Zwemer Center for Muslim Studies - Understanding Muslims

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Wed, 10 Jun 2009 13:30:00 -0400

We are pleased to offer this new issue in a printable format.

Animism in Islam

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:40:00 -0400

by Samir Ibrahim

Many Muslims believe there is a material world of the senses, and behind it a world of spirits, with whom they have a relationship by means of religion or magic. In pre-Islamic Arabia, the spirit-world consisted of "Allah" and the "Jinn." The link between men and the "Jinn" or spirits were magicians, soothsayers, et cetera. As Islam spread throughout the world, it came in contact with other supernatural beliefs, magical arts, and rituals. Notably, it not only retained some of its former magical practices in Arabia, but adopted certain local animistic concepts and practices.

Spiritual Warfare in the Orthodox Tradition

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:20:00 -0400

by Rev. Dr. David Teague

The first Egyptian desert monastics developed the basis for all later Christian understanding of spiritual warfare. In this paper we will explore this tradition, both in its classical formulation and in the popular teachings of the influential Coptic Orthodox Pope, Shenouda III. In examining Shenouda’s writings, we will mull over ways by which the ancient teaching might enrich our own ministries as mission partners today.

Ethnographic Methods

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:10:00 -0400

by Rabban Sauma

To be an ethnographer means being a particular kind of writer, one who writes about an ethnos: a people, tribe or other social group, including Muslim communities. Christians and Muslims have differences of belief, which deserve serious inquiry, but if you choose to do ethnographic research, you will not be studying Islamic theology or developing a Christian apologetic. You will be a specialist in people, in Muslim men and women: their thinking, their customs, their behavior, and their spiritual life.

Editorial Summer 2009 Edition

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:00:00 -0400

A quote from Samuel Zwemer introduces this edition of the Zwemer Journal for Muslim Studies: "While Moslems profess to believe in one God and repeat His glorious incommunicable attributes in their daily worship, they everywhere permit this glorious doctrine to be buried under a mass of pagan superstitions borrowed either originally from the demon worship of the Arabs, the Hindu gods, or the animistic practices of Malaysia and Central Africa."

Book Review: The Unseen Face of Islam

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:40:00 -0400

by Sam Strauss

This remarkable book on the practices and beliefs of ordinary Muslims is indeed an eye-opener. As the title suggests, most westerners--including missionaries--learn and think only about what is seen. By uncovering what is going on inside the Muslim heart readers will see a much truer face of Islam.

Bibliography for Popular Islam

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:20:00 -0400

by Warren Larson

A comprehensive list of works concerning Popular Islam, including the editor’s bibliography from the class Spirit World of Islam, taught at Columbia International University.

Can Muslims be Modern and stull truly Muslim: Lessons for our post-modern world from the 19th century missionaries in British India

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:10:00 -0400

by Alan M. Guenther, Assistant Professor of History, Briercrest College, Caronport, Saskatchewan

The range of responses by Christian missionaries to the modernization of Islam by Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan in India in the latter half of the 19th century reveals differing conceptions about Islam and how authority is constructed in Islam. The evolution of their understanding of Islam provides a needed balance to some of the stereotypes about Islam and Muslims that are accepted and promoted by Evangelicals in North America today.

"Honor and Shame" in Retrospect

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:10:00 -0400

by Roland Muller

It was fall of 1999 in Saskatchewan. A cold wind kept us sitting close to the crackling fire pit. My good friend Neil and I were arguing, as usual. That’s why we like each other. Neil was adamant that I should not publish Honor and Shame. It was too early. We didn’t have enough hard proof that this new model of worldview would work all across the world. I argued back. Without publishing we might never know. We needed feedback, and lots of it. The best way to get feedback was to publish, and wait for the barrage of criticisms that followed. In the end my argument was a logic that Neil could not counter, so several months later we started mailing out copies.

Talking to Muslims about God: What are the Issues?

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:10:00 -0400

by Warren Larson, director of the Zwemer Center for Muslim Studies at Columbia International University

Not too long ago a Dutch Catholic bishop’s admonition that everyone should refer to God as Allah produced a storm of protest. That incident illustrates a polarization of views as to where the term came from and how it should be used today. It is also indicative of the confusion as to who God really is. On the one hand, a Muslim spokesman for CAIR (Council of American-Islamic Relations) heartily endorsed the statement, because that is what the Qur’an seems to suggest: “We believe in the revelation which has come down to us … our God and your God is one” (29:46).