Islam is a universal religion and culture. Scholars who tend to focus on Islam in specific societies may overlook connections that, over the centuries, were important in shaping various Islamic intercultural dialogs. One case in point is the role of Ethiopia in the history of Islam. Although situated next door to the cradle of Islam, Ethiopia conveniently has been perceived by many Western historians of the Arab Middle East as an African “Christian island,” and as largely irrelevant. In practice, however, the Christian-dominated empire has remained meaningful to all Muslims from Islam's inception. It has also been the home of Islamic communities that maintained constant contact with the Middle East. Indeed, one of the side aspects of the resurgence of political Islam since the 1970s is the emergence in Lebanon of the “The Association of Islamic Philanthropic Projects” (Jamעiyyat al-Mashariע al-Khayriyya al-Islamiyya), better known as “The Ethiopians,” al-Ahbash. Its leader came to Beirut from Ethiopia with a rather flexible interpretation of Islam, which revolved around political coexistence with Christians. Al-Ahbash of Lebanon expanded to become arguably the leading factor in the local Sunni community. They opened branches on all continents and spread their interpretation of Islam to many Islamic as well as non-Islamic countries. This article is an attempt to relate some of the Middle Eastern–Ethiopian Islamic history as the background to an analysis of a significant issue on today's all-Islamic agenda. It aims to present the Ahbash history, beliefs, and rivalry with the Wahhabiyya beginning in the mid-1980s. It does so by addressing conceptual, political, and theological aspects, which had been developed against the background of Ethiopia as a land of Islamic–Christian dialogue, and their collision with respective aspects developed in the Wahhabi kingdom of the Saudis. The contemporary inner-Islamic, Ahbash-Wahhabiyya conceptual rivalry turned in the 1990s into a verbal war conducted in traditional ways, as well as by means of modern channels of Internet exchanges and polemics. Their debate goes to the heart of Islam's major dilemmas as it attracts attention and draws active participation from all over the world.
Classical xanthinuria is a rare autosomal recessive metabolic disorder caused by variants in the XDH (type I) or MOCOS (type II) genes. Thirteen Israeli kindred (five Jewish and eight Arab) and two isolated cases from Germany were studied between the years 1997 and 2013. Four and a branch of a fifth of these families were previously described. Here, we reported the demographic, clinical, molecular and biochemical characterizations of the remaining cases. Seven out of 20 affected individuals (35%) presented with xanthinuria-related symptoms of varied severity. Among the 10 distinct variants identified, six were novel: c.449G>T (p.(Cys150Phe)), c.1434G>A (p.(Trp478*)), c.1871C>G (p.(Ser624*)) and c.913del (p.(Leu305fs*1)) in the XDH gene and c.1046C>T (p.(Thr349Ileu)) and c.1771C>T (p.(Pro591Ser)) in the MOCOS gene. Heterologous protein expression studies revealed that the p.Cys150Phe variant within the Fe/S-I cluster-binding site impairs XDH biogenesis, the p.Thr349Ileu variant in the NifS-like domain of MOCOS affects protein stability and cysteine desulfurase activity, while the p.Pro591Ser and a previously described p.Arg776Cys variant in the C-terminal domain affect Molybdenum cofactor binding. Based on the results of haplotype analyses and historical genealogy findings, the potential dispersion of the identified variants is discussed. As far as we are aware, this is the largest cohort of xanthinuria cases described so far, substantially expanding the repertoire of pathogenic variants, characterizing structurally and functionally essential amino acid residues in the XDH and MOCOS proteins and addressing the population genetic aspects of classical xanthinuria.
Mass communication media technologies influence the structuring of reality, consolidation of value systems, and construction of common social denominators, and thus contribute to the formation of personal and national identities. While, as Edward Said has shown, mainstream Western (including Israeli) media have been dominated by Orientalist, anti-Arab/anti-Islamic perspectives, new media technologies have opened up a broad range of media options lying beyond the reach of Western media's hegemonic presentations. This article explores the use of new mass communication media technologies and their association with identity formation in connection with Bedouin Arab high schools in the Negev, Israel. The findings of this research indicate that Negev Bedouin Arab youth developed diversified patterns of mass media consumption. They also show a preference for Arab media sources. Media consumption patterns are related to their national and civic identities. The findings also indicate that Bedouin Arab youth have a stronger Palestinian national identity than Israeli civic identity.
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