The Roles Of Muslim Majority And Muslim Minority Communities In A Global Context

'In an increasingly interconnected world, the relationship between majority and minority communities, both in the United States and abroad, must be better understood. What is the role of not only the Muslim-minority population in the United States, but also of the majority population toward American Muslim communities? Muslim minorities, especially in the West, are increasingly becoming ambassadors and advocates of social justice and freedom in their societies, yet they continue to face a number of challenges. Similarly, what are the roles and responsibilities of Muslim majorities toward minorities, and what can Muslims, both in the West and in Muslim-majority countries, learn from each other's experiences? This working group, convened at the 2011 U.S.-Islamic World Forum in Washington, DC, brought together theologians, clergy, academics, activists, and politicians from across the United States and the Muslim world to discuss the roles and responsibilities of minority and majority communities toward each other and in a global context. The working group discussed these questions in the context of five major issues: integration and identity, the impact of media and politics, security and counterterrorism, the treatment of marginalized communities, and interfaith relations. The group's participants also came up with a number of recommendations, summarized at the end of the paper."--Publisher description.

In the past two decades, Muslim countries across the globe have been faced with a crisis in governance. Starting with a summary of Islamic Law (Sharia) and its implications for law enforcement, this book will highlight the unique needs and challenges of law enforcement, and particularly policing, in these communities. It will provide a scholarly exposition of Sharia law and how it is compatible (or not) with policing in a modern context. The role and contribution of Sharia Law towards conceptualizing law enforcement in a modern context is certainly worth looking forward to, especially understanding its co-existence with civil law in countries with minority Muslim communities. Featuring case studies from throughout the Muslim world, this volume will highlight key qualities of Sharia law and Muslim culture that play a role in law enforcement, including: case processing, community policing, police administration, human rights, and the influence of globalization. Taking a comprehensive approach, this work provides a historical context for colonization events in Muslim countries and their influence on current law enforcement systems, as well as providing key insights into the particular norms that make up the bases for Muslim societies, and their unique needs. Looking into the future, it provides guidelines for how community policing can play a proactive role in law enforcement and crime prevention.

Philanthropy plays an essential role in Muslim practice around the world. Using a new framing, Philanthropy in the Muslim World contributes to the literature by adding Muslim-majority countries that have not been previously included in cross-national philanthropy volumes as well as countries that have important Muslim minority communities. This book accomplishes five important tasks. First, it provides available research on different parts of the world where Muslims live and practice their faith and philanthropy. Second, it offers a cross-national understanding of philanthropy. Third, it illustrates the diversity and heterogeneity in philanthropic practice across different geographical contexts. It suggests that local culture, public policy, and regulations have an important role in defining local religious practice. Fourth, it helps us to understand how Muslims, in majority and minority contexts, seek to practice philanthropy after the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001 and the Global War on Terror. Fifth, it pushes back against the notion of a 'Muslim' and 'non-Muslim' world, as these terms have little basis in either critical scholarship or Qur'anic discourse. In the academic world, the book will be important to those interested in the sociology of Islam, scholars of civil society and philanthropy, scholars interested in global philanthropy or Islam in a global context, and students in courses on Islamic faith and practice. However, this book would also be valuable for the non-scholarly educated reader including philanthropists, international NGOs, policy-makers, and practitioners who seek to understand how Muslim philanthropy can play an important role in social good interventions in different parts of the world.

In a world where almost all societies are multi-religious and multi-ethnic, we need to study how social cohesion can be achieved in different contexts. In some geographical areas, as in the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent, people of different religious belonging have, through the ages, lived side by side, sometimes in harmony and sometimes in dissonance. In other geographical regions, as in Scandinavia, societies have been quite religiously homogeneous but only recently challenged by immigration.In both locations the relations between religious minority and majority are very much on the agenda. In order to discuss the situation for non-Muslims in Muslim majority societies, a consultation was convened with both Muslim and Christian participants from Pakistan, Palestine, Lebanon, and Sweden. Some of the participants work in academic settings, others in faith-based organisations, some in jurisprudence and others with theological issues. Non-Muslims in Muslim Majority Societies is the result of thatconsultation. The intention of the book is to trigger reflection and further thinking, through papers that discuss issues such as freedom of religion, minority rights, secular and religious legislation, and inter-religious dialogue in Muslim majority societies. Although the articles are presented as 'works in progress' and remain tentative in many of their conclusions, this book is an important contribution to the global debate over religious tolerance and religious pluralism.

Although they are typically portrayed by the media as dangerous extremists in distant lands, Muslims in fact form a permanent, peaceful and growing population in nearly every Western country. While Westerners are now more commonly seeing mosques in their neighborhoods or scarved Muslim women in their streets, misperceptions and stereotypes remain. With expanding numbers and desires to protect their rights and identities, Muslims are coming into more and more into the public view. In Muslim Minorites in the West noted scholars Haddad and Smith bring together outstanding essays on the distinct experiences of minority Muslim communities from Detroit, Michigan to Perth, Australia and the wide range of issues facing them. Haddad and Smith in their introduction trace the broad contours of the Muslim experience in Europe, America and other areas of European settlement and shed light on the common questions minority Muslims face of assimilation, discrimination, evangelism, and politics. Muslim Minorities in the West provides a welcome introduction to these increasingly visible citizens of Western nations.

"This is an excellent collection of essays on youth in a number of Muslim majority (and minority) societies in the context of globalization and modernity. A particular strength of this volume is its ability to highlight the multiple and contested roles of religion and personal faith in the fashioning of contemporary youthful Muslim identities. Such insights often challenge secular Western master narratives of modernity and suggest credible reconceptualizations of what it means to be young and modern in a broad swath of the world today." -- Asma Afsaruddin, Professor of Islamic Studies, Indiana University In recent years, there has been a proliferation of interest in youth issues and Muslim youth in particular. Young Muslims have been thrust into the global spotlight in relation to questions about security and extremism, work and migration, and rights and citizenship. This book interrogates the cultures and politics of Muslim youth in the global South and North to understand their trajectories, conditions, and choices. Drawing on wide-ranging research from Indonesia to Iran and Germany to the U.S., it shows that while the majority of young Muslims share many common social, political, and economic challenges, they exhibit remarkably diverse responses to them. Far from being "exceptional," young Muslims often have as much in common with their non-Muslim global generational counterparts as they share among themselves. As they migrate, forge networks, innovate in the arts, master the tools of new media, and assert themselves in the public sphere, Muslim youth have emerged as important cultural and political actors on a world stage.

At a time of tension between some Muslim and non-Muslim countries, accompanied by frictions between Muslim and non-Muslim majorities or minorities within states, this collection centres on the often distorted perceptions underlying public debates over collective identities and cultures.

Islam and the Question of Minorities is an anthology exploring some of the unique aspects of minority issues in the Muslim world. It deals with examples of Muslim minority communities in Europe and Africa, as well as an example of the interaction between a Muslim ethnic minority and a minority Muslim revivalist group within a secular Muslim country, Turkey. Pointing out that more and more Muslims are living as religious minorities and that the issues they face are similar to those faced by Muslim countries living within the family of nations, it stresses the growing importance and complexity of minority issues in Islamic studies.

This volume focuses on Muslims in Finland, Greece, Ireland and Portugal. It highlights how Muslim experiences can be understood in relation to country’s particular historical routes, political economies, and post-colonial legacies. It also reveals that country particularities shaping European Muslim experiences cannot be understood independently of global dynamics.

This book presents an overview of Islamic educational institutions and the types of schools available for Islamic or mixed education in selected countries in Africa, Southeast Asia, Middle East and Europe.