TOL STORE BY TOPIC "religion"

Tracing the movements of the Sephardic Jews to the Balkans - following their expulsion from Spain during the Inquisition - Schwartz draws on place names, historical chronicles, epitaphs, folk ballads, banned books, and the media. He explores the travails, and remarkable cultural achievements of these communities who, hundreds of years after the trauma of forced exile, were almost entirely destroyed in the Holocaust.

The richness of the literature, poetry, myth, and printing, and the intermingling of Orthodox, Jewish, Catholic, and Muslim communities in the Balkans is explored - from Sabbatai Zvi, who declared himself the Messiah in the 17th century, and who, under pain of death chose conversion to Islam; the rare and wondrous scripts of Aramaic languages known almost from the beginning of human history; the evolution of the Jewish mercantile industry; to the 'Renaissance Jewish Traveller' Abraham Kohen Herrera, a convert under duress during the Inquisition who later discovered his Jewish heritage through mysticism, and who may have been the model for Shylock in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice.

This is not only an historical analysis, but also a personal journey. The author's poignant descriptions of attempted pilgrimages to Jewish cemeteries and synagogues throughout the Balkans are testament to his yearning for historical pride and proof of existence.

In August 1992 an American journalist uncovered the existence of Serbian nationalist-run internment camps in northeastern Bosnia, near the village of Prijedor. (One photograph taken at Trnopolje then, of an emaciated man behind barbed wire, was circulated globally and became infamous.)

In fact, the entire region had been something of a laboratory of ethnic cleansing, and human-rights violations were rampant; the International Court has already condemned many of the perpetrators, with other cases pending.

Since the end of the war, in December 1995, more than 3,000 people have been declared missing, and more than 10,000 people who fled persecution have returned to resettle in Prijedor.

Isabelle Wesselingh and Arnaud Vaulerin have produced a long and passionate enquiry, which does not merely reconstruct past events but attempts to understand how it is possible for anyone to return under the circumstances. How can the former victims co-exist with those responsible for their suffering, or with those who took advantage of it? What is left to say about the war today, and the crimes that were committed? Which memories ought to be preserved? Has justice been served? What is the role of the international community? Finally, is it possible to conceive of a genuine reconciliation?

What emerges here is a vivid memoir, replete with extraordinary characters and infused with the wish to bring about a durable - but lucid - peace. Blending reportage, investigation and analysis, and containing interviews with refugees, camp survivors, war criminals and international agents, Wesselingh and Vaulerin's book is a tour de force that poses questions essential not only to the future of the former Yugoslavia but to all of Europe.

This book is devoted to the study and analysis of the prospects for democracy among the Muslim ethnicities of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), both those that have acquired full independence and those remaining within the Russian Federation. The nineteen Western academics and scholars from the Muslim countries and regions of the CIS who contribute to this volume view the establishment of democratic institutions in this region in the context of a wide and complex range of influences, above all the Russian/Soviet political legacy; native ethnic political culture and tradition; the Islamic faith; and the growing polarity between Western civilization and the Muslim world.

The trend of democratization is not always linear. Nor can democracy be judged by the same standards in all societies. The new Muslim states of the CIS and the Muslim peoples of the Russian Federation are intent on constructing their societies on the basis of their own traditional culture and customs. The issues involved in seeking democratic models which can be adapted to societies which are Islamic and have significant, even dominant ethnic groups and strong authoritarian legacies are certainly relevant to other regions of the world and have implications for the challenges being faced today in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The essays included in this volume demonstrate that, despite the short-term obstacles on the path of democracy and pluralism and on the establishment of a true market economy and an effective civil society, there are forces at work which might make it possible to forge ahead.

Oil, Islam, and Conflict: Central Asia since 1945

The Taliban is resurgent in Afghanistan while Chechnya still struggles under a shadow of violence, and the nations surrounding them are barely more stable. Add in the significant reserves scattered throughout Central Asia and you have a volatile political cocktail that makes the region, in Rob Johnson’s words, the “new Middle East.” In Oil, Islam and Conflict, Johnson provides an essential analysis of the region’s tumultuous history and uncertain future.

Johnson examines the problems that have plagued the region, including civil wars in Afghanistan and Tajikistan and burgeoning Islamist terrorist movements in several nations. He explains the complex role played by narcotics, ethnic tensions, and the potential wealth from oil and gas reserves in the region’s political maneuverings, and delineates the complex links between civil violence and the policies of Central Asian governments on such crucial issues as human rights, economic development and energy.

A timely investigation, Oil, Islam and Conflict will be required reading for all those invested in the threat of terrorism and the future of energy security.

Denial and Repression of Antisemitism: Post-communist Rememberance of the Serbian Bishop Nikolaj Velimirovic

Examines the rehabilitation over the past two decades of Bishop Nikolaj Velimirović (1881–1956), the controversial Serbian Orthodox Christian philosopher. Having been vilified by the former Yugoslav Communist authorities as a traitor, antisemite and a fascist, Velimirović has come to be regarded in Serbian society as a saintly figure and the most important religious person since medieval times.

Byford charts the posthumous passage of Velimirović from ‘traitor’ to ‘saint’ and examines the complementary dynamics of repression and denial that were used to divert public attention from the controversies surrounding his life. Presents the first detailed examination of the way in which an Eastern Orthodox Church manages controversy surrounding the presence of anti-Semitism within its ranks and considers the implications of the continuing reverence of Nikolaj Velimirović for the persistence of antisemitism in Serbian Orthodox culture and Serbian society as a whole. The study is based on a detailed examination of the changing representations of Velimirović in the Serbian media and in commemorative discourse, as well as interviews with a number of prominent public figures who have been actively involved in the bishop’s rehabilitation over the past two decades.

Islam after Communism: Religion and Politics in Central Asia

Adeeb Khalid combines insights from the study of both Islam and Soviet history in this sophisticated analysis of the ways that Muslim societies in Central Asia have been transformed by the Soviet presence in the region. Arguing that the utopian Bolshevik project of remaking the world featured a sustained assault on Islam that destroyed patterns of Islamic learning and thoroughly de-Islamized public life, Khalid demonstrates that Islam became synonymous with tradition and was subordinated to powerful ethnonational identities that crystallized during the Soviet period. He shows how this legacy endures today and how, for the vast majority of the population, a return to Islam means the recovery of traditions destroyed under Communism.
Islam after Communism reasons that the fear of a rampant radical Islam that dominates both Western thought and many of Central Asia's governments should be tempered by an understanding of the politics of antiterrorism, which allows governments to justify their own authoritarian policies by casting all opposition as extremist. Comparing the secularization of Islam in Central Asia to experiences in Turkey, the former Yugoslavia, and other secular Muslim states, the author lays the groundwork for a nuanced and well-informed discussion of the forces at work in this crucial region.

For Prophet and Tsar: Islam and Empire in Russia and Central Asia

Russia occupies a unique position in the Muslim world. Unlike any other non-Islamic state, it has ruled Muslim populations for over five hundred years. Though Russia today is plagued by its unrelenting war in Chechnya, Russia's approach toward Islam once yielded stability. In stark contrast to the popular "clash of civilizations" theory that sees Islam inevitably in conflict with the West, Robert D. Crews reveals the remarkable ways in which Russia constructed an empire with broad Muslim support.

In the eighteenth century, Catherine the Great inaugurated a policy of religious toleration that made Islam an essential pillar of Orthodox Russia. For ensuing generations, tsars and their police forces supported official Muslim authorities willing to submit to imperial directions in exchange for defense against brands of Islam they deemed heretical and destabilizing. As a result, Russian officials assumed the powerful but often awkward role of arbitrator in disputes between Muslims. And just as the state became a presence in the local mosque, Muslims became inextricably integrated into the empire and shaped tsarist will in Muslim communities stretching from the Volga River to Central Asia.

For Prophet and Tsar draws on police and court records, and Muslim petitions, denunciations, and clerical writings--not accessible prior to 1991--to unearth the fascinating relationship between an empire and its subjects. As America and Western Europe debate how best to secure the allegiances of their Muslim populations, Crews offers a unique and critical historical vantage point.