"A handful of members and persons close to Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), Indonesia’s most prominent extremist organisation, have developed a profitable publishing consortium in and around the pesantren (religious school) founded by Abu Bakar Ba’asyir and Abdullah Sungkar in Solo, Central Java. The cons
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ortium has become an important vehicle for the dissemination of jihadi thought, getting cheap and attractively printed books into mosques, bookstores and discussion groups. The publishing venture demonstrates JI’s resilience and the extent to which radical ideology has developed roots in Indonesia. The Indonesian government should monitor these enterprises more closely, but they may be playing a useful role by channelling JI energies into waging jihad through the printed page rather than acts of violence." (Executive summary)
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"This article, inter alia, attempts to analyze and focus on the historical, formalistic, and design aspects of Pakistan’s existing blasphemy laws from a comparative perspective. It argues that, quite apart from procedural inadequacies of the Pakistani legal system and its special socio-political c
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ircumstances, the very form and design of the blasphemy laws invite abuse.2 Findings demonstrate that textual lacunae in the law enable its use as an instrument of misuse, hence leading to the argument that the abusive potential of the law exists even independently of social context. When the blasphemy laws are contextualized within the atmosphere of increasing religious intolerance pervading certain sections of the social fabric in Pakistan, however, their subversive potential is revealed in its entirety. In effect, the blasphemy laws, in their current form, are an instance of legislation inherently open to abuse, operating in an environment that is at times unfortunately conducive to that abuse. This has also resulted in their emergence as a potent tool for the victimization of religious minorities and relegation of these minorities, in many instances, to the status of fearful pariahs subject to legally mandated persecution. The existence of blasphemy laws can be argued for in a society and under a constitutional framework that attaches a premium to the underlying sacred values that such laws may be promulgated to protect. This article, however, argues that the laws, in their current form, have caused, and continue to cause, several miscarriages of justice and are a stimulus for strengthening the negative and highly divisive forces of obscurantism, intolerance, and fanaticism in Pakistani society." (Introduction, pages 305-306)
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"Investigating a vibrant audio-recording industry in southern Yemen, The Moral Resonance of Arab Media shows how new forms of political activism emerge through sensory engagements with Arabic poetry and song. From the 1940s onward, a new cadre of political activists has used audio-recording technolo
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gies, especially the audiocassette, to redefine traditional Muslim authorship. Cassette producers address conflicted views about the resurgence of tribalism by showing Yemenis how to adapt traditional mores toward more progressive and pluralistic aims. Skilled bards continue to perform orally marked tribal verse. As Miller demonstrates through an analysis of several centuries of changing media ecology, however, oral performance is anything but static. Much of the power of orality stems from its relation to writing, print, and audiovisual media that link tribal ideals with metropolitan and national discourses. Through an examination of the lives and works of individual poets, singers, and audiences, Moral Resonance shows how tribalism becomes a resource for critical reform when expressed in tropes of community, place, person, and history. Yemenis' use of audiocassettes turns such tropes into cultural resources for morally evaluating political liberalism." (Publisher description)
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"[...] Vor diesem Hintergrund sei nun der heutige rechtliche Sachstand bei den religiösen Sendungen anhand einiger Gesetzesbeispiele etwas genauer beschrieben (unter 2). Daraus werden sich auch bereits erste Aufschlüsse über künftige allgemeine Entwicklungs- und Reformmöglichkeiten ergeben. Ein
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entsprechender innovativer Ansatz wird dann kurz umrissen, mit ein paar Seitenblicken auf Islamunterricht in der deutschen öffentlichen Schule als interessante Vergleichsmaterie (unter 3). Nachfolgend geht es um ausgewählte Fragen der Nutzanwendung auf die islamische Religion und deren Präsenz im deutschen Rundfunkwesen, und zwar auch über die Drittsendungen hinaus (unter 4), beginnend vielleicht mit einem redaktionell betreuten „Wort zum Freitag“ (unter 5)." (Einleitung, Seite 8)
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"The article explores the processes that have allowed Islam to gain great appeal as a community-building idiom in Mali since the introduction of multiparty democracy in 1991. Drawing on the mediatic performances of the charismatic preacher Sharif Haidara, the article analyzes how new media technolog
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ies facilitate and play into Islam’s new prominence and how they influence the particular ways in which Islam is presented in the public sphere. It examines the particular ways audio recording technologies intervene in and complicate the terms of interaction between political regimes and their critics, and thus change the place of religion in postcolonial state politics. Rather than interpret this process as a “resurgence” and threat of religion to secular nation state politics, the article emphasizes the paradoxical effects “small”, decentralized media have on the constitution of moral community. Audio recordings enable the move to public prominence of a variety of interpreters of Islam who seek to articulate an Islamic normativity as the basis of the common good. Paradoxically, the same processes that enhance the possibilities of Muslims of various backgrounds and pedigree to participate in public debate simultaneously undermine their appeal to Islamic scholarly consensus. While these processes strengthen these Muslims’ possibilities to speak in public, they weaken their capacities to speak as the public, a claim that is pivotal to their quest for collective moral renewal." (Abstract)
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"Wer sich heute auf eine Reise in die malaiische Welt (Indonesien, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam) begibt, wird beobachten, dass sich das Angebot in den Buchhandlungen von Land zu Land zum Teil erheblich unterscheidet. In Indonesien etwa, das mit seinen zur Zeit etwa 230 Millionen Einwohnern fast 90% d
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er malaiischen Welt ausmacht, scheinen Bücher mit islamischen Themen besonders populär zu sein."
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"In this article, I take the highly successful Muslim preacher Cherif Haidara in Mali as a starting point to explore the conditions that, throughout the contemporary Muslim world, facilitate the rise to prominence of new types of religious leaders, who, by virtue of their media performances and in t
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heir roles as preachers, personal counselors, or legal advisers, attract broad constituencies of believers. I assess recent shifts in the normative, institutional, and economic conditions of religious debate in urban Mali that have changed the parameters of common understandings of the relevance of religion to daily life and politics. I examine how the adoption of new media technologies affects the contents and forms of religious reasoning, the subjective understandings and articulations of Islamic normativity, and thereby contributes to changes in the sources and forms of leadership. Finally, I investigate in what ways processes of commodification and commercialization are conducive to these changes in religious experience, community, and authority." (Abstract)
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"This publication gives an account of Britons who feel themselves to be the target of antagonism. A joint enterprise of the British Council and a number of Muslim organisations, the book is written in the belief that much hostility and negativity is founded in, and fostered by, misunderstanding. It
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is neither paranoid nor rose-tinted. It does not presume that agreement in all things is possible; but it does work on the basis that disagreement – as long as it is shaped by sound knowledge rather than prejudice – can be useful, constructive, civilised and civilising for the whole of our society. Those in Britain and around the world who write about this country and its people sometimes need reminding that ‘we’ include almost two million Muslims. This is the basis of a new sense of ourselves – even perhaps a much-debated new sense of ‘Britishness’ – and it is important to ensure that it includes all of us." (Introduction)
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"Written by both leading academic authorities and by Muslim media practitioners, 'Muslims and the Media' is designed as a comprehensive and critical textbook and is set in both the British and international contexts. The book clearly establishes the links between context, content, production and aud
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iences thus reflecting the entire cycle of the communication process and revealing the ways in which meaning is produced and reproduced in the news media. Looking closely at the circumstances and politics surrounding the representation of Muslims across a wide range of journalistic genres, at the presence and influence of Muslims in the processes of news production, and the ways in which audiences, both Muslim and non-Muslim, consume this media, the book brings together coherently a wide range of perspectives to provide crucial insights into the representation - and misrepresentation - of Islam and Muslims today." (Publisher description)
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"This book contains the presentations of a Roundtable of invited scholars organized by the FABC-Office of Social Communication (FABC-OSC) October 3-7, 2005 at Assumption University Huamak campus in Bangkok, in cooperation with the Graduate School of Philisophy and Religion of Assumption University a
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nd the Asian Research Center for Religion and Social Communication (ARC) at St. John's University, Bangkok. The concern of the roundtable with some 20 participants was a deeper understanding of Social Communication in Religious Traditions of Asia. Social Communication defined as the communication of and in human society is part and parcel of every religion. The question was: How is this seen and practiced in the different religious traditions of Asia? With the publication of this volume, we would like to make people, especially communication scholars and theologians, more aware of the communication dimenstion of religions in Asia. Communication is not just the use of technical means and instruments like the mass media. It is a dimension of human and spiritual life which should be essential for any religious thinking and practice. It is also because of this that we purposely maintained and use the Vatican II expression 'Social Communication' which refers to all communicative processes and practices in human society." (Publisher description)
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"An essential aspect of what is now called the Islamic Revival, the cassette sermon has become omnipresent in most Middle Eastern cities, punctuating the daily routines of many men and women. Hirschkind shows how sermon tapes have provided one of the means by which Islamic ethical traditions have be
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en recalibrated to a modern political and technological order - to its noise and forms of pleasure and boredom, but also to its political incitements and call for citizen participation. Contrary to the belief that Islamic cassette sermons are a tool of militant indoctrination, Hirschkind argues that sermon tapes serve as an instrument of ethical self-improvement and as a vehicle for honing the sensibilities and affects of pious living. Focusing on Cairo's popular neighborhoods, Hirschkind highlights the pivotal role these tapes now play in an expanding arena of Islamic argumentation and debate - what he calls an "Islamic counterpublic." This emerging arena connects Islamic traditions of ethical discipline to practices of deliberation about the common good, the duties of Muslims as national citizens, and the challenges faced by diverse Muslim communities around the globe." (Publisher description)
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"South Africa's Muslim community like all its other religious minority communities has been proactive in preserving its religious identity through the formation of a number of institutions. Over the past three centuries the community has occupied itself in not only erecting mosques and building coll
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eges for Islamic instruction as a way of publicly reflecting the community's religious and cultural identity, but it has also been involved in the preparation of religious texts that assisted in providing more detailed information about its identity. The production of religious literature has however been largely the preserve of a few talented and inspired individuals in the community, over more than two centuries. This paper concerns itself with the production of the 'Muslim book' in South Africa during the 20th century, focussing on the contribution of a number of specific individuals. It thus provides a background sketch of the development of the production of the 'Muslim book,' and demonstrates how these theologians have made a substantial input to South African literature in general." (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 1010)
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"In December 2000 the government of Kano State in Muslim northern Nigeria reintroduced shari’a and established a new board for film and video censorship charged with the responsibility to “sanitize” the video industry and enforce the compliance of video films with moral standards of Islam. Sta
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keholders of the industry took up the challenge and responded by inserting religious issues into their narratives, and by adding a new feature genre focusing on conversion to Islam. This genre is characterized by violent Muslim/pagan encounters, usually set in a mythical past, culminating in the conversion of the pagans. This article will first outline northern Nigerian video culture and then go on to explore local debates about the religious legitimacy of film and video and their influence upon recent developments within the video industry. By taking a closer look at video films propagating Islam it will focus on three points: first, videomakers’ negotiation between the opposing notions of religious education and secular escapism; second, inter-textual relations with other (film)cultures; and third, political subtexts to the narratives, which relate such figures as Muslim martyrs and pagan vampires to the current project of cultural and religious revitalization." (Abstract)
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