Filial Piety in Israel: Between the Law in the Books and the Law in Action

This paper explores the main legal aspects of filial piety in Israel. Based on a socio-legal study, it traces a significant gap between the law in the books, which mandates that children support their parents financially if the latter cannot support themselves, and the law in action, which narrows this obligation to cases in which the parents must be cared for in a State nursing home. The study also highlights the relevance of religious and cultural norms in shaping filial piety in multicultural countries and thus points to the urgent need to tailor filial piety legal policies according to socially constructed, actual, and diverse filial piety perceptions and practices.     

回儒对话:云南伊斯兰学派个案的历史考察

中国伊斯兰学派的形成有着复杂的社会文化背景,其中,明清之际发生的“以儒诠经”文化运动、云南伊斯兰学派的“儒化”及云南学派在中国“回儒对话”都起到了一定的作用。从地方性知识所具有的全球意义角度来看,中国历史上开展“回儒对话”的成功经验,应当成为当今世界不同文明之间开展和平友好对话的范例。     

严重影响中亚地区稳定的伊斯兰极端势力

最近几年 ,伊斯兰宗教极端势力在中亚的活动日益猖獗 ,连续制造多起爆炸、暗杀等恐怖事件 ,严重影响了中亚各国的政治、经济与社会的稳定与发展。中亚伊斯兰宗教极端势力的产生有其深刻的内外原因。目前 ,尽管伊斯兰宗教极端势力的作用与影响还不足以动摇各国的政权基础 ,但若将其彻底铲除尚有诸多困难     

The transformation of Turkey’s Islamic media and its marriage with neo-liberalism

ABSTRACT

The Islamic press in Turkey started at the beginning of the 20^th century as a reaction to the secularist Young Turks’ revolution of 1908. In the Republican period, Sufi orders and other religious communities maintained internal communication via periodicals despite being interrupted by the 1960, 1971 and 1980 coup d’etats. In the 1990s, the first private Islamic TV channels were opened and soon were targeted by the Turkish Armed Forces through mainstream media in the run-up to the 1997 military memorandum. Only after Erdo?an came to power did the Islamic media find favourable conditions to flourish, lining up with Erdo?an’s AKP. However, there are still small dissident groups who struggle for an independent identity.     

Economic Governance Beyond State and Market: Islamic Capital Markets in Southeast Asia

ABSTRACT

Islamic finance has become an integral part of the financial systems of the Muslim-majority countries of Southeast Asia. At the same time, Southeast Asia has witnessed the emergence of new capital market governance practices and arrangements that are both multi-scalar and multi-sited. This article suggests that rather than only looking at the scale and rescaling of capital market governance in the region, more attention needs to be paid to the shifting balances between regulatory expertise, market practice and societal expectations. Indeed, for governance practices to be considered effective, they have to straddle at times competing demands of authority and legitimacy. This dynamic is nowhere as visible as in the case of Islamic finance, which explicitly involves Shariah experts, trained in Islamic law, in its governance structures. This article explores the novel forms of governance to which this new market has given rise. It argues that Islamic finance – rather than the product of privately held beliefs – has become increasingly bound up with the state apparatus. This facilitates the embedding of Islamic financial principles and ethical concerns throughout capital markets in the region. Yet, Islamic finance has also become increasingly submerged within national development and competitiveness agendas.     

The “Syria traveller”: reintegration or legal sanctioning?

This article analyses discourses on Islamist radicalisation and threats of terrorism in Norway, with a focus on a new category of people known as “Syria travellers”, i.e. young Norwegians who go to Syria to fight for the Islamic State. Our analysis of debates in the media, policy documents and parliamentary discussions revealed two main narratives regarding the authorities’ response to Syria travellers: the first emphasises legal sanctions, and the second highlights the reintegration of returnees. We found that contentions about how to react to the new kind of people (the Syria travellers) are intertwined with the way these people are portrayed, understood or “made up”. In the political realm, there is also a striking consensus on the need for both reintegrative and legislative responses.     

A mathematical model of the persistence of conflict

A differential equation model is proposed to explain how a persistent level of conflict might be maintained by a nation. The basic driving force in the model is the assumption that there are two interacting forces within the nation. One group benefits from high levels of conflict and as the level of conflict drops attempts to drive it upwards again. The other group benefits from the absence of conflict and as the level of conflict becomes high attempts to drive it down. These assumptions lead to a model which has the following characteristics:

1. If the initial level of conflict is positive the stable level is positive and intermediate between the desired positions of the nationalists and internationalists.

2. If the initial value is negative the behavior is unstable and infinite negative conflict results.

   Introduction of a lag in the response to policy can produce the following additional behaviors:

3. Oscillating return to the equilibrium point.

4. Oscillating patterns which are virtually constant over time.

5. Rapid increases in conflict for short periods of time interspersed with long period of virtually no conflict.

   These different patterns can be obtained with the change of a single parameter in the model.

     

试论土耳其伊斯兰复兴对女权运动的影响

伊斯兰复兴是当代土耳其社会的突出现象,伊斯兰主义者通过废除头巾禁令的过程,为妇女争取更多自由选择的权利;伊斯兰政党通过动员妇女参与政党政治和民主选举,为她们赢得更大的话语空间;伊斯兰非政府组织通过关注妇女面临的各种社会问题,拓展女权运动的范围。伊斯兰复兴作为现代化进程的伴生物,在一定程度上促进了女性权利意识的觉醒,因而在客观上促进了土耳其女权运动的发展。     

复合身份政治:西亚大国参与阿富汗安全事务的三重维度

“阿拉伯之春”爆发以来,西亚伊斯兰大国土耳其、伊朗和沙特阿拉伯(简称“沙特”)形成了复合身份。教派争端导致三国在西亚地区的战略博弈阵营化;阿富汗弱政府、强社会的权力结构使三国的战略博弈代理人化。作者提出“复合身份政治”概念,认为土耳其、伊朗和沙特以三重身份参与阿富汗安全事务。从族群和教派身份看,土耳其与阿富汗北部乌兹别克人和土库曼人等突厥语族群形成特殊关系;伊朗与中部哈扎拉人和塔吉克人形成特殊关系;沙特与南部普什图人形成特殊关系。从区域身份看,土耳其借助突厥语国家委员会,伊朗借助经济合作组织,沙特借助伊斯兰反恐联盟,三国在“向东看”过程中分别将阿富汗纳入各自主导的多边机制,形成了制度均势。从全球身份看,土耳其以北约的名义参与在阿富汗的军事行动,伊朗加入上海合作组织,沙特利用伊斯兰合作组织,三国与世界大国形成了议题联系。复合身份政治使土耳其、伊朗和沙特构筑相互交错的次体系,稀释了世界大国主导的阿富汗问题安全倡议,阿富汗安全格局由“多极”走向“多中心”。     

Wolves in sheep clothing or victims of times? Discussing the immoderation of incumbent Islamic parties in Turkey,Egypt, Morocco,and Tunisia

This article discusses the “immoderation” of incumbent Islamic parties – defined by the pursuit of a moral agenda and by an unwillingness to compromise with the opposition – through a comparative study of four incumbent Islamic parties in the socio-politically different regimes of Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia. Building on literature from religion and politics, social psychology, sociology of religion, and on the inclusion-moderation hypothesis, this study argues that (1) Islamic parties’ strong organizations resulted both in their success and in the absence of internal pluralism and that (2) their dominant status in the party system consolidated their majoritarian understanding of democracy. Through its discussion of “immoderation” this study aims to contribute to the interdisciplinary literature on religion and politics.