Muslim Religious Militancy: Causes and Cure

Islamic religious militancy is a matter of great concern for the Muslim and the non-Muslim world today. The analysis of the ideology of the militants reveals that they find the legitimacy of their military activities in the ideal of the establishment of an Islamic state to establish the universal rule of Islām, and in the specific interpretations of some Qur’ānic verses, Aḥādīth of the Prophet (r), and also from the establishment of the Islamic state in Madīnah by the Prophet (r), his the military expeditions and those of his companions against their opponents and from the treatment of our historians of the individual military campaigns against the Muslim regimes of their times. The Muslim militants also fight against their Muslim governments on the grounds that they are not the true Islamic governments. The militants do not bother to kill the common Muslim masses, who vote and support such rulers. They take it as collateral damage. The world naturally reacts to this cult, especially the west, being at the helm of the world politics. Not only do the West tries to crush the Islamic militants, across the world, but also, topple the Muslim democratic governments having any ideal of an Islamic Khilāfah. This frustrates the peaceful political activists and strengthens the military activists, further. To end this ongoing and mounting cult of religious militancy, it is necessary to review the specific and traditional interpretations of the academic sources of Islām: Qur’ān, Ḥadīth and Fiqh, regarding the legitimacy of militancy in Islām. Secondly, to remove their misconceptions, it is necessary to engage the militants in dialogue through a counter narrative, which the author tried to present here.

Developing an Understanding and the Teaching for Citizenship in the Social Studies Classroom

This small-scale action research project explores the possibilities and challenges involved in facilitating social studies teachers in understanding and teaching for citizenship. Citizenship education will enable students to acquire the knowledge, skills and attitude to be informed, active and responsible citizens. However, the assumption is that in most cases the goals and objectives of citizenship education are not met due to the teachers' limited knowledge and expertise with regard to the subject of social studies being taught by them. The pressures from the management of the school, parents and on going assessment are also some of the factors that hinder the enrichment of the social studies curriculum. In relation to these factors my study focuses on developing teachers' understanding and practice in teaching for citizenship in the social studies classroom, as one of the important ways to ensure achieving the goals and aims to prepare citizens who are responsible, active and caring towards their society. To conduct this study, I worked collaboratively with two secondary social studies teachers in a private school of Karachi, Pakistan. The action research began by studying the existing perceptions and practices for the teaching of citizenship. Subsequently, an action plan was prepared to facilitate understanding and practice of teaching for citizenship. The data were collected through classroom observations, semi-structured interviews, and the researchers' journal. The data analysis was an on going process, whereby after each action, data was reflected and analyzed upon for further action. The data from the study illustrates some possibilities that facilitate the teachers' understanding and practice of teaching for citizenship. The possibilities that have been mentioned here are: the supportive and open learning environments for teachers to learn, providing opportunities for students to make decisions in the classroom such as in setting the test timetables, electing their classroom monitor and working cooperatively with one another. Furthermore, the study illustrates the challenges faced in the process were the unavailability of time to meet collaboratively and to conduct classroom research during the assessment time. The study concludes by presenting key learning experiences during the study, and suggests recommendations for further collaborative action research.