Volume 1 (2020); Issue 1 (December 2020) in International Journal of Islam in Asia
The establishment of the International Journal of Islam in Asia (IJIA) aims to offer an academic platform for all aspects of research on Islam in Asia, particularly to shed light on understudied Muslim communities. The original intent of creating the journal was to promote scholarly endeavors and research works concentrating on the study of Islam and Muslim societies in Southeast Asia. The region was, and still is, sadly referred to as the periphery of the Muslim world even though it has one of the largest Muslim populations in the world. The Muslim Southeast Asian region manifests a sheer unparalleled diversity of cultures, traditions and mores which have survived for centuries despite the influence of Western modernity, coloniality, and the ascendance of the nation-state system. Through careful and long deliberation among us, the editors, and the publisher, it was decided to expand the regional scope of IJIA to cover the entire Asia and accommodate diverse epistemic backgrounds that could go beyond disciplinary boundaries.
Aside from academic articles, the journal will aim to include policy research that comprises historical and contemporary Muslim communities in Asia and the Asian Muslim diaspora. The journal also aims to cover an eclectic group of articles that vary in their topics such as but not limited to, theoretical, methodological, empirical, religious, spiritual, and critical studies of Islam, including mundane praxes and lived Islam. It is interesting to explore Islamic theories and how they fit or (dis)connected to the ground realities of Muslims’ everyday lives. Moreover, it is necessary to analyze the critical variations of Islamic views when we speak about belief, faith, credence, truth, religion, religious, religiosity, spiritual, and spirituality.
The editors encourage multi-, inter- and transdisciplinarity and eclectic contributions from both scholars and practitioners (e.g. preachers, spiritual/religious leaders, and policy makers) to facilitate a holistic approach towards the study of Islam and of Muslim societies in the entire continent. Although we welcome all research backgrounds and knowledge orientations, for example, a decolonial lens on Islam, we are particularly interested to receive submissions that are relevant to MENA-Asia relations, Islamic thought and intellectual history, Islamic philosophy, intra-Muslim (Sunni and Shi’i) relations, Sufism, canonical and periphery Islam, Islam and ethnicity, Islam and modernity, Islam and politics, Islam and the State, Islam and geopolitics, Islamic Studies and Area Studies, and relations between Muslims and non-Muslims across Asia.
Introduction
Authors: Nassef Manabilang Adiong, Deina Abdelkader, and Raffaele Mauriello
Sinicizing Islam: Translating the Gulistan of Saʿdi in Modern China
Authors: Alexander Jabbari and Tiffany Yun-Chu Tsai
Islamic Feminism and Hegemonic Discourses on Faith and Gender in Islam
Author: Farah Shahin
Buddhism according to Modern Muslim Exegetes
Authors: Ahmad Faizuddin Ramli, Jaffary Awang, and Zaizul Ab Rahman
Religious Tolerance of Madrasa Students according to Their Religious Affiliation: An Empirical Investigation
Authors: Sadia Shaukat and Anthony William Pell
The Defence of National Identity as a Revolutionary Concept: Gharbzadigī, Islamic Modernisation, and Anticolonialism
Author: Alessia Tortolini
Nassef Manabilang Adiong, PhD 