Irshad, Mohammed
Advent of Islam in Europe: cultural change and educational diffusion
Islam entered the crossroads of Europe through the conquest of Tariq bin Ziyad in Spain
(711-714), the Berber lieutenant of the government of North Africa, Musa bin Nusair
and in Sicily in 827 at the hand of the Asad bin Furath. In Italy, Islam was not spoken
about until 1965. Muslims are present in Europe since the early middle ages. Muslim
culture once flourished in Andalusia, Sicily, the Balkan and other European regions. A
widespread fruitful exchange between Muslims, Jews, and Christians contributed to
scientific, economic and cultural progress in Europe.
The presence of Muslims in Europe dates back to the middle ages. Despite this fact, a
stable presence of significant Muslim groups estimated number of 10-15 million in
western, central and northern Europe is a relatively new phenomenon. Millions of
Muslims now voluntarily stay in European countries whose majority population is non59
Muslims. Nevertheless in many cases and over centuries, the encounter between
European Christian and Muslims realms and societies was over shadowed by hostility
and warfare. The Muslim conquest of European territory as well as the re-conquest and
the colonial expansions of Europe created fear and antagonist perception of the
respective “other”. The Muslim presence in Europe made the culture of Europeans good
and best, the educational diffusion started after the conquest of Muslims. Many of
worldwide well known scholars, such as ibn seena were the donations of European
Muslims. My paper is an attempt to recover the history of Islam in Europe as it is being
misunderstood throughout the modern world.
Jakson, Peter
The enthralled spectator: Oblique Themes in the Discourse on Cultural Origins
In this paper, I am borrowing the critical notion of the “enthralled spectator” from film
historian Tom Gunning in order to explore its applicability to recurrent themes in the
archaeological discourse on cultural origins. Behind this notion lies an inclination
among in-group members to imagine themselves as profoundly different from those
thought to exist outside of the willing suspension of disbelief. The enthralled specator
remains the vicitm of an illusion, cut off from the wonder of insight and exposure
characteristic of a fully emanicpated rational consiousness. In accordance with the
envisioning of cinema’s first audiences as being passively submitted to an alldominating
apparatus, prehistoric archaeologists have been prone to infer a lack of
agency and symbolic sophistication among early humans from an archaeological record
that simultaneously demonstrates traits of behavioural modernity. By clarifying how
this long-term imaginative capacity is being reiterated rather than scrutinized in modern
scholarship and popular culture, an attempt is made, firstly, to resolve certain lingering
paradoxes in the discourse on cultural origins, and, secondly, to reconsider this
mythically flawed anthropology as an object of historical study in its own right.
Jacobsson, Kerstin
Animal Rights Activism as Secular Sacralism
The paper proposes to see animal rights activism as an instance of secular sacralism.
Although most activists do not share the beliefs of traditional religion, there are many
parallels to a religious universe. Both the activists’ view of the world and many of their
collective practices, it is suggested, can be understood in terms of the elementary forms
of religious life, as outlined by Durkheim, or as functional religion. Animal rights
activists confer a sacred status to animals, activists give witness of strong experiences of
awakening and conversion, after which they see the world in a new light and with a
strong commitment to act. Another religious parallel is the aspirations for purity among
activists and the protection of the sacred core from contamination. Moreover, rituals are
essential for the building of collective identity, the sustention of moral commitment and
also for invigorating the activists emotionally. The analysis draws on 18 interviews with
Swedish animal rights activists.
Jensen, Tim
Why Ethics Must Be a Part of RE
In countries with a confessional religious education (RE), 'Ethics', 'Ethics &
Philosophy', or Werte und Normen' is offered to those who opt out of the confessional
RE. This is, historically and logically speaking, explainable, but not optimal. RE ought
be a non-confessional compulsory RS based RE that includes teaching about ethics,
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religious and non-religious. The paper argues why, from a scholarly RS, from a RE
didactic and from a strategical, i.e. political cum educational point of view.
