Search

Recent years have witnessed a revolution in the social communication. Nowadays, millions of people are connected through different kinds of social networks where they discuss multiple aspects of their life including business, economical, social, religious, educational, and political subjects. These interactions have a direct effect on attitudes in many communities. In the past few years, social networks in Iraq have experienced the sectarian war among the major Iraqi sects (e.g., Sunni, Shia, and Kurd). After the war against ISIS, it can be argued that Iraqis have changed their attitude on social networks (and in the real world). Therefore, in this article, we will investigate the contents of Iraqi's most popular Facebook pages and see if ideology has changed over the past few years. We also aim to reveal untitled current patterns of interaction among people in their respective provinces. Moreover, we survey the most frequent topics discussed by Iraqi Facebook users, and find that attitudes have changed for the better through discussions on social networks since the war. Key words: Iraqi social settings, social behavior, sectarian war, Introduction With the advent of social networks, societies have become more vulnerable to different kinds of sensitive issues (1). Nowadays, social networks act as a bridge between the real and [...]

A research was conducted to analyze different spatial and temporal processes encompassing religious expansion between 1900 and 1930. Georg Simmel has proposed that religion is both spatial as association and aspatial as belief. Religion can be expressed in various concepts such as church, denomination and faith. Simmel's theoretical emphasis on spatial and temporal dynamics is relevant to the understanding of the nature of various mobilization efforts of religious, social and political movements.

Anti-sectarian practice in social work training is difficult and dangerous for people in Northern Ireland, although there are a number of ways of achieving a greater awareness through methodology and research. Anti Racist and Anti-Discriminatory Practice (ARADP) training is effective when dealing with the violent emotions of both client and social worker. The long-term effects of ARADP techniques has not yet been evaluated, although the success of social work in the future is thought to depend upon methodologies such as this.

Adjustment procedures should not be applied to religious mobility tables, because current sociological theory repudiates previous ideas of social gravity and denominational dominance. Sociological theory proposes that denominational size is not necessarily advantageous to the development of social ties that are imbued with religious content, and suggests that size may obstruct denominational attractiveness and retentiveness. More can be learned from individual-level analyses and association models of religious mobility.

The development of feminist scholarship in the area of religious studies has become a significant aspect of social scientific inquiry over the last decade. As a transformative science, feminist research challenges existing paradigms in which human behaviour and social relations are investigated from the viewpoint of gender and power. As such, the emergence of a feminist perspective has led to a growing discourse on the development of what Sandra Harding has termed a 'successor science', an approach to research that aims 'to provide more complete, less false, less perverse, less rationalizing understandings of the natural and social worlds'. Accordingly, the goal of feminist scholarship has been to deconstruct the androcentric assumptions upon which traditional scientific inquiry relies and to offer a more comprehensive and less biased view of the complexity and diversity of human experience. The establishment of this successor science has resulted in a body of literature on contemporary religious movements that explores the experience of women, the significance of power, and the meaning of patriarchy in the growth and decline of alternative religious groups. The diversity of feminist research is evident in three approaches to the study of new religions. The first focuses on the study of gender roles within religious communities and the relationship between gender and patriarchal religious tradition. The second area of research investigates those religious communities in which women have greater access to power, although gender roles are still somewhat defined. The third subject of feminist inquiry differs from the other two by examining those movements which are female rather than male centred, situating spirituality within goddess cosmologies. Drawing on this body of literature, as well as the more traditional studies of contemporary movements, this paper explores the scientific principles which underlie feminist analysis, with the goal of revealing the relationship between social scientific study and the development of a revisionist paradigm. This paradigm has emerged out of the feminist deconstruction of social scientific analysis which has historically been male dominated and male defined. Through this deconstruction, the establishment of a successor science has involved eliminating false universalism from sociological analysis, while challenging traditional scientific assumptions concerning concepts of neutrality and objectivity. Each of these aspects of feminist scholarship will be discussed as they pertain to contemporary studies of new religious movements.

Discussions of orthodoxy and heterodoxy often presuppose a dichotomy of major proportions. In reality, things are never so simple: relations between opposing viewpoints are characterized by dynamism rather than static confrontation. In a sense, heterodox movements may often be no more than extreme expressions of orthodox values. In the case of Islam, the most extreme expression of an 'orthodox' venux 'heterodox' antagonism is provided by the emergence of Baha[unkeyable]ism as a distinct religion from an originally orthodox Shi[unkeyable]i matrix. An examination of the antecedents of Baha[unkeyable]ism in the nineteenth century--Shaykhism and Babism--shows the ways in which heterodoxy was, in a sense, a development of orthodox belief, rather than an aberration.

Varying religious commitment across generations plays a key role in explaining transitions from sect to church, and the formation of sectarian movements. Within a sect, elite members of younger generations are seen to spur internal secularization that transforms otherworldly sects into world-affirming churches. In this paper I examine how cohort differences in religious commitment across denominations evidence the sect-church transformation process, and point to sources of sect formation among African-Americans. Using data from the 1972-1998 General Social Surveys, I analyze denomination-specific cohort differences in religious participation among African-Americans. Cohort-specific shifts in religious participation across denominations demonstrate the secularization of African-American mainline Methodist and Baptist groups, the continued vitality of sectarian denominations, and the nascent ascendance of 'nondenominational' churches on the fringes of the religious marketplace.

The ritual murder of Russian monks in Apr 1993 has raised questions about the proliferation of religious sects in that country. Evidence surrounding the murder indicates that the perpetrator was carrying out a cult-inspired sacrifice of the monks. A knife marked with three sixes, and the method of stabbing suggest a possible connection to the Levites, who historically sacrificed gentiles on gentile holy days. The number of Russians who are murdered in mysterious, ritual ways, and the uncounted number of religious sects has raised public concern about their societal impact.