A Tunisian Jurist’s View of Jihad in the Fifteenth Century: al-Burzuli’s Mediterranean Perspective Tunis in the fourteenth and fifteen centuries under Hafsid rule was a hub of Mediterranean trade and a locus of Muslim interactions with Christians and Jews, both resident and transient. Abu al-Qasim ibn Ahmad al-Burzuli’s (d. 1438) compilation of fatwas is a resource for understanding how the historical, political, military, social, and economic circumstances and experiences of such interactions affected legal interpretation. The paper demonstrates how al-Burzuli’s chapter on jihad relates legal interpretation to history, making fatwas of other jurists relevant in both immediate and historical terms. The investigation of al-Burzuli’s integration of historical and legal thinking illuminates his conception of the dar al-islam as part of a Mediterranean world. This paper contributes to our understanding of how Islamic legal thought and practice, along with historical thinking and context, informed each other in the work of a specific individual writing in Tunis in the early fifteenth century. Al-Burzuli addressed Muslim relations with Christians and Jews in legal terms, but his understanding of the historical interaction of Muslim and Christian rulers, warriors, merchants, and subject populations also shaped his legal thinking. Writing as both a jurist and as a political observer, Al-Burzuli’s chapter on jihad is not simply a collection of fatwas but a commentary on his times—and, conceivably, a political instrument. The focus of the paper is on al-Burzuli’s fatwa collection and locates discussion in historical and generic context. Al-Burzuli’s approach to the fatwas he cites is distinctive, illuminated by comparison to other fatwa collections (Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani, al-Shabi, Ibn Rushd, al-Wansharisi). Like other compilers of fatwas, al-Burzuli’s work is intended to be instructive but unlike others, he creates a form of narrative, both personal and historical, that promotes a different kind of engagement with the material. Particularly in the chapter on jihad, he participates in, and is heir to, a community of politically active and aware jurists (exemplified by Ibn Khaldun and Ibn al-Khatib).

Considerable discussion has been generated regarding an alleged double standard in how American and other Western media outlets treat terrorist attacks and victims of terrorism, depending on the religious and racial identities of the perpetrator(s) and the majority of victims. In particular, numerous analysts - as referenced in the full paper - have claimed that terror attacks carried out by non-Muslims are rarely framed as acts of terrorism, with many such attacks treated as aberrational events carried out by 'lone wolf' attackers often described as mentally unstable and not representative of any particular social group. Acts carried out by Muslims, on the other hand, are framed as acts of organized terrorism, with the religion of Islam, and Muslims at large, frequently implicated. More importantly for the purposes of the present research, several prominent analysts -- also as referenced in the full paper -- claim that Muslim and Middle Eastern victims of terrorism are, for the most part, glossed over by Western media, which are said to focus more heavily on attacks that victimize non-Muslims in Europe and the United States. This study is the second in a series of articles comparatively examining American newspaper reportage of terrorist attacks affecting Middle Eastern and African Muslim victims and European non-Muslim victims, respectively. Specifically, the current study employs quantitative content analysis to examine how ten elite, geographically dispersed U.S. papers covered attacks in Turkey, Nigeria, France, and Belgium, all of which took place within the span of six months near the end of 2015 and the early portions of 2016. The content analysis coding scheme measures prominence of coverage, dominant frames, displays of mourning, elements of humanization, and attributions of responsibility, among other key variables. The paper's Discussion section will place the findings within the larger context of media representations of Middle Eastern peoples, including, importantly, Arabs and Muslims. The project is funded by the lead author's institution, and includes a Washington D.C.-based assistant (working out of the Library of Congress), and a pair of graduate assistant coders based at the lead author's institution. As of early February 2018, all back issues of newspapers were gathered. Training on the coding scheme began in late December 2017, and intercoder reliability testing is set to begin during the week of February 19, 2018. Data will be gathered and analyzed during March 2018, with the final paper completed by the end of April 2018.

Algerian women’s movements radically reshaped Algerian society and catalyzed powerful changes in the status of women’s empowerment from the 1950’s to the present day. These changes occurred in the context of intense anti-colonial, independence and post-independence movements. This paper proposes that women’s ongoing activism - through social transitions and changing priorities - has been an instrumental force in Algeria’s political, social and economic development into the 21st century. The paper examines the evolving roles of Algerian women through four periods of historical activism: anti-French colonialist struggle (1954 – 1962), post-independence emancipation movements (1962 – 1992), the war on civilians (“civil war”) from 1992 to 2000, and the post-war reconciliation period to the present time. Through the lenses of gender and women’s studies, sociology, political science and psychology, this paper proposes that the evolving movements of Algerian women propelled significant changes for both ruling elites and Algerian society as a whole. The paper also seeks to demonstrate that Algerian women’s resistance to terrorist/state violence, and their struggle for freedom is embedded in a continuous trajectory towards equal rights and emancipation. Among the topics examined are gender relations during the freedom fighter movement, the role of women in male-dominated politics, violence against women, the role of Islam in shaping women’s identity; and women’s emerging roles in a conservative society, the labor force, politics and economic development. Both female and male perspectives will inform the research. The study is based on oral interviews with Algerian informants and on the analyses of Danièle D. Amrane Minne, Assia Djebar, Fatima Mernissi, Germaine Tillon, Hubertine Auclert, Andrée Dore Audibert, Pierre Bourdieu and other scholars. This paper will incorporate the voices of Arabic, French and English authors/researchers, and use primary sources, oral histories, historical documents and audio-visual resources.

The research looks at the 3 Turkish channels on telegram targeting woman who sympathize with ISIS/DAESH, "Woman Dawah", "Zikr" and "Kitap". The content from these three channels between January 30th to February 12th 2017 was collected and coded to analyze the visual and textual content. Each channel has a subscription of minimum 1,000 followers and the channels have been active for at least a six month period before the collection of the data. The analysis helps answer the questions of how the content for women is visually and textually different from the mainstream channels of Telegram, and the motivations behind these differences. The online material of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in the platform Telegram has been analyzed in the literature on topics including and not exclusive: About to Die Images, Child Martyrs, Recruitment Campaigns, and Propaganda (Behr et al. 2013; The Carter Center 2015; The Carter Center 2017; Furedi 2015; Gil et al. 2017; NATO 2016; Wignell 2017; Winkler et al. 2016; Winkler et al. forthcoming; Winter October 2015; Winter July 2015; Winter 2018). The statistical analysis of the content will help answer the questions on the gender biases, the attitudes (positive vs negative) and the types of visuals (educative, violent and gendered). The paper helps to develop the differences of propaganda geared towards women by ISIS and illuminate how they contextualize women.