Corruption and Bribery in Islamic Law: Are Islamic Ideals Being Met in Practice?

Islam looks to a significant degree to moral development within the individual to strengthen resolve and foster self-restraint. The focus is upon shaping the higher-order preferences elaborated in the Qur’an and the Sunnah through the law of Sharie‘a, reinforced by a powerful spiritual incentive system. Both legal systems—domestic and international—can learn from the Islamic legal system. To get a better understanding of this law, Part I will present a brief survey of Islamic law and Fiqh (“Islamic Jurisprudence”), sources of this law, the famous Islamic schools of jurisprudence (“Fiqh Al-Mazaheb/madhhabs”), and then an overview of the fundamental legal principles in the Sharie‘a penal system. The purpose of this article is to present a comprehensive Islamic legal description on corruption in so far as its definition, elements and types of crimes, causes, and remedies are concerned, which will be covered in Parts II and III. Part V concludes that like positive criminal laws, bribery and corruption are taboo in Sharie‘a law because they are considered grave criminal offenses and a great sin. However, Muslim nations have been deficient in addressing the issue in their national laws and have failed to meet the lofty standards of Islam. Cite as: 18 Annl. Survey Int\u27l. Comp. L. 171 (2012)

Effects of different complete dentures base materials and tooth types on short-term phonetics

AbstractObjectiveThis study aimed to identify the effect of various types of complete dentures, base materials, and teeth types on patients' short-term phonetics.MethodsA quasi-parallel study was conducted at the dental clinic, Faculty of Dentistry at Al-Azhar University-Assiut Branch in Egypt. Fifty healthy participants with complete dentures were enrolled in the study. The enrolled patients were grouped into two main batches: three groups in batch one and two groups in batch two. The three groups in the first batch received three different denture base materials (flexible acrylic resin, heat cure acrylic resin, and chrome cobalt metallic base). The two groups in batch two received different types of teeth (acrylic and porcelain teeth). The five groups completed a questionnaire composed of items pertaining to demographic characteristics, and the researcher obtained data about phonetics.ResultsThe sound level was significantly higher in the group of dentures constructed of chrome cobalt metallic base in comparison to the other materials. Additionally, the sound level in porcelain teeth was significantly higher than that in acrylic teeth. The material used to construct teeth was one of the major determinants influencing phonetics.ConclusionPhonetics is affected by the material used to construct the base of complete dentures and the teeth type. Complete dentures with a chrome cobalt metallic base and porcelain teeth are considered to be superior for improving phonetics

The prohibition of wearing veil in public schools in Egypt: an analysis of the Egyptian Supreme Constitutional Court jurisprudence

Case No.8 of 1996 is a landmark decision of the Egyptian Supreme Constitutional Court (“SCC”) and represents one of the most significant judicial rulings of a structural remedy for the interpretation of Article 2 of Egypt 2014 Constitution. The jurisprudence of the SCC is essential to advance a moderate (liberal), rights-protecting interpretation of Sharie‘a. In this case, the SCC held that a rule on face-veiling in public schools is compatible not only with Islamic law, but with certain human rights guaranteed by the Constitution:, as freedom of expression and freedom of religion. This decision dealt with the SCC’s view on Islamic ijtihad (legal reasoning), and, gives insight into the Court’s views on civil and political rights context

Ideal and some applications of simply open sets

Recently there has been some interest in the notion of a locally closed subset of a topo- logical space. In this paper, we introduce a useful characterizations of simply open sets in terms of the ideal of nowhere dense set. Also, we study a new notion of functions in topo- logical spaces known as dual simply-continuous functions and some of their fundamental properties are investigated. Finally, a new type of simply open sets is introduced

After the Revolution: Egypt\u27s Changing Forms of Corruption

Egypt’s revolution of January 25, 2011 was impelled by a desire to eliminate “conventional corruption,” a particular kind of corruption that occurs when government officials illegally abuse public office for private gain. Illegal quid pro quo transactions, including acts of bribery, are prominent examples of conventional corruption. This form of corruption is to be contrasted with “unconventional corruption,” a form of corruption that has (thus far) been absent in Egypt. Unconventional corruption occurs when elected officials put personal campaign finances ahead of the public interest without engaging in a quid pro quo transaction. These different forms, conventional and unconventional corruption, are not necessarily exhaustive of the universe of corruption. However, classification of corruption in these terms serves a purpose: when conventional corruption decreases, there is often a correlating increase in unconventional corruption. This relationship is relevant for purposes of analyzing corruption in Egypt because Egypt’s new constitution, although imperfect, provides for greater restraints on executive power, and thus, in turn provides a foundation for a reduction in conventional corruption. However, as a result, problems of unconventional corruption are likely to emerge. Fortunately, unconventional corruption is not an inevitable side effect of progress—it can be contained. With a certain bit of insight and courage, the people of Egypt can reform their campaign finance system and bring forth a true democracy—one where elected officials make decisions not for the benefit of potential political funders, but rather, for the benefit of the people

Study of quality of life and its determinants in patients after urinary stone fragmentation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This study was designed to evaluate the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of patients who had undergone lithotripsy for treatment of urinary stones and to identify factors that significantly affect the HRQOL of these patients.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A comparative cross-sectional study was performed at the main university and main Ministry of health hospitals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. All patients admitted to the urology service and who underwent lithotripsy for urinary stones during a 9-month period were included in the study. An observation period of 3-15 months following the last treatment was allowed before patients completed the QOL questionnaire. Information on socio-demographic, and medical characteristics, and number and type of lithotripsies were collected. The Medical Outcome Study Short-Form 36-item survey (SF-36) was used to assess HRQoL. For comparison, the HRQoL in an equal number of healthy individuals was investigated; multivariate analysis of variance was used for comparisons between groups.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Compared with healthy subjects, lithotripsy patients had significantly higher mean scores in the different subscales of the SF-36 questionnaire such as physical functioning, vitality, role-physical, role-emotional and mental health, indicating a better HRQOL. Compared with patients who underwent ureteroscopic or extracorporeal shock-wave lithotripsies, those who underwent percutaneous lithotripsy had significantly worse mean scores for all the SF-36 scales, except for body pain. Factors impacting HRQOL of the patients were age, obesity, diabetes mellitus, and stone characteristics such as localization (in the kidney) and recurrence (multiple lithotripsies).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Post-lithotripsy, patients have a favorable HRQOL compared with healthy volunteers. Further prospective studies are warranted to confirm these results owing to the inherent limitations of the cross-sectional design and backward analysis of this study.</p

After the Revolution: Egypt\u27s Changing Forms of Corruption

Egypt’s revolution of January 25, 2011 was impelled by a desire to eliminate “conventional corruption,” a particular kind of corruption that occurs when government officials illegally abuse public office for private gain. Illegal quid pro quo transactions, including acts of bribery, are prominent examples of conventional corruption. This form of corruption is to be contrasted with “unconventional corruption,” a form of corruption that has (thus far) been absent in Egypt. Unconventional corruption occurs when elected officials put personal campaign finances ahead of the public interest without engaging in a quid pro quo transaction. These different forms, conventional and unconventional corruption, are not necessarily exhaustive of the universe of corruption. However, classification of corruption in these terms serves a purpose: when conventional corruption decreases, there is often a correlating increase in unconventional corruption. This relationship is relevant for purposes of analyzing corruption in Egypt because Egypt’s new constitution, although imperfect, provides for greater restraints on executive power, and thus, in turn provides a foundation for a reduction in conventional corruption. However, as a result, problems of unconventional corruption are likely to emerge. Fortunately, unconventional corruption is not an inevitable side effect of progress—it can be contained. With a certain bit of insight and courage, the people of Egypt can reform their campaign finance system and bring forth a true democracy—one where elected officials make decisions not for the benefit of potential political funders, but rather, for the benefit of the people

Experimental and Analytical Investigation of the Response of a Triboelectric Generator Under Different Operating Conditions

This article provides experimental and theoretical studies on the effect of operating conditions on the output response of triboelectric generators. The influence of specific parameters is examined in detail, including vibration frequency, impact separation distance, and the type of adhesive between the dielectric and the electrode for a single dielectric layer device operating in contact-separation mode, with Teflon and copper being the dielectric and electrode materials, respectively. A scotch-yoke mechanism is designed and fabricated in an effort to understand the effect of varying the operating conditions on the output voltage behavior. The voltage output is compared with an analytical capacitor model at drive frequencies ranging from 1 to 5 Hz and separation distances from 5 to 40 mm to evaluate the model's effectiveness in predicting generator output. The experimental results provide new insights into the behavior of triboelectric generators and how the type of adhesive between the dielectric material and the electrode affects the output signal.</p