Prison radicalisation: the focus should be on rehabilitation and integration not segregation, Muslim chaplains can help with this

This week the government revealed plans to create separate isolation units for Islamist extremists in high-security prisons. Here, Imran Awan argues that to tackle prison radicalisation we must adopt a broader approach that addresses the rehabilitation and reintegration of offenders back into society. This will require not just tackling structural issues within prisons but also increasing the role that religion, and in particular Muslim chaplains, can play in this rehabilitation process

Food Price Inflation and its impact on Pakistan’s Economy

Food Price inflation an economic challenge in global world. The objective of the study is to examine the demand pull and cost push variables that affect food prices inflation. We use time series annual data from 1980-2013. Data is generated from various issues economic survey of Pakistan and world development indicators. We applied ADF test, Johansen’s co-integration technique, and VECM to analyze the long term and short run relationship between the variables. The result obtained from double log model explores that most significant demand pull and cost push variables are fertilizer prices, fuel prices, money supply, per capita GDP, and foreign aid which are positively related with food prices while exchange rate is inversely related with food prices in Pakistan. The error correction model is also statistically significant and shows that market forces play an active role in restoring long-run equilibrium. Keywords: Food Price Inflation, Johansen’s co-integration, Fuel Prices, Fertilizer Prices, Money Supply, Per capita GDP, Foreign Aid.

Impact of Knowledge Management on Organizational Performance: A Case Study of Selected Universities in Southern Punjab-Pakistan

Knowledge management is an important issue in the business organization. The business firms which is able to manage knowledge will secure competitive advantage and sustainable growth. The objective of this research paper is analyze the impact of knowledge management on organizational performance with respect to selected Universities in Southern Punjab. For this purpose, two Public Universities: Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan and Islamia University of Bahawalpur were selected as a sample of the study. Four variables such as knowledge acquisition, knowledge conversion, knowledge application, and knowledge protection were taken as independent variables while firm performance was taken as dependent variable. Primary data was collected from 200 respondents that include selected Universities’ academic and non-academic staff. The response rate was about 90 and 71 percent among academic and non-academic staff respectively. Five estimation techniques such as Likert scale, Correlation technique, Score Card, Ration and Regression Analysis were used to draw the results. A comparison was also carried out to measure the performance of Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan and Islamia University of Bahawalpur. The results were robust and signification, showing close relationship between knowledge management and organizational performance. The comparative analysis shows that Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan has performed well in managing knowledge vis-à-vis Islamia University of Bahawalpur. The Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan is ahead of Islamia University Multan in terms of faculty, class performance, and research work and admission criteria. Though this study is specific to two big public Universities of Southern Punjab, yet its results can be generalized to other Universities of Pakistan as well as of the Universities in other countries. Keywords: Knowledge creation, knowledge management, knowledge protection, intellectual capital.

Smart handoff technique for internet of vehicles communication using dynamic edge-backup node

© 2020 The Authors. Published by MDPI. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics9030524A vehicular adhoc network (VANET) recently emerged in the the Internet of Vehicles (IoV); it involves the computational processing of moving vehicles. Nowadays, IoV has turned into an interesting field of research as vehicles can be equipped with processors, sensors, and communication devices. IoV gives rise to handoff, which involves changing the connection points during the online communication session. This presents a major challenge for which many standardized solutions are recommended. Although there are various proposed techniques and methods to support seamless handover procedure in IoV, there are still some open research issues, such as unavoidable packet loss rate and latency. On the other hand, the emerged concept of edge mobile computing has gained crucial attention by researchers that could help in reducing computational complexities and decreasing communication delay. Hence, this paper specifically studies the handoff challenges in cluster based handoff using new concept of dynamic edge-backup node. The outcomes are evaluated and contrasted with the network mobility method, our proposed technique, and other cluster-based technologies. The results show that coherence in communication during the handoff method can be upgraded, enhanced, and improved utilizing the proposed technique.Published onlin

Rethinking Islamophobia: From Renaissance to WW1 to the Radical Right

In recent years, there have been numerous studies about the definitions and impacts of Islamophobia. The premise of this article is that by combining a number of different disciplines, including history and literature, we may elucidate further key contexts and realities about Islamophobia. As such, this article is a reflection on Islamophobia as a multifaceted and developing phenomena that in turn requires multidisciplinary reflection. Indeed, we approach the issue from different perspectives: one author is a literary critic and historian (who has written about early modern Europe and curated a high-profile exhibition on Muslims in World War One), one is acriminologist (a leading expert on Islamophobia and a key advisor to the UK government on how it might be defined)

Parents of foreign “terrorist” fighters in Syria – will they report their young?

The mounting tide of foreign fighters leaving Britain for the Middle East to fight, sacrifice or find new lives has blighted European governments and led to the further tightening up of counter-terrorism measures. Since the first British arrest of a Syrian returnee (Choudhury) in 2014, the latest figures of foreign fighter returnees have surged to approximately 800. A number of strategies aimed at thwarting these trends have surfaced including a call upon Muslim parents to scrutinise their children’s attitudes and behaviour and to be watchful of their radicalization. Based on a study in the West Midlands (in the UK), the paper provides a snapshot of how Muslim parents have received calls upon them to report their actual or potentially radicalized children to the police. We argue that current practices are likely to be ineffective unless more democratic spaces are provided for free political expression

Engaging with the Muslim Community in Cardiff: A Study of the Impact of Counter-Terrorism Research

Since the 9/11 attacks in 2001, there have been a number of terrorist suspects arrested in the UK, but ¾ of those people are released without charge (Choudhury & Fenwick 2011). This has led to claims from within these communities that counter-terrorism legislation is both heavy handed and counter-productive. This article presents findings from a pilot research project that examined how best to engage with Muslim communities and to examine perceptions from these communities with regards to counter-terrorism legislation. There were two aims for the pilot study. The first was to provide members of the Muslim community in Cardiff with information about the nature of the study, its objectives and the individuals who would be undertaking the research. The second, following from the first, was to assess the feasibility of different methods of undertaking the research with representatives of Cardiff’s Muslim communities. This in turn would help address issues such as how to gain access to participants; how to obtain informed consent for participation in the research; identifying appropriate methods of data collection; appropriate venues for the fieldwork; identifying ethical concerns arising from the research; and identifying any risks to participants and researchers arising from the research, as well as the strategies needed to overcome these risks. This was a qualitative case study which utilized grounded theory principles to generate a theoretical model and involved interviews with 6 people and a focus group consisting of 3 people. In short, this study offers a blue print for further research into the impact of counter terrorism legislation on Muslim communities in Cardiff and makes a unique contribution to the literature on Muslims in Britain as well as counter terrorism studies as Cardiff’s Muslim communities remain under-researched

Limits of UK Counterterrorism Policy and its Implications for Islamophobia and Far Right Extremism

The UK Government has recently announced a new Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 to facilitate tackling the threat of violent extremism. In light of this and previous initiatives, this paper provides a critical assessment of UK counterterrorism policy. This policy has created a notion of ‘suspect communities’ such that it has alienated young Muslims at the community engagement level, conceivably and empirically, potentially further exacerbating concerns government and communities have over questions of radicalisation, extremism, and the associated political and criminal violence. This paper argues that such policies can lead to the institutionalisation of Islamophobia, acting as an echo chamber for far right extremism to flourish. Significant gaps in government policy in this area can only be addressed by fostering effective relations between communities and policy makers, with enablers such as police officers, youth workers, activists and faith leaders empowered to formulate nuanced approaches in various local area settings. Given the social, cultural and political situation regarding British Muslim youth, including those presently thought to be fighting in parts of Iraq and Syria, as well as ongoing threats on UK soil presented as imminent and dangerous by UK government, there remain acute challenges with limited opportunities