Personal Connections
Disidentification, Migration, and Postcolonialism : Auto Ethnographic Reflections on Survival
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Baiju Vareed
Being an immigrant from South India to North America is not only just a physical shift, but an incessant voyage to identifying and disidentifying with oneself. I am no more (East) Indian in the new place, neither have become (fully) Canadian, as perceived by people in Canada. There is a bridge of colonialism - ceased but existing; dilapidated, but strong – that connect the Indian in me with Canada - well not so exactly with Canada, but with Aboriginals in Canada. I identify myself with Indigenous Canadians through this post-colonial connection. The survival of an immigrant in Canada is slowly constructed through colonial disdains manifested in many ways. This paper shares autoethnographic reflections on survival in Canada as an immigrant, post-colonial connections, and withering identity.
Muslims and the Environment in a Post-Prophetic Era
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Nawal Ammar
This study describes the dilemma Muslims are encountering in their devotional duties towards using and preserving the environment within the Post-Prophetic era. The paper is divided into three sections. The first section examines the theological context of this Post-Prophetic Era, its relationship to the Revelation (the Qur’an) and devotional duty towards the environment. The second section explores how within the theological context Muslims have fared in their devotional duties towards being custodians and users of the environment. The final section proposes a solution to the existing dilemmas Muslims are facing vis-à-vis our contemporary environmental crisis. The presentation is based on readings of the original sources of Islam: The Qur’an, Hadith and figh. It is also based on the analysis and synthesis of reviews of scholarly writings, data on environmental indicators from local, national and international agencies. Multiple methodologies are used to include all these sources including narrative analysis, and futurist methodologies of reviewing domains and creating scenarios.
