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Language, Islam, and Muslim societies: Perspectives from the Asia-Pacific
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In this study I examine the interplay of Islam, Arabic and intra-Asian student mobility. Specifically, through semi-structured interviews with three Indonesian male students who are pursuing their Arabic medium of instruction (AMI) degrees in Islamic Sharia at the Islamic University of Madinah in Saudi Arabia, I investigate two central questions: (1) What are the driving forces behind Indonesian Muslim students’ mobility to Saudi Arabia for pursuing their degrees in AMI? (2) How do Indonesian Muslim students perceive Arabic in general and AMI programs in particular? The findings reveal that the participants’ desire to move and pursue their AMI degrees in Saudi Arabia were charged with different expectations, objectives and agendas. At the heart of these differences lies what I term as the sacralization of language phenomenon among the participants. This very phenomenon refers to the ways in which Arabic (including its practice) is construed by the participants as beneficial in this world and the Hereafter; as a linguistic vehicle for sustaining Islamic identity; and as a tool through which they show their true engagement with and commitment to Islam and Islamic life. I conclude the paper with a call for serious scholarly engagement with the sacralization of language phenomenon in the emerging scholarship of intra-Asian student mobility within the Asian region.
Purpose
This paper explores the issue of developing and enhancing intra-ASEAN international student mobility given the context of ASEAN integration, regionalization of ASEAN higher education and the various intra‐ASEAN student mobility schemes currently implemented.
Design/methodology/approach
It explores higher education policies, available higher education and international student mobility data, as well as the various intra‐ASEAN (and relevant) student mobility schemes to present the current status of intra‐ASEAN student mobility, challenges and opportunities to further enhance student mobility within the ASEAN region.
Findings
Aside from showing that intra‐ASEAN student mobility is significantly low compared to outbound student mobility from ASEAN countries, the paper also highlights the relationship between a country’s income status with choice of intra‐ASEAN or extraASEAN student mobility. Finally, it recommends developing a comprehensive intra‐ASEAN mobility scheme taking the merits of the various intra‐ASEAN mobility schemes currently implemented and guided by developments in the European ERASMUS mobility programs.
Originality/value
This is probably the first (in fact, it is an exploratory) paper that address the issue of intra‐ASEAN international student mobility, which aims to explore relevant issues to address the development of a comprehensive ASEAN mobility scheme.
Religion plays a pivotal role in some societies, but the interaction between language and religion as a sociolinguistic field of study has not fully been explored. The overlap between the two has recently been considered by Omoniyi and Fishman (2006) . Many studies have been conducted regarding language use within institutional settings, such as schools, universities, workplaces and courtrooms. However, less attention has been paid to language use outside of these settings, such as within religious contexts, although mosques are viewed as institutional in nature. In particular, imams may switch between languages in their sermons in the mosque. To explore this phenomenon, a qualitative study was undertaken by means of simulated recall interviews and non-participant observation with imams ( n = 10) and mosque audiences ( n = 7) where the participants are of Asian pacific origins (Pakistan, India & Indonesia). The study reveals that employing more than one language in one-way religious speech is a means of increasing historical authenticity, exposing audiences to Arabic, overcoming a lack of easy equivalents in English, emphasizing religious authority, assuming audiences’ knowledge of some Arabic features, or accommodating the diverse backgrounds of the audience, some member of whom have knowledge of Arabic. This has been described as having spiritual, historical and emotional significance, invoking religious links associated between Arabic and Islam. Stakeholders, especially audiences, claim benefits beyond the language used in the sermons themselves. Imams, in addition, tend to see the use of both English and Arabic as socially and culturally salient, a means of uniting people in an otherwise often fractured world, or one frequently presented as such in the media.
The Arabic language is associated with Islam and is the language of the Holy Qur’an, which Muslims believe to be God’s words. Due to religious, educational, socio-cultural, and geographic factors, Qur’anic Arabic is revered by many Muslims in the Asian Pacific countries, who use the language to perform religious rituals. Those Muslims use the language as an Islamic lingua franca to communicate with each other. This paper discusses the historical relationship between Islam and Arabic, how this relationship strengthens both of them, and how they both spread across the world, especially to the Asian Pacific countries that have the majority of the world’s non-Arab Muslims. It also sheds light upon the ways in which Islam preserves the Arabic language and converts it into a universal language that is used in all of these countries. This leads the discussion of how learning Arabic in Asian Pacific communities strengthens communication not only among Muslims but also within each Muslim to conduct his/her religious deeds, prayers, and behaviors. The paper also attempts to explore the possibility of learning Arabic as a foreign language by some Non-Muslims in those communities.
This book narrates the movement of an old diaspora across the Indian Ocean over the past five hundred years. Ranging from Arabia to India and Southeast Asia, the book explores the transcultural exchanges—in kinship and writing—that enabled Hadrami Yemeni descendants of the Muslim prophet Muhammad to become locals in each of the three regions yet remain cosmopolitans with vital connections across the ocean. At home throughout the Indian Ocean, diasporic Hadramis engaged European empires in surprising ways across its breadth, beyond the usual territorial confines of colonizer and colonized. A work of both anthropology and history, the book demonstrates how the emerging fields of world history and transcultural studies are coming together to provide groundbreaking ways of studying religion, diaspora, and empire. The book interprets biographies, family histories, chronicles, pilgrimage manuals, and religious law as the unified literary output of a diaspora that hybridizes both texts and persons within a genealogy of Prophetic descent. By using anthropological concepts to read Islamic texts in Arabic and Malay, it demonstrates the existence of a hitherto unidentified canon of diasporic literature. The book's conceptual framework and use of documentary and field evidence are combined to present a vision of this vital world region beyond the histories of trade and European empire.
This article focuses on the study of the relationship between Islam, travel, and learning by conducting a case study on Indonesian Muslim students who studied (or are studying) in Saudi Arabia. Specifically, it examines the changing dynamics of these students who traveled, immigrated to, and studied in Saudi Arabia in search of knowledge from previous centuries to the contemporary era. This article shows that Indonesian students in this peninsula are deeply plural and complex, far from being a monolithic group in terms of social background, religious affiliation, political orientation, major field of study, and motive of their study, among other factors. Thus, the present article aims at demystifying and challenging the common beliefs and narratives which hold that Saudi Arabia–trained Indonesian students have been exporters of Islamist intolerance, radicalism, or even terrorism.
Indonesia has been facing a serious threat from fake news and hate speech which is wildly disseminated through social media. As the largest Muslim-majority country in the world, health issues and their link to religion are one of the most discussed topics on social media in this country. The aim of this study is to introduce a strategy to counterbalance fake news on vaccine issues. This research employed a mixed-method approach that used content of analysis data obtained from social media monitoring. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 participants from various sectors related to vaccine issues. Monitoring of six female Facebook users in anti-vaccine groups revealed that the top five topics discussed in Indonesia were halal certification, conspiracy, adverse effects, adjuvants, and vaccine substitution. This research recommends a communication strategy to counterbalance fake news on the vaccine, employing both medical professionals and trusted, influential members of the religious community to educate the public. They should have a strong background in medical issues and understand Islamic perspectives. The involvement of Ulama (Islamic religious leaders) is important and needed to explain that vaccines do not violate religious law.
This book examines Indonesian educational migrants and intellectual travellers in Saudi Arabia including students, researchers, teachers and scholars to provide a unique portrait of the religious and intellectual linkages between the two countries. Based on in-depth interviews and questionnaires, Sumanto Al Qurtuby identifies the “Indonesian legacy” in Saudi Arabia and examines in turn how the host country's influential Islamic scholars have impacted on Indonesian Muslims. The research sheds light on the dynamic history of Saudi Arabian-Indonesian relations and the intellectual impact of Indonesian migrants in Saudi Arabia.
The Graves of Tarim narrates the movement of an old diaspora across the Indian Ocean over the past five hundred years. Ranging from Arabia to India and Southeast Asia, Engseng Ho explores the transcultural exchanges-in kinship and writing-that enabled Hadrami Yemeni descendants of the Muslim prophet Muhammad to become locals in each of the three regions yet remain cosmopolitans with vital connections across the ocean. At home throughout the Indian Ocean, diasporic Hadramis engaged European empires in surprising ways across its breadth, beyond the usual territorial confines of colonizer and colonized. A work of both anthropology and history, this book brilliantly demonstrates how the emerging fields of world history and transcultural studies are coming together to provide groundbreaking ways of studying religion, diaspora, and empire. Ho interprets biographies, family histories, chronicles, pilgrimage manuals and religious law as the unified literary output of a diaspora that hybridizes both texts and persons within a genealogy of Prophetic descent. By using anthropological concepts to read Islamic texts in Arabic and Malay, he demonstrates the existence of a hitherto unidentified canon of diasporic literature. His supple conceptual framework and innovative use of documentary and field evidence are elegantly combined to present a vision of this vital world region beyond the histories of trade and European empire.
This empirical study explores the current features of English-medium instructed master's degree programs for international students (EMIMDPs-ISs) in Chinese higher education. Since the mid-2000s, a significant number of Chinese universities have proactively engaged in establishing English-medium instructed degree programs for international students. Despite this growing phenomenon, little attention has been paid to this unique knowledge model. This study first examines relevant Chinese government policies and practices, exploring the rationale for the enhancement of EMIMDPs-ISs in current Chinese higher education. It then addresses the findings offered by four leading comprehensive Chinese universities on the case studies of the eight EMIMDPs-ISs in Chinese higher education. The Chinese government and leading Chinese universities have been making an extensive effort to boost China's soft power through the enhancement of international student education objectives. Through an investigation on eight EMIMDPs-ISs, this article identifies that eight EMIMDPs-ISs are well structured to widely disseminate China's excellence and contribute to the enhancement of international education in China. Issues requiring further research and reflection include an examination of the current form of EMIMDPs-ISs (which was created as the stand-alone program for international students) as sufficient in meeting the ongoing demands of international students. Furthermore, conducting consecutive examinations of quality of education and advancing the integration of EMIMDPs-ISs into the regular higher education system would be crucial factors for the further development of EMIMDPs-ISs.
▪ Abstract The effort to know and interact with an otherworld tends to demand highly marked uses of linguistic resources. In contrast to less marked speech situations, in religious contexts the sources of words, as well as the identity, agency, authority, and even the very presence of participants in an interaction, can be especially problematic. Different religious practices alter any of a variety of formal and pragmatic features of everyday language in response to their distinctive assumptions about the world, otherworlds, and the beings they contain. These practices are also mediated by speakers' assumptions about the nature and workings of language. Because such assumptions bear on the presumed nature of human and nonhuman subjects, religious debates often dwell on details of verbal and textual practice. The study of religious language touches on more general problems concerning relations among performance, text, and context. It also reveals chronic tensions between transcendence and the situated natu...
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