Epistemological shifts in knowledge and education in Islam: A new perspective on the emergence of radicalization amongst Muslims

I theorize that the idea of knowledge and education has shifted in Islam from an inclusive and rational search for all knowledge to a narrowed focus on religious knowledge, void of rationality. By synthesizing literature on education and knowledge in Islam, this study identifies three shifts in the cultural history of Islamic education. I argue that those shifts in what was deemed valuable knowledge have played a significant role in the emergence of radicalization today. The study shows that once the social world of Islam destabilized, the sense of belonging and sense making became inward and less reflexive as compared to that of early Muslims. Belief became privileged over the rationality mechanisms that had previously formed Islamic endeavors. I demonstrate that a decline in intellectual and scientific production followed, allowing extremists to skew Islam’s narrative by putting forward an idealized version of the Islamic caliphate divorced from rationality

Microfiltration tangentielle appliquée à l'oenologie : compréhension et maîtrise des phénomènes de colmatage

La clarification des vins par procédés membranaires en particulier la microfiltration tangentielle a toujours été limitée par le colmatage, générant des flux de perméation faibles incompatibles avec la rentabilité économique. La compréhension, la maîtrise, ainsi que l'anticipation des phénomènes de colmatage font l'objet de ce travail. Dans un premier temps, la contribution individuelle puis en mélange des composés du vin (tannins, pectines, mannoprotéines et levures) au colmatage d'une membrane céramique multicanaux a été évaluée. Une approche fondamentale a permis de proposer des mécanismes de colmatage : la présence des pectines induit les flux de perméation les plus faibles en formant un gel à la surface de la membrane tandis que les levures semblent au contraire avoir un effet protecteur dans le cas d'un vin brut. Parce qu'il représente le flux au-delà duquel un colmatage irréversible apparaît à la surface de la membrane, le flux critique pour l'irréversibilité est un paramètre clef pour contrôler le colmatage. Dans le cas de la filtration de vin, aucun flux critique n'a pu être déterminé ce qui a conduit à définir un critère identifiant une zone de travail où le degré de colmatage reste acceptable. La dernière partie de cette thèse est consacrée à l'étude de la filtration dynamique (RVF) pour une éventuelle application dans le secteur vinicole. Cette technique est testée en présence de deux membranes organiques différentes: PES (hydrophile) et PTFE (hydrophobe). Les observations ont permis de mettre en évidence l'efficacité du système contre le colmatage des membranes PES induite par l'action de l'agitateur. Le colmatage des membranes PTFE est énormément affecté par les interactions molécules/membrane rendant la filtration dynamique inefficace pour lutter contre le colmatage de ces membranes

Microfiltration tangentielle appliquée à l'oenologie : compréhension et maîtrise des phénomènes de colmatage

La clarification des vins par procédés membranaires en particulier la microfiltration tangentielle a toujours été limitée par le colmatage, générant des flux de perméation faibles incompatibles avec la rentabilité économique. La compréhension, la maîtrise, ainsi que l'anticipation des phénomènes de colmatage font l'objet de ce travail. Dans un premier temps, la contribution individuelle puis en mélange des composés du vin (tannins, pectines, mannoprotéines et levures) au colmatage d'une membrane céramique multicanaux a été évaluée. Une approche fondamentale a permis de proposer des mécanismes de colmatage : la présence des pectines induit les flux de perméation les plus faibles en formant un gel à la surface de la membrane tandis que les levures semblent au contraire avoir un effet protecteur dans le cas d'un vin brut. Parce qu'il représente le flux au-delà duquel un colmatage irréversible apparaît à la surface de la membrane, le flux critique pour l'irréversibilité est un paramètre clef pour contrôler le colmatage. Dans le cas de la filtration de vin, aucun flux critique n'a pu être déterminé ce qui a conduit à définir un critère identifiant une zone de travail où le degré de colmatage reste acceptable. La dernière partie de cette thèse est consacrée à l'étude de la filtration dynamique (RVF) pour une éventuelle application dans le secteur vinicole. Cette technique est testée en présence de deux membranes organiques différentes: PES (hydrophile) et PTFE (hydrophobe). Les observations ont permis de mettre en évidence l'efficacité du système contre le colmatage des membranes PES induite par l'action de l'agitateur. Le colmatage des membranes PTFE est énormément affecté par les interactions molécules/membrane rendant la filtration dynamique inefficace pour lutter contre le colmatage de ces membranes. ABSTRACT : Wine clarification by membrane processes mainly cross-flow microfiltration has been limited by membrane fouling generating low permeate fluxes with economic efficiency. Understanding, controlling and anticipation of fouling are the main goals of this work. In a first time, the individual contribution of wine compounds (tannins, pectins, mannoproteins and yeasts) to a multichannel ceramic membrane fouling was evaluated. The fouling mechanisms were analyzed using a fundamental approach. The presence of pectins induce the lowest fluxes by a gel-type formation at the membrane surface while yeasts presence tends to reduce fouling in the case of crude wine (case of mixed components). Because it represents the flux beyond which irreversible fouling appears on the membrane surface, the critical flux for irreversibility is a key parameter to control fouling. No critical flux for irreversibility could be measured, hence a criterion that identifies a range of operating conditions where the degree of fouling remains acceptable was proposed. The last part of this work was devoted to the study of dynamic filtration (RVF) for further application in wine sector. This technique was tested with two different membranes: hydrophilic PES and hydrophobic PTFE. Results have allowed to demonstrate the efficiency of the system to reduce fouling in the case of PES membrane. Fouling of PTFE membrane is greatly influenced by molecules / membrane interaction making dynamic filtration ineffective in reducing of membrane fouling

The Violence of Representation: James, Sargent and the Suffragette

In May 1914 suffragist Mary Aldham, alias Mary Wood, slashed John Singer Sargent’s portrait of Henry James with a meat cleaver. Contemporaries responded to the attack with anger and bafflement, and more recent commentators have also encountered interpretative difficulties. However, when read alongside other suffragist acts of militancy and reactions to these acts, the incident reflects tellingly on a significant web of ideas in James’s work. Focusing on four stories from different stages in James’s career – ‘The Story of a Masterpiece’ (1868), ‘The Liar’ (1888), ‘Glasses’ (1896) and ‘The Beldonald Holbein’ (1901) – this article explores the author’s conception of the particular form of violence involved in portraiture, a violence linked with women’s exclusion from the fields of political and artistic representation. In James’s writing and other cultural sources, women’s infiltration into these privileged spheres is associated with crude commerciality and the debasement of culture; but James’s exploration of the overlap between advertising and artistic representation betrays his deep ambivalence on the subject

Analysis of membrane fouling during cross-flow microfiltration of wine

The aim of this study was to investigate the individual impact on wine molecules as tannins, pectins and mannoproteins on multichannel ceramic membrane fouling during wine cross-flow microfiltration. The characterization of fouling mechanisms involved in the previous filtrations was realized by using the classical fouling models and the analysis of the total resistance curves. It was shown that the obtained initial fluxes are dependant of the nature of the studied molecules and their concentration. According to their increasing effect on permeate flux decline, the studied wine components could be ranked as: mannoproteins < tannins < pectins. During the filtration of wine added with tannins, it was found that the filtrations were governed by the cake layer formation mechanism. The presence of pectins caused the formation of gel-type layer which is found to be compressible under high pressures. For wines added with mannoprotein filtrations, it was shown that there is a threshold concentration above which a plateau value of permeate flux is obtained. Industrial relevance: The cross-flow microfiltration applied to wine filtration has become a legitimate alternative to conventional filtration processes. However, membrane fouling which affects the operating costs and the plant maintenance, limits the widespread application of this technique. To avoid or reduce membrane fouling, it is extremely important to identify the fouling elements and the mechanisms that govern the process. A better understanding of the mechanisms whereby fouling is formed during wine microfiltration may lead to be in position to control fouling or reduce it, to improve cleaning procedures and to adapt the process to the product to be filtered. The results presented in this paper concern the investigation and the understanding of fouling mechanisms by wine colloids (tannins, pectins and mannoproteins). We found that wine colloids had a strong impact on membrane fouling. Independently of their concentrations found in wine, they can be ranked according to their increasing effect on permeate flux as: mannoproteins b tannins b pectins. Such result provides important information and a better vision on the methods which can be used to limit membrane fouling for example the use of pectinolytic enzymes before filtration in order to hydrolyze pectin chains or precipitation of unstable tannins by finning the wine with bentonite. By elucidating fouling mechanisms such as cake layer and gel type layer, we can adapt the hydrodynamic process to control membrane fouling

Impact of the physico-chemistry of the wine on membrane filtration performance

During the process of wine making, operation of cross-flow microfiltration allows a one-step clarification and sterilization of wine, with lower waste compared to the conventional processes of clarification and sterilization. Indeed, these processes are sources of voluminous waste (earth, Kieselguhr, additives), when discharges are becoming more and more restricted by environmental and health rules. Nevertheless, cross-flow microfiltration of wine presents a major drawback: membrane fouling causes a significant decrease in the flow rates, due to excessive retention of some wine components which could lead ultimately to the alteration of the quality of wine. The aim of this work was to study the impact of some specific wine components (phenolic compounds and yeast extract), as well as some physico-chemical parameters (pH) in regard to membrane fouling. Studies were performed using one red wine and synthetic wines, using cellulose acetate membranes (0.2 μm) operated in the dead-end mode under 2 bar pressure. The simultaneous presence of the both species of phenolic compounds (anthocyanins and tannins) in the synthetic wine was shown to be the main cause of fouling, whereas the presence of one specie leads only to standard blocking type behavior. An important decrease in the flow rates was also observed when yeast extract was added to the liquid. This yeast extract was shown to contain 300 mg/g of proteins and to be free of mannoproteins. The influence of these proteins on fouling was demonstrated while pre-treating the synthetic wine with bentonite, which was able to adsorb proteins, and in this case, no fouling was observed. It was also shown that, when decreasing the pH, the flow rate was enhanced. For all experiments, a fouling index or cake specific resistance, according to the type of fouling, was calculated in order to be used as a reference to estimate the filterability of a given wine, according to its composition in some targeted molecules. Finally, the experiments of the actual red wine exhibited complete rapid fouling of the membrane, probably due to the presence of high concentration of phenolic compounds

Making of a Voiceless Youth: Corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina's Higher Education

This research has analyzed a set of structural elements, procedures, and behaviors within Bosnia and Herzegovina's (thereafter, "Bosnia" or "B&H") higher education that have jointly created an encouraging space for the increasing and self-serving utilization of higher education by the country's post-war elite. Of the particular interest is this elite's impact on the forms of educational corruption, which have shifted away from standard bribing processes and moved toward more complex favor reciprocation networks. This process has ensured that today's corruption is perceived as a norm in Bosnia's higher education. Its prevalence has disrupted existing social mobility mechanisms and created a duality in the social mobility process so that the unprivileged still work hard to obtain their degrees while those with social connections are reliant on Turner's (1960) sponsorship model. The analysis goes beyond dissecting corruption's impact on modes of social mobility by redefining Hirschman's (1970) notions of voice, exit, and loyalty within higher education and expanding his theoretical framework to adequately capture and understand the unique set of coping mechanisms that has emerged within Bosnia's corrupt higher education. I reinterpret the voice mechanism that Hirschman sees as a political tool capable of bringing about change as, ironically, severely diminished in its power when observed within a corrupt environment. I further reformulate the notion of exit and contextualize it within the corrupt Bosnian educational system by differentiating amongst various types of exit. In the process, the study finds that Bosnian students often remain in the same educational institution despite the high level of perceived corruption. By ignoring their immediate surroundings and rather than departing physically as Hirschman would expect, students choose to exit mentally from the corrupt operational framework in which they continue to function physically. Lastly, with hard-work and morality marginalized, the question remains open on when the youth will push the educational system in Bosnia toward a tipping point, regain their voice, and transform from an indolent mass to an active reformer. Projects requiring greater transparency of the exam and grading procedures, enhancing external support, and providing spaces for disclosure and adequate management of incidences of corruption, when and if detected, would constitute a meaningful starting point that would help incentivize change. In the absence of concern with the current level of educational corruption, however, the dominance of the incompetent elites will only continue to dilute the effectiveness of the aid being poured into the EU's broader nation-building agenda for post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina

Cross-flow microfiltration applied to oenology: A review

The cross-flow microfiltration applied to wine filtration has become a legitimate alternative to conventional filtration processes. However, membrane fouling which affects the operating costs and the plant maintenance, limits the widespread application of this technique. The aim of this review is to provide a better understanding of the development of the cross-flow microfiltration in wine industry, as well as the complexity of wine composition and its consequences on membrane fouling. This review covers also the impact of the operating conditions and the membrane characteristics on fouling mechanisms. Strategies to limit fouling as well as the latest innovations and commercial proposal are discussed in this paper

How do people radicalize?

Very little is known about how violent extremist practices are learned, and the role of educational channels through which they are spread. This empirical study extrapolates insights specific to the Bosnian and Herzegovinian context to demonstrate how one ultraconservative ideology, Salafism, can radically alter the dominant thinking and behavior of ordinary individuals once they feel displaced from the mainstream institutions and particularly from the formal education. At the core of the displacement and replacement model of radicalization is an informal and tactful teacher, influencer, or a mentor that individuals connect with either online or in person. Using the primary data collected in Bosnia and Herzegovina through 20 in-depth and semi-structured interviews with radicalized persons, the study sequences a ten-step radicalization model through which the interviewees have transformed from ordinary citizens into radicalized actors with a potential to engage in violent extremism

Ending Educational Displacement: Storytelling as a Method for Transformative Learning, Healing, Recognition, Inclusion and Empowerment

There is limited research on the effects of storytelling on the Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) community’s sense of self, particularly on those individuals who have been displaced from their homeland due to violence and persecution. In the field of education, such an analysis is particularly cogent considering that the physical displacement and ethnic segregation the Bosniak community experienced in the 1990s was built on multigenerational displacement from the educational system in the former Yugoslavia. Educational displacement translates into being invisible and unacknowledged in the educational curricula, leaving a permanent imprint on those affected. In the case of Bosniaks, their lived experiences and representations were transposed from mainstream curriculum in schools in the former Yugoslavia, engendering a feeling of a lesser contribution, meaning, and value to society relative to non-Bosniaks. This marginalization still reverberates through Bosniak collective thinking and culture, at home and abroad. This chapter explores the role of storytelling in the process of healing, recognition, inclusion, and empowerment of Bosniaks deracinated by the Bosnian Genocide. Storytelling is a necessary step to heal and gain a sense of belonging for those in diaspora and in the homeland. I investigate the role of The Cat I Never Named: A True Story of Love, War, and Survival in initiating a cross-national conversation within the virtual and physical Bosnia and Herzegovina. Following the book’s release, I received a significant amount of public feedback and reactions from the Bosniak community about the impact of my autobiographical account as a genocide survivor. Through content analysis, I detect patterns in this engagement relating to notions of recognition, identity, empowerment, healing, inclusion, and belonging using theories of transformative learning, incidental learning, educational displacement, and recognition. I demonstrate the power of storytelling that has fueled societal acknowledgment within diaspora communities and broader recognition of the Bosnian Genocide. The following section details the various displacements of Bosniaks in the years leading up to the 1992–1995 conflict with a particular focus on Educational Displacement. The sections thereafter examine the public social media engagement and posts I have received as a measure of engagement from Bosniak diaspora members and those living in Bosnia proper relative to the impact of The Cat I Never Named. I show the effect the book has had on Bosniaks’ sense of self through public social media engagement. I also address the relevance of autobiographical accounts, examine the effectiveness of storytelling, and reflect on my positionality, something the chapters in this volume by Dino Kadich and by Mišo Kapetanović also problematize for scholarship more broadly. The chapter demonstrates how empowerment can happen at the intersection of storytelling, public social media engagement, and education. Keywords: Educational Displacement, Storytelling, Transformative Learning, Healing, Recognition, Inclusion, Empowerment, Bosnian Genocide, The Cat I Never Named, Bosniaks, Muslims, Identity, Adult Learning, Social Media, Truth-telling, Trauma, Survivor, Belonging, Connectedness, Resilience, Representation, Diverse Voice