Introduction : Islam and human resource management

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce this special issue on Islam and human resource management (HRM). Design/methodology/approach – The paper introduces the papers in this special issue, which further current understanding of the association between Islam and HRM, and HRM practices in Islamic countries. The papers debate whether it makes sense to talk about an Islamic HRM, and try to identify the key features of an Islamic HRM model that is substantially distinctive from existing normative models of HRM. Findings – The papers examine the impact of Islamic values on HRM practices and organisational outcomes, but more research is needed to gain a deeper understanding of the role Islam plays at the work place, and specifically how Islamic ideals, culture, values and norms are used in practice and implications thereof on workplace environment and overall organisational performance. Originality/value – The paper introduces the concept of Islam and human resource management.

Rastafarianism and the Nation of Islam as institutions for group-identity formation among blacks in the United States: A case study comparing their approaches

This dissertation explores the Rastafari movement and the Nation of Islam as institutions that provide a group-identity for their adherents. The study seeks to determine the characteristics of the identity that is institutionalized by each movement, and the nature of the institutionalization process. The research was conducted primarily in South Florida where both movements exist. An extensive literature review in conjunction with in-depth field interviews were used as the primary research methodologies. What was of particular interest were the reasons that the members of the movements chose one movement over the other, also the similarities and dissimilarities between the movements in their role as institutions for group-identity formation. The research showed that both movements imbued their members with a sense of pride, high self-esteem and a strong sense of race consciousness. In addition, it showed that there was significant variation in identity orientation within the Rastafari Movement, which contrasted with the Nation of Islam where the identity variations within the movement were negligible. This was due largely to the difference in structure between the movements, the Nation of Islam being a centrally organized movement with one leader while the Rastafari movement is a decentralized polycephalous one. ^ Both movements were found to be millenarian in nature, essentially because of the significant utility of the concept that their members would rise to prominence through God's grace. Additionally, both movements were identified as expressive social movements, since they were determined as being primarily concerned with changing the attitudes of their members rather than effecting structural social change. ^

Politics and prayer in West Perrine, Florida: Civic social capital and the black church

This thesis traces the mechanisms and sources responsible for the generation of civic social capital (a set of shared norms and values that promote cooperation between groups, enabling them to participate in the political process) by black churches in West Perrine, Florida. Data for this thesis includes over fifty interviews and participant observations, archival records, newspaper articles, and scholarly journals. ^ Despite the institutional racism of the first half of the twentieth century, many blacks and whites in Perrine developed levels of trust significant enough to form an integrated local governing body, evidence of high levels of csc. At mid-century, when black and white interactions ceased, Perrine's csc decreased, leading to the deterioration of Perrine's social and physical conditions. Perrine's csc increased in the 1980s by way of broad-based coalitions as Perrine's churches invested their csc in an effort to eradicate crime, clean up its neighborhood, and win back its youth. ^

Islam in the American Classroom

A growing American-born Muslim population warrants the attention of educators in schools across the U.S. Educating teachers about Islam will prepare them to address the needs of Muslim students. This paper discusses the rationale for improving awareness of Islam and provides basic concepts necessary for education of the Islamic culture.

Student Knowledge and Perceptions of Islam and the Arab and Muslim World

Students’ knowledge and perceptions of Islam and the Arab and Muslim world were assessed at three schools to evaluate the effectiveness of the current pedagogy and curriculum. Results show that students have little knowledge of the subject, say that they get most of their information from their teachers, have fairly positive perceptions of Islam and the Arab and Muslim world, and have suggestions to improve the curriculum.

Russia's Islam: Discourse on Identity, Politics, and Security

Despite the long history of Muslims in Russia, most scholarly and political literatures on Russia’s Islam still narrowly interpret Muslim-Slavs relations in an ethnic-religious oppositional framework. In my work, I examine Russia’s discourse on Islam to argue that, in fact, the role of Islam in post-Soviet Russia is complex. Drawing from direct sources from academic, state, journalistic, and underground circles, often neglected by Western commentators, I identify ideational patterns in conceptualizations of Islam and reconstruct relational networks among authors. To explain complex intertextual relations within specific contexts, I utilize an analytically eclectic method that appropriately combines theories from different paradigms and/or disciplines. Thanks to my multi-dimensional approach, I show that, contrary to traditional views, Russia’s Muslims participate in processes of post-Soviet Russia’s identity formation. Starting from textual contents, avoiding pre-formed analytical frames, I argue that many Muslims in Russia perceive themselves as part of Russian civilization – even when they challenge the status-quo. Building on my initial findings, I state that a key element in Russia’s conceptualization of Islam is the definition, elaborated in the 1990s, of traditional Islam as part of Russian civilizational history, as opposed to extremist Islam as extraneous, hostile phenomenon. The differentiation creates an unprecedently safe, if confined, space for Islamic propositions, of which Muslims are taking advantage. Embedded in debates on Russian civilization, conceptualizations of Islam, then, influence Russia’s (geo)political self-perceptions and, consequently, its domestic and international policies. In particular, Russian so-far neglected Islamic doctrine supports views of Islamic terrorism as a political and not religious phenomenon. Hence, Russia interprets both terrorism and counterterrorism within its own historical tradition, causing its strategy to be at odds with Western views. Less apparently, these divergences affect Russian-U.S. broader relations. Finally, in revealing the civilizational value of Russia’s Islam, I expose intellectual relations among influential subjects who share the aim to devise a new civilizational model that should combine Slavic and non-Slavic, Orthodox and Islamic, Western, and Asian components. In this old Russian dilemma, the novelty is Muslims’ participation.

Rastafarianism and the Nation of Islam as institutions for group-identity formation among blacks in the United States : a case study comparing their approaches

This dissertation explores the Rastafari movement and the Nation of Islam as institutions that provide a group-identity for their adherents. The study seeks to determine the characteristics of the identity that is institutionalized by each movement, and the nature of the institutionalization process. The research was conducted primarily in South Florida where both movements exist. An extensive literature review in conjunction with in-depth field interviews were used as the primary research methodologies. What was of particular interest were the reasons that the members of the movements chose one movement over the other, also the similarities and dissimilarities between the movements in their role as institutions for group-identity formation. The research showed that both movements imbued their members with a sense of pride, high self-esteem and a strong sense of race consciousness. In addition, it showed that there was significant variation in identity orientation within the Rastafari Movement, which contrasted with the Nation of Islam where the identity variations within the movement were negligible. This was due largely to the difference in structure between the movements, the Nation of Islam being a centrally organized movement with one leader while the Rastafari movement is a decentralized polycephalous one. Both movements were found to be millenarian in nature, essentially because of the significant utility of the concept that their members would rise to prominence through God's grace. Additionally, both movements were identified as expressive social movements, since they were determined as being primarily concerned with changing the attitudes of their members rather than effecting structural social change.

Five times daily: the dynamics of prayer worship among Muslim immigrants in St. John's, NL

This thesis explores the ritual of prayer among Muslim immigrants in the city of St. John's, NL. Immigration across national, cultural, religious, and ethnic borders is a moment in an individual's life marked by significant change. My premise is that in such contexts the relatively conservative nature of religious ritual can supply much-needed continuity, comfort, and consolation for individuals living through the immigrant experience. As well, ritual forms are often put under stress when transferred to a considerably different place and cultural context, where “facts on the ground” may be obstacles to traditional and familiar ritual forms. Changes to the understanding or practice of ritual are common in new cultural and geographic situations, and ritual itself often becomes not merely a means of social identification and cohesion, but a practical tool in processing change - in the context of immigration, in learning to live in a new community. St. John's is a lively and historic city and while Muslim immigrants may be a small group within it they nevertheless contribute to the city's energy and atmosphere. This thesis endeavours to better understand the life stories of ten of these newcomers to St. John's, focusing on their religious backgrounds and lives. In particular, this thesis seeks to better understand the place of prayer in the immigrant experience.

The Politics of Culture and the Space for Islam : Soviet and Post-Soviet Imaginaries in Uzbekistan

Peer reviewed

The Politics of Culture and the Space for Islam : Soviet and Post-Soviet Imaginaries in Uzbekistan

Peer reviewed

The Politics of Culture and the Space for Islam : Soviet and Post-Soviet Imaginaries in Uzbekistan

Peer reviewed

Prayer and Depression: Women in Rural Pakistan

Background: Mental health, specifically depression, is a burden of disease in Pakistan. Religion and depression have not been studied in Pakistan currently, specially within a subset of a rural population. Methods: A secondary-data analysis was conducted using logistic regression for a non-parametrically distributed data set. The setting was in rural Pakistan, near Rawalpindi, and the sample size data was collected from the SHARE (South Asian Hub for Advocacy, Research, and Education). The measures used were the phq9 scaled for depression, prayer number, mother’s education, mother’s age, and if the mothers work. Results: This study demonstrated that there was no association between prayer and depression in this cohort. The mean prayer number between depressed and non-depressed women was 1.22 and 1.42, respectively, and a Wilcoxan rank sum test indicated that this was not significant. Conclusions: The primary finding indicates that increased frequency of prayer is not associated with a decreased rate of depression. This may be due to prayer number not being a significant enough measure. The implications of these findings stress the need for more depression intervention in rural Pakistan.

Embodied Prayer: the practice of prayer as Christian theology

This dissertation attempts to retrieve the integration of prayer and theology in the life of the church. Prayer is a spiritual and bodily theological activity that forms Christian identity and virtuous character. The bodily dimension of Christian prayer plays an essential role in theological understanding and moral formation. However, the embodiment of prayer has been mostly neglected in modern academic theology. This study highlights the significance of the body at prayer in theological studies and spiritual formation.

Chapter 1 presents Karl Barth’s theology of prayer as a model of the integration of prayer, theology, and Christian life (lex orandi, lex credendi, lex agendi). However, Barth’s attempt to overcome the dichotomy between theory and practice in theology did not pay much attention to embodiment of prayer. Through ritual studies and phenomenology (Marcel Mauss, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Pierre Bourdieu), chapter 2 shows why the bodily dimension of the practice of prayer should be recovered in theology and ministry; then it explains how Christians in the early and medieval church actually prayed with the body, how their bodily actions were understood in their theological paradigms, and how their actions contributed to the formation of Christian character. Chapter 3 narrows the focus to the formation of the heart in the making of Christian character. The practice of prayer has been emphasized not only as an expression of the inner heart of pray-ers but also as a channel of grace that shapes their affections as enduring dispositions of the heart. Furthermore, historically the bodily practice of prayer gave theological authority to the devout Christians who were marginalized in academic theology or ecclesiastical hierarchy, and Chapter 4 presents the lex orandi of praying women who gained their theological knowledge, wisdom, and authority through their exemplary practices of prayer (Catherine of Siena, Mechthild of Magdeburg, Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, and Teresa of Avila). These historical examples reveal how Christian communities appreciated and celebrated the theological voices from the margins, which developed from theological embodiments in prayer.

This dissertation concludes that academic theology needs to heed these diverse theological voices, which are nurtured through everyday practice, as an integral part of theological studies. Therefore, it calls for a new paradigm for understanding the relationship between theory and practice in theological education. The integration between theory and bodily practice is necessary for both academic theology and spiritual formation. A more holistic understanding of Christian practices will not only enhance the training of scholars and clergy but also give the laity their own theological voices that will enrich academic theology.

Islam and Christianity: Comparing the Theory of Supersession Concerning Abraham

Supersession is the theory of one idea supplanting the other. In both Christianity and Islam, this idea is commonplace. In Christianity, the message of Jesus creates a New Covenant for both Jews and Gentiles, while in Islam, the revelation of Muhammad restores the original religion that God intended from the beginning. Christianity and Islam both supersede Judaism in very similar ways. In regards to the use of Abraham in particular, each religion inherits him by appealing to Jewish scripture or their oral tradition, using him to prove their truth claims, and claiming that their religion is originally the religion of Abraham.