Interfaith Marriages in Islam: A Case Study of Christian Wives of Muslim Rulers

Force Conversion is adaptation of a different religion or irreligion under duress. Some who have been forced to convert may continue, covertly with the beliefs and practices originally held, while outwardly behaving as converts. At many places the Orientalists put the statement that Islam basic purpose is to establish sovereignty throughout the globe and its primary purport deals with ‘authority’, ‘political’ and ‘economic’ matters for which it also used force for the implementation. Although it is an erroneous statement as Islam’s basic purport is religious, pure and simple; it deals with other social issues. While Islam stressed upon free will and there is no restriction in accepting other religions. As other religions are not in pure form now and Islam is being preserved by Allāh, so it teaches to submit oneself to the Will of Allāh. The early converts to Islam were the Prophet (peace be upon him) close friends Abu Bakr (may Allāh be pleased with her) and his family members in which his faithful wife Khadija (may Allāh be pleased with her), his cousin Ali were on the top, sand his slave Zayed. None of them argued and accepted Islam immediately. Among them Abu Bakr (peace be upon him) enjoyed prominent place among Arabs and with his influence five people accept Islam in which Sa’ad, Zobeir, Talha, Othman and Abd-al-Rahman who were member of prominent families. Abdul Rahman converted four people of his family. Likewise Bilal (may Allāh be pleased with her) was the first slave, ransomed by Abu Bakr (may Allāh be pleased with her). These early converts of Islam were men of piety and dignity.1

Sino-Us Strategic Interests in the Post Cold War Era: A Case Study of Asia-Pacific

The Asia-Pacific region blusters over half of the globe’s population and as residue of major powers centre including the main arteries of international economies like India, China and Australia etc. Due to its dynamism, there are plausible reasons that Asia-Pacific would emanate as the mother region in the coming days. Historically, with the concurrence of US, Japan and Australia, the concept of Asia-Pacific emerged which has legalized the US’ involvement in the issues related to East Asia. In plain term, Asia-Pacific region invokes Asia, Australia and West Coast of North America for its potentials to crop up as a galvanic force. Strategically, covering 22 percent of world land, Asia-Pacific is one of the important and eloquent regions that comprises three well developed Economic Powers of the World i.e. China, Japan and US. In addition, the region encompasses world''s six largest ports and six vital Sea Lanes of Communications i.e. straits of Makassar, South China Sea, Lombok, Malacca, Ombai - Wetar and Sunda. Due to the US’ involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq, Chinese managed to fill the vacuum and improve its economic ties with its Southeast Asian neighbours. China has the economic and technological influence all over the world with approximately 6 % average annual growth rate and an anticipation of taking over the economies of Japan and US by 2016 and 2039 respectively. However, rise of China coupled with its outreach to the global markets poses a consistent challenge to the US’ dominance hence emerges as a key challenge of 21st century to US’ interests at global and regional levels. As a result of which, US’ policy has been re-patronized towards Asia-Pacific for maintaining and expanding security network, strengthening the economic relations with her new and old allies and concurrently focuses on containment of China. In addition, US’ rebalancing has been claimed to strengthen bilateral security alliances with its allies, expanding trade and investment, promotion of democracy and human rights but China views the pivot as containment strategy and provocation act. Asia-pivot, a major shift in American policy shows that America has already started to calculate its options for dominating the region, both politically and militarily. US has been increasing its military components to reach to 60 % of total force ratio in Asia-Pacific region by 2020. In addition, US has been giving military assistances to Japan, Vietnam, Philippines etc in support of their territorial disputes against China. Amidst these developments, US-China engagement in Asia-Pacific and subsequent power transition have surfaced complications for regional states relations. Keeping in view the likely power transition between China and US, the difference in the Sino-US power potentials shall persist for coming 30 years but it will be reduced to some extent however, conflict cannot be completely ruled out as and when China attains power parity with the US. The rise of China was also examined in detail, providing an overview of how China’s role evolved in this regard and how the international community responded to this phenomenon. The perceptions of Sino-US relations are grounded in the intent and subjective understandings of each other’s interests and compulsions. These perceptions can easily determine how best the two states interpret each other’s actions in the wake of China’s rise and US Rebalancing of Asia-Pacific. In wholesome Sino-US cooperation in power transition and maintenance of friendly relations is the only option because why both the states should afford to engage themselves in conflict. In addition to adding new contribution to the existing body of literature, this research will help the readers to attain an understanding of the major issues of contention and convergence between China and US in the region. The contribution will be of significance nature in creating a framework within which Chinese and American regional policies can be understood and may serve as reference for policy makers and students of international politics.