Auswahl der wissenschaftlichen Literatur zum Thema „Participation of Muslims“

This thesis is an investigation into the Ethiopian Civil Society, with a focus on Muslims’participation and activities. This research is the result of a series of interviews carried on in AddisAbaba during my staying there thank to a scholarship from Pavia University.Chapter One is a general introduction of the study, presenting the object, the methodology anduse of sources as well as the state of the current research of the topics covered by this research.Chapter Two is a framework chapter about Islām in Ethiopia offering an historical perspective aswell as focusing on its characteristics and current developments. Chapter Three deals withEthiopian Civil Society characteristics and with its legal framework. Chapter Four constitutes thecore of this research: in it, I collected the findings of my research describing the presence ofMuslims into Ethiopian Civil Society. I analyzed the activities and characteristics of the differentorganizations and associations that I met in Addis Ababa, their self-representation concerningtheir being related with Islām and their opinions on Muslims’ marginalization and lack of nonpoliticizationin Ethiopia. A set of conclusions constitutes the last section of the thesis.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2014.<br>ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Several disciplines and scholars in the interdisciplinary field of Missiology and Science of Religions are probing the concept of ‘mutual social trust’. This research provides an exploratory and descriptive study of 1,516 individual Christians and Muslims in Nigeria, with a focus on whether religious participation is fostering mutual social trust among the ‘religious Other’. This research engages Pew’s data to show the extent to which active religious participation in and outside Christian denominations and the Ummah (Muslim Community) in Nigeria fosters mutual social trust and the reasons for this. This is interpreted in order to find out if the results have implications and could be a catalyst for affirming and promoting the human dignity of the ‘religious other’. Statistical significance is an indicator of what respondents sometimes assume is expected of them (ideal situation), and hence, the reason why a practical significance compares statistics with praxis. The data is interpreted from a statistical and practical significance perspective. The first objective is to present similar research outputs, side by side, with how the data set used in this thesis has been investigated to address the research questions, hypotheses and research objectives. The second objective is to highlight areas of agreement, and if there are any discrepancies in the findings of this research, when compared to other studies. This study is an exploratory and descriptive research, which attempts to answer the questions such as “who, what, where, when or how and why?” A stratified random sample from all the seven geo-political regions, which are proportional to the population size and urban/rural population in Nigeria, was selected. One thousand five hundred and sixteen adults over the age of 18 years were interviewed by Pew Forum on ‘Religion and Public Life’, using English, Hausa, Yoruba and Pidgin languages. This sample was considered nationally representative of the Nigerian adult population. The findings indicate that a high level of uncertainty and tension exists among Christians and Muslims with regards to trusting one another in the Nigerian context. This kind of tension leads to violence and constant clashes, resulting in the kind of experiences between Muslim and Christians, recorded in recent times. The Muslims and Christians in Nigeria have had a long history of misunderstandings and through these collective learning processes; they have reached a point that the evolving and changing patterns of trust indicates their way of coping with the situation. Trust in this situation impacts on society as a “consensual reality,” which reflects on the group behavior. A new survival order is created, which makes the situation messy at times, and seemingly out of control. These findings support the notion that trust has an individual property and is also a social system.<br>AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Verskillende dissiplines en akedemici in die interdissiplinêre veld van Missologie en wetenskap van Godsdienste is besig om die konsep van gemeenskaplike sosiale vertroue te ondersoek. Hierdie studie voorsien ondersoekende en beskrywende navorsing van 1,516 individuele Christene en Moslems in Nigerië met ‘n fokus op die deelname in godsdiens as ‘n middel om gemeenskaplike sosiale vertroue te kweek onder die “godsdienstige ander”. Statistiese beduidenheid is ‘n indikator van hoe respondente voel hulle moet optree (ideale situasie) en dit is hoekom dit prakties belangrik is om die statistieke te vergelyk met die praktyk. Die data is geinterpreteer vanaf ‘n statistiese en praktiese beduidenheidsperspektief. Die doelwit van hierdie studie is om die studiemateriaal sy aan sy weer te gee met die data middele wat gebruik is om die studievraag, die hipotese en die studie objektiewe te beantwoord. Die tweede doelwit is om die ooreenkomste en verskille van die navorsing se bevindinge te vergelyk met ander studies. Hierdie studie wat ondersoekend en ook beskrywend is, streef daarna om die vraag na wie, wat, waar, wanneer , hoe en hoekom te beantwoord. ‘n Multidemensionele, nie-geordende voorbeeld van al sewe geo-politieke areas wat in ooreenstemming is met die grotte van die kevolking en stedelike/landelike populasie in Nigerië, was gekies. Pew Forum het onder haude gevoer met een duisend vyf handerd en sestien volwassenes over as 18 ‘jaar oor ‘Godsdiens en die publieke lewe’ met die gebruik van Engels, Hausa, Yoruba and Pidgin tale. Hierdie proefneming was gevind as die algemene siening in Nigerië onder volwasenes. Die bevindinge het aangedui dat daar ‘n groot hoeveelheid onsekerheid en spanning onder die Christene en die Moslems in die Nigeriese konteks is, omdat hulle nie mekaar vertrou nie. Hierdie tipe spanning lei tot geweld en konstante konflik, wat oorloop tot die situasies wat onlangs deur die media gedokumenteer is. Die Moslems en Christene in Nigerië het ‘n lang geskiedenis van misverstande en deur hierdie gesamentlike leerproses het hulle ‘n punt bereik waar die groei en veranderende patrone van hulle vertroue hul eie manier van die situasie hantees, aandui. Vertroue in hierdie situasie oefen die rol van “ooreengekome realiteit” uit, wat die gedrag van die groep reflekteer. ‘n Nuwe oorlewings meganisme is geskep wat die situasie by tye chaoties laat lyk. Hierdie bevindinge bied ondersteuning dat vertroue ‘n individuele aspek bevat en ‘n sosiale systeem is.

This research effort will analyze the level of female political participation within the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) before and after the January 25 revolution, and whether it has changed with the transformation of Egypt’s political climate, governing system and ruling elite. An assessment of the level of female participation within the MB and its political party will occur to determine which significant factors - such as governing regime, cultural influences, security issues - have attributed to the magnitude and level of the Muslim Sisters’ political exposure and electoral activities. More specifically, this research aims to ascertain if the Muslim Sisters experience their full rights as citizens under the leadership of the MB, and whether the MB’s willingness to nominate women is a step towards achieving equality or ‘complementarity’ within its ranks, or the process of fielding female candidates is nothing more than a “democratic façade.” Or is the issue more deeply rooted within the Egyptian, and predominantly Muslim, state and society, and its social norms and existing political structures? The historical context of post-colonial politics and the crisis of authoritarian secular politics will be reviewed as well, as it has contributed to the phenomenon of reinventing the rigid influence of tradition and religion.

This thesis is an exploratory qualitative case study of Western Muslim women‟s religious experiences in Scotland. It situates piety as an object of research and was based on two and a half years of extensive participant observations and conversations with thirty Muslim women aged between 20 and 50 from diverse backgrounds, who regularly took part in religious circles where knowledge and practices of Islam are exchanged, learnt, authenticated, questioned and disseminated among the participants. It incorporated historical research methods such as library research method and interviews with the local Muslims in an attempt to research the history of Muslims‟ settlement, the establishment of mosques in Scotland and the emergence of Muslim women‟s religious gatherings in the localities. This study posed following questions: (a) How did the Muslim women individually and collectively cultivate piety? (b)What were the factors that led the women to return to their faith and attain piety? (c) What are the religious sources they used to nurture their piety? And (d) How did they approach the sources and deal with everyday situations in their surroundings as faithful and pious western Muslim women? This study has argued that piety is not a hidden characteristic in one person but it is observable through various expressions. For examples, through their collective participations in the piety circles and Islamic classes and the contributions they made for themselves, their family and the Muslim communities after they got inspired, learnt and motivated from their religious circles and members. The presence of structured organisations of Muslim women religious circles represents the presence of Muslim women‟s autonomous religious movement and their involvement in the transmission of Islamic knowledge at an informal level. It was through discussions about Islamic texts such as the texts of the Quran and Hadith during their gatherings, that the women found their own religious autonomy and the realisation that Islam serves as a liberating tool in many ways in their lives.

The roles of the various aspects of religion have been examined regarding political thinking, ideology and the political participation of Americans including minority groups such as African Americans, Latinos, and Asians. However, little is known about the effects of Islamic religiosity on American Muslims. The Pew Survey on American Muslims (2007) (Research Center's Forum on Religion and Public Life) measures the effects of various religious beliefs, conservatism, practices, and contexts on different aspects of political thinking and participation such as registration for voting, voting in elections, beliefs about the roles of government, and sexuality. The results show that, in terms of political behavior, only the happiness factor has a significant effect on registration for voting. While belief in the Judgment Day and in the existence of angels, the belief that there is more than one interpretation of Islamic teaching, and the feeling of being an American first had significant effects on voting in the presidential elections of 2004, conservatism (the belief in the Quran's inerrancy and in taking the Quran's teachings literally) negatively affected voting for Bush. In terms of a preference for either a large or a small government and attitudes toward the responsibility of the government in helping the poor, results show that a belief in the importance of zakat and the presence of happiness increases the odds of preferring a big government. Beliefs in the Judgment Day and in angels, a perceived conflict between Western and Islamic values, and religious scales of religious commitment affect the odds of the responsibility of the government in helping the poor. Other religious factors affect attitudes towards homosexuality and the involvement of the mosque in politics and the responsibility of the government in protecting the morality of society. The results show that few of the religious factors affect the political thinking and political participation of American Muslims. More research is needed to study the political behavior of small social and immigrant groups in the US.

This thesis explores the development of relations between the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood and Jordanian regime from 1945 to 2010, in which a distinction is made between the pre- and post-1989 eras that demarked a significant shift from partnership to crisis. Utilising an historical approach, the first era is defined by both parties’ mutual pragmatism, establishing a unified understanding of the Palestinian issue, and what the nature of politics in Jordan would be. However, the post-1989 era is analysed within the context of the regime’s shift in interests from internal to external issues, subsequently changing its pragmatic discourse towards the Brotherhood and Islamic movements. This study suggests that the shift in the regime’s focus, teamed with the implementation of policies such as the ‘one vote system’ and the peace treaty with Israel, left a space for radical voices to rise within the Brotherhood. To understand if the Brotherhood is compatible to Jordan’s parliamentarian system, the research identifies circles of division within the Brotherhood between Hassan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb’s ideologies in the wake of regional conflict and poor regime-Islamist relations. This bifurcation is exacerbated in Jordan, as seen with the opposing fronts of the Jordanian Brotherhood’s Shoura Council: Hawks of Palestinian origin vs. Doves of Jordanian origin, claiming a new division: the ‘new’ Hawks, or, the ‘Salafist Brotherhood’. Supported by exclusive personal interviews with Brotherhood leaders, this thesis argues that allowing Islamist movements’ limited political participation in Jordan is essential for the country’s stability and religious modernity as since the 2007 boycott, increasing numbers of al-Bannaist Doves have converted into Qutbist Hawks. This has empowered the Hawks to demand fundamental reforms regarding the monarchy’s existence, initiating the Brotherhood’s final 2010 political boycott, and positioning the once-allied movement outside the political process and indefinitely removed from accountability.