El-Sayed El-Aswad

• PhD in Anthropology, University of Michigan Ann Arbor
• Professor at United Arab Emirates University

A broad critical history of the transformation of religious thought in Egypt from ancient to modern periods When a civilization disappears, its heritage does not vanish. It survives in different potentially hybrid forms and becomes part of the legacy of humanity. Religion and the Invisible World is a broad survey of the development and transformati...

This is an interview with el-Sayed el-Aswad (by Hanan ‘Aqil) Haarf Newspaper (Cairo-Egypt). It highlights the anthropological work of el-Aswad in various anthropological fields with emphasis on anthropology of religion and symbolic anthropology.

This research is an anthropological construct of mysticism and psychospiritual transformation in Egypt as represented in historically successive differing forms of religion, embracing ancient religion, Egyptian Hellenistic religion, Christianity and Islam. Mysticism, a process associated with religious experiences, pursues wisdom and euphoric union...

By combining sociological, ethnographic-anthropological and comparative approaches, this study seeks to reveal patterns of behavior associated with two contemporary and pressing phenomena, that of Islamist terrorism and Islamophobia, which embrace forms of racism and ideological, religious, ethnic, social, cultural, media and political prejudice. T...

This is an anthropological study of the hierarchically ordered Muslim cosmology with its seen and unseen spheres. Cosmology and mystic participation in Islam are manifested, for instance, in Sufism (tṣawwuf). This paper proposes that the connection between the visible and invisible spheres of the Muslim cosmology is embodied in the Sufis' bodily ri...

This paper is positioned within broader scholarly debates about ritual‐religious and psychological elements underlying the phenomenon of altered states of mind in Egyptian Muslim contexts. This research examines the intricate relationships between ritual, consciousness, and the unseen/unknowable world reflected in the imagination and practices of u...

Beyond the Veil: Reflexive Studies of Death and Dying is an excellent and admirable edited volume that illuminates the intricate relationship between researchers and their subject matter of death and dying. Going beyond Durkheim's structural-functional analysis of death rituals, the book's contributors, without overlooking the issue of social cohes...

This article does not claim that all Egyptian children view the world identically, but rather confirms certain significant underlying principles upon which their worldviews are constructed. The polarities of local-Global North and South are reconstituted through children’s narratives into flexible and positive attitudes implicit in their activities...

This paper discusses the role played by religion in Egyptian mind and culture.

This article relates to a previous paper entitled “Egyptian Cosmology and the Grand Canyon” published by Tabsir on September 1, 2007. I revisited the Grand Canyon in October this year (2021) to have a closer look that might help with rethinking earlier views. In this present thesis I aspire to shed more light on the obfuscated issue of ancient Egyp...

This article examines the images of the Arabian Gulf before and after the establishment of the Trucial States, presently the United Arab Emirates, in order to understand how such images have been constructed to change the culture of the region. Oriental images of the Arabian Gulf, reflecting the relationship between the Orient (Arab/Islam) and the...

Islamophobia is a fundamental human rights abuse and violation of human dignity that must be challenged. Countering Islamophobia and defending human rights in North America depend on multiple agencies including governments, political parties, think tanks, NGOs, and advocacy organizations. Despite the vigorous activities in combating Islamophobia or...

This chapter is based on ethnographic material from ‘the field’ as well as academic research from the ‘library.’ It is also constructed with research methods well propagated in Quality-of-life studies, anthropology, sociology, social psychology, economics, and media studies. These research methods allowed for the collection and synthesis of data ab...

Three overarching threads woven throughout this monograph are discussed and include: (1) identifying and understanding the outcomes (outputs) resulting from the manufacture and organized dissemination of Islamophobia regionally and globally, (2) identifying economic-political, religious, cultural and media drivers (inputs) behind the spread of Isla...

This chapter sheds some light on the history of the physical and emotional antagonism targeted at Muslims in North America. Islamophobia refers to a multilayered history of fear and hatred of Muslims in the West, in general, and North America in particular. Religious and political exclusions across minorities and ethnic divides are discussed. Speci...

Frequent exposures to biased media depictions tend to cause viewers to accept such depictions as an accurate reflection of reality. The challenge for policymakers is to engage media outlets to mitigate Islamophobia either by imposing regulations that restrict freedom of expression or by adopting a competitive marketplace of ideas, guaranteeing both...

Many educational institutions and schools in North America produce and reproduce structural anti-Muslim racism, impacting the academic achievement and overall well-being of individuals in Muslim communities. Ignorance about Islamic cultures constitutes a major cause of the phenomenon of Islamophobia. Educational policies planned and implemented in...

This chapter investigates the impact of Islamophobia on the economic-political, religious and social well-being of Muslims residing in North America by employing a quality-of-life approach. Islamophobia underpins the dissemination of anti-Muslim ideologies that have resulted in negative quality of life outcomes for Muslims residing in North America...

This chapter addresses the relationship between Islamophobia and its religious and cultural drivers in North America. Religious and cultural drivers of Islamophobia, particularly those pertaining to far-right and conservative faith groups such as evangelical Protestants who are particularly vocal in expressing anti-Muslim rhetoric, are in violation...

This chapter aims to investigate the underlying media drivers of Islamophobia in North America by focusing on how Islam and Muslims in North America are viewed through western media. Muslim communities in North America have been targeted and marginalized by mediated Islamophobia. The involvement of Islamophobes across media outlets and platforms ha...

This chapter, applying notions of market supply and demand, analyzes the economic and political drivers of governments, political parties, political leadership, and far-right, extremist groups who have targeted Muslim minorities, immigrants and refugees in North America. While it is hard to disentangle anti-Islam prejudice from general anti-immigra...

The significance of religion and sanctity in a materialistically oriented and globally dominant and changing world has been a nexus of current debates in anthropological circles particularly those dealing with well-being and health issues. Islam follows an integrated approach to well-being that embraces physical, psychological, social and spiritual...

Presents a critical and cross-cultural review of the discourses and trends of Islamophobia in North America This book puts together grounded research on the discourses that counter Islamophobic tropes in North America. Dealing with an important and urgent issue of human rights, it explores how public policies, new conceptualizations, and social mov...

The objective of this chapter is to provide critical insight into Dale Eickelman’s contribution to the anthropology of Islam in general and the anthropology of the Middle East in particular. I look at the underlying themes of Eickelman’s scholarly work on knowledge, power, hierarchy, forms of authority such as the sacred and the mundane, ways of kn...

This paper discusses Dale Eickelman's scholarly themes and approaches that have had an immense impact on the anthropology of Islam. Although studies that deal with Islamic political thought and movements in Muslim countries are extensive, Eickelman's contribution has provided insights from ethnographic, historical and cross-cultural perspectives, f...

Globalization and international media are potent contributors to the rise of the Islamist global jihad. Among others, a substantial component of globalization is the widespread circulation of digital technologies of communication connecting people all over the world through electronic forms of information. Over the past three decades, "virtual jiha...

This is a review book of Dramas of Nationhood: The Politics of Television in Egypt by Lila Abu-Lughod. The book addresses Egyptian television programs and melodramas of the 1980s and 1990s focusing on two sets of viewers, rural women and domestic workers from rural backgrounds, in Cairo. Interviews also focuses on a more elite population that inclu...

Digital technologies have become increasingly worldwide and effective means of obtaining, safeguarding, promoting and exchanging significant elements of intangible cultural heritage. By applying qualitative and quantitative approaches, this research has investigated the impact of digital technologies on the transformation and promotion of Emirati i...

The significance of religion and sanctity in a materialistically oriented and globally dominant and changing world has been a nexus of current debates in anthropological circles particularly those dealing with well-being and health issues. Islam follows an integrated approach to well-being that embraces physical, psychological, social and spiritual...

The significance of religion and concepts of al‐ghaib (the invisible and unknowable) and sanctity in a materialistically oriented and globally dominant and changing world has been a nexus of current debates in Orthodox Islam. The concept of al‐ghaib is a fundamental principle in Islamic theology; however, it has a profound impact on Muslim’s daily...

The Arabic word, al-ghaib, indicating what is simultaneously absent, unknowable, and invisible, is one of the core concepts in Muslim worldviews. There are extensive orthodox exegeses of al-ghaib made by the "ulama or religious scholars that go beyond the scope of this study which focuses on ordinary Muslims" views and daily lives. This paper asser...

This is a book review of "Love, Sex and Desire in Modern Egypt: Navigating the Margins of Respectability" by L.L Wynn. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2018. 248 pp. (paperback). $29.95. ISBN: 978‐1477317075.

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This book addresses an understudied topic concerning the place that sharia now occupies in the modern corporate workplace in Malaysia.

Analysts have written copiously on ways to counteract radical Islam and Islamist militancy. Current public policy and counterterrorism strategies regarding Islamic militancy have focused mostly on short-term public safety, or what marketers may view as “supply-side” strategies. These are strategies designed to dismantle the marketing organization o...

In this introductory chapter, we expose the reader to a quality-of-life model that addresses the drivers of Jihadist terrorism and deduce counterterrorism programs directly from our understanding of these drivers. Specifically, we provide suggestive evidence to show increased incidence of Jihadist terrorism is mostly motivated by increased negative...

This chapter focuses on cultural and religious factors related to the rise of the Islamist jihadist movement. We make the distinction between the Islamic worldview and ideology and place much of jihadist beliefs that motivate terrorist action in the category of ideology. We discuss the cultural drivers of jihadism couched in the context of religiou...

Are the political actions of authoritarian regimes—tribal and exclusionary—in the MENA region associated with Islamist jihadist terrorist actions? This is the question we will be addressing in this chapter. We do this by describing the history of authoritarian regimes of Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan and jihadist terrorist inci...

This chapter summarizes the MENA region’s rich social, political, cultural, and religious history and brings that history up to the present. The purpose of this summary is to demonstrate that the region’s contemporary history of Islamist jihadism and terrorism is rooted in socio-political forces that have been at play for many centuries, and indeed...

In this chapter we discuss counterterrorism strategies focusing on the demand side of the terrorism market. We do so by focusing of drivers of market demand: culture, religion, economy, politics, globalization, and media. We propose specific counterterrorism strategies that are directly deduced from our analysis of the drivers of market demand.

This chapter discusses five major themes in this chapter directly related to globalization, the media, and their effects on the rise jihadist terrorism in the last 4–5 decades. These themes are (1) globalization and the breakdown of the welfare state; (2) globalization, consumerism, and postmodernism; (3) negative media portrayals of Islam and Musl...

The Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) has been one of the most economically dynamic in the world. The region’s rate of economic expansion, due primarily to its rich oil and well-established human capital reserves, has been among the most robust of the world’s 19 major subregions. And this historical pattern persists into the current period...

About this book This book focuses on the drivers of Jihadist terrorism and explains how a better understanding of these drivers can lead to more effective counterterrorism policies all over the world. It builds on results of the extensive body of quality of life studies to document the historical, geo-political, economic, religious, cultural and me...

Islam is the world's fastest growing religion and its societies are among the most influential worldwide. But that has been case for more than 5,000 years given that the ancient peoples of the countries of the MENA region and, in recent centuries, following the death of the prophet in 632 of the Common Era. What became known as "Arabs" in recent ce...

Drawing on an interdisciplinary approach embracing anthropology, semiology and media studies as well as on fieldwork, the author aims at understanding popular saints as material media that organize social relations between Christians and Muslims in Egypt. However, the author contends that her ethnographic study is not concerned with the comparative...

This is a book review showing that the book views theology to embrace multiple dimensions including, for example, belief, doctrine, ethics, sanctity, spirituality, mysticism, devotional practices, and religious propensities. Within this context, the book addresses theology as being “Muslim” rather than “Islamic” so as to underscore human activity o...

This chapter discusses in broad terms the successes, challenges, quality of life, and overall human development experienced by the Middle East and North African (MENA) region from comparatively ancient to modern times. The chapter provides a rationale for identifying 21 countries as comprising the MENA region as well as for focusing on six selected...

This chapter investigates the staging of the drivers of well-being and social-public policies in the region of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This study provides an assessment of the roles of economic and non-economic drivers related to health, education, economy, and technology in shaping policy priorities and the policy options availabl...

The thrust of this chapter is to designate a holistic construct using interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches. In addition to scholarly literature, the study uses information collected from the world’s largest data collection agencies to analyze a variety of objective and subjective indicators of well-being in the MENA region.

This chapter provides a concise yet essential conclusion highlighting the main findings of the monograph pertaining to quality of life and policy issues among Middle East and North African countries. These findings are addressed by focusing on central points with specific reference to cross-cultural inquiry, historical perspective, progression and...

For analytic and comparative purposes, this chapter focuses on quality of life and well-being issues in selected countries of the Middle East and North Africa, namely Egypt, Iran, Israel, Tunisia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. The study utilizes multiple objective and subjective outcome indicators to assess multiple dimensions of well-being...

This s review of Young Muslim America: Faith, Community, and Belonging (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018). The review shows that the book contributes to both Muslim American studies and identity scholarship as it tackles the identities, views, and roles of young Muslims, particularly those belonging to the second and subsequent generations of...

This book addresses the challenges threatening the quality of life (QOL) and well-being of people living in the MENA region. It focuses on both internal / local and external / global drivers impacting their well-being particularly in the domains of economy, health, and education. Additionally, it presents a critical analysis to help readers underst...

Participation", real or mystical, is used in this paper as an analytical concept in the study of the relationship between "agency" and practices/rituals dealing with traditional medicine in the Middle East. The paper proposes that "participation" creates a sense of agency, an aspect of conscious experience that indicates the feeling of control over...

This is an appropriate and welcome scholarly endeavor that focuses on the very complex and challenging topic of modern Muslim theology. Martin Nguyen, introduces himself as an adherent to the faith of Islam, criticizing classical Islamic theology as being more intellectual and academic than practical as well as being more appropriate for experts or...

This book addresses the challenges threatening the quality of life and well-being of people living in the MENA region. It focuses on both internal / local and external / global drivers impacting their well-being particularly in the domains of economy, health, and education. Additionally, it presents a critical analysis to help readers understand th...

Despite the spread of Western medicine worldwide and despite the view of Orthodox Islamists and Salafists of healing rituals as un-Islamic innovation (bid’a), the traditional healing rituals and exorcism are still practiced in Muslim societies especially among folk people. This study examines cultural and social factors surrounding traditional heal...

The Arab World has received considerable attention by scholars and the media since the global and regional events of September 11, 2001, the financial crisis of 2008 and the Arab Spring of 2011. This research contributes to the scholarship of both quality of life and human well-being and the inquiry of the development and current status of social a...

Welcome to Volume 2 Issue 2 of Horizons in Humanities and Social Sciences: An International Referred Journal (HHSS, published by the CHSS, UAEU). In the 1980s, the Journal of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences was established at the United Arab Emirates University. Since its inauguration in 2015 as a free open access online journal, the...

The paper applies phenomenological insights through which the exegeses of cosmic and psychic energies in Islamic tradition can be systematically addressed. It discusses how the soul (rūḥ) is depicted as a divine secret (sirr ilāhī) made of the light of God (qabas min nūr Allah), while the self (nafs) is equated with conscious and unconscious energi...

Various types of architecture reflect the rapid cultural and social change in both the public and private spheres of a particular society. The scholarly literature addressing the relationship between traditional culture and vernacular architecture in the Emirates society is scant. This is an ethnographic inquiry that treats the vernacular dwelling...

Based on the author's teaching and administrative experiences as well as previous ethnographic studies dealing with education in Arab and Arab Gulf regions this comparative inquiry focuses on three countries: Bahrain, Egypt and United Arab Emirates. This study presents a cross-cultural understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of their educatio...

Over the past five decades, Muslim nations have been challenged by several political elements including, for example, political Islam being influenced by many fundamentalist ideologies. Certain boundaries between religion and state have been crossed to develop particular power oriented ideologies, secular or religious, serving specific groups with...

The study proposes that there are several kinds of cybercrime encompassing malicious activities targeting technology, such as hacking and malware. Hacking, for example, is the action of obtaining illegal access to computers, mobile phones, servers or websites attacking individuals, companies, organizations or government bodies. The majority of hack...

Architecture is an important indicator of the rapid social and cultural change in both the public and private domains of Emirati society. Studies that examine social and spatial organization patterns of traditional architecture are scant. This inquiry discusses cultural and social assumptions as well as the social values that explain the symbolic a...

The literature addressing the evolution of philanthropy, social responsibility and the culture of giving in the United Arab Emirates through civic engagement at societal, institutional, and individual levels is scant. There is a lack of both theoretical and empirical work in this important area of the culture of the UAE. This paper contributes to b...

This study addresses the cultural and political predicaments facing Muslim countries, focusing on the global and local factors behind these predicaments. Globally, Islamophobia and related stereotypes of Muslims in both Western scholarship and media are an offensive and unacceptable to affront human values. Locally, over the past five decades, poli...

The literature concerning the development of philanthropy , volunteerism and the culture of giving in the United Arab Emirates through civic engagement at societal, institutional, and individual levels is limited. There is a lack of both theoretical and empirical work in this important area of the culture of the UAE. This paper contributes to both...

This is book review he book, of Arab Occidentalism: Images of America in the Middle East (Eid Mohamed).The book focuses on images of America as viewed by Arab writers, media reporters, journalists and filmmakers mainly after the tragic events of 9/11.

The history of the annual birthday celebration (mawlid or mulid) of revered persons in Muslim communities goes back to the early period of Islam when Muslims started holding sessions in which poetry and songs were composed to celebrate the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad. Presently, Muslims worldwide celebrate the birthday of the Prophet (mawlid a...

This paper aims at showing the debate concerning the reliability of dreams as a source of information about the identity and its symbolic transformations. Dreams are not merely products of social imagination, but serve to produce new imagination or imaginative worldviews. This inquiry examines how the Emirates society is continually inventing its o...

This paper seeks to trace changes in the images of Emiratis before and after the discovery of oil and the establishment of their state. The study tackles serious questions concerning images of indigenous cultures and tribal-nomadic identities produced by Orientalism. It also discusses the emergence of images of a modern, globalized, and rapidly cha...

The scholarship of metaphor as an analytical concept in the study of Arab society, in general, and Arab women, in particular, is woefully scarce. Based on ethnographic research in Egypt and United Arab Emirates, this paper discusses how culturally shared metaphors used by Arab women in their everyday lives reveal important cosmological and social f...

Intangible heritage is invisible and therefore more difficult to discern than tangible heritage. Intangible heritage, basically immaterial, is incapable of being perceived by all senses except for hearing. This paper examines how invisible-intangible heritage including folk genres such as greetings, proverbs, stories and beliefs among other forms o...

This is review of Religion and Folk Cosmology (in Arabic)

Intangible heritage is invisible and therefore more difficult to discern than tangible heritage. Intangible heritage, basically immaterial, is incapable of being perceived by all senses except for hearing. This paper examines how invisible-intangible heritage including folk genres such as greetings, proverbs, stories and beliefs among other forms o...