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Content of the main Bulgarian scientific journals for the current year in linguistics, literature, history, folklore, ethnography, archaeology and art studies.
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The paper presents the topics and contributions in the contemporary study of the culture of Muslims in Bulgaria. It discusses scientific publications with an anthropological focus from the post-1989 period, when the theme about ethnic and religious minorities in Bulgaria became particularly relevant. One of the main topics of research is the state policy towards Bulgarian Muslims in the 20th century, which receives a new interpretation and evaluation. The study of inter-confessional relationships remains one of the leading lines of research in the early 21st century, too. Numerous studies have been published on the various ethno-confessional groups – Bulgarian Turks (Sunni, Alevi), Roma, Tatars, Muslim Bulgarians. The publications analyze elements of their culture, issues of religion and identity. Ordinary people, their culture, their strategies for adaptation in the changing social environment became increasingly an object of study instead of political history. Changes occur also in the approach to research; attention is redirected from highlighting the common elements in the culture of Christians and Muslims to analyzing the specificities, the alternative memories, local culture and identity of Muslims in Bulgaria.
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This paper looks into different aspects of compulsory veil in post-revolutionary Iran and discusses this discriminatory and exclusionary law as a social justice problem. The paper also demonstrates and brings into the light a number of consequences related to implementation of compulsory hijab in Iranian society that has led to gender-based violence targeting women.
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One of the essential postulates of political orientation and determination for the building of stable societies and a functioning political system in its content recognizes and imposes the need to examine the relation of relevant political actors to constitutionalism and human rights as concepts and preoccupations for any modern society. Also, constitutionalism and human rights and freedoms as its inseparable category manifest the political values and the corpus of essential and common political goals and commitments of a particular political community. Political Islam as an ideological political subject has its own sources and a valuable orientation framework through which prisms and perceptions can be interpreted or extracted by individual axiological determinants to certain issues. This paper analyzes exactly the relations of political Islam with constitutionalism and human rights, and similarly to the so-called framework it draws attention to the concepts of power, the mechanisms of control and compliance with the Sharia regulations. At the same time, the importance of human rights and freedoms in the Islamic narrative, their nature and scope, as well as the differences with the western established documents in this area are emphasized and analyzed.
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The medieval prisons are part of the Islamic governing system as in the Near East as in the Magreb. The sources about their organization and working methods are rare and straggling. Whatever, medieval Islamic prisons deserve an attention because they are connected with the general institutional environment in the Islamic lands. This article surveys the Islamic prisons in Sicily in the period 9th-11th century. It begins with a review of the emergence of the first Islamic prisons. This information serves as both forming initial impressions and a basis of the subsequent analysis. An important contribution of the article is the collected information from different by language, type and time historical sources. Their careful readings, coupled with a compare analysis, allow us to draw conclusions about the characteristics and location of the medieval Sicilian prisons. Comparison with the prisons in the other Islamic lands over the same historical period shows us common features. This makes it possible to conclude that the penal institutions on the island follow and work on a well-established model.
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The centuries-long coexistence of Christianity and Islam on the Balkans has led to artistic interactions between them in modeling of gravestones and temples. These interactions concern the form of the cultic monuments and not their confessional ideology. The material presented originates mainly from the territory of modern Bulgaria. The study of this phenomenon can continue with the collection of new material throughout the Balkan Peninsula.
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The objective of this article is to outline in the light of the relations between the nation-state and the various religious organizations and individuals the main tensions in the contemporary Bulgarian society concerning the intertwining of religion and secularism. The general goal is to combine the presentation of national historical context, existing legislation and the current social debate based on fieldwork.
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What is the modern understanding of the Islamic fundamentalism today? What is the difference between Islamic fundamentalism and Islamic terrorism? What is the political definition for these two topics? What is the forced public opinion for these social phenomenon? What is political Islam? Where is the common ground between religion and politics? The historical science and the history of the Middle East from the recent past (the last 50-60 years) gives us different answers to these questions compared to the modern political rhetoric from the end of the last century.
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Communication research has systematically pointed to the disparities in news coverage of political candidates from women and minority groups. These differences may hurt the chances of these candidates at being elected. Recently more migrants are entering the political arenas in their adopted Western countries. Migrants have become the center of debates over the rights and wrongs of multiculturalism. In particular, Muslim women, in liberal democracies have been turned into an allegory for undesirable cultural difference. The November 2018 US Congressional race saw an unprecedented number of women especially minority women run for office. Ilhan Omar (representing Minnesota) and Rashida Tlaib (representing Michigan) are the first Muslim women elected to Congress. Both Omar and Tlaib won by large margins. This study examines if local news coverage of Omar and Tlaib’s candidacy was congruent to prevalent schemas in representations of Muslim women and minorities in American media.
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In order to expand their economy and exports and attract foreign investments, tourists and talents, governments are increasingly adopting nation branding strategies as part of their public diplomacy to promote their image and build their reputation on the international scene. Some Arab countries, mainly countries from the Gulf region, have massively invested in branding strategies to raise their profile and build their image abroad. However, Arab countries face negative images related to, among others, gender equality and women’s rights. This paper tries to highlight the impact of gender gap on nation branding, image and reputation building of three Arabic countries: United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar and Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the importance of including this dimension when nations are addressing their image and reputation.
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In the perspective of socialization and self-determination, a society builds its identity on the basis of common values, morality and ethics. Ethos has been identified on this basis and on the basis of national identity. The question is – how people, who profess different religion from the one officially recognized in a country, are being built as a person and socialized in the society. How is the social and national identity build on, if the idea of “the other”, the non-belonging to “us” is underpinned by education? How, children who are educated in the tradition of Islam, with its attributes: language, mentality and religion, create an authentic image of a citizens of one country? This research is based on assumptions and hypotheses, mainly related to the assertion of women professing Islam, in regions with mixed population in Bulgaria, like city of Djebel, and the small villages - Rogozche and Pripek. The emphasis is put on the upbringing of young Muslim girls, who are more restricted than boys in freedom to be what modernity offers as options for their personal self-realization. It is important to see how Islam allows to women to define themselves as a person with equal rights and obligations in the society. How the different influence of cultural identity affects young Muslim women, if its main characteristic is traditional upbringing? Her godliness consists of a long list of duties, which the girl is obliged to observe during all of her life. In regions with mixed population, the main problem with secular education is the language. Most children who attend secular school for the first time - do not know the Bulgarian language. The reason is that until this moment, children are familiar only with their “mother” language – in this case – Turkish. Some of them are used to visit muslim religious school, where they study Arab alphabet, which helps them to learn some Quranic prayers. So in this case - secular education is important and everyone needs to have access to it and to be adequate to communicate with the modern world on higher level. To imagine the everyday life of a woman grown according to the Islamic traditions and even to try to put ourselves in the place of the “other woman”, in this different occasion in the perspective of modernity, we should go in “her shoes”, to walk with her steps and to experience the other, “not ours” sense of reality. The education of Muslim women, being secular or religious, is very interesting topic. It is important to explore the changing lifestyle and daily practices of modern Muslim women in Bulgaria in the context of education, in the view of their religious formation and emancipation under the influence of family, environment, ethnicity and so on.
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Popular preachers and storytellers (quṣṣāṣ; sg. qāṣṣ) appeared towards the middle of the first/seventh century and quickly became the earliest informal historians and exegetes in Islam. Before long, the Umayyad caliphs recognized the political impact of their sermons and institutionalized preaching and storytelling (qaṣaṣ) as a state office. Notwithstanding this fact, informal qaṣaṣ did not vanish altogether, sometimes giving voice to pious discontent with the ruling dynasty. In the present study, I demonstrate that during the Marwānid period qaṣaṣ was combined with judgeship and other official positions. A comparison with documentary sources suggests that during the same period the term qāḍī (judge) was not yet used, and it may have been retroactively grafted onto the Umayyad past by early ʿAbbāsid historical literature. Literary sources also imply the existence of regional hierarchies of quṣṣāṣ. During the second/eighth century, qaṣaṣ lost its significance to the professional collection and transmission of traditions (ḥadīth) for the needs of Islamic jurisprudence and exegesis. Ḥadīth transmitters and critics eventually came to dismiss the quṣṣāṣ with contempt and derision.
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The imprisonment of Muslims in the Belene concentration camp, subsequently called forced settlement of a new residence, as the punitive measure in a more mitigated form, was applied against opponents of assimilation policy almost until the fall of communist power in Bulgaria. The article summarizes data on Turks and Pomaks who opposed the state decisions and repression, sent to the second division of the Belene concentration camp in the first two periods (1949-1953 and 1956-1959) of its history. Then we consider in more detail the imprisonment of Pomaks in relation of the change of names in the almost unexplored by this aspect 1960s and 1970s of the concentration camp. Finally, brief parallels are drawn between the internment in these two decades, and the last, largest forced internment of Turks (1984-1987) in the concentration camp in the name change campaign of 1984-1985 and the subsequent years of repression.
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1. Le cycle: de conférences d’automne du Musée Juif d’Etat en 1971 2. Les études hébraïques à la Faculté des Lettres de l’Université Charles de Prague 3. Bedřich Nosek: Raimundus Martini (Pugio fidei), ses rapports avec le judaïsme et la philosophie islamiqu
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The group of Arabic medieval authors critiqued and condemned the practices of Islam among the Berber tribes in North Africa. This article delves into the medieval debate surrounding Berber Islam, exploring key themes and interpretations of Arab-Berber relations and the unique aspects of intra-religious dynamics in the medieval Islamic West. Through a comparative analysis, it examines medieval Arabic perspectives on the origins of the Berbers, the nature of Berber Islam, accusations of heterodoxy, and the perceived absence of urban culture. The essay also explores Arab authors’ perspectives on Berber rule during the Almoravid (1054–1147) and Almohad (1121–1269) periods. By examining polemical examples, it sheds light on the intricate political landscape of the Maghreb. A detailed investigation into the characteristics of Berber Islam provides insights into the Arab approach to governance in the region, as well as the successes and shortcomings thereof. The consistent negative portrayal of Berbers in Arabic narratives underscores underlying issues within the medieval Islamic politico-religious framework.
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