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This Dissertation is on the reception of the Qur'an as it elaborates the place of the Qur'an in a non-Arabic speaking community in Indonesia. The Qur'an is the scripture and the primary source of Muslim teachings, a universal text in terms of time and place. The Qur'an was revealed during the life of Muhammad (pbuh) and has been transmitted and preserved in Arabic as its only language as all the prophets in Islam had been sent in the language of its immediate people. For its universal purpose, its target audience is all humankind regardless of their language or even religious affiliation. For Muslims, not only does it urge them to respond to its message and information, but also to believe in it. Indonesia is the most populous Muslim country in the world. Although Arabic is not the language of the people of this country, they perceive and share the Qur'an in Arabic as other Muslims do all over the world, and place it in the context of their local needs and situation. This study addresses two main issues: how Indonesians, in the case of The Banjars, the primary inhabitant of Banjarmasin, the Capital of South Borneo, as non-Arabic speaking Muslims perceive the Arabic Qur'an and how they appropriate the Qur'an for themselves in both their local contexts and its universal meaning. In both questions it identifies strategies of local community in claiming a universal value of the scripture (the Qur'an) as well as keeping their local identity. These strategies provide explanations of modes of reception of the Qur'an in various aspects of their life. In order to answer the questions, the Qur'an is placed in the axis of Muslims life. This scripture is a product of a revelation process during the era of the Prophet Muhammad and his Companions composing the early Muslim community. This community is regarded as the models for perceiving and practicing the Qur'an. On the other side of the axis, contemporary Muslims perceive and practice the Qur'an in their particular contexts. In the distance of time and space, they may read the models and universal values, while they may also create new practices to fit particular contexts. So, during this period, contemporary Muslims may perform a dual appropriation, namely appropriating their reading and practices to the past as a model and universal value and to the present as an actual need and strategy to respond to their own context. Using a phenomenological approach, this study finds that Muslims as a community of faith perceives the Qur'an as a written as well as recited text, which each form of it has different but related structures to be received. As the implied readers of the Qur'an, Muslims receive perspectives from those structures, while entertain their own perspectives responding the text in "structured act". In the case of this study, the Qur'an has been in the lives of Banjars extensively. The Qur'an fills in most critical situations of Banjar lives, exemplified by its presence in various life passages rites from cradle to grave. Dealing with language barriers, the main mode of reception of the Qur'an among the Banjars is through recitation. It emphasizes the oral tradition of the Qur'an, which is perceived as a way to invite the blessing, rewards, and devotional values of the Qur'an, rather than its guidance value. Any parts of the Qur'an recited would be valuable and efficacious to meet their material and spiritual needs. In most--if not all--rites, the recitation is followed by supplication in which they leave the case to God's final destiny to be followed wholeheartedly. By this mode of reception, the Banjars in the case of this study, in general preferred functional reception with performative functions of the Qur'an. However, it is not necessarily that their functional reception is totally free from the exegetical tradition. The latter might come through the layers of works, or extra-Qur'anic texts, inciting the practices and the role of local religious leaders as cultural brokers. Such works range from a thorough explanation of the meaning, excellences, and practices of the Qur'an to handbooks of particular use of the Qur'an. The local leader might play a role to connect the provided information to popular practices in order to justify, found, or transform the performative functions of the Qur'an. In the second problem of this study, the Banjar use a dual appropriation: they appropriate themselves to the model and also the current local context. They can relate themselves to the model and idealized past through tradition, which keeps their memory as well as structures of the model. Materially, they have kept a long-lasting tradition of knowledge preservation and transmission in Islam through ijazah (sacred pedigree). As a cultural broker, a religious leader who has personal ijazah infuses the communal tradition and practices of the Qur'an. The tradition can also be transmitted communally through the consulted works on the practices. It can be merely substantial by considering the general value of practices in the past to be appropriated in a totally new situation. The Qur'an is then appropriated into their local context to answer their specific needs and ends through creative reading of the past presented in several layers of extra-Qur'anic texts. / Religion

In this Master's thesis, I plan to compare the following aspects of religious life in Morocco and Turkey: - the way religion (Islam) is regulated on the official level, - the way religious secondary education functions (imam-hatip schools in Turkey and madrasahs in Morocco), - the way women's rights are regulated. I also plan to compare the religious legislation that the Moroccan and Turkish governments have passed. In my work, I will use both primary sources such as constitutions, laws and other legal documents in their original French and Turkish languages, and also secondary sources such as books and published reports. I argue that both Morocco and Turkey have lenient and flexible systems of laws that regulate religion, and both of these countries could serve as examples of efficient governmental regulation of the religious realm. Although Turkey has been a secular country since the demise of the Ottoman Empire in 1923, it has neither been an atheist country, nor has it ever adopted atheist policies. Turkish secularism, if it can be explained in a few words, does not only separate religion and state, it also restricts and provides freedom from religion, from certain Islamic symbols and practices in public sphere and state institutions. Turkish secularism does not prohibit practicing religion. It rather curtails the exterior symbols of religion. Morocco is a Muslim country with emerging secularist policies that are being undertaken on the official level. Moroccan King Mohammad VI tries to curb any beginnings of Islamic insurgence or radicalism. The King also tries to control the religious sphere and the meanings of religion. The Turkish government, on the other hand, tries not to associate itself with religion as it might cost it the loss of its secular and moderately religious electorate. / Religion

This study develops a geographic theory relating to sub-imperial states and resistance to them. The theory is centred on what can be called the government-business-media (GBM) complex, whilst resistance to such states is characterised as counter-imperialist discourses. The theory is applied primarily to South Africa’s (SA’s) interactions with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. The aim is to assess the state of SA’s sub-imperialism and evaluate the claim that this sub-imperialism is in crisis. The research findings are based on media material drawn from, and interviews conducted in, Botswana, Zambia and SA. The thesis outlines how sub-imperialism should be regarded as a distinct analytical and theoretical phenomenon. It explores the theoretical context in which the GBM complex and counter-imperialist discourses may be viewed. Using this theoretical framework, the study then traces the historical geographical development of SA’s GBM complex. Building on this, the thesis identifies and examines regional responses and attitudes to SA’s post-apartheid political, business and cultural-media engagement with the region, by analysing counter-imperialist discourses to SA during this period. In order to assess the current state of SA’s sub-imperialism, case studies were taken from the following four areas which cover crucial aspects of SA’s post-apartheid engagement with the region: SA’s parastatal expansion (Eskom); SA’s peacemaking role (Zimbabwe); SA’s state-driven rhetoric of multiculturalism and tolerance (xenophobia); and SA’s hosting of mega-events (2010 Football World Cup). In each of these areas the intended geopolitical and geoeconomic discourses of the GBM complex, and the corresponding responses in the region, are investigated. It is concluded that there is a discrepancy between the intended discourses of the GBM complex and the responses from the region, giving rise to counter-imperialist discourses. These discourses support the claim that SA’s sub-imperialism is in crisis.

Die Beiträge des Sammelbandes sind im Rahmen eines Forschungs- und Doktoranden-seminars vorgetragen und diskutiert worden, das im Dezember 2010 in Potsdam stattfand und an dem Wissenschaftler der Staatlichen Universität für Wirtschaft und Finanzen, St. Petersburg, und Wissenschaftler der Lehrstühle für Statistik und Ökonometrie sowie für Volkswirtschaftslehre, insbesondere Wirtschaftstheorie, der Universität Potsdam teilnahmen. Die Veröffentlichung der Aufsätze zeigt zum einen die Vielfalt der Forschungsfelder an beiden Universitäten, die sich aus den unterschiedlichen Schwerpunkten der wissenschaftlichen Einheiten ergeben, sie zeigt auch zum anderen in beispielhafter Weise die unterschiedlichen Forschungstraditionen und Forschungsstile an beiden Universitäten. Die Beiträge beziehen sich sowohl auf ausgewählte Branchen und als auch auf bestimmte raumwirtschaftliche Fragestellungen.