faith, the policies of the War on Terror have generally focused on Muslims domestically and abroad, often for no greater reason than a shared religious identity with the perpetrators of the 9/11 attack (see for example, National Special Entry-Exit Registration). While foreign-born Muslims were the primary subjects of earlier policies in the War on Terror, several cases involving Muslim Americans suggest that despite holding U.S. citizenship, they may be subject to differential standards of justice (i.e. Hamdi v. Rumsfeld or the targeted killing of Anwar Al-Awlaki). Building on previous scholarship that has examined the Muslim American experience post 9/11, this dissertation focuses on the relationship between the substance and implementation of laws and policies and Muslim American attitudes towards political efficacy and orientations towards the U.S. government. In addition, this dissertation examines the relationship between policy design and implementation and Muslim American political participation, alienation, and withdrawal. </p><p> This study was approached through the lens of social construction in policy design, a theoretical framework that was pioneered by Anne Schneider and Helen Ingram. Schneider and Ingram (1993, 1997) focus on the role of public policy in fostering and maintaining democracy. With the goal of understanding public policy as a vehicle to promoting or inhibiting democracy, their analysis focuses on how the use of social constructions of different policy group targets can affect their attitudes towards government and citizenship, in addition to behaviors such as political participation. </p><p> According to Schneider and Ingram (1993, 1997, 20005), groups with favorable constructions can expect to receive positive treatment and exhibit positive attitudes towards government and participate at higher levels than groups with negative social constructions, who will develop negative orientations towards government, a decrease in feelings of political efficacy, and lower levels of political participation. Within this conceptualization of the impact of policy on target groups is the element of political power, which Schneider and Ingram (1993, 1997, 2005) examine as a measure of the degree to which different target groups can challenge their social construction and, subsequently, the policy benefits or burdens directed at them. </p><p> Research studying the impact of policies on differently constructed groups (welfare recipients, veterans, etc.) has empirically verified Schneider and Ingram's (1993, 1997, 2005) social construction in policy design theory. However, none of the existing research has yet to apply this framework to Muslim Americans as a group and in the context of counter-terrorism policies. </p><p> In order to situate the Muslim American responses according to the theories' main propositions, this study provides a background on many of the post 9/11 counter-terrorism policies, highlighting those policies that have disproportionately impacted members of this group. This research also examines how the War on Terror has been framed, and the actors involved in the construction of the Muslim image, with a focus on discerning the ways in which members of this population have been demonized and positioned as collectively responsible for acts of terrorism perpetrated by other Muslims. </p><p> This study utilized a mixed methods approach and included a quantitative survey and qualitative interviews. Purposive sampling was used in order to obtain a sample of Muslim Americans from different racial and ethnic backgrounds proportionate to the demographics of this community in the United States. The study findings are based on surveys from 75 individuals and interviews with 61 individuals. </p><p> The findings in this study reveal that Muslim Americans overwhelmingly perceive themselves to be the target of the War on Terror policies. Further, the data in this study shows that Muslim Americans across a range of backgrounds question the degree to which they are entitled to equity in both cultural and legal citizenship, including procedural justice. Despite exhibiting these views towards citizenship and procedural justice, a majority of Muslim Americans nonetheless reported increased levels of political participation as a response to policies that targeted them. </p><p> These findings provide additional empirical support for the social construction in policy design framework. Specifically, this data demonstrates that Muslim Americans in large part believe themselves to be the policy targets and have internalized many of the social constructions that have emerged vis-&agrave;-vis policy design and implementation. Consequently, Muslim Americans have developed subsequently negative orientations towards government and a sense of diminished citizenship. While the study results in terms of increased political participation may appear to be at odds with what the framework suggests, these increased levels of political participation are more properly couched as being a function of fear or threat, and in this sense a symptom of being targeted. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)</p>

<p> My dissertation is on how the combination of religious law and constitutional law in Pakistan affects the daily lives of the women living there. The time frame to be discussed is from Pakistan's inception as a country in 1947 through the most prominent regimes that changed the Constitutional law, i.e. to the mid 1980's. During this epoch, Pakistan adopted Shari'a Law (law based on the Islamic faith) into its constitution. By chronicling the historic development of Pakistan's Constitution, I will show a correspondence between the specific laws and amendments with the attrition of women's rights in Pakistan and the deterioration of the quality of their lives. Although, Shari'a Law is based on the teachings of Islam, I contend these laws run contrary to the traditions and directives of the sacred texts, the Qur'an, Hadith (recorded oral traditions), and Sunnah (habits and practices of the Prophet Muhammad). By tracing specific Shari'a laws back to their roots and investigate the circumstances that impact Pakistani women to ascertain if they indeed burden, restrict, and quite possibly, endanger the lives of Pakistani women, and furthermore, violate the principles taught by the Prophet Muhammad, who exhorted to his followers, "Be kind to your women." The Constitution of Pakistan claims it provides equal rights for its citizens by proclaiming all people are equal (Preamble of the Constitution #8). I argue that the oppression of women in Pakistan can be linked directly to the introduction of Shari'a Law into the Pakistani Constitution and Shari'a Law is being used to justify the poor treatment of women, but it is in fact a distortion of the teachings of Islam. Therefore, women's lack of civil rights in Pakistan is attributable to male chauvinism that is based in culture, rather than religion. What can be done to reconcile the gender discrimination in Shari'a Law with parity for all citizens stated by the Constitution?</p>