Zum Verhältnis von Islam und Demokratie

Nigeria kann mit der im Jahr 1999 etablierten Vierten Republik als Nachzügler jenes politischen Transitionsprozesses betrachtet werden, welcher sich in vielen Ländern des subsaharischen Afrikas bereits in der ersten Hälfte der 1990er Jahre vollzog. Dabei dient Nigeria, ein Land mit einer äußerst komplexen und heterogenen Gesellschaft, als Fallbeispiel, um das Interaktionsverhältnis von Islam und Demokratie zu beleuchten. Ausgehend von der These Samuel P. Huntingtons u.a., bezüglich der Unvereinbarkeit von Islam und Demokratie, wird einleitend eine Gegenthese konstruiert, welche davon ausgeht, dass »der Islam« in Nigeria je nach Ausformung sowohl vereinbar als auch unvereinbar mit »Demokratie« in Nigeria ist. Diese Annahme resultiert aus der Tatsache, dass eine allgemeingültige Aussage über den Islam und die MuslimInnen in Afrika, aber wohl auch in Nigeria schwierig ist. Innerhalb der Studie werden sodann zwei zentrale Forschungsfragen verfolgt und beantwortet: Zum einen wird nach den Auswirkungen des Interaktionsverhältnisses von Islam und Demokratie auf die demokratische Entwicklung Nigerias gefragt. Zum anderen wird untersucht, inwiefern die einzelnen Ausformungen des Islam in Nigeria mit den demokratischen Werten Nigerias vereinbar sind. Primäres Ziel der Arbeit ist es, der wechselseitigen Beeinflussung von Islam und Demokratie in Nigeria nachzugehen, wobei einerseits gezeigt wird, dass die große Bandbreite des Islam in Nigeria eine jegliche Verallgemeinerung über ihn unzulässig erscheinen lässt und sich andererseits die diversen muslimischen AkteurInnen im demokratischen Diskurs Nigerias sehr unterschiedlich positionieren und agieren. Werden zunächst im ersten Kapitel der Arbeit Konzepte und Ideen von Demokratie, Islam, »Politischer Islam«, Islamismus und Fundamentalismus präsentiert, nähert sich das darauf folgende Kapitel über eine Langzeitperspektive dem gewählten Forschungsgegenstand an. Diese Herangehensweise scheint dehalb angebracht, weil der Islam bereits seit Jahrhunderten nicht nur eine zentrale Stellung im religiösen Leben Nigerias einnimmt, sondern auch im politischen, sozialen und wirtschaftlichen. Dieser Abschnitt umfasst eine Zeitspanne von der Ausbreitung des Islam über den Transsaharahandel von Nordafrika nach Westafrika bis zur Etablierung der Vierten Republik Nigerias. Darauf aufbauend setzt sich das letzte Kapitel konkret mit dem Interaktionsverhältnis von Islam und Demokratie auseinander. Hierbei wird gezeigt, inwiefern Islam und Demokratie gegenseitig aufeinander einwirken und welche Auswirkungen diese Interaktion für die noch junge Demokratie Nigerias hat. Ebenso werden AkteurInnen aus dem nigerianischen muslimischen Spektrum vorgestellt und deren Verhältnis zur Demokratie untersucht. Bevor am Ende der Arbeit noch die wesentlichen Schlussfolgerungen zusammengefasst werden, wird einerseits noch auf die Wiedereinführung der Scharia in Nigeria im Jahr 2000 und andererseits auf die »ethno-religiöse« Heterogenität des Landes und ihre Auswirkungen auf die Demokratie eingegangen.Nigeria, with its Fourth Republic established in the year 1999, can be viewed as a latecomer of the political transition process, which already took place in the first half of the 1990s in many countries of sub-saharan Africa. Nigeria, with its very complex and heterogeneous society, is used as a case study to look into the interactions between Islam and democracy. Starting from the theses of Samuel P. Huntington and others, regarding the incompatibility of Islam and democracy, an antithesis will be constructed which assumes that Islam in Nigeria takes a shape which is both compatible and incompatible with democracy. This results from the fact that it is very difficult to describe Islam and the Muslims in Nigeria in a generalized way. Within the study, two main questions will be addressed and answered: The first question concerns the consequences of the interaction of Islam and democracy on the democratic development in Nigeria. The second question focuses on the extent to which the individual manifestations of Islam in Nigeria are compatible with the democratic values of this country. The primary aim of this work is the analysis of the reciprocal influences between Islam and democracy in Nigeria, and it will be shown that the broad spectrum of Islam makes any attempt of generalization seem impossible, and that the individual muslim actors in the democratic discourse of Nigeria are positioned and act very differently. The first chapter of this work will present the concepts and ideas of democracy, Islam, »political Islam«, Islamism and fundamentalism. In the subsequent chapter, the main topic of this thesis will be approached via a long-term perspective. This kind of presentation seems adequate because Islam has been taking a very prominent position not only in the religious surroundings in Nigeria, but also in the political, social, and economic environment. This chapter will cover the time between the spreading of Islam via the trans-saharan trade from northern Africa to western Africa until the establishment of the Fourth Republic of Nigeria. Based on this, the last chapter deals directly with the interaction between Islam and democracy. The reciprocal influences between these two factors will be discussed here, together with the consequences of such interactions for the young democracy in Nigeria. Furthermore, individual actors from the entire Nigerian muslim spectrum will be presented, and their relationship to democracy will be discussed. Before the main conclusions of the work will be summarized at the end of the thesis, the re-establishment of the »sharia« in Nigeria in 2000 and the ‘ethno-religious’ heterogeneity of this country together with its influence on democracy will be analyzed

Unification in models with replicated gauge groups

We examine unification of gauge couplings in four dimensional renormalizable gauge theories inspired by the latticized (deconstructed) SM or MSSM in five dimensions. The models are based on replicated gauge groups, spontaneously broken to the diagonal subgroup. The analysis is performed at one-loop level, with the contribution from the heavy vector bosons included, and compared with the analogous results in the SM or MSSM. Unification at or above the diagonal breaking scale is discussed. We find that in the considered class of extensions of the SM(MSSM) unification is possible for a wide range of unification scales and with the similar accuracy as in the SM(MSSM). Unification above the diagonal breaking scale is particularly attractive: it is a consequence of the SM(MSSM) unification, but with the unification scale depending on the number of replications of the gauge group.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figure

Marchas e discursos, nós e praças - Estética, política e publicização depois da Primavera Árabe

A expressão Primavera Árabe designa um movimento variado e muitas vezes contraditório que se espalhou por diversos países árabes em 2011, levando a mudanças de governo em muitos deles. Seus desdobramentos ainda são imprevisíveis em muitos países, levando ora a uma abertura democrática, ora a um recrudescimento da opressão. Seus desdobramentos estéticos, apoiando-se no pensamento ‘estético-político' do filósofo Jacques Rancière, tampouco são definidos ou facilmente rastreáveis. O autor se propõe a mapear e a analisar as implicações desse contexto na produção artística recente dos países árabes analisando algumas obras emblemáticas relacionadas a tal evento

Mapping Utility Scores from a Disease-Specific Quality-of-Life Measure in Bariatric Surgery Patients

AbstractObjectivesTo develop algorithms for a conversion of disease-specific quality-of-life into health state values for morbidly obese patients before or after bariatric surgery.MethodsA total of 893 patients were enrolled in a prospective cross-sectional multicenter study. In addition to demographic and clinical data, health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL) data were collected using the disease-specific Moorehead-Ardelt II questionnaire (MA-II) and two generic questionnaires, the EuroQoL-5D (EQ-5D) and the Short Form-6D (SF-6D). Multiple regression models were constructed to predict EQ-5D- and SF-6D-based utility values from MA-II scores and additional demographic variables.ResultsThe mean body mass index was 39.4, and 591 patients (66%) had already undergone surgery. The average EQ-5D and SF-6D scores were 0.830 and 0.699. The MA-IIwas correlated to both utility measures (Spearman's r = 0.677 and 0.741). Goodness-of-fit was highest (R2 = 0.55 in the validation sample) for the following item-based transformation algorithm: utility (MA-II-based) = 0.4293 + (0.0336 × MA1) + (0.0071 × MA2) + (0.0053 × MA3) + (0.0107 × MA4) + (0.0001 × MA5). This EQ-5D-based mapping algorithm outperformed a similar SF-6D-based algorithm in terms of mean absolute percentage error (P = 0.045).ConclusionsBecause the mapping algorithm estimated utilities with only minor errors, it appears to be a valid method for calculating health state values in cost-utility analyses. The algorithm will help to define the role of bariatric surgery in morbid obesity

Affine Constellations Without Mutually Unbiased Counterparts

It has been conjectured that a complete set of mutually unbiased bases in a space of dimension d exists if and only if there is an affine plane of order d. We introduce affine constellations and compare their existence properties with those of mutually unbiased constellations, mostly in dimension six. The observed discrepancies make a deeper relation between the two existence problems unlikely.Comment: 8 page

Changes in Transcript, Metabolite, and Antibody Reactivity During the Early Protective Immune Response in Humans to Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection.

BACKGROUND: Strategies to prevent Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection are urgently required. In this study, we aimed to identify correlates of protection against Mtb infection. METHODS: Two groups of Mtb-exposed contacts of tuberculosis (TB) patients were recruited and classified according to their Mtb infection status using the tuberculin skin test (TST; cohort 1) or QuantiFERON (QFT; cohort 2). A negative reading at baseline with a positive reading at follow-up classified TST or QFT converters and a negative reading at both time points classified TST or QFT nonconverters. Ribonucleic acid sequencing, Mtb proteome arrays, and metabolic profiling were performed. RESULTS: Several genes were found to be differentially expressed at baseline between converters and nonconverters. Gene set enrichment analysis revealed a distinct B-cell gene signature in TST nonconverters compared to converters. When infection status was defined by QFT, enrichment of type I interferon was observed. A remarkable area under the curve (AUC) of 1.0 was observed for IgA reactivity to Rv0134 and an AUC of 0.98 for IgA reactivity to both Rv0629c and Rv2188c. IgG reactivity to Rv3223c resulted in an AUC of 0.96 and was markedly higher compared to TST nonconverters. We also identified several differences in metabolite profiles, including changes in biomarkers of inflammation, fatty acid metabolism, and bile acids. Pantothenate (vitamin B5) was significantly increased in TST nonconverters compared to converters at baseline (q = 0.0060). CONCLUSIONS: These data provide new insights into the early protective response to Mtb infection and possible avenues to interfere with Mtb infection, including vitamin B5 supplementation.Analysis of blood from highly exposed household contacts from The Gambia who never develop latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection shows distinct transcriptomic, antibody, and metabolomic profiles compared to those who develop latent tuberculosis infection but prior to any signs of infection

Spatial and Spectral Coherent Control with Frequency Combs

Quantum coherent control (1-3) is a powerful tool for steering the outcome of quantum processes towards a desired final state, by accurate manipulation of quantum interference between multiple pathways. Although coherent control techniques have found applications in many fields of science (4-9), the possibilities for spatial and high-resolution frequency control have remained limited. Here, we show that the use of counter-propagating broadband pulses enables the generation of fully controlled spatial excitation patterns. This spatial control approach also provides decoherence reduction, which allows the use of the high frequency resolution of an optical frequency comb (10,11). We exploit the counter-propagating geometry to perform spatially selective excitation of individual species in a multi-component gas mixture, as well as frequency determination of hyperfine constants of atomic rubidium with unprecedented accuracy. The combination of spectral and spatial coherent control adds a new dimension to coherent control with applications in e.g nonlinear spectroscopy, microscopy and high-precision frequency metrology.Comment: 12 page

Mycobacterium tuberculosis volatiles for diagnosis of tuberculosis by Cricetomys rats.

Tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis in regions with limited resources depends on microscopy with insufficient sensitivity. Rapid diagnostic tests of low cost but high sensitivity and specificity are needed for better point-of-care management of TB. Trained African giant pouched rats (Cricetomys sp.) can diagnose pulmonary TB in sputum but the relevant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb)-specific volatile compounds remain unknown. We investigated the odour volatiles of Mtb detected by rats in reference Mtb, nontuberculous mycobacteria, Nocardia sp., Streptomyces sp., Rhodococcus sp., and other respiratory tract microorganisms spiked into Mtb-negative sputum. Thirteen compounds were specific to Mtb and 13 were shared with other microorganisms. Rats discriminated a blend of Mtb-specific volatiles from individual, and blends of shared, compounds (P = 0.001). The rats' sensitivity for typical TB-positive sputa was 99.15% with 92.23% specificity and 93.14% accuracy. These findings underline the potential of trained Cricetomys rats for rapid TB diagnosis in resource-limited settings, particularly in Africa where Cricetomys rats occur widely and the burden of TB is high