Australian Journal of Islamic Studies

Editor’s Introduction

Jan Ali — 2024-04-15

Editor’s Introduction.

Evaluating Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Views on Adherence to Islam in Heretic

Rizwan Sahib — 2024-04-15

This study investigates Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s view that adherence to Islam is not viable in secular liberal societies of the West, owing to a so-called clash of norms and values. For Hirsi Ali, this clash causes cognitive dissonance in Muslims and makes them withdraw to Muslim enclaves or become radicalised. This study evaluates these claims by comparing them to findings from ethnographic research with Muslims in the West. The data on Muslim religious life shows, for the most part, Muslims in the West can practice Islamic rituals and behaviours owing to social, individual and religion factors, such that what emerges is a fluid way of life that fits into a secular liberal society. Hirsi Ali’s views are thus a misrepresentation of adherence to Islam. The study takes this to be the outcome of her lack of empirical research with Muslims.

Finding the Moral High Ground

Jade McGarry — 2024-04-15

Immigration and border protection have consistently stood at the forefront of issues that divide Australians ideologically. The scholarly literature in this regard documents the role of conservative right-wing media in the formulation of anti-immigration rhetoric, particularly in relation to Muslim immigrants. This research builds on this literature, further exploring the role of ideology in shaping public perceptions. This study examines how an alternative news outlet – The Unshackled – reported on Islamic issues in 2019, the year prior to the COVID pandemic. While there is significant literature on media representations of Islam and Muslims, few studies have explored the relationship between alternative news outlets’ use of ‘free speech’ to spread anti-Islam and anti-Muslim rhetoric and Muslim immigration to Australia. By examining the coverage of Islam by The Unshackled, this article posits that, through the frame of free speech, the outlet gave voice and authority to unreliable commentators with anti-Islam, nativist views. This led to dissemination of information that lacked credibility and factual accuracy, reinforcing an image of Islam that contributes to negative sentiments regarding the religion and its followers, and further straining relations between Muslims and non-Muslims in Australia.

The Application of Islamic Principles on Entrepreneurship Competence Development Framework

Rinto Muhammadsyah Azhar — 2024-04-15

Entrepreneurship is when you act on opportunities or ideas and transform them into value for others. The value that is created can be financial, cultural, or social. Entrepreneurship has been proven as an important key to propelling economic growth and the world is in an urgent need of more competent entrepreneurs.

Several institutions and scholars have attempted to create a framework to develop this important competence. The European Union has developed the most comprehensive one, which is called the Entrepreneurship Competence Development Framework (EntreComp). Despite its comprehensiveness, the framework is based on a humanism perspective, which negates the supernatural existence and advocates achieving immediate worldly goals and unconstrained creativity. Consequently, EntreComp is incompatible with the Islamic perspective, which puts a transcendental being (God) as the foundation and axis of all things.

The vision of this research is to develop a competent Muslim entrepreneur (Muslimpreneur) through establishing a practical framework called Muslimpreneurship Competence Development Framework (MCDF). The research was qualitative and exploratory. The Islamisation of Knowledge methodology was applied to synthesise the EntreComp to establish a practical MCDF. The EntreComp was instilled and enriched with core Islamic principles and teachings, making the competence development framework more compatible, comprehensive, and effective for Muslim end users.

Islamic Pluralism and the Muslim Voice

Hayba Abouzeid — 2024-04-15

This article examines the parameters of what constitutes the Muslim voice in the West through analysis of Islamic pluralism and modernity. It uses the voices of Said Nursi and Fazlur Rahman to complement the perspectives of outsider voices, Bernard Lewis and John Esposito, who have impacted the attitudes behind the bias in the West towards Islamic identity and practice. Further, it highlights the examination of Islamic pluralism in the West alongside the consideration of Muslim spoken word artists who use their mediums to express the pain and struggles they have endured. This article bridges academic and societal attitudes towards understanding the perceptions of Islamic pluralism in the West.

Revisiting the Crucifixion of Jesus within Islam

Mohamad Younes — 2024-04-15

This article demonstrates that Muslim teachings on the historical crucifixion event of Jesus are by no means monolithic. While the Qur’ān’s reference to the crucifixion has typically been interpreted as fostering explicit rejection of the belief that Christ was crucified, its meaning on this issue constitutes neither denial nor affirmation of its historicity. Over time, discussion of the crucifixion within the Islamic tradition was formed to accommodate a rejection that obscured the neutrality of the original Qur’ānic position. One school of Islamic thought which affirmed the historicity of the crucifixion on a Qur’ānic basis is the tradition of Shi’a Isma’ili Islam. This article focuses on the conceptualisation of the crucifixion within Isma’ilism and its connection with Sunnism. From the Isma’ili perspective, the Qur’ān does not deny the crucifixion of Jesus; rather, it only denies that the People of the Book crucified him, in apparent response to their boasting. The ambiguity of Surah 4:157 remains a vigorous debate among classical and later Muslim scholars with references to the crucifixion as preserved in early and medieval literature furnishing distinctively divergent accounts of its unfolding. Even classical scholars such as al-Ghazali were persuaded by the views about the crucifixion expressed by leading Isma’ili thinkers such as Abu Ḥatim al-Razi (d. 934 CE) and Naṣir Khusraw (d. 1078 CE). Ultimately, the objective of this article is twofold: to demonstrate that the Qur’ān offers a neutral account of the crucifixion and to examine Shi’ite exegetical analysis on the crucifixion event in contrast to mainstream Islam.

Analysing ‘Jihad’ Rhetoric in the Australian Context

Anum Sikandar — 2024-04-15

This paper focuses on how jihad – a term synonymous with ‘struggle’ in Islam – has been associated with and used in entirely different meanings in Australian newspapers. Orientalism permeates Australian newspapers even today and different media outlets tend to follow an agenda when presenting news. The media is a powerful tool and has the capacity to influence people’s perceptions and outlook towards any phenomenon. Australian newspapers’ representation of jihad in a particular context solidifies its meaning as a ‘holy war’ whereas the Qur’ān has an entirely different meaning for this concept. Jihad is used in articles that focus on terrorist activities carried out by Muslims, issues related to Muslim immigration and even when presenting news regarding counterterrorism measures adopted by the Australian government. However, as demonstrated in this article, the representation of these issues varies extensively across newspapers, with The Australian being a much more biased newspaper than the Sydney Morning Herald.