Islamic mathematics

The present doldrums position and state of decadence, internal differences, external aggression (geographical and ideological), lack of self-confidence and dependence, illiteracy, political instability, economic disaster, lack of knowledge and wisdom, back benchers in science and technology, education, medicine, trade and business, banking system and defensive incapability of Muslim World prompted me to look at our principal sources of inspiration, which are, the Qur’an, Sunnah of the Prophet (SAW), and examples of the “enlightened Caliphs” and see what is Islam’s view about seeking knowledge, technology and inventions in general and mathematics’ education in particular. We will discuss the nature of mathematics and its scientific status. We will highlight the position of mathematics in Islamic classification of knowledge. We will also discuss the current state of mathematics and future suggestions. We have gathered together some of these impressions; these are all tentative, nothing final about them, but these are here nonetheless

A bibliography and webliography of Arab Chicago

This Lab Note reflects the first stage of a three-year research project known as eChicago. This project is funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services and the full title of the project is Chicago community informatics: Places, uses, resources. Our interest here is to examine the population of Chicago, in particular a subset of ethnicities and community areas, and analyze how these communities are navigating the digital age. Stage one is to understand the communities today and discover how they are represented in cyberspace. Thus our initial products include a webliography/bibliography on each community.published or submitted for publicatio

Biodiversity conservation strategy in Malaysia: from an Islamic perspective

The rapid decline of world’s biodiversity and increasing need of natural resources to accommodate the growing population suggest that the current western philosophy of conservation biology is not achieving its mission and objective as expected in Southeast Asia. The existing religious tools and channels for conservation should be seriously considered. There is a high potential in achieving high standards of conservation biology if management of natural resources adheres to the fundamental principles of Islam in Malaysia. However religious approaches are mainly limited to Islamic norms and treated independently in many parts of Southeast Asia, including Malaysia. Therefore there is an urgent need to synergize Islamic concepts in conservation biology with the existing governance system. It is believed if Islamic concepts are genuinely practised and amalgamated into the existing implementation and governance structure in conservation biology, the future for biodiversity in this region will be bright

Developing an Islamic world view: An essential component of an Islamic education

A traditional Islamic education develops an Islamic outlook to life but does not prepare the student assimilate developments over the past three or four centuries, in particular Western knowledge. A modern Western education inevitably entails absorption of a secular worldview built into the framework of Western sciences. For Muslims, the need of the hour is to develop an Islamic approach to understanding recent history and developments in Western physical and social sciences. Many have attempted the “Islamization of Knowledge,” but have failed to address a central need for this project, namely the development of an Islamic worldview. This paper outlines the necessary requirements.

Including the religious viewpoints and experiences of Muslim students in an environment that is both plural and secular

This paper sets out the context and some main lines of argument about the education of Muslim children in England, including concern over low attainment, over segregation and violent extremism. Three approaches to inclusion of Muslims in mainstream educational settings are identified. The paper describes and assesses the identity-based approach to inclusion common to many English schools using a distinction between permissive and affirmative stances to analyse practice. It proceeds to argue for an epistemology-based approach that makes room for students’ experiential and theological perspectives on the content of their learning

Societal Change and Values in Arab Communities in Israel: Intergenerational and Rural–Urban Comparisons

This study tested and extended Greenfield’s theory of social change and human development to adolescent development in Arab communities in Israel undergoing rapid social change. The theory views sociodemographic changes—such as contact with an ethnically diverse urban setting and spread of technology—as driving changes in cultural values. In one research design, we compared three generations, high school girls, their mothers, and their grandmothers, in their responses to value-assessment scenarios. In a second research design, we compared girls going to high school in an ethnically diverse city with girls going to school in a village. As predicted by the theory, a t test and ANOVA revealed that both urban life and membership in the youngest generation were significantly related to more individualistic and gender-egalitarian values. Regression analysis and a bootstrapping mediation analysis showed that the mechanism of change in both cases was possession of mobile technologies

U.S. Religious Landscape on Twitter

Religiosity is a powerful force shaping human societies, affecting domains as diverse as economic growth or the ability to cope with illness. As more religious leaders and organizations as well as believers start using social networking sites (e.g., Twitter, Facebook), online activities become important extensions to traditional religious rituals and practices. However, there has been lack of research on religiosity in online social networks. This paper takes a step toward the understanding of several important aspects of religiosity on Twitter, based on the analysis of more than 250k U.S. users who self-declared their religions/belief, including Atheism, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism. Specifically, (i) we examine the correlation of geographic distribution of religious people between Twitter and offline surveys. (ii) We analyze users' tweets and networks to identify discriminative features of each religious group, and explore supervised methods to identify believers of different religions. (iii) We study the linkage preference of different religious groups, and observe a strong preference of Twitter users connecting to others sharing the same religion.Comment: 10 page