The Islamic dress code has been forcibly imposed on the women in Sudan, since 1983, and many feminists researchers have criticized the practices of the veil as a tool to oppress women. This study aimed to explore a group of Sudanese women, currently living in South Africa, experiences and perceptions of the veil, whether the veil is a religious dress code or a tool that has been used to exercise inequality.

Since the end of apartheid, issues pertaining to South African identity construction have attracted increased scholarly attention. This is reflected in a growing body of literature in several disciplines that analyze identities in post-apartheid South Africa. At the same time, a number of factors led to an equally increasing interest in Islamic and Muslim politics. However, the interest remains to a great extent concerned with the history of Islam in Africa, with very little attention paid to contemporary Muslim politics in its broader sense or indeed what this means in the South African context. This thesis, about Muslims’ identities in South Africa, aims to merge these two fields of identities in-formation and Muslim politics. In an attempt to unpack identity discourses within the Muslim community in South Africa, the study will address three main questions: How are Muslims’ identities formulated? How do they relate to each other? And how do they develop in different contexts? In order to answer the aforementioned questions the thesis will focus on how religious identities intersect with other levels of identification mainly national, ethnic and political identities. By answering the broader questions about identity construction processes, the thesis is able to address several other more specific questions. For example, what kind of interplay exists between the different identities such as those that are religious, ethnic, socio-economic or political? What does this interplay suggest in terms of the hierarchy of identities in different contexts? Instead of using identity as an analytical category, the thesis adopts the term ‘identification’, which reflects both the processes according to which identities are formulated as well as the context contingent nature of identities. After analyzing the theoretical and conceptual underpinnings of identity construction, the rest of the thesis discusses the extent to which Islam has informed Muslims’ identities at three separate, yet intersected and connected, levels. At the political identity level, I argue that religious identity has relatively little bearing on the articulation of Muslims’ political identities in post-apartheid South Africa, by comparison with the apartheid era when political activism of Muslims was heavily charged by Islamic ethos and principles. I also argue that the stance adopted by Islamic religious bodies in the anti-apartheid struggle undermined their influence within the Muslim community to a great extent as far as political identities are concerned. In other contexts however, religious bodies enjoy a more prominent role; that is particularly evident in negotiating Muslims’ rights regarding Muslim Personal Law, which is highlighted as a case in point to show how citizenship, and thus national identity, is intertwined with religious identity. At a third and final level, ethnic identities within the Muslim community are examined through the inter-community relations, which reveal that racial and ethnic identification is best understood through both cultural as well as structural approaches.

This thesis explores Turkish migrants’ practices of diabetes care in Germany. Health statistics frequently identify minority groups as vulnerable to chronic illness and Turkish-origin Germans are said to be more likely to suffer from type 2 diabetes than Germans or Turks in Turkey. Anthropological studies on marginal population groups with diabetes explore experiences of social suffering and inequality that influence such high illness prevalence, or investigate how conflictual lay beliefs and medical encounters affect illness care. Those studies that analyse active diabetes patient and healthcare practices concentrate on the majority population. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Berlin from September 2006 to September 2007, this thesis examines how Turkish Berliners actively engage in diabetes care, and thus joins two themes seldom connected: illness practices and marginality. Initial interviews with healthcare professionals alluded to a Turkish migrant patient group living in deprivation and immobilised by high illiteracy rates, lacking language skills and health knowledge. Despite such experience of marginality, ethnographic exploration revealed that informal diabetes care, for example through a Turkishlanguage self-help group, is nonetheless individually and collectively negotiated where formal care is inadequate. On the one hand, the thesis investigates practices of diabetes control in learning, monitoring and manoeuvring diabetes. Rather than representing the common image of the inert, disadvantaged migrant patient, Turkish Berliners of the self-help group engage in deliberate “tactics of diabetes control” to make their chronic illness experience habitable. On the other hand, the thesis explores how “diabetes among Turkish-origin Berliners” can be a form of sociality, political activism and economic enterprise that involves many social actors not only patients and their healthcare professionals, in order to fill a provision gap.

The aim of this research is to investigate the extent to which human rights in Islam corresponds with the international schemes of human rights despite its "cultural particularities". This thesis investigates the right to freedom of faith in light of the main textual sources in Islamic Shariah focusing on the concept of apostasy. To put the study in context, the research traces the history of human rights in both the Islamic and Western perspectives.

The purpose of this research was to look into the issues one might encounter as a gay and lesbian Muslim with especial focus on the individual experience. I was interested in analyzing the dynamics of one's sexual identity interconnecting with one's religious identity with the assistance of identity theory, personality and culture concepts. I interviewed three different individuals who are all practicing Muslims and live openly as gay in their community, and gathered secondary resources to gain insights from gay, lesbian and transgender Muslims from other communities. The research disclosed individuals’ perceptions on the legitimacy of homosexuality in Islam and their lived experiences regarding their sexuality and the role their culture has played. / <p>Presentationen skedde genom Skype där lärarna satt i Uppsala och jag själv vid datorn hemma, boende i Paris, Frankrike. </p>

This research study explored the meanings attributed by migrant Arab Muslim women to their experiences of childbirth in the UK. The objectives of the study were: • To explore migrant Arab Muslim women's experiences of maternity services in the UK. • To examine the traditional childbearing beliefs and practices of Arab Muslim society. • To suggest ways to provide culturally sensitive care for this group of women. An interpretive ontological-phenomenological perspective informed by the philosophical tenets of Heidegger (1927/1962) was used to examine the childbirth experiences of eight Arab Muslim women who had migrated to one multicultural city in the Midlands. Three in-depth semi structured audiotaped interviews were conducted with each woman; the first during the third trimester of pregnancy (28 weeks onwards), the second early in the postnatal period (1-2 weeks after birth) and the third one to three months later. Each interview was conducted in Arabic, then transcribed and translated into English. An adapted version of Smith’s model of interpretive phenomenological analysis (Smith 2003) together with the principles of Gadamer (1989) were used to analyse the interview data, aided by the use of the software package NVivo2. The analysis of the women’s experiences captures the significance of giving birth in a new cultural context, their perception of the positive and negative aspects of their maternity care and the importance of a culturally competent approach to midwifery practice. Six main themes emerged from analysis of the interviews: ‘displacement and reformation of the self’, ‘by the grace of God’, ‘the vulnerable women,’ ‘adaptation to the new culture,’ ‘dissonance between two maternity health systems’ and ‘the valuable experience’. These themes reflected the women’s lived experiences of their childbirth in the UK. The implications for communities, institutions, midwifery practice and further research are outlined. The study concludes that in providing culturally competent care, maternity caregivers should be aware of what might be significant in the religious and cultural understandings of Arab women but also avoid cultural stereotyping by maintaining an emphasis on individualised care.

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Title: The Role of Islam in Life of Active Muslim Athletes in Czechia Objectives: The analysis of the relationship of Islam and sport is the main objective of this thesis. Sporting Muslims living in Czechia and active Muslim athletes are chosen as target group for our research. This thesis focuses on level of identification with Islam as their faith. It also focuses on their attitude to sport. It further deals with Muslim customs in terms of its effects on athletes' life. The proper example is the Ramadan fasting. Methods: We chose the semistructured interview as the method to collect data. We took seven interviews with Muslim athletes (four professional and three amateur athletes). We chose the method of open coding as the suitable method for analysing data. Results: We found out that the relationship of Muslim athletes (our respondents) with their faith can be characterized as folk Islam or folk religiosity. Respondents also consider sport as a fully satisfying part of their life, but it is not linked with their faith. However other Muslim practices (represented mainly by Ramadan fasting) do not show as problematic or incompatible with ordinary athletes' life. Key words: Islam, sport, Muslim athletes, Czechia

Magister Artium - MA / Overindulgence is widely regarded as a serious social problem in South Africa leading to obesity and associated medical and psychological issues. This study investigated overindulgence from the perspective of Islamic Studies. In the Muslim tradition, overindulgence is regarded as a vice which is contrasted with the virtue of temperance in the Qur’an and the Hadith. There is a long tradition of Muslim virtue ethics that draws from Greek philosophy but also from medieval Arabic sources. This study required an overview of such literature in order to profile contemporary discourse on the virtue of temperance against this historical background. Even though the virtue of temperance is praised, and the vice of overindulgence is frowned upon in Muslim communities, this does preclude overindulgence amongst Muslims, not even in the holy month of Ramadan. This may be understood in terms of the classic problem of moral formation where it is recognised that virtue cannot be taught. Knowledge of the good does not suffice for the realisation of the good. In terms of this study, this begs the question what kind of considerations play a role in motivating some Muslims to overindulge despite Muslim teachings in this regard, even amidst contexts of food insecurity. In this study, I investigated the perceptions of such considerations found within Muslim households associated with the Rylands and Belhar mosques. This required a Qualitative Approach where Semi-structured Interviews were conducted with around 10 households associated with each of these mosques. The local Imam in each case was asked to select ten such households of good moral standing. These interviews were recorded and analysed in order to describe the perceptions amongst Muslims of good moral standing with regards to the considerations that play a role in habits of over-indulgence. The study found several determinants of overindulgence within the selected Muslim households associated with the Rylands and Belhar mosques namely, food insecurity, spiritual apathy, emotional eating, conspicuous and hedonistic consumption as well as social environmental cues. However, food insecurity was exclusive to the Muslim community of Belhar who are distinctive from the inhabitants of Rylands in terms of social-economic status as well as race. This community is largely of Malay origin and is disadvantaged economically compared to their counterparts who are predominantly of Indian descent and enjoy a high-income status. The study found in both communities that Ramadan; a month of restraint, self-reflection, devotion, and worship had been turned into a month of indulgence and unhealthy eating. It was perceived that most Muslims squeeze a five-course meal in the few hours they can eat. The research further revealed that such individuals to be very meticulous of what type of food they consume when breaking their fast and would prefer oily fried foods to healthy food. This causes weight gain, health complications and sluggishness which stands in the way of worship. It was concluded that the majority gain weight due to their lifestyles. With regards to the implementation of moral formation, the study revealed self-discipline, leading by example and parents, educators and leaders playing an active role to be key in the formation of good morals. Additionally, the study found good moral formation can be achieved through habituation. Finally, the study found that the major constraints to moderate and healthy eating to be lack of self-discipline, the absence of virtue ethical education in Islamic institutions and finally Muslim leaders have prioritized the ḥalãl aspect of food and in the interim have forgotten to preach the importance of wholesome pure foods. The explanations offered in this study indicated the importance of the virtue of temperance in the fight against obesity and in the attainment of physical and spiritual wellbeing. This virtue which is a mean between two vices, namely self-indulgence and insensibility help in the journey towards a higher lifestyle and helps release all the dynamic forces that spiritually weigh down those in affluent as well as food insecure communities.

Thesis advisor: James T. Bretzke / Starting from the reality that we all live in multicultural pluralistic societies, and as such we cannot ignore each other but all must share our respective religious-cultural heritages and learn from one and another, this dissertation argues that although the theological dialogue among religions is to be promoted and developed constantly, we also have to give major space to other forms of dialogue, namely a dialogue based on bioethical issues and/or daily life-related problems that is part of our everyday religious experience. Therefore, in order to show this is possible, although with many difficulties to be faced along the way, the dissertation proposes disability as a common ground for Muslim-Christian dialogue and collaboration in the context of Turkey. The dissertation is structured into four chapters. Chapter I is focused on some characteristics of interreligious dialogue and, more particularly, on Muslim-Christian dialogue and disability. This chapter provides a broad descriptive introduction and establishes the framework within which these are considered: i.e., The Republic of Turkey, Islam and the presence of the Latin Catholic Church in Turkey. The chapter begins with a review of the foundations and history of the development of interreligious dialogue in the Catholic Church. Next, it proceeds with a presentation of Turkey and the major actors of Muslim-Christian dialogue in the country. Then, it concludes with a global focus on the situation of disability in Turkey. Chapters II and III are dedicated, respectively, to the Muslim and Catholic Church’s perspectives on disability, and so, share the same structure: Following general introductions to Islam and the Catholic Church, they analyze the Scriptures of their respective traditions, the Quran and the Bible, and their other major sources such as the Hadith and Islamic law in the former, and the Code of Canon Law, the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church in the latter. By focusing on various topics such as marriage of persons with disabilities, abortion of disabled fetus, Christian initiation and access to the sacraments, degrees of disabilities as impediment for priestly ordination, these two chapters aim to find the reverberations of the scriptural narratives in the teachings of these two traditions. After examining the historical development of some theodicy approaches to the dilemma of human suffering, the problem of evil, the existence of disabilities and God’s love, and wisdom and justice, this chapter ends by highlighting some applications in their contemporary contexts. In this regard, Chapter II presents two examples from Turkey: the controversial Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen’s approach to people with disabilities as “garip” (piteous, pitiful) and Muslim-Turkish scholar Mustafa Naci Kula’s research on the relationship between attitudes toward persons with disabilities and religious attitudes, which has provided considerable insight on the perception of disability in Turkish society. Parallel to this, Chapter III presents a Catholic figure, Nancy Mairs, who, in her writings, by dealing with personal disabilities, offers a contemporary version of classical theodicy approaches found in Catholic teaching in thinkers such as Augustine, Aquinas, and Irenaeus. The final chapter, Chapter IV, by the method of comparison, highlights relevant commonalities and differences and proceeds by discussing some relevant issues related to Muslim-Christian dialogue. Then, by reflecting on how disability can be a common ground on which to build fertile dialogue and collaboration, it concludes with a proposal which privileges five among many other possible topics: (1) Sin and disability seen as punishment; (2) Consanguineous marriages (3rd and 4th degree); (3) Abortion as a method to prevent birth of potentially disabled child; (4) Abuse of disabled women and children; and, (5) Charity and praying together. The first topic is based on the conviction that disability is given by God as a punishment for sin; it is one of the major beliefs that is shared among Muslims and Christians. The second, third and fourth topics are related to some social problems in Turkish society, namely, consanguineous marriages, abortion as a prevention of potentially disabled children, and the abuse of women and children with disabilities. Finally, the fifth topic aims at constructing dialogue and collaboration between Muslims and Christians through charitable works in Turkey. These topics are points related to the four main forms of dialogue proposed by Dialogue and Proclamation (1991) of Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, which are considered in this dissertation in a three-fold version: (1) Theological dialogue; (2) Dialogue of life experience and action; and, (3) Dialogue based on religious life experience. / Thesis (STD) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.