The Dynamics Of Muslim Minorities In Finding The Way For Peace

Despite its overwhelmingly Muslim majority, Indonesia has always been seen as exceptional for its diversity and pluralism. In recent years, however, there has been a rise in "majoritarianism", with resurgent Islamist groups pushing hard to impose conservative values on public life – in many cases with considerable success. This has sparked growing fears for the future of basic human rights, and, in particular, the rights of women and sexual and ethnic minority groups. There have, in fact, been more prosecutions of unorthodox religious groups since the fall of Soeharto in 1998 than there were under the three decades of his authoritarian rule. Some Indonesians even feel that the pluralism they thought was constitutionally guaranteed by the national ideology, the Pancasila, is now under threat. This book contains essays exploring these issues by prominent scholars, lawyers and activists from within Indonesia and beyond, offering detailed accounts of the political and legal implications of rising resurgent Islamism in Indonesia. Examining particular cases of intolerance and violence against minorities, it also provides an account of the responses offered by a weak state that now seems too often unwilling to intervene to protect vulnerable minorities against rising religious intolerance.

Peace in Turkey 2023: The Question of Human Security and Conflict Transformation, by Tim Jacoby and Alpaslan zerdem, explores how the Kurdish conflict could possibly be transformed towards positive peace. By drawing on peace, conflict transformation and human security theories, Peace in Turkey 2023 seeks to redress a long-felt concern in Turkey: how to address the current challenge of establishing sustainable peace in the country. What will Turkey look like at its Republic's centenary celebrations in 2023? Will it be able to resolve the Kurdish crisis through peaceful means and successfully transform the conflict towards positive peace? Will it be a country of peace, prosperity, rule of law, and democracy, or will the current violence intensify and continue to polarize society? To address these questions, Jacoby and zerdem use scenario-writing derived from peace theory to highlight new ways to consider political violence and the future of Turkey, this study will appeal to both specialist and non-specialist students and teachers from a diverse range of disciplinary backgrounds.

The International Strategic Research Organization (USAK) has recently published a report named as“Turkish-Russian Relations in The Post-Cold War Period: Current Dynamics, Future Prospects”. This report can be evaluated from this perspective, as it is the first product of the Track II initiative that has started between International Strategic Research Organization (USAK) and Institute of Oriental Studies of Russian Academy of Sciences (IOS). The first meeting was held in Ankara in 19 February 2013 with participation of Turkish and Russian academicians, bureaucrats and decision makers. However, it is just the first step and should be taken to a next level by better coordination and planning in the future. One of the main outcomes of this meeting is that there are so many areas waiting to be addressed as here are so many commonalities in the historical and social contexts of the two countries. In this regard, the potential of cooperation in regional level has not been developed as much as the level of cooperation in the bilateral level. The report tries to cover these issues in three different chapters. In the first chapter, the report focuses on the political aspect of the relations and tries to answer the questions of “How the political relations developed in the last 20 years?”, “What were the main challenges and turning points that helped to establish a vThe report tries to cover these issues in three different chapters. In the first chapter, the report focuses on the political aspect of the relations and tries to answer the questions of “How the political relations developed in the last 20 years?”, “What were the main challenges and turning points that helped to establish a vibrant dialogue between the two states?” and “What are the areas that should be addressed in the near future?”

Winner of the 2016 Julian Minghi Distinguished Book Award of the Political Geography Specialty Group at the AAG Providing important insights into political geography, the politics of peace, and South Asian studies, this book explores everyday peace in northern India as it is experienced by the Hindu-Muslim community. Challenges normative understandings of Hindu-Muslim relations as relentlessly violent and the notion of peace as a romantic endpoint occurring only after violence and political maneuverings Examines the ways in which geographical concepts such as space, place, and scale can inform and problematize understandings of peace Redefines the politics of peace, as well as concepts of citizenship, agency, secular politics, and democracy Based on over 14 months of qualitative and archival research in the city of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, India

The events of 9/11 had a profound impact on American society, but they had an even more lasting effect on Muslims living in the United States. Once practically invisible, they suddenly found themselves overexposed. By describing how Islam in America began as a strange cultural object and is gradually sinking into familiarity, Finding Mecca in America illuminates the growing relationship between Islam and American culture as Muslims find a homeland in America. Rich in ethnographic detail, the book is an up-close account of how Islam takes its American shape. In this book, Mucahit Bilici traces American Muslims’ progress from outsiders to natives and from immigrants to citizens. Drawing on the philosophies of Simmel and Heidegger, Bilici develops a novel sociological approach and offers insights into the civil rights activities of Muslim Americans, their increasing efforts at interfaith dialogue, and the recent phenomenon of Muslim ethnic comedy. Theoretically sophisticated, Finding Mecca in America is both a portrait of American Islam and a groundbreaking study of what it means to feel at home.

This book offers a comprehensive analysis of the multifaceted dimensions of violent extremist groups in South Asia, attending especially to the relationships between the local and regional forces influencing their emergence and activities. In addition, research in the book shows how political, security-sensitive events and processes are framed, and the factors responsible for such framing. Similarly, it discusses prevalent discourses on anti-violent extremism policy and the on-the-ground militarized preventive/reactive interventions they guide, which are inspired by ideologies that increasingly reflect controversial understandings of the experiences of people within conditions of state fragility. In doing so, the book balances attention to local conditions that frame the rise and fall, or persistency, of incidences of violent extremism. The systems-based ecological framing of issues in the book is influenced by a concern for the broader questions of securitization, global governance, poverty, (under)development, and armed conflicts in South Asia.