Albert Camus (1913-1960) was an Algerian-French thinker who is heralded for his extensive work on the human experience of 'the now'. The question of existence, of whether there is meaning to life or otherwise is explained with great enthusiasm in his works, The Plague, The Stranger, The Myth of Sisyphu', and Letters to a German Friend, among others. This essay seeks to reconcile the incessant search for meaning in human beings with the motivations of martyrs who carry out suicide attacks across the globe, thus arguably justified in their actions. By means of this text, it is with sincere hope that the lessons extracted from Camus’ work be used to facilitate act of kindness between people near and far.
The majority of Muslim economists agree that developing a proper Islamic economics study as a distinct subject needs the ability to comprehend the past thoughts of Muslim scholars all the way back to the Prophet Muhammad. Such a study would require proper foundations, axioms, scope of study and clear definition of the subject-matter, which could only be furnished by a comprehensive understanding of the thoughts of past Muslim scholars. In fact, the secularized-modern economics study that dominates the economics curriculum nowadays also emanated from past discourses in economic thoughts. Accordingly, Ayman Reda attempts to study in this book the genesis of modern and Islamic economic thoughts, which could help develop the foundations of Islamic economics. By scrutinizing these past ideas and discussions, a researcher may be able to develop the necessary worldview and concepts for the purpose of formulating the axioms of Islamic economics viewed as an independent discipline.
Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas’ writings have developed a framework and theoretical perspective in responding to the Western worldview and scholarship. This is another layer in the trajectory of his works which has mainly gone unnoticed from the beginning. His systematic corpus on the Anglo-Saxon West encompasses, among others, the philosophical and the metaphysical, axiological, moral-cultural, aesthetics and the linguistic dimensions. The dynamics is more often seen in light of Islamic philosophy and metaphysics, as well as Malay-Muslim attitudes and worldview. Al-Attas’ arguments are strongly critical of Western epistemology, European history and society. This essay revisits and rereads two of his works, namely Islam and Secularism, and a journal article, “Islamic Philosophy: An Introduction.” In both works, al-Attas resonates the image of the West in challenging its scholarship.
This book on religion and science and philosophy in the Buddhist perspective is most welcome for several good reasons. First, it is not often that we are treated to scholarly studies of the subject. Even quantitatively speaking, there are only few writings on the subject to go around. Since the middle of the twentieth century there have been many books written on the general subject of religion and science, but most of these writings discuss issues pertaining to the subject from the modern Western perspective, meaning that the religion under discussion is Christianity and the science it encountered is modern science. In short, the writings pertain to the modern Western experience of the encounters between religion and science. Even until today Western academics and scholars are generally ignorant of relationships between religion and science in non-Western civilisations.
This article discusses how zealots exploit the COVID-19 pandemic to amplify Islamophobia in India. Qualitative content analysis of publications, speeches, websites, news bulletins, periodicals, YouTube and social media reveals a surge of anti-Muslim rhetoric and activity. It highlights deliberate misinformation by campaigns and outrages. These include blaming Muslims for the contagion, denying them medical treatment, official justification by doctors to murder Muslim corona patients, and the vandalization, boycott and destruction of Muslim homes, stalls and shops - all under cover of the COVID-19 lockdown.
