Intellectual Discourse

Understanding Islamophobia: Structural Dynamics, Internal Challenges, and Strategic Responses

Michelle R. Kimball — 2026-04-30

Note from the Editor

Tunku Mohar Mokhtar — 2026-04-30

Politics, Wisdom, and Happiness: A Statistical and Comparative Analysis of Greek and Islamic Philosophy

Luay Hatem Yaqoob — 2026-04-30

This study presents a comparative analysis of political wisdom, conceptions of happiness, and models of the ideal polity in major Greek and Islamic philosophical texts. Using hermeneutic close reading and thematic coding with NVivo, the study examines selected works of Plato, Aristotle, al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, and Ibn Rushd. The analysis identifies three thematic domains: political wisdom, happiness, and the structure of the ideal polity. Descriptive comparisons show that Islamic philosophers devote greater textual emphasis to these themes, particularly in al-Farabi’s systematic theory of the virtuous city and Ibn Rushd’s reconciliation of Aristotelian philosophy with Islamic intellectual traditions. While preserving key Hellenistic concepts, medieval Islamic thinkers also introduced distinctive elements, especially the integration of prophetic authority and spiritual dimensions into political philosophy. The study argues that Greco-Islamic philosophical dialogue produced more elaborate reflections on governance, ethics, and the good life, highlighting the continuing relevance of cross-civilisational philosophical exchange.

Islamic Influence on Traditional Water Transport and Boat Building in Terengganu from the 13th to 20th Century

Nur Alia Shamsul Bahri — 2026-04-30

Islam arrived in Terengganu circa the 13^th century, and its wide embracement by the local Malay community led to significant changes in economic, political, and social activities, including boat building. This study examines the influence of Islam on traditional boat building in Terengganu through a qualitative research design using a historical approach. Primary data were collected from the National Archives of Malaysia and the Terengganu Branch of the National Archives, including CO 840/1 (Terengganu Administration Report, 1910-1930), CO 840/2 (Terengganu Administration Report 1931-1940), Terengganu State Secretary’s Files, and British Adviser’s Files for Terengganu. Meanwhile, secondary data were gathered from journals, books, book chapters, and magazines to further support the research. It was found that the gradual introduction of Islamic influence, together with the local government’s support, had brought about significant changes in boat-making activity, leading to the full incorporation of Islamic elements within the Malay community in Terengganu. This resulted in the expansion of Islamic influence over boat-making activity to other areas along the east coast, such as Pahang and Kelantan.

Ubuntu and Madani in Dialogue: Ethical Encounters, Lived Experience, and the Moral Realities of Malaysia–Africa Relations

Muhammad Danial Azman — 2026-04-30

Malaysia’s relations with Africa have conventionally been framed through the discourse of South–South cooperation, Bandung-era solidarities, and postcolonial affinity. However, the lived experiences of Africans in Malaysia—particularly among Nigerian and Sudanese communities—reveal a more complex and ethically charged reality. Drawing on documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews conducted between February 2023 and November 2025, this article examines how African migrants interpret Malaysia’s diplomatic identity through everyday encounters with immigration authorities, law enforcement agencies, educational institutions, and Malaysian society at large. While many participants reported experiences shaped by racialised perceptions, administrative inconsistency, and episodic prejudice, others highlighted forms of safety, hospitality, and religious solidarity. Situating these narratives within the Ubuntu–Madani Partnership Framework (UMPF), this article argues that meaningful Malaysia–Africa relations must extend beyond rhetorical solidarity to encompass institutional fairness and ethically grounded relational practices. The findings illuminate both the tensions and the ethical potential embedded in Malaysia’s aspiration to position itself as a moral actor within the Global South.

Mapping Outcome-Based Education Principles to Qur’anic Guidance for Islamic Higher Education

Muhammad Irwan Ariffin — 2026-04-30

This study evaluates Outcome-Based Education (OBE) through a Qur’anic lens by mapping six principles: clarity of focus, backward design, high expectations for all, expanded opportunity, constructive alignment, and continuous improvement, to relevant Qur’anic concepts and verses, corroborated by classical tafsīr sources. Using a thematic tafsīr method combined with the OBE literature, the analysis distils principle statements and specifies nonoverlapping implementation artefacts at programme and course levels. Findings indicate strong convergence between OBE logics and Qur’anic emphases on purposive ends, clarified criteria, equitable facilitation, curricular coherence, and evidence-guided review. The article proposes a synthesis that affirms theological compatibility and translates it into practical tools, including threshold tables, assessment blueprints, proficiency rubrics with feedback policy, equivalency matrices, programme alignment maps, and assurance-of-learning (AoL) cycles. The contribution is intended to support policy acceptance and implementation quality in Islamic higher education. Future work should pilot these instruments and evaluate impacts on attainment and quality assurance.

Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities in Mainstream Classrooms: The Challenge of Teacher Preparedness

Ratnawati Mohd Asraf — 2026-04-30

The global movement from special education to inclusive education has transformed mainstream classrooms. Students with physical and learning disabilities are now increasingly educated alongside other students who do not have these conditions. Although inclusive education is aimed at protecting the right to education of all students, this conceptual and analytical article focuses specifically on students with learning disabilities, because they present certain teaching challenges for classroom teachers. Outlining both the arguments supporting inclusion as well as the doubts regarding its feasibility, this article underscores the crucial importance of teacher preparedness in supporting these learners, whose ability to engage in learning depends largely on teachers’ knowledge, skills, and confidence in meeting their learning needs. It concludes with implications for Malaysia and other contexts, including Muslim-majority countries where inclusive education initiatives are increasingly being implemented.

Language Learning Beliefs in Motion: The Role of Experience and Engagement

Alper Fener — 2026-04-30

This study explores how learners’ experiences shape language learning beliefs situated between tradition and progress, prescription and flexibility. The study specifically investigates whether the extent and recency of foreign language learning experience can account for the endorsement of traditional and progressive beliefs. A total of 294 participants completed the Questionnaire of Assumptions about Second Language Learning (QASLL). Results showed a significant difference on the progressive beliefs scale between learners who were not very active and those who were highly active; the latter supported more autonomous and flexible approaches. A further difference was found on the traditional scale between learners with 1–3 years and 9–12 years of experience, suggesting that extensive experience moderates rather than eliminates traditional beliefs. A three-dimensional model emerges with these findings, placing learners along axes of belief orientation, learning activity, and accumulated experience.

Fostering National Harmony through Inter-Religious Education: An Analysis of Pendidikan Moral KSSM and Pendidikan Islam KSSM Syllabi

Nur Nisa Solehah binti Muhamad Haswazil — 2026-04-30

This article explores the role of inter-religious education in fostering national harmony in Malaysia, with a specific focus on the content of Pendidikan Moral (Moral Education) and Pendidikan Islam (Islamic Education) syllabi under the Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Menengah (Secondary School Standard Curriculum). The goal of this study is to examine the inter-religious education elements present in both syllabi and assess their effectiveness in promoting understanding, tolerance, and peaceful coexistence among students of diverse religious backgrounds. This research is particularly important because it offers a critical lens for evaluating the current educational frameworks in shaping a unified, multi-religious society. The focus of the discussion is on: (a) defining the concept and urgency of inter-religious education in the Malaysian context; (b) introducing Hikmah Pedagogy as a suitable framework for Malaysia; and (c) analysing the content of both syllabi for the presence and depth of inter-religious education elements. The methods employed in this paper include textual analysis of curriculum documents, evaluation of textbook content, and comparison with existing scholarly research. This research concludes with the finding that, while inter-religious education elements are present, especially in the Pendidikan Moral KSSM syllabus at the lower secondary level, they are insufficiently integrated into the Pendidikan Islam KSSM syllabus.

The Spiritual Quest in Contemporary Muslim Speculative Writing: A Reading of Bird Summons (2023) by Leila Aboulela

Wan Nur Madiha Ramlan — 2026-04-30

This paper presents an examination of Leila Aboulela’s Bird Summons (2019) as a site where speculative writing and Islamic spirituality intersect. By employing Islamicisation of Knowledge as a framework, this paper analyses how Aboulela utilises motifs of pilgrimage, metamorphosis and the unseen to foreground the spiritual struggles of diasporic Muslim women living in the United Kingdom. The novel’s magical realist elements are reoriented within an Islamic paradigm which places emphasis on jihad an-nafs (struggle of the self), sabr (patience), tawakkul (trust in God, and Tazkiyah al-nafs (purification of the soul). Through the journey of the three principal characters, Bird Summons dramatizes the confrontation with inner deficiencies and the pursuit of spiritual rejuvenation by situating these processes within broader conversations about identity, migration and modernity. In doing so, this study contends that Aboulela’s work provides a counter-narrative to Western literary frameworks that often marginalise or misrepresent Islam, thereby contributing to an emerging corpus of Speculative writing, particularly by women writers, that both challenge and redefine boundaries of the genre.

Water Symbolism in Syair Perahu by Hamzah Fansuri: A Reflection of Maritime Life and Islamic Values in the History of Malay Society

Mohd Firdaus Abdullah — 2026-04-30

Syair Perahu is a classic Malay work that uses the symbolism of water as a primary metaphor in describing the journey of human life. Water in this poem serves as a source of life and supply, and even as a threat in the form of waves and storms that symbolise life's challenges. In a historical context, this poem reflects the close relationship between traditional Malay society and the maritime world, where the sea is not only a source of livelihood but also a meaningful spiritual symbol. This study places the water symbolism in Syair Perahu within the social historical framework of Malay maritime societies from the 16th to the 19th centuries. It examines how the element of water was used as a reflection of the Malay worldview, which combined Islamic values with traditional cosmology. This approach uses historical analysis to connect the water symbolism in this poem with the dynamics of maritime life, including dependence on the sea, the challenges faced by coastal communities, and the influence of Islam as a guide to life. The results of this study are expected to contribute to the academic literature on the social history of Malay maritime, while offering a new perspective in understanding the role of symbolic elements of nature as a reflection of cultural and religious values. In addition, the study suggests an appreciation of the harmonious relationship between humans and nature, which is relevant to contemporary discussions on ecological conservation and sustainable development.

Eco-political Discourse in Mahmoud Darwish’s Poetry of Resistance

Hamoud Yahya Ahmed Mohsen — 2026-04-30

Resistance remains the central theme in the poetry of the Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish. This article explores aspects of the eco-political discourse in Darwish’s poetry that bind ecology and politics for resisting colonialism. The study argues that Darwish employs ecological imagery drawn from the Palestinian nature to advance his political narrative of resistance. Through the lens of eco-politics, the analysis reveals how the elements of nature, such as trees, stones, rocks, hills, mountains, valleys, rivers, animals, fruits, the sky, the cold, the rain, the sun, and the moon, function as potent symbols of resistance. These natural forms become both witnesses to and participants in the struggle. Just as Palestinian landscape persists despite human transgressions, so too do the poet and Palestinians remain steadfast in their quest for freedom. The study offers new insights into eco-politics as a literary approach and a fresh pathway for reading resistance in Arabic and Palestinian literature.

Haenni, Patrick & Drevon, Jerome. (2025). Transformed by the people: Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s road to power in Syria (315 pp.) Hurst & Company. ISBN: 9781805264101

Mohamed Fouz Mohamed Zacky — 2026-04-30

Al-Kassimi, Khaled. (2022). International law, Necropolitics, and Arab lives: The legalization of creative chaos in Arabia (1st ed., 318 pp.). Routledge. ISBN 978-1-032-30714-5.

Nath Aldalala'a — 2026-04-30

Mindfulness-Informed Parenting Interventions for Parents and Caregivers of Children with Atypical Development: A Scoping Review

Siti Inarah Hasim — 2026-04-30

Parents and caregivers of children with atypical development often experience high levels of stress and reduced well-being. This scoping review mapped the literature on mindfulness-informed parenting interventions for this population, focusing on intervention types, methodological features, outcomes, and the integration of spirituality and religiosity. Reported in accordance with PRISMA-ScR, a comprehensive search of Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, and MyCite, with updated search alerts, identified 49 eligible studies. The evidence based was concentrated in North America and Europe, and hybrid mindfulness-informed interventions and mindful parenting programmes were the most common. Parent outcomes were more consistently positive than child outcomes, but the literature remained methodologically heterogeneous, and only one study explicitly integrated spirituality or religiosity. Future research should prioritise more rigorous and culturally responsive intervention development.