The question of sustainability in multi-religious societies underscores interrelating theological, moral and cultural issues affecting the very process of social co-existence, cohesion and development. This article discusses Islam's understanding of the question of sustainability in multi-religious contexts while highlighting the contribution of…

The construction of social identity is an interdisciplinary term, which is a favourite topic for many scholars worldwide. Religion and identity are intertwined regarding the concept of identity construction. In Iran, this relation can best be seen through English as a Foreign Language (EFL) textbooks. To achieve this, this study investigates the…

This contribution reports research into young people's attitudes to religion and religious diversity in secondary schools across the UK. The data indicate that students' respect for the religiosity of their peers, or their lack of it, is due less to the influence of classroom RE (multi-faith or otherwise) than to the experience of religion in the…

The common understanding of Islam tends to consider religious conversion as a matter of individual and rational belief and consisting, first and foremost, of attesting to the oneness of God ("shahada"). In this paper I argue that divergences exist among schools of Islamic Law concerning the modes and types of conversion. Contrary to Muslim jurists…

In many ways the religious sciences are named according to their subjects, methodologies and epistemologies. The historical and modern terminologies of such sciences sometimes create confusions in understanding what the epistemic and methodological differences are amongst them. In this article, the various grounds for religion in terms of theology…

The paper reports and discusses some of the practical and contextual difficulties facing the teaching of Islamic studies within the British higher education environment. The main problems in the author's view stem from the haziness surrounding the discipline definition and the methodology employed in teaching it. This is particularly observed when…

Programmes of Islamic Studies have a longstanding status in a number of Western universities, yet the boundaries of the discipline, its institutional locale and its methodologies are still being questioned. This paper is an attempt to go beyond the discipline's "Eurocentric" settings and reflect on the provision of the subject within its origins…

This paper identifies the crisis in Muslim higher education as stemming from two unacceptable alternatives: (i) ethnically based Islamic education out of step with British culture and (ii) an 'objective' Islamic studies approach which is not held in esteem by the Muslim community. The path forward for Islamic education in Britain lies in…

This article begins to fill a gap in recent discussions of the future of Islamic studies with an account of the nature and significance of Anthropological and Ethnographic contributions to the study of Islam and Muslims. Drawing attention to both the problem of essence in Orientalism and the dissolution of Islam's significance for Muslims in…

This article presents a report submitted to Bill Rammell MP, the Minister of State for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education. The report discusses what measures can be taken to improve the quality of information about Islam that is available to students and staff in universities in England. It also offers recommendations for universities…

This article reports a conference held at the University of Edinburgh on December 4, 2006. The "Islam on Campus" conference had considered a range of issues related to the future of Islamic Studies. It considered whether Islamic Studies should be considered a discipline or a subject area, whether its methods were essentially textual or…

As countries' populations become more religiously diverse, a need to review the religious education syllabus that operates is often perceived. One such country is Zambia, which was not only traditionally religiously diverse but has become even more so with the advent of Christianity, Islam and Hinduism and other non-African faiths. This article…

English-speaking Pakistani university students responded to the Sahin-Francis Attitude toward Islam Scale, along with other religious measures and a social desirability scale. This scale was multidimensional. Correlations with religious measures confirmed its validity and were not explained by a social desirability response set. These data…

There are today a variety of patterns in the different cantons of Switzerland for regulating the teaching of RE. The Swiss system is based on a cooperation between Church and state which varies in relation to the history and character of the differing cantons. This allows for diversity in modes of delivering RE. In two cantons there is complete…

This article examines the need for the Muslim community of Britain to educate their youth with regard to a Muslim "way of life". The aim of this study is to examine the theological basis for Islamic education. It further explores the status of Muslim schools in Britain with regard to culture and religion. This study highlights the exclusiveness of…