In this article, tragedy and utopia are juxtaposed, and it is proposed that the problem of "medicalisation" is better understood in a framework of tragedy than in a utopian one. In utopia, it is presupposed that there is an error behind every setback and every side effect, whereas tragedy brings to light how side effects can be the result of irreconcilable conflicts. Medicalisation is to some e...

In 2005, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, launched a new initiative called Alliance of Civilizations which is co-sponsored by the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey and the Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero of Spain and supported by the British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The motivation behind the Alliance of Civilizations Initiative is to bridge divi...

Matera, Italy, is currently the subject of a municipal tug-of-war over image and significance. Infamy resulting from poor living conditions in its extensive cave dwellings led to the expansion and recasting of the city in the 1950s as a modernist utopia. This was followed by decades during which these areas, known as the Sassi, were allowed to deteriorate. Today, renewed interest in the histori...

Each economy functions within a particular social framework, defined by its moral philosophy and legal system. What makes an economy Islamic is Sharīah, the moral/legal discourses of the classical fuqahā’, which defined the economy of classical Islam, shaped its micro and macro institutions, and modulated its actual performance. This economy, which was virtually effaced during the age of Europe...

*) Corresponding Author Abstract: The study was to: 1) generate the appropriate evaluation instrument so that the instrument might be implemented in evaluating the Integrated Islamic Elementary School (SDIT, Sekolah Dasar Islam Terpadu) learning process; 2) identify the effectiveness of the developed evaluation instrument; and 3) identify the description and the criteria in the results of evalu...

The purpose of this empirical study is to analyze and compare the performance of Islamic and conventional banking in Pakistan and to find out which of the banking stream is performing better than other. For this study, sample of 22 conventional banks and 5 Islamic banks were selected. For in-depth understanding and sound comparison, key performance indicators were divided into external and inte...

Recently there has been a heightened global concern over ‘contagion’ in the conventional financial markets. Our study is motivated by the desire to test empirically whether this contagion is reflected in the fast growing Islamic financial markets as well. This study is the first attempt at testing whether there has been any contagion among the Shari’ah-compliant stock markets during the most re...

The purpose of this paper is to examine co-creation of non-economic values in Islamic banking services and their significance for service science by comparing Islamic and conventional banking services. Although many scholars have discussed co-creation of values in services, most of them have focused on only economic values. Following Sharia (Islamic principles that are based on Qur’an and Sunna...

F several centuries, the world, and particularly Europe has benefited from the great contributions brought about by Muslim physicians in the field of medicine. These contributions were not only based on technical skills but also on the role of eminent Muslim physicians in establishing medical ethics. Many prominent physicians of the Islamic civilization involved themselves with professional eth...

Whilst E-Commerce is spreading world-wide, many Muslims are wondering whether this new form of commerce is acceptable from the Syariah (Islamic Law) point of view. Thus, this research paper is meant to study the Islamic perspectives in e-commerce, particularly in its transaction, as well as the rights of the producers and customers. Issues on the legality of E-Commerce in Islam are examined to ...