Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Islam and secularism South Asia'

The object of this thesis is to explain why Pakistan which Muslim nationalist historians claim was created in the name of Islam failed to sustain a democratic political system. This question is explored by examining the politics of South Asian Muslims as a continuity from the colonial to the post-partition period, focusing on the tension between centripetal and centrifugal forces. The thesis begins by investigating the factors which helped politicize Muslim identity during the inter-war years. The interplay of nationalism, constitutional reforms and common identity based on confessional faith forged political identities which determined the course of subsequent events. Dyarchy set in motion processes which the Government of India Act of 1935 reinforced,- the emergence of political solidarities based on religion and region and alienation from nationalist politics. The Congress was able to neutralize the centrifugal developments among its Hindu constituency. It was not so successful among Muslims partly due to the impact of the Reforms and partly due to the activity of Hindu revivalists in the party. Simultaneously Muslim politics was moving away from the Congress, not towards the Muslim League but to the All-India Muslim Conference, around which most Muslims had gathered in opposition to the Nehru Report. However most regional and communitarian parties were not simply antagonistic to the Congress. They rejected centralist politics as a whole. This was amply demonstrated by the 1937 election results which underlined Jinnah's irrelevance to Muslim politics. Hence Muslims were in their political loyalties divided between strong currents focused on provincial interests and weak ones emphasizing sub-continental unity, national or Muslim. This configuration, the opposition between centrifugal and centripetal forces defined the basic parameters of Muslim politics. The second chapter describes how the political divisions between Muslims was partially overcome. The 1937 elections initiated a major political shift among the Muslim regional parties and caused great unease among the urban groupings. The Muslim regional partie's feared that the Congress Party's control over provincial ministries through a centralized structure and its rejection of the federal basis of the 1935 Act, would lead to their being roped into a Hindu-dominated unitary state. To fight this threat, an alternative political focus at the all-India level came to be considered necessary for the protection of their interests. The Muslim League's revival was indirectly facilitated by the Quit India Movement which temporarily removed the Congress from the arena of open politics and by the encouragement Jinnah received from the Raj. The League was able to gradually pull Muslim groups, particularly those in the Muslim-minority provinces, into its ranks through the use of anti-Congress propaganda. But among the urban masses of UP Jinnah was eclipsed by Mashriqi until the mid-1940s when the Khaksars became a spent force. This development combined with the increasing influence of the Pakistan slogan, vague yet immensely attractive, provided the ideological cutting edge of the League's agenda for Muslim unity. The ideological hegemony allowed the League to focus the forces of community consciousness as a battering ram to breakdown the regional parties resistance. The Pakistan slogan spread from the urban areas and Muslim-minority provinces into the rural areas of the Muslim-majority provinces. But in Bengal the regionalist had taken over the party, in the Punjab Khizr continued to resist and in the NWFP and Sind the Muslim League was a peripheral influence. Hence by the mid-1940s the League was only able to achieve partial unity under the Pakistan banner. The third chapter deals with the brief moment of political unity achieved through the combined impact of mass nationalism and communal riots. After the constitutional deadlock following the breakdown of the Simla Conference the League was able to make major advances by positing a clear choice between their and the Congress's plans for India's future. Muslim nationalism now centred on the League capitalized on the political uncertainties caused by the negotiations and won over many adherents from the provincial parties. An important factor which widened the League's area of influence was the increased significance of economic nationalism. It opened channels of communication between the elites and the masses, drew in groups previously unaffected by the Muslim League and turned the agitation for Pakistan into a mass movement. These factors combined with the weakness of the Congress due to their incarceration during the war resulted in the widespread shift away from the regional parties to the Muslim League. Jinnah was able to achieve for a brief moment political unity and used this as the basis to extract the maximum constitutional concessions from the British and the Congress. However the centralization process was weak and its frailty was at the root of ideological confusion. The confusion was manifest in the changing definition of Pakistan in this crucial period. The problem was compounded by the League's lack of strong party structure to control and enforce discipline over the regional supporters. Jinnah's interventions in the provinces were the exception and not the rule and limited to disciplining local leaders. For expanding the party's influence he was completely dependent on the provincial leaders. The regionalist forces were not genuine converts to Muslim nationalism. They used the League as a stalking horse for their provincial interests. Jinnah accepted the Cabinet Mission Plan due to the strong pressures from the Muslim-majority provinces who were not interested in a separate homeland for Muslims and later he supported Suhrawardy's attempt to avoid partition of Bengal. Jinnah had to be responsive to these different currents within the party in order to avoid a revolt against his leadership. Besides the internal pressure, pro-Congress opposition was still strong in Sarhad and Sind and they used regional ethnicity as a counter against the League. However the opposition collapsed when the civil disobedience movement mounted by the League at this extremely tense moment triggered off the communal explosion which engulfed northern India and as a result the Congress accepted partition. The fourth chapter deals with the Muslim League's effort to consolidate its position in Pakistan through the construction of a strong state and the potent anti-centre backlash it produced. Pakistan came into existence through the contingent circumstances attending the transfer of power and the League's leadership was ill-prepared to establishing itself in Pakistan. The perceived threat from India and the internal opposition to the leadership convinced them that the country and they themselves could survive politically only if a strong centre was established. However the ethnic composition of the ruling group was a source of tension which bedeviled the centralizing process. The Muslim League leadership was mainly Muhajirs who had no social base in Pakistan. They along with the Punjabis also dominated the military and the bureaucracy. Hence the push for a unitary structure alienated others such as the Bengalis, who were not represented in the upper echelons of the state. The political instability was aggravated by the ruling group's efforts to establish a strong centre not on the basis of a broad consensus but through strong arm tactics. As a result internal and external opposition to the League leadership was suppressed in an authoritarian manner. Karachi used the state apparatus to crush the emerging opposition and interfered in the provinces attempting to put its supporters into power.

This dissertation analyzes how governance and community-based politics of claims in marginalized Muslim neighborhoods of Mumbai are continually reconfigured in relation to one another. By tracing this relationship, I problematize conceptualizations of governmental forms and community that don't adequately attend to their co-constitution in practice. More specifically, I examine the intersections between state practices and claims of belonging in Mumbai neighborhoods inhabited by Muslims who, impelled by regional economic inequalities, immigrated to the city from North India and other parts of the country. A large number of them traditionally belong to artisanal communities and are today engaged in the informal sector of the economy. I am interested in understanding how competing and converging claims are made to locality, urban space, labor, and caste in the interactions between these working-class Muslim communities and the state in a city that has become highly segregated along religious and regional lines. I argue that state and marginalized community in minoritized areas are not defined by independence and isolation, but by a relationship of co-generation marked by convergence and contradiction. My analysis of the interactions between community forms and state practices explores modes of laying claim to localizing forms of belonging with respect to urban space, public religiosity, histories of labor, kinship, and 'backward' caste politics.<br>Anthropology

Thesis (M.A. in Security Studies (Middle East, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa))--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2010.<br>Thesis Advisor(s): Springborg, Robert ; Hafez, Mohammed. "June 2010." Description based on title screen as viewed on July 13, 2010. Author(s) subject terms: Islamism in Jordan, Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, political opportunities, strategic choice, ideological and organizational responsiveness, political inclusion, moderation of radical agendas, special relationship between the Jordanian regime and the Muslim Brotherhood, United States and European Union assistance to Jordan. Includes bibliographical references (p. 125-138). Also available in print.

This item is only available in print in the UCF Libraries. If this is your Honors Thesis, you can help us make it available online for use by researchers around the world by following the instructions on the distribution consent form at http://library.ucf.edu/Systems/DigitalInitiatives/DigitalCollections/InternetDistributionConsentAgreementForm.pdf You may also contact the project coordinator, Kerri Bottorff, at kerri.bottorff@ucf.edu for more information.<br>Bachelors<br>Sciences<br>Political Science

Muslim culture and society has been a part of the Philippine islands in spite of nearly ninety-five percent of the population being Christian (a majority Catholic), yet did not become a separatist movement until the 1970's. Since then, the two main separatist groups the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have been battling the Philippine government. The parties entered truces in 1996 and 2001, yet there has been a cycle of violence continues. The Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), linked to Al Qaeda, emerged in 1990 and has launched many attacks on the Christian Philippine majority. The prolonged Muslim unrest in the ARMM has left thousands dead and hundreds of thousands displaced. The main objective of this research paper is to examine Philippine economic and political development and its impact on Philippine Muslim unrest. This paper presents a critical analysis of the economic and political development and Philippine Muslim unrest by examining six major features of the Philippines; they are: The historical evolution, economic development, political development, socio-cultural setting, geographic setting, and the quality of life of the Filipino people. This research also examines Fareed Zakaria's illiberal democracies theory, liberal institutionalism, and the Marxist theory of class revolution and primarily relies on research conducted at the University of the Philippines and from Philippine and Asian scholars. By taking a holistic comprehensive approach and by using international relations theory, this research fills two gaps in the literature about Philippine Muslim unrest. The research concludes with a look at future challenges, both short term and long term that face the country, as well as, possible future scenarios. The findings of this research are that the economic and political development and the historical evolution, though major contributory factors, are not the sole reason for the prolonged Philippine Muslim unrest. The most pervasive causal factor to Muslim unrest was the socio-cultural setting. Because of the all-pervasive nature of culture; at first glance, the socio-cultural setting was not a major apparent cause. At almost all times examined throughout this research, certain cultural tendencies guided decisions and altered the course of events more so than any other single variable. Corruption, crony capitalism, patrimonialism, and irrational institutions all stem from the tendencies of Philippine culture must be addressed to find lasting peace in the country. A move toward rational legal institutions and liberal constitutionalism, will lead the way to the creation of a liberal democracy and break the cycle of violence occurring in the Philippines.<br>M.A.<br>Department of Political Science<br>Sciences<br>Political Science MA

Les trois monothéismes conçoivent un Dieu créateur et ordonnateur du monde, révélé dans l’histoire, garant de toute justice et de tout équilibre, et déterminant l’autorité et les systèmes d’autorités. La théologie a informé le droit et les lois, l’économie et l’éthique des personnes et des États. L’islam, loin d’être homogénéisé dans ses approches économiques, financières et réglementaires, révèle par le biais d’un exemple concret, par l’industrie des services financiers islamiques, les différentes facettes de ce qu’est l’autorité dans un contexte musulman, international et en pleine évolution. Prenant en compte la dynamique des questions sectaires, géographiques et interprétatives, la thèse analyse cette force déterminante que sont les « autorités » en finance islamique. Ces dernières semblent déterminer la finance islamique dans ses formes les plus tangibles, en structurant des produits financiers islamiques. L’analyse comporte d’abord une approche théorique, ensuite une étude comparée des facteurs qui déterminent les décisions prises lors de la structuration de produits financiers islamiques. Ces structures sont en effet fondées sur des contrats financiers conformes aux principes de la sharia. Leur approbation par des membres de conseils de la sharia est-elle déterminée par une autorité régionale, par des autorités internationales ou par des autorités de régulation ? Ces autorités sont-elles conventionnelles ou religieuses ? Afin de bien évaluer la problématique non seulement de l’autorité en tant que telle mais aussi de l’équilibre complexe entre les différentes autorités, nous développons une analyse comparée du système de structuration des produits financiers islamiques par les autorités concernées, en fonction des zones géographiques, au moyen d’un échantillon de 121 membres de conseils de la sharia couvrant l’approbation de produits financiers islamiques au sein de 243 institutions financières islamiques sur 35 pays<br>The three monotheistic religions refer to a God who is the all-powerful creator of all that exists, revealed throughout history, guarantor of justice and fairness, who is the ultimate moral authority. Theology advises some of the laws, economics and ethics of individuals and of states. Islam is not homogeneous in its economic, financial and regulatory approaches. However, through the financial services industry, it reveals in a tangible manner various facets of authority across Muslim contexts. These include contexts that are international and highly dynamic. Taking into account the delicate balance between sectarian, geographic and interpretive facets, the thesis analyses the determining forces that we refer to as authorities in Islamic finance. These contribute to the Islamic finance industry in its most tangible form in the structuring of Islamic financial products. Analysis is carried out initially theoretically. It is followed by a comparative study of factors affecting decisions pertaining to the structuring of Islamic financial products. These structures are based on financial contracts that conform to the principles of the Sharia. Is approval by Sharia board members fashioned by a regional authority, by international authorities, or by regulatory authorities? Are these authorities conventional or religious? We address the question as it pertains to the dynamics between various types of authority. We develop a comparative analysis of the approach taken in structuring Islamic financial products, according to geographical areas related to a sample of 121 Sharia board members covering Islamic financial products for 243 Islamic financial institutions in 35 countries