Matching Items (5)
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- All Subjects: religion
- Genre: Academic theses
- Creators: Ali, Souad
- Member of: Theses and Dissertations
Description
Islamist groups in Somalia define themselves by their opposition. From the pre-Islamist movement of Mohammed Hassan in the nineteenth century to al-Itihaad al-Islaami in the twentieth to al-Shabaab in the twenty-first, Islamism exists as a form of resistance against the dominant power of the era. Furthermore these Islamist groups have all been influenced by the type of state in which they exist, be it colonial, independent, or failed. This work seeks to examine the relationship between the uniquely Somali form of Islamism and the state. Through use of historical records, modern media, and existing scholarship this dissertation will chart the development of Islamism in Somalia from the colonial period to the present and explore the relationship Somali Islamism has with various forms of state.
ContributorsFurlow, Richard Bennett (Author) / Gallab, Abdullahi (Thesis advisor) / Talebi, Shahla (Committee member) / Ali, Souad (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
This thesis discusses the intersection of Christian and Blues exegesis and hermeneutics in the life and lyrics of Eddie "Son" House, a Baptist and Methodist preacher and Blues singer who was born in Lyon, Mississippi. It is intended as a biographical case study that highlights and explores the complex and multifaceted relationship between Black Protestant Preaching and Blues Singing/Preaching. In doing so, it critically appropriates Religious Studies theoretical and methodological considerations, orientations, and insights--particularly those from Charles Long and Paul Ricoeur--to examine the life, artistry, ministry, and lyrics of House in light of his expressed religious orientations and dual, often conflicting roles as a Christian Minister and Blues Preacher.
ContributorsBroyles, Michael (Author) / Moore, Moses (Thesis advisor) / Ali, Souad (Committee member) / Anderson, Lisa (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
The ancient religious practices and beliefs of the indigenous people of Northern Scandinavia, known as the Sámi, have been misrepresented and misinterpreted by well meaning ethnographers and researchers who view such practices and beliefs through an Descartes-Cartesian, objective-subjective lens. This thesis develops a more accurate, intersubjective paradigm that is used to illuminate more clearly the religious workings of the 17th-18th Century Sámi. Drawing upon the intersubjective theories presented by A. Irving Hallowell, Tim Ingold and Kenneth Morrison, ethnographic examples from the writings of early Lutheran missionaries and priests demonstrate that the Sámi lived in a world that can be best understood by the employ of the categories of Person (ontology), Power (epistemology) and Gift (axiology).
ContributorsGoettl, Eric Daniel (Author) / Gereboff, Joel (Thesis advisor) / Swanson, Todd (Committee member) / Kristiansen, Roald E. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
This dissertation aims to explore the diverse ways in which piety is conceptualized and cultivated by highly-educated Muslim women in Turkey. These women hold active positions within the secular-public sphere while trying to keep their aim of becoming pious in their own way, in relation to their subjective understanding of piety. After a detailed analysis of the formation of the secular modern public sphere in Turkey, in relation to the questions of modernity, nation-building, secularism, Islamism, and the gender relations, it gives an account of the individual routes taken by the highly educated professional women to particular aspirations of piety. The individual stories are designed to show the arbitrariness of many modern binary oppositions such as modern vs. traditional, secular vs. religious, liberated vs. oppressed, individual vs. communal, and etc. These individual routes are also analyzed within a collective framework through an analysis of the activities of two women's NGO's addressing at their attempt of building a collective attitude toward the secular-liberal conception of gender and sexuality. Finally the dissertation argues that Turkey has the capacity to deconstruct the aforementioned binary categories with its macro-level sociopolitical experience, and the micro-level everyday life experiences of ordinary people. It also reveals that piety cannot be measured with outward expressions, or thought as a sociopolitical categorization. Because just like secularism, piety has also the capacity to penetrate into the everyday lives of people from diverse sociopolitical backgrounds, which opens up possibilities of rethinking the religious-secular divide, and all the other binaries that come with it.
ContributorsTopal, Semiha (Author) / Talebi, Shahla (Thesis advisor) / Cady, Linell (Committee member) / Ali, Souad (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
This dissertation examines the concept of gendered space as it applies to prayer spaces in Islam, particularly mosques and mushollas exclusively for women. Gendered space is often articulated as space created by those with power—men— in order to control women’s access to knowledge and to put them at a disadvantage, thereby maintaining patriarchal structures. Yet, when groups are relegated to or voluntarily choose the margins, those within may transform the margins into sites of empowerment. I consider the dynamics of religious space, including its construction, maintenance, and activities performed by its inhabitants, by focusing on the Women’s Mosque of America in Los Angeles, which opened in 2015, and Musholla ‘Aisyiyah Ranting Karangkajen and Musholla ‘Aisyiyah Kauman, which have been in operation since the 1920s in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. This work is based on ethnographies of the attendees of these three sites in order to explore the experiences of the women and the impact both traditional religious spaces and religious spaces exclusive to women have on their spirituality, ideas of authority, and sense of community. The Women’s Mosque of America and ‘Aisyiyah women’s mushollas create opportunities for women to participate in and contribute to Muslim communities by basing their efforts on the Sunnah and examples of female piety and leadership in early Islam. The present research challenges the argument that gendered spaces are inherently detrimental and must be remedied by a de-gendering process. Rather, the accounts of the attendees of the Women’s Mosque of America and ‘Aisyiyah women’s mushollas speak to the possibilities of creating an exclusive space that privileges those within it, fulfilling the women’s desire of religious knowledge, leadership, community, and piety in ways that traditional religious spaces have at times fallen short.
ContributorsElias Jenner, Bethany Mintha (Author) / Gallab, Abdullahi (Thesis advisor) / Ali, Souad (Committee member) / Brenner, Suzanne (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020