The Place of Scripture in the Trajectories of a Distinct Religious Identity among Ravidassias in Britain: Guru Granth Sahib or Amritbani Guru Ravidass

This article highlights narratives, collected as informant testimonies, relating to trajectories of a distinct religious identity among the Ravidassia community in Britain. Current tensions surround the replacement of the Guru Granth Sahib with the Amritbani Guru Ravidass in Ravidassia places of worship. This is primarily in response to cartographies of the Ravidassia identity as distinct from Sikh identity. The opinions of Ravidassia individuals, from a varied age range, expressed in interviews conducted at various periods during 2010–2012, are considered in relation to dominant discourses emphasising the importance of one hegemonic ‘Ravidassia’ scripture. The interview data highlight three main positions among the followers of Guru Ravidass: (1) Ravidassias seeking a distinct identity but preferring to retain the Guru Granth Sahib in Ravidassia places of worship, (2) Ravidassias demanding a distinct identity by installing the Amritbani Guru Ravidass, (3) Ravidassias wanting to maintain their link with the Panth as Sikhs or as Ravidassi Sikhs

Menentang negara sekular : kebangkitan global nasionalisme religius

Bandung320 p.; 24 cm

Teror atas nama Tuhan : Kebangkitan Global Kekerasan Agama

Jakartaxxiv, 410 p.; 23 cm

Thinking Sociologically about Religion and Violence : The Case of ISIS

How do we make sense of a movement like the Islamic State, where violence and religion seem to be inextricably intertwined? Though observers sometimes accuse religion as causing the problem, and other observers think that such movements have nothing to do with it, my approach is to focus on what some scholars have called the culture of violence: the analysis of worldviews. The sociological task is to understand these worldviews in social context, to determine the social and political factors that have shaped communities that embrace distinctive worldviews. This essay focuses on the social and political development of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, explores the notion of worldview analysis in general and as applied to this movement, and determines that there are at least three different kinds of worldviews related to groups of followers who may survive, in different ways, the eventual collapse of the territorial control of the movement