The 34th ANNUAL CONFERENCE
of the
Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS)

Muslims and Islam in the Chaotic Modern World: Relations of Muslims among Themselves and with Others

Cosponsored by:
Temple University
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
September 30 – October 2, 2005

• Call for Papers
• Program
• Abstracts
• Final Papers
• Conference Report

Call for Papers

Although Muslims generally consider Islam to be based on divinely-revealed sources of knowledge, Muslim scholarship relating Islam and the local and global realities of Muslim communities has been elaborated historically through complex mediation with social, political, and cultural forces that have shaped and defined the epistemological and political terrain for academic inquiry and debate. The European colonial intrusion into the Muslim world introduced an antithetical stream of influence that created a new multidimensional global dialectic between Muslims and others, and among Muslims. This tended to break the authority of the previous, independent Muslim metanarrative, opening the Muslims to new, competing articulations of religion, race, gender, and class. Added to these are the frenetic and chaotic pressures of the modern world which increase the urgency of the problems.

This conference hopes to explore how Islam and Muslims seek to locate themselves within this changing and kaleidoscopic flux. We encourage papers that engage Muslim and non-Muslim narratives about Muslim relations with others, including other Muslims, in law and religious authority, ethics, citizenship, rights, social and political praxis, identity, and gender, as well as revisit historical forms of knowledge underlying existing discourses in these areas, as they might provide support for their revision.

We welcome a broad range of scholarly papers from across the social sciences and humanities, related to the conference theme. All scholars with relevant work are invited to submit a proposal. Submissions should relate (but are not limited) to the following themes:

Discourses on Muslim Law and Religious Authority

• The Problem of Religious Authority in Islam in the US and the Contemporary World
• The Politics of Sharî‘ah: Understanding the Consequences of Islamic Legal Issues
• Contemporary Muslim Discourses about Just War, Jihâd, and Hirâbah
• Islamic Law and Ethics: A Muslim Responsibility

Discourses on Muslim Relation to Human Rights and Civil Liberties in the West

• Human Rights and Civil Liberties: Connecting to an Existing Model
• Globalization and the Muslim World: Identity, Nationality, and Citizenship
• Muslims as Citizens in the West: Beyond the Suspicion of Dual Loyalty
• Muslim Interest in Domestic Civil Rights after 9/11: The Islamic Community and Beyond

Discourses on Muslim History in Its Modern World Context

• Orientalism and Post-Modernism
• Readings and Re-readings of Muslim History
• Islam in Its World Historical Context

Discourses on Muslim Pluralism: Groups, Trends, and Identities

• Women, Gender, and Islam from Various Discursive Perspectives
• The History, Role, and Importance of African American Muslims in the US and the World
• Contemporary Muslim Trends: Traditionalist, Salafî, Moderate, and Progressive
• Sûfî Spirituality in Its Contemporary Context

Abstracts (250 words) are due June 24, 2005. Accepted proposals will be announced within 14 days. Accepted papers must be submitted by September 10, 2005.

Send abstracts to Conference Coordinator Ms. Layla Sein at conferences@amss.net

Conference Chair: Dr. Khalid Blankinship
Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

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Program

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Abstracts

• Abdul Mutualo: “Imported Religions in Africa: The Case of Islam in Mozambique”
• Ansar M Haroun, PhD: “Psychiatric Evaluation of Suspected Terrorists”
• Dilnawaz A. Siddiqui, PhD: “The Nature of Research Models in the Post-Modern Academe: Is Tawhidi Perspective the Answer”
• Emi Goto: “Hijab and its Religious Grounds: Looking through a Dialogue between Two Egyptian Advisors”
• Firas Ahmad: “Reconciling Rawlsian Liberalism and Islamic States”
• Florian Pohl: “Contemporary Islamic Education and Civil Society: Reflections on the Indonesian Pesantren, Religious Pluralism, and the Empowerment of Women”
• Gerald J. Beyer, PhD: “Just War Theory in the Christian Tradition: Principles, Problematic Areas and Prospects for Dialogue with Islamic Thought”
• Havva G. Guney-Ruebenacker: “Can Muslim Women Lead Prayers?: Reevaluating the Legal and Philosophical Foundations of Women’s Legal Competence in Islamic Law”
• Heon Choul Kim: “Korean Muslims in South Korea: An Analysis of their Identity and Oppressing Problems”
• Itrath Syed: “The Construction of Shari’ah Law Debate in Canada”
• Joseph E. Lowry, PhD: “What is Shafi‘i’ Risala About?”
• Junaid S. Ahmad: “Muslim Citizens of the West: The Struggle to Claim our Humanity”
• Kamran Hashemi: “Religious Legal Traditions, Muslim States and the Convention on the Rights of the Child: An Essay on Relevant UN Documentations”
• Khaled Troudi: “Discourse of the Mu'tazila Concerning the Createdness of the Qur'an”
• Khalid Y. Blankinship, PhD: “Parity of Muslim and Western Concepts of War”
• Maliha Chishti: “The Politics of Community Organizing for Social and Political Change in Muslim Communities”
• Manar Umar Darwish, PhD: “Dealing with American Students' Notions about Islam”
• Mathew J. Nelson, PhD: “Property Rights and 'the Logic of Local Politics' in Colonial and Post-Colonial Punjab”
• Mathew J. Nelson, PhD: “Muslims, Markets, and the Meaning of ‘A Good Education’ in Pakistan”
• Mazen Hashem, PhD: “Attitudes of Muslims toward America: Two Typologies”
• Michelle D. Byng, PhD: “Complex Inequalities: The Case of Muslim Americans after 9/11”
• Nadia Roumani: “Congregations That Get It”
• Nilgun Anadolu Okur, PhD: “Islam, Reform and Turkish Women”
• Robert Riggs: “Lavigerie, White Fathers, and Kabyle National Self-Consciousness: Missionary Endeavors among the Kabyle Berbers of Algeria”
• Roksana Bahramitash, PhD: “Globalization, Islamization, Women’s Employment: A Catalyst for Change”
• Saim Kayadibi: “The Concept of Istihsan (Juristic Preference) as Reforming Characteristics of Islamic Law”
• Salah El Sheikh: “Islam's Moral Economy: A FiqhiConomic Interpretation.”
• Shabana Mir: “Well, They’re Talking: American Muslim Women and Cross-Gender Interactions”
• Shadi Hamid, PhD: “A US-Islamist Rapprochement? Evolution of US Policy toward Political Islam”
• Zeena Tabba-Rida, PhD: “Mothers and Daughters: Shaping the Future Together”
• Zareena Grewal: “Student-Travelers and the Politics of Knowledge”

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Final Papers

• Achmad Munjid: “Militant and Liberal Islam: The Unwanted Twin Children of Modernization- Indonesia, a Case Study”
• Carrie Newton Lyons: “Balancing Constitutional Shari’a in a Religiously Diverse Nation: An Examination of the Future for the Sudan”
• Habeeb Rahman Md. Ibramsa, PhD: “Muslim Modernists and New Hermeneutic Approach to the Prophetic Tradition: Special Reference to the Injunction of Sariqah and Hirébah”
• Helena J. Kaler: “Islamic Responses to Modernity: Ayman al-Zawahiri and Farid Esack”
• Hilman Latief: “The Resurgence of the Lovers of Ahlul Bait: The Identity of the Shi’ite Muslims in Modern Indonesia”
• Ismail bin Mat, PhD: “The Impact of Western Colonialism and Secularization on the Application of the Shari’ah Law in the Muslim World”
• Jim Guirard:“Osama’s Pseudo-Islamic Scam: The Al Qaeda Apostasy”
• Maleeha Aslam: “Religion, Culture and Women’s Morality in Pakistan”
• Peter Gran, PhD: “Structural Adjustment Programs as an Attack on Women, Middle Eastern Women as an Example”
• Phillip Hoefs: “Women in the Sunnah of Muhammad: ‘Amal ahl al-Madinah and its Potential Impact on Women in Islam”
• Sarah Swick: “From London to Andijan: The Rising Global Influence of Hizb-ut-Tahrir among Muslim Youth
• Sylvia Choate Whitman: “Islamic Family Law Issues in American Courtrooms”
• Yasmeen Qadri, PhD: “Strengthening the Ideals of Democracy and Citizenship in Turbulent Times: A Muslim Educator’s Perspective”
• Zahra Boussalah: “Malek Bennabi: An Analytical Study of His Theory of Civilization”

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Conference Report

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