Identity Doesn\u27t Form In a Vacuum: Deconstructing the Role of Hegemony in the Identity Formation of Religiously Diverse People

In a post-9/11 world, Muslims and Muslim-looking individuals are perceived as a homogenous group characterized as violent, oppressive, and barbaric. Conflating Islam with negative traits both corroborates and instigates the dominant hegemonic forces, which serve as the filter through which and the context within which identities are formed. In order to destabilize these hegemonic beliefs, this paper builds upon James Paul Gee’s (2001) identity theory, specifically what he terms “new capitalism.” This review finds Gee’s identity theory particularly salient in the current political moment in which Muslims and Muslim-looking individuals feel rejected and Othered in the United States. However, some short-comings were identified. To address them, other scholars such as Jasmine Zine and bell hooks are drawn into the conversation, and a new addition to Gee’s theory is suggested – that of hegemonic perspective, or H-Identity. Through greater focus on and isolation of the hegemonic forces which undergird identity formation, scholars will be better equipped to evaluate the impact of hegemony on religiously diverse individuals and minority groups. Further research on the role of hegemony in the construction of identity among minorities targeted by hegemonic forces is needed. This review may be useful in diverse psychological, political, or educational settings

Design of a geodetic database and associated tools for monitoring rock-slope movements: the example of the top of Randa rockfall scar

International audienceThe need for monitoring slope movements increases with the increasing need for new areas to inhabit and new land management requirements. Rock-slope monitoring implies the use of a database, but also the use of other tools to facilitate the analysis of movements. The experience and the philosophy of monitoring the top of the Randa rockfall scar which is sliding down into the valley near Randa village in Switzerland are presented. The database includes data correction tools, display facilities and information about benchmarks. Tools for analysing the movement acceleration and spatial changes and forecasting movement are also presented. Using the database and its tools it was possible to discriminate errors from critical slope movement. This demonstrates the efficiency of these tools in monitoring the Randa scar

PESAN DAKWAH PADA LIRIK LAGU MAHER ZAIN (STUDI ANALISIS PADA ALBUM THANK YOU ALLAH)

Musik merupakan salah satu media penyampai pesan dakwah, dengan menyematkan lirik lagu yang mengandung pesan dakwah sebagaimana dalam Al-Quran dan Hadist. Lagu Maher Zain menjadi salah satu jenis musik yang mengandung pesan-pesan dakwah atau biasa disebut dengan musik religi. Lagu Insya Allah merupakan lagu yang liriknya banyak mengandung pesan dakwah. Untuk menganalisis lagu tersebut, peneliti menggunakan metode kualitatif deskriptif dengan menggambarkan konteks atau pemaknaan pesan dakwah dalam lagu-lagu Maher Zain. Dari hasil analisisnya menjelaskan bahwa lagu ini menyampaikan bahwa Allah swt. Selalu bersama kita  dalam keadaan apapun. Yang mana ketika dihadapi dengan permasalahan dan kesulitan, manusia senantiasa bersabar dan yakini bahwa Allah swt akan memberikan jalan keluarny

FOLKTALES AND RITES OF PASSAGE IN RANDA JARRAR'S A MAP OF HOME

This paper examines the struggle of American-Muslim women to negotiate their identities in literary works published after the invasion of Iraq (20 March-1 May 2003). In this case, I examine Randa Jarrar’s A Map of Home (2008) in order to investigate how Jarrar both negotiates her identity through folktales, naming, and rites of passages. By engaging with postcolonial studies, and working within the frameworks of cultural studies, this paper aims to investigate aesthetic strategies that Jarrar (Egyptian-Palestinian-American) deploys in her writing. Jarrar also respects her Muslim intellectual forebears, such as Muhammad al-Ghazali (Iran), Muhyiddin al-Arabi (Spain), and Jalaluddin Rumi (Turkey), by emulating their tendency to combine in their writings allusions to the Qur’an, ancient storytelling traditions, and contemporary social issues in order to engage with their readers. In doing so, Jarrar uses folktales, naming, and rites of passages to question American belonging and eurocentrism in her fiction. These techniques enable Jarrar to reveal her multiple and complex identities and work to represent both her pride in being Muslims and her desire to claim her rights as American citizens of Muslim descent. Keywords: Randa Jarrar, A Map of Home, folktales, Rites of Passages, US-Muslim women’s literature Artikel ini membahas perjuangan perempuan Amerika-Muslim untuk menegosiasikan identitas mereka dalam karya sastra yang diterbitkan setelah invasi ke Irak (20 Maret-1 Mei 2003). Dalam hal ini, saya meneliti Randa Jarrar's A Map of Home (2008) untuk menyelidiki bagaimana Jarrar menegosiasikan identitasnya dan menentang orientalisme di sepanjang novelnya. Dengan menggunakan studi postkolonial dan studi budaya, artikel ini bertujuan untuk menyelidiki strategi estetika yang Jarrar (Mesir-Palestina-Amerika) gunakan dalam tulisannya. Jarrar juga menghormati leluhur intelektual Muslimnya, seperti Muhammad al-Ghazali (Iran), Muhyiddin al-Arabi (Spanyol), dan Jalaluddin Rumi (Turki), dengan meniru kecenderungan mereka untuk menggabungkan dalam tulisan-tulisan mereka kiasan Alquran, kuno tradisi mendongeng, dan masalah sosial kontemporer untuk menarik pembaca mereka. Dalam hal ini, Jarrar juga menggunakan dongeng, penamaan, dan ritus-ritus untuk mempertanyakan kepemilikan Amerika dan Eurosentrisme dalam fiksinya. Teknik-teknik ini memungkinkan Jarrar untuk mengungkapkan identitasnya yang beragam dan kompleks yang berfungsi untuk menunjukkan kebanggaannya sebagai Muslim dan keinginannya untuk mengklaim hak-haknya sebagai warga negara Amerika keturunan Muslim. Kata kunci: Randa Jarrar, A Map of Home, cerita rakyat, ritus peralihan, sastra Muslimah-Amerika

The U.S.-Iran Track II Dialogue (20022008): Lessons Learned and Implications for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund's Grantmaking Strategy

From 2002 through 2008, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) supported a Track II dialogue involving influential American and Iranian citizens, co-organized and co-facilitated with the UnitedNations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA), under the able leadership of Ambassador William Luers. Recognizing that the U.S.-Iranian relationship presents perhaps the most important and troubling foreign policy challenge facing both countries, the Track II dialogue was launched in December 2002.The purpose of this paper is to examine the RBF's experience with the practice of Track II dialogues in light of other experiments with similar dialogues both as a conflict prevention and management tool and as an important component of a peacemaking strategy

ITS for Teaching TOEFL

Abstract: An e-learning system is increasingly gaining popularity in the academic community because of several benefits of learning anywhere anyplace and anytime. An Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) is a computer system that aims to provide immediate and customized instruction or feedback to learners, usually without requiring intervention from a human teacher.(ITSB) is the tutoring system Builder Which designed and improved to help teachers in building intelligent tutoring system in many fields .In this paper we have an example and an evaluating are presented of building an intelligent tutoring system for teaching TOEFL using ITSB tool

Onion RBS for Disorders Diagnosis and Treatment

Abstract: This research included the design of an initial expert system which helps farmers and specialists to diagnose and provide appropriate advice on onion plant diseases; furthermore, the management of knowledge used in the expert system was discussed. One of the key elements of this research was to find the appropriate language to diagnose the onion disease and the current situation in the knowledge base. Expert systems to be able to effectively implement the consultation, production rules were used to capture knowledge. The expert system was developed using CLIPS with the Delphi language interface. The expert system has produced good results in the analysis of onion disease cases that have been tested and enable the system to determine the correct diagnosis in all cases

ANN for Predicting Antibiotic Susceptibility

Abstract: In this research, an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model was developed and tested to predict efficiency of antibiotics in treating various bacteria types. Attributes that were taken in account are: organism name, specimen type, and antibiotic name as input and susceptibility as an output. A model based on one input, one hidden, and one output layers concept topology was developed and trained using a data from Queensland government's website. The evaluation shows that the ANN model is capable of correctly predicting the susceptibility of organisms to the antibiotics with 98% accuracy