ISSN (Print) - 0012-9976 | ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846

IslamSubscribe to Islam

Deconstructing Muslim Identity

Making a Muslim: Reading Publics and Contesting Identities in Nineteenth Century North India by S Akbar Zaidi, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021; pp 269, `950 (hardback).

Anti-conversion Legislation in Karnataka

The recent Right to Freedom of Religion Bill, 2021, passed in the Karnataka legislative assembly that claims to combat conversion is a diabolical move by the government to provide legal cover to the majoritarian fundamentalist oppression against minorities.

Religious Piety in Islam and Contemporary India

Religion and Secularities: Reconfiguring Islam in Contemporary India edited by Sudha Sitharaman and Anindita Chakrabarti, Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan, 2020; pp 240, 795 (hardback).

 

Faith-based Financial Exclusion

The United Kingdom was at the forefront of opening Islamic windows in its financial system with the objective of achieving financial inclusion of Muslims without compromising their value systems. India refused to think in that direction with its large Muslim population being excluded from financial deepening, which is a crucial pillar of poverty reduction. The consequent lower business potential of districts with a higher proportion of Muslim population has led to lower branch density and loan rates, affecting the general population as well. Jammu and Kashmir, in districts where the proportion of Muslims is higher, also reflects these trends observed in other states.

 

Recasting Politics and Reimagining Islam: Beyond Contested Nationalisms in Bangladesh

Tracing the journey of Bangladesh from a secular state to an Islamic state against the backdrop of Bangladeshi Nationalism, Samia Huq discusses the potential of Islam in the everyday public sphere in light of women’s Quranic discussion circles.

Arab Spring After 10 Years: Understanding Islam, Democracy and Western Imperialism

Ten years after the Arab Spring swept countries across the Arab world, we analyse how the popular uprisings shaped notions of Islam and democracy. Have Western liberal democracies wielded the spectre of Islamic fundamentalism to interfere in the domestic politics of the region?

Critique as a Way of Life

Religion as Critique: Islamic Critical Thinking from Mecca to the Marketplace by Irfan Ahmad, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2018; pp xxv + 270, 1,195.

 

A World of Curiosity and Inquiry

Refractions of Islam in India: Situating Sufism and Yoga by Carl W Ernst,Sage/Yoda Press, 2016; pp 520, ₹1,050.

Is ‘Islamic Finance’ Islamic?

Riba could mean usury, interest, economic rent and even surplus value (in the Marxian sense). Riba is “un-Islamic.” Without riba, capital accumulation, and capitalism itself will not be possible. However, those who own capital in the Muslim world have taken charge of defining what is Islamic and what is not. The result? They find ways to multiply it in modes that benefit only themselves, just as their non-Islamic counterparts.

Personal Names in Pakistan

The choice of personal names of Pakistani Muslims is discussed along three parameters--beliefs about names, naming practices, and the influence of Islam on both--while the religious orientation of society is manifested by the people's desire to choose names from Arabic and Persian. These names do not necessarily conform to strict Islamic norms. Such names, as well as names based on natural objects and phenomena, still remain in vogue, especially in the rural areas. The most widely held belief is that names have an effect upon personality or that they can be inauspicious.

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