The Muslim Minority of the Democratic Republic of Congo

AbstractThe history of the Muslim minority community of the Democratic Republic of Congo can be characterized as one of repression and marginalization, especially during Belgian colonialism. Further compounding the struggles of Congo’s Muslim minority have been intense internal conflicts within the community in the post-independence period. This strife resembles Sufi/Reformist tensions in other parts of the continent, but with important variations at the local, provincial, and national levels in the Congo. However, in the post-conflict period a united national leadership has emerged encouraging the proliferation of Islamic associations and their role in post-war development. Perhaps most remarkable about the mobilization of the Muslim minority community in recent years has been the role of the community in providing good quality public education.RésuméL’histoire de la communauté musulmane minoritaire de la République démocratique du Congo peut être caractérisée comme celle de la répression et de la marginalisation, surtout pendant la colonisation belge. Ce qui a encore aggravé les luttes de cette minorité musulmane congolaise, ce sont les conflits internes à la communauté pendant la période post-indépendance. Ces luttes s’apparentent aux tensions sufi/réformistes dans certaines parties du continent, mais avec des variations importantes aux niveaux local, provincial, et national au Congo. Toutefois, dans la période de l’après-conflit, une direction nationale unie a émergé pour encourager la prolifération des associations islamiques et leur faire jouer un rôle dans le développement d’après-conflit. L’aspect le plus remarquable au sujet de la mobilisation de la communauté musulmane minoritaire au cours de ces dernières années est peut-être sa contribution à fournir une éducation publique de qualité

Sigma Terms of Light-Quark Hadrons

A calculation of the current-quark mass dependence of hadron masses can help in using observational data to place constraints on the variation of nature's fundamental parameters. A hadron's sigma-term is a measure of this dependence. The connection between a hadron's sigma-term and the Feynman-Hellmann theorem is illustrated with an explicit calculation for the pion using a rainbow-ladder truncation of the Dyson-Schwinger equations: in the vicinity of the chiral limit sigma_pi = m_pi/2. This truncation also provides a decent estimate of sigma_rho because the two dominant self-energy corrections to the rho-meson's mass largely cancel in their contribution to sigma_rho. The truncation is less accurate for the omega, however, because there is little to compete with an omega->rho+pi self-energy contribution that magnifies the value of sigma_omega by ~25%. A Poincare' covariant Faddeev equation, which describes baryons as composites of confined-quarks and -nonpointlike-diquarks, is solved to obtain the current-quark mass dependence of the masses of the nucleon and Delta, and thereby sigma_N and sigma_Delta. This "quark-core" piece is augmented by the "pion cloud" contribution, which is positive. The analysis yields sigma_N~60MeV and sigma_Delta~50MeV.Comment: 22 pages, reference list expande