Sunni Islam has no supreme legal authority and disagreement by doctors of Islamic law over all issues not clarified by Islamic law is physiological. This is the case with Medically Assisted Reproduction: after an initially critical attitude, tolerance, limited exclusively to homologous practices, is spreading, whilst recourse to heterologous practices is considered on a par with adultery or for...

In this beautifully crafted book, Timur Kuran provides a remarkably rich analysis of how Islamic law impeded economic progress in the Middle East and North Africa. Kuran’s views are fresh and powerful, and they are subtle. He does not claim that Islamic law was generally bad for economic activity. He does not claim that prohibitions on interest denied credit to merchants or entrepreneurs. Nor d...

the fact that the prophet did not achieve much success in mecca in converting the people to islam after 13 years of missionary work and that the people of medina turned to islam although the prophet was not physically present is one of the little understood questions in the history of islam. the present paper seeks to study, from a sociological point of view, the reason why the people of mecca,...

2 Muslims are currently the largest religious minority in Western Europe. This presence of Islam in Europe is a direct consequence of the existence of pathways of immigration (that opened up in the early 1960s) leading from the Western States' former colonies in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean. Following the official end of work-based immigration in 1974, the integration of such immigrant popul...

The aim of this paper is to sketch a line of interpretation of certain political-philosophical discourses on 'Islam in Europe' through the interrelated concepts of appropriation and redemption. Muslim presence in Europe is generally perceived as 'problematic.' A specific vocabulary, including terms like 'liberal dilemma,' 'defense of freedom,' 'Muslim exceptionalism', and 'specification of acce...

The events of September 11 have focused attention on just how bad things can be for women living under the rule of Islamic extremists. The Taliban’s inhumane treatment of women in Afghanistan has led many in the West to conclude that Islam itself defines a subordinate role for women that is incompatible with reproductive choice. In reality, however, Islamic thought is flexible on reproductive m...

all of religions free towards society in Kazakhstan. Considering that Islam is more widespread religion in the region, Islamic industry is developing sector of Economy. There are some new sectors of Halal (Islamic) industry, which have importance for state developing on the whole. One of the youngest sectors of Halal industry is Islamic tourism, which became an object of disputes and led to dil...

An interview study of 44 Bangladeshi patients and relatives in London demonstrated simultaneous trust in psychiatrists as well as in the widespread use of healing amulets. At the same time, local Islamic clerics and traditional healers were seen by many with some degree of suspicion. The authors offer an interpretation in which local healers and their methods are regarded ambivalently: the more...