Arts, Social Sciences, Humanities, and Islamic Studies Research: Qatar Foundation Annual Research Forum 2011

Books and Journal Articles

Amani Ahmed

Ahmed A. Villaggio and culture change: an ethnographic analysis. Qatar Foundation Annual Research Forum Proceedings 2011;(2011):AHOS1.

Bruslé T. Living in and out of the host society: aAspects of Nepalese migrants' experience of division in Qatar. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research. North America. 2010 May 11. Date accessed: 31 Jan. 2012.

Elsheshtawy Y. Transitory Sites: Mapping Dubai's 'forgotten' urban spaces. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 2008;32(4):968-988.

Jamal A, Davies F, Chudry F, et al. Profiling consumers:a study of Qatari consumers' shopping motivations. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. 2006;13(1):67-80.

Nagy S. Making room for migrants, making sense of difference: Spatial and ideological expressions of social diversity in urban Qatar. Urban Studies 2006;43(1):119-137.

Mohammed Hussein Al-Anazi

Ali, SR, Ming Liu W, Humedian M. Islam 101: Understanding the religion and therapy implications. Professional Psychology—Research and Practice 2004;35(6):635-642.

Baasher TA. Islam and mental health. Easterm Mediterranean Health Journal 2001;7(3):372-6.

Fayek A. Islam and its effect on my practice of psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic Psychology 2004; 21(3):452-570.

Hoot, JL, Szecsi T, Moosa S. What teachers of young children should know about Islam. Early Childhood Education Journal 2003;31(2):85-90.

Lukoff D, Lu F, Turner R. Toward a more culturally sensitive DSM-IV: psychoreligious and psychospiritual problems. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 1992;180(11):673–82.

Darwish Al-Emadi

Barro RJ. Determinants of democracy. Journal of Political Economy 1999;107(6):158-183.

Boix C. Democracy and Redistribution. New York: Cambridge University Press; 2003.

Crystal, J. Oil and Politics in the Gulf: Rulers and Merchants in Kuwait and Qatar. New York: Cambridge University Press; 1990.

Brynen R, Korany B, Noble P. eds. Political Liberalization and Democratization in the Arab World, Volume 1: Theoretical Perspectives. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers; 1995.

Gengler J, Tessler M, Al-Emadi D, et al. Civil society and democratization in the Arab Gulf. The Middle East Channel, Foreign Policy. July 25, 2011.

Ross ML. Does oil hinder democracy? World Politics. 2001;53(3):325-361.

Ross ML. Does taxation lead to representation? British Journal of Political Science. 2004;34(2):229-249.

Fatima Al-Kubaisi

Ayodeji Akala F, El-Saharty S. Public health challenges in the Middle East and North Africa. The Lancet 2006; 367:961-4.

Badahdah AM, Foote CE. Role of shame in the stigmatization of people with human immunodeficiency virus: a survey of female college students in 3 Arab countries. Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal 2010;16(9):982-7.

Badahdah AM, Sayem N. HIV-related knowledge and AIDS stigma among college students in Yemen. Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal 2010;16(8):901-6.

Bor R, Johnson M. The clinical presentation of women with human immunodeficiency virus infection. An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology 1991; 98(6):612–13.

Ganczak M. The impact of premarital HIV testing: A perspective from selected countries from the Arabian Peninsula. AIDS Care 2010;22(11):1428-33.

Ganczak M, Barss P, Alfaresi F, et al. Break the silence: HIV/AIDS knowledge, attitudes, and educational needs among Arab university students in United Arab Emirates. Journal of Adolescent Health 2007;40(6):572.e1-8.

Saleem F. Six HIV cases identified in Qatar in 2011. The Peninsula December 1, 2010.

Aljazzi Hamad Fetais

Altbach PG, Knight J. The internationalization of higher education: motivations and realities. Journal of Studies in International Education 2007;11(3-4):290-305.

Altbach PG, Reisberg L, Rumbley LE. Trends in Global Higher Education: Tracking an Academic Revolution — A Report Prepared for the UNESCO 2009 World Conference on Higher Education. 2009.

Coates H. The value of student engagement for higher education quality assurance. Quality in Higher Education 2005;11(1):25-36.

Heyneman S. The quality of education in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). International Journal of Educational Development 1997;17(4):449-466.

Kapur D, Crowley M. Beyond the ABCs: Higher education and eeveloping countries. SSRN Journal 2008.

King EM, Hill MA. Women's Education in Developing Countries: Barriers, Benefits, and Policies. Washington: Johns Hopkins Univ Press; 1997.

Mahrous AA, Ahmed Anis Ahmed. A cross-cultural investigation of students' perceptions of the effectiveness of pedagogical tools: the Middle East, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Journal of Studies in International Education 2009;14(3):289-306.

Massy W. Honoring the Trust: Quality and Cost Containment in Higher Education. Bolton MA.: Anker Pub.; 2003.

Ramachandran NT. Enhancing international students' experiences: An imperative agenda for universities in the UK. Journal of Research in International Education.

Ashraf Galal

Ahmed Abd al K, Aday LA, Walker GM. Patient satisfaction in government Health facilities in the State of Qatar. Journal Community Health 1996;21(5):349-358.

Al-Shafi S and Weerakkody V. The use of wireless internet parks to facilitate adoption and diffusion of e-government services: an empirical study in Qatar. AMCIS 2008 Proceedings 2008; Paper 322.

Chaskin RJ. Building community capacity: a definitional framework and case studies from a comprehensivec community initiative. Urban Affairs Review 2001;36(3):291-323.

Garcia R, Flores ES, Chang SM. Healthy children, healthy communities: schools, parks, recreation, and sustainable regional planning. Fordham Urban Law Journal 31:1267-.

Peterson RD, Krivo LJ, Harris MA. Disadvantage and neighborhood violent crime: co local institutions matter? Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 2000;37(1):31-63.

Poister TH, Streib G. Performance measurement in municipal government: assessing the state of the practice. Public Administration Review 1999;59(4):325-335.

Roman CG, Moore GE. Report: measuring local institutions and organizations: the role of community institutional capacity in social capital. Urban Institute.

Witt PA, Crompton J, Baker D. Evaluating youth recreation programs. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance 1995;66.

Kelly Knez

Crocco MS, Pervez N, Katz M. At the crossroads of the world: women of the Middle East. The Social Studies 2009;100(3):107-114.

Donnelly TT, Al Suwaidi J, Al Bulushi A, et al. The influence of cultural and social factors on healthy lifestyle of Arabic women. Avicenna 2011;(2011):3.

Musaiger AO. Overweight and obesity in the Eastern Mediterranean Region: can we control it? Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal 2004;10(6).

Musaiger AO, Shahbeek NE, Al-Mannai M. The role of social factors and weight status in ideal body-shape preferences as perceived by Arab women. Journal of Biosocial Science 2004;36(6):699-707.

Knez K. Being Muslim and being female. In: Wright J, Macdonald D, eds. Young People, Physical Activity and the Everyday. Abingdon, Oxon, UK: Routledge; 2010:104-117.

Macdonald D, Abbott R, Knez K, et al. Taking exercise: cultural diversity and physically active lifestyles. Sport, Education and Society 2009:14(1):1-19.

Tara Makarem

Amin H. Arab media audience research: developments and constraints. In: Arab Media: Power and Weakness. New York: Continuum; 2008:69-90.

Eveland WP, Shah DV. The impact of individual and interpersonal factors on perceived news media bias. Political Psychology 2003;24(1):101-117.

Hoffner C, Rehkoff RA. Young voters' responses to the 2004 U.S. presidential election: social identity, perceived media influence, and behavioral outcomes. Journal of Communication 2011;61(4):732-757.

Hussain AJ. The media's role in a clash of misconceptions: the case of the Danish Muhammad cartoons. The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics 2007;12(4):112-130.

King J, Zayani M. Media, branding and controversy: perceptions of Al Jazeera in newspapers around the world. Journal of Middle East Media 2008;4(1):27-43.

Kraidy MK. From activity to interactivity: the Arab audience. In: Arab Media: Power and Weakness. New York: Continuum; 2008:91-102.

Peterson MA. Making global news: "freedom of speech" and "Muslim rage" in U.S. journalism. Contemporary Islam 2007;1(3):247-264.

Rouner D, Slater MD, Buddenbaum JM. How perceptions of news bias in news sources relate to beliefs about media bias. Newspaper Research Journal 1999;20.

Vallone RP, Ross L, Lepper MR. The hostile media phenomenon: biased perception and perceptions of media bias in coverage of the Beirut massacre. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1985;49(3):577-585.

Khalid Mohammed Muftah

Coulson N. A History of Islamic Law. New Brunswick N.J.: Aldine Transaction; 2011.

Dien M. Islamic Law: from Historical Foundations to Contemporary Practice. Notre Dame Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press; 2004.

Hallaq W. The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law. Cambridge UK; New York: Cambridge University Press; 2005.

Hallaq W. An Introduction to Islamic Law. Cambridge UK; New York: Cambridge University Press; 2009.

Hallaq W. Shari'ah: Theory, Practice, Transformations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2009.

Kamali M. Shari'ah law: an Introduction. Oxford England: Oneworld; 2008.

Hadeel Ali Radwan

Ahmed H. Islamic law, adaptability and financial development. Islamic Economic Studies 2006;13(2).

El-Gamal MA. An economic explication of the prohibition of Gharar in classical islamic jurisprudence. In: Leicester, UK, 13–15 August 2000; 2001.

El-Gamal MA. Incoherence of contract-based Islamic financial jurisprudence in the age of financial engineering. Wisconsin International Law Journal 2007;25(605).

El-Gamal M. Islamic Finance Law, Economics, and Practice. Cambridge [UK]; New York: Cambridge University Press; 2006.

Seniawski BL. Riba today: social equity, the economy, and doing business under islamic law. Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 2000;39(701).

Vogel F. Islamic law and finance: religion, risk, and return. The Hague [u.a.]: Kluwer Law Internat.; 1998.

Ashraf Salama

Salama AM. Design intentions and users responses: Assessing outdoor spaces of Qatar University Campus. Open House International 2009;34(1):82-93.

Salama AM. Contemporary Qatari architecture as an open textbook. Archnet-IJAR—International Journal of Architectural Research [serial online] 2007;1(3):101-114.

Salama AM. An exploratory investigation into the impact of international paradigmatic trends on Arab architectural education. Global Built Environment Review—GBER [serial online] 2007;6(2):31-43.

Salama AM, O'Reilly W, Noschis K, eds. Architectural Education Today: Cross-Cultural Perspectives. Lausanne: Comportements; 2002.

Salama AM. When good design intentions do not meet users expectations: exploring Qatar University Campus outdoor spaces. Archnet-IJAR—International Journal of Architectural Research [serial online] 2008;2(2):57-77.

Salama AM. Trans-disciplinary knowledge for affordable housing. Open House International 2011;36(3):7-15.

Salama AM. Towards a responsive architectural and urban education for understanding of and intervening in Islamic societies. Lonaard Magazine 2011;4(1):130-7.

Ziad Said

Anderson MK, Alnaimi TN, Alhajri SH. National student research fairs as evidence for progress in Qatar's Education for a New Era. Improving Schools 2010;13(3):235-248.

Brewer DJ, Augustine CH, Zellman GL, et al. Education for a New Era: Design and Implementation of K-12 Education Reform in Qatar. Santa Monica, California: Rand-Qatar Policy Institute, Rand Corporation; 2007.

Dagher ZR, BouJaoude S. Science education in Arab States: bright future or status quo? Studies in Science Education 2011;47(1):73-101.

Gonzalez GC, Karoly LA, Constant L, et al. Facing Human Capital Challenges of the 21st Century: Education and Labor Market Initiatives in Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2008.

Supreme Education Council (2010) Curriculum Standards for the State of Qatar.

Pinar Ucar, Badria Ali Al-Harami, and Richard Leete

Farid S. Fertility and family planning in the Arab region. International Planned Parenthood Federation Medical Bulletin 1986;20(1):1-3.

Horne AD. Fertility-inhibiting indices in the Arab world. Population Bulletin from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia 1992;40:5-35.

Horne AD, El-Khorazaty MN. Childbearing indices in the Arab world. Population Bulletin from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia 1987;31:77-111.

Leete R, ed. Dynamics of Values in Fertility Change. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 1999.

Olmsted J. Reexamining the fertility puzzle in MENA. In: Abdella Doumato E, Pripstein Posusney M, eds. Women and Globalization in the Arab Middle East: Gender, Economy and Society. Boulder: Lynn Rienner Publishers; 2003:73-92.

Sue Underwood

Alexander M, Alexander E. History and Functions of Museums. Lanham, Maryland: AltaMira Press; 1996.

Anderson G. Reinventing the Museum: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on the Paradigm Shift. Lanham, Maryland: AltaMira Press; 2008.

Black G. The Engaging Museum: Developing Museums for Visitor Involvement. London: Routledge; 2005.

Caulton T. Hands-on Exhibitions: Managing Interactive Museums and Science Centers. London: Routledge; 1998.

Krug M. Building bridges in the desert, museum of Islamic art bedazzles. Art Monthly Australia 2009;218:32-4.

Ouroussoff N. In Qatar, an art museum of imposing simplicity. New York Times November 23, 2008.

Saintek F. The role of museum's architecture in Islamic community: Museum of Islamic Art, Doha. Journal of Islamic Architecture 2010;1(2);60-9.

Sherwood S. Is Qatar the next Dubai? New York Times June 4, 2006.

Ahmed Khalif Osman Warfa

Birks, JS, Seccombe IJ, Sinclair CA. Labour migration in the Arab Gulf states: patterns, trends and prospects. International Migration 1988;25(3):267-286.

Birks JS, Sinclair CA. International labour migration in the Arab middle east. Third World Quarterly 1979;1(2):87-99.

Naufal, GS. Labor migration and remittances in the GCC. Labor History. 2011;52(3):307-22.

Naufal GS, Termos A. The responsiveness of remittances to price of oil: the case of the GCC. OPEC Energy Review 2009;33(3-4):184-197.

Ratha D, Mohapatra S. Migration and Remittances Factbook 2011. Washington: World Bank Publications; 2010.

Frieda Wiebe

Aramesh K. Justice as a principle of Islamic bioethics. American Journal of Bioethics 2008;8(10):26-27.

Arda, B, Rispler-Chaim V, eds. Islam and Bioethics. Ankara, Turkey: Ankara University; 2011.

Brockopp JE. Islam and bioethics: beyond abortion and euthanasia. Journal of Religious Ethics 2008; 36(1):3-12.

Brockopp JE, Eich T, eds. Muslim Medical Ethics: From Theory to Practice. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press; 2008.

Guinn D. Handbook of Bioethics and Religion. New York: Oxford University Press; 2006.

Kasule OH. Biomedical ethics: an Islamic formulation. Journal of the Islamic Medical Association of North America 2010;42(1):38-40.

Qaiser S. Biomedical Ethics: Philosophical and Islamic Perspectives. Islamabad, Pakistan: Islamic Research Institute, International Islamic University; 2009.

Sachedina A. Islamic Biomedical Ethics: Principles and Application. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press; 2009.

Walters L, Kahn TJ, Mueller Goldstein D, eds. Bibliography of Bioethics. Washington: Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University; 2009; Volume 35.

Wiebe F, Frouzan Z. Georgetown contributes to Islamic bioethics field. November 14, 2010.

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Qatar's pursuit of a knowledge-based economy is directed by its high profile in an interconnected world where knowledge resources are increasingly crucial to sustaining economies. The Qatar Foundation's emphasis on education and research recognizes the productive assets of human capital and technology as well as the globally competitive need for interdisciplinary and boundary-crossing innovation developed from the research community. It strives to produce information and knowledge for all, while focusing on the needs of developing societies around the world. The creation of knowledge clusters in the universities and research centers of Doha reflects Qatar's recognition that the establishment of knowledge in the form of the arts, social sciences, humanities, and Islamic studies is a crucial aspect of its national enterprise, especially if it is going to grow its capacity to intervene collectively and strategically on a global scale. These are the fields that shape the ways in which conceptual frameworks, social structures, cultural contexts and social relations are communicated and rendered meaningful to others.

Qatar's global competitiveness has resulted in the spectacular economic growth and urbanization of its capital city Doha, whose changing urban geography has been driven by economic diversification that is transforming its public spaces. The large and increasing revenues from its exports of gas and oil have allowed Qatar to invest heavily in its economic and social infrastructures and in the well-being of its people. Extensive infrastructural plans and urban development designs have vastly restructured urban spatial geography and the social practices and patterns of its urban life, transforming traditional Arabic social interactions and aligning individual and social identities with the values of the economic cosmopolitanism of middle class society.

Qatar's globalization is shaping the values of the country's civil society. Whether or not this will lead to the adoption of Western liberal values and these values' claims to democracy depends on the degree to which Qatari civil society supports the cultural and ideological icons of globalized financial capitalism and its elites. The reorganization of Qatar's civic and social institutions is building up the social capital, trust, and shared values that are holding Qatari society together. Qatari citizens have an opportunity to pursue political solutions for the wide variety of pressing issues that arise in developing societies. In Qatar, these issues include the needs that accompany the evolution of social formations and family units, different barriers to social development, education reform, the creation of mass media and communication, health advocacy and gender, and the role, economics, and welfare of migrant laborers. The ability of civil society to advocate for and collaborate with the State on urgent matters will amplify the productive and prosperous aspects of Qatari society and ensure the self-sufficiency of its citizens.

Qatar's openness to the world is conditioned by its attachment to the Islamic tradition and the country's grounding in the values of Arab society. Qataris are considering carefully what this adherence will mean with regard to the impact and strictures of global power. Because of the rapid social change and innovation that Qatar is experiencing, it is to be expected that traditional social values and practices are transformed. However, the centrality of the Islamic tradition in Qatar motivates Qataris to ensure the continued relevance of practices legislated and prescribed by the Qur'an and Hadith. This adherence to the Islamic tradition not only shapes the affective ties and sensibilities of Qatari Muslims, it also compels them to preserve their artistic, legal, and pedagogical traditions. As a result, Qatar is building museums, deliberating the limits of economic and jurisprudential change, and creating international information resources and databanks of Islamic bioethics.

Speakers:
Badria Ali Al-Harami, General Secretariat for Development Planning
Ashraf Galal, Qatar Charity
Richard Leete, General Secretariat for Development Planning
Ziad Said, College of The North Atlantic-Qatar
Ashraf M. Salama, Qatar University
Pinar Ucar, Qatar Statistics Authority
Sue Underwood OBE, Qatar Museums Authority

Student Speakers:
Amani Ahmed, Qatar University
Aljazzi Hamad Fetais, Qatar University
Ahmed Khalid Osman Warfa, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar

Highlights

• The Qatari fertility rate is in decline.
• Kenyan migrants face challenges due to Qatar's high cost of living and because they are not hired in the jobs for which they have been trained.
• Doha will be characterized in the future by the "differential space" of proactive participation, innovation, and diversity.
• The Villaggio in Doha has shifted the consumer practices and social behaviors of the population.
• The Supreme Council for Family Affairs (SCFA) assesses the quality of national institutions in delivering basic social, educational, health, cultural, media, and environmental services to Qataris.

Social organization

Qatar's spectacular economic growth has transformed the organization of its society. One of the most marked changes in a society that is characterized by strong family cohesion and that identifies strongly with the Arabo-Islamic tradition, is in family formation. Badria Ali Al-Harami, Social Researcher at the General Secretariat for Devleopment Planning, working with Pinar Ucar, Statistical Specialist at the Qatar Statistics Authority and Richard Leete, Director of the Department of Social Development at the General Secretariat for Development Planning in Doha, Qatar, asks how and to what extent recent economic and social changes have affected Qatari family formation and child rearing, and whether these changes follow marriage and child rearing patterns in other countries.

Al-Harami has found that a rising proportion of Qatari women remain permanently unmarried and this has affected the fertility rates. (Fertiilty rate is the number of births per woman. Total fertility rate represents the number of children that would be born to a woman if she were to live to the end of her childbearing years and bear children in accordance with current age-specific fertility rates.) One reason may be that, in general, Qatari men are attaining lower levels of education than women, and many women are remaining unmarried because they are reluctant to marry someone of lower educational status. Al-Harami and her team has found that another reason for declining birth rate lies in the fact that the more educated a women is, the fewer children she has. Pinar Ucar also reported on the large decline in Qatari fertility in the past generation, and found that this change is a result of women marrying later, starting childbearing later, and ending childbearing earlier. In addition, women who marry men of high occupational status are having fewer children. Richard Leete believes that another factor in the decrease in Qatari fertility is the rising incidence of divorce; unlike their male counterparts, Qatari women who divorce are much less likely to remarry.

The likelihood of marriage of Qatari women decreases as education level increases. (Image courtesy of Badria Ali Al-Harami)

The Qatari family unit is also a keen interest of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs (SCFA) of Qatar. The Council's purpose is to enhance the role of the Qatari family in society and to advance the sustainable development of Qatari society. These goals have led the SCFA to assess the quality of national institutions in delivering basic social, educational, health, cultural, media, and environmental services to Qataris. Ashraf Galal, Local Development Director at Qatar Charity, documented and discussed how the SCFA has attempted to improve the quality of national services offered by the government and the extent to which these services respond to Qatari needs.

Qataris identified education, health, and entertainment services as lacking in their society. (Image courtesy of Ashraf Galal)

Galal's study integrates a comprehensive methodological and situational analysis with an impressive array of qualitative and quantitative measures that cut across different categories of age, gender, class, marriage status, housing, and educational levels. The study assesses how Qataris perceive the current services offered by the government and identifies remaining barriers to social development. In light of the study's results, Galal recommends establishing and maintaining community centers as a social enterprise shared by government groups, NGOs, and the private sector in order to encourage community participation and to motivate and create social and family cohesion.

Immigrants are crucial to the economic growth and organization of Qatari society

Ahmed Warfa, of Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar, has conducted an exploratory survey of Kenyan migrants in Qatar and has found that Kenya is one of highest recipients in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) of inward remittances—the money sent back to Kenya by Kenyans living and working abroad. His study of the impact of remittance and migration on the local economy of Kenyans in Qatar has found that as migrant workers, they are highly disappointed with gaining an income lower than what they initially imagined. The challenges that these migrants face results from Qatar's high cost of living, which impedes their saving enough money before returning to Kenya. The median migrant is a 29-year-old man who has 13 years of schooling; more than a third of male Kenyan immigrants have a university degree, which is unexpected for a migrant from a developing country. On average, these migrants work 9 hours a day, 6 days a week and earn an annualized income of USD 4,681 of which they remit USD 2,472 (over half) to Kenya. More than 70% of Kenyan migrants are unsatisfied with their savings, and 21% are saving less than they were in Kenya. Warfa strongly advocates empowering migrants to manage their expenses and recommends matching migrants to the jobs for which they have trained.

Qatar is invested in the education and future of its society. As such, careful attention is being paid to the trends and attitudes of Qatari citizens towards the education sector. Aljazzi Hamad Fetais of Qatar University discussed the importance of higher education for developing countries, especially in a globalized context where universities are competing to supply the increased demand for education. Fetais is examining the quality of university services delivered to students by the offices of admissions and registration at Qatar University. To measure student satisfaction, she has adapted the SERVQUAL survey method to evaluate specific service attributes in terms of their tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, and empathy towards students.

Meanwhile Ziad Said of the College of the North Atlantic-Qatar, Doha, is studying the impact of Qatari education reform. Said, an industrial chemist by qualification and a university faculty member by profession (former head of applied science at Qatar University), turned to this subject after the decline in student interest in science forced Qatar University to close its program in the sciences. The Arabic Speaking Students' Attitudes toward Science Survey (ASSASS) is a pilot study which seeks to determine whether elementary and high school students will go on to study science at the university level. The results indicate that almost two thirds of the students enjoy science classes at school and almost half are interested in continuing on to science programs at university. According to a World Bank analysis in 2008, however, only 19% of college students are enrolled in science and engineering programs in Qatar. Nevertheless, the high intention factor in this study indicates a positive attitude toward science in Qatari schools and marks an improvement in student interest, which although not immediately evident in terms of student enrollment in science at the university level, reflects one positive outcome of the education reform in Qatar.

Urban space and social practice

The rapid and extensive urbanization of Qatar is propelled by economic strategies that situate its capital city, Doha, as an international center that thrives in a knowledge economy. Ashraf Salama of Qatar University and his team are conducting a study that analyzes the complex factors that produce urban space as well as the complex interdependencies between knowledge and economic and physical urban development in Doha. Because Doha's recent economic renewal influences the evolving structure of its urban environment, Salama is tracking how it has moved from a traditional settlement to a construction boom and then to a city with high global connectivity. The framework he has created addresses the spatial development of Doha over the past 50 years and the conflict that the commercialization of space has produced with its social environment. Salama, however, projects a period in the near future of "differential space" in which proactive participation, innovation, and diversity will be Doha's key characteristics. For a city like Doha to compete globally, it will increasingly rely on the production of a knowledge-intensive economy, one based on international services, international banking, and international education. Salama estimates that urban space will be the driver of this economy, and a key to the future prosperity of the country.

The commercialization of Qatar's urban space has transformed the social practices of its inhabitants. Amani Ahmed discussed the role and symbolic function of Villaggio, Doha's newest and largest shopping mall. She explored the impact of Qatari shopping malls upon Qatari society, culture, and identity. Though supermalls are less frequently visited than was initially anticipated, they accommodate an assortment of social expectations and needs while sustaining a variety of cultural traditions. In Doha, the Villaggio has shifted the patterns and social behaviors of everyday life, changed the daily activities of the population, and created new consumer practices. These changes include new eating habits, altered times of sleep, and new relationships within both the household and neighborhood. Since individuals tend to visit the malls with their families, the mall has partially replaced home visits between families and neighbors. This also means that restaurants and coffee shops are playing a significant role in integrating Qatari families. After some initial resistance, the cinema has also now become a part of mainstream Qatari social life. Ahmed contends that the Villaggio functions as a space for new forms of social practice that are free from the social constraints observable in other spaces of traditional Qatari society.

Understanding the dynamic between urban space and social practice and the changes that ensure is necessary to the preservation and promotion of Qatar's historical and aesthetic traditions. When Sue Underwood was commissioned by the Qatar Museum Authority (QMA) to develop a new museum, she investigated the characteristics of Qatari Arab audiences that might visit such a museum to understand how the spatial and content planning of such a museum should be modified for these audiences. Underwood focused primarily on the constitution of Arab families and on their motivations for visiting museums. To gather this information, she distributed a questionnaire endorsed by the Supreme Education Council and the QMA. This study revealed that respondents across all demographics are highly receptive to visiting the museum with their families. A range of emotional engagement and attitude patterns characterize the experiences of families visiting museums, but family behavior once in museums is primarily directed by their social motivations. For 72% of families surveyed, the ability to socialize was the primary motivational characteristic in their museum experience, a fundamental cultural difference from the West. Museum planners need to be aware of the characteristics of family socialization in Qatar such as the importance given to conversation in interacting with museum exhibits and the need for museum content to engage all members of the family, including children.

Speakers:
Mohammad Hussein Al-Anazi, Awqaf Ministry of Qatar
Darwish Al-Emadi, Qatar University
Fatima Al-Kubaisi, Qatar University
Kelly Knez, Aspetar–Qatar Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital
Khalid Mohammed Muftah, Omar Bin al-Khattab, Qatar
Frieda Wiebe, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar

Student speakers:
Tara Makarem, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar
Hadeel Ali Radwan, Qatar Petroleum

Highlights

• In Qatar, civic participation does not necessarily lead to increased democracy.
• AIDS stigmatizes Qatari women living with the disease more than it does men.
• A bioethics research infrastructure will establish Qatar as the world's premiere resource on Islamic bioethics.

Islamic tradition and civil society

Civic engagement and civil society are pillars of democracy in the West, leading many to assume that strengthening civil society inevitably leads to democratization. U.S. foreign policy for example, has promoted civic engagement as a crucial element in the unfolding of democratic political systems in the Arab world. Darwish Al-Emadi of the Social and Economic Survey Research Institute at Qatar University, however, questions this causal relationship after creating and administering the first ever Qatar World Values Survey (QWVS) in December 2010 to over 1,000 Qataris.

The QWVS gauged the level of social tolerance, political interest, appreciation for democracy, confidence in government institutions, and of participation in civil society organizations amongst its Qatari interviewees. The questions were formulated to assess whether people who participate in civic organizations and movements in Qatar exemplify democratic behavior or not. What Al-Emadi found was that in Qatar, civic participation does not necessarily lead citizens towards an increased appreciation for democracy. He concluded that because those most actively engaged in civil society stand the greatest chance of benefiting from existing social and political structures, they have little motivation or desire to change them.

Qatar's citizens are motivated to voluntary collective action and social organization by their shared adherence to identities, practices, and beliefs, and many of these are increasingly shaped by and in reaction to mass media. One recent example of this lies in the high-profile debates to affect the Middle East and Qatari society that resulted from the publication of the Danish cartoons and the boycotts that followed in 2006. Tara Makarem from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service in Qatar asked whether the background of Qataris who viewed media coverage of these events, or whether the way reports were branded by different news channels affected viewers' perception of bias in the media coverage. If branding does affect perception, Makarem asks, then what are the background attributes that trigger the differences in viewer responses? She and her team conducted an experimental survey consisting of a short video clip and five different modules which assessed the background perceptions of the controversy and evaluated views of Al-Jazeera's and CNN's coverage of the affair. While they found that for the most part religion does drive differences in perception of the events and other background characteristics do not, they also found that perception of bias in news coverage also changed when the group thought they were receiving information from CNN instead of Al Jazeera.

The news media play an important role in constituting the modern subjectivities of Muslims. Presently, research is being conducted on the effect and influence on children in Qatar of religious material disseminated by the internet and satellite television. Mohammad Hussein Al-Anazi from the Awqaf Ministry of Qatar, who studies the importance of religious discourse in all phases of childhood psychological health, cautions that religious leaders, teachers, and all those who publicly invoke religious terminology should pay special care in the messages they deliver to children. These messages should be clear and straightforward, and follow the example of the Prophet Muhammad as well as the many verses in the Qur'an and Hadith regarding the care and attention to be paid to children.

In order to analyze the psychological impact that religious discourse can have on a child, Al-Anazi created a questionnaire for male students in Doha. He visited several psychological health centers and interviewed religious scholars and teachers to determine whether young students enjoyed listening to religious lectures. The study found that the reason most likely to prevent children from attending classes in religion was a lack of clarity and fear about the afterlife. Following modern psychoanalytic theory, Al-Anazi stresses the importance of clear and informed communication in treating these topics with children and the importance of religious discourse in cultivating the self-worth of a child.

Recommendations for adapting religious teaching for children to account for their psychological development. (Image courtesy of Mohammad Hussein Al-Anazi)

The Islamic legal tradition is increasingly being subjected to modern economic structures of power and governance and Islamic scholars therefore preoccupied with ensuring the applicability of traditional jurisprudence to present-day situations. Khalid Mohammed Muftah, of Omar Bin al-Khattab, Qatar contends that Islamic sciences and practices are inherently versatile and in a constant state of renewal, and he argues that this is especially so with the science of jurisprudence, because it is applicable to diverse contexts and locations. This is because the renewal of any tradition begins at the moment it is studied, and it becomes a never-ending process that accompanies current scientific advances and is influenced by other types of social processes. Therefore, in order for Islamic jurisprudence to be relevant to a modern Islamic nation state, its origins and fundamentals need to be recognized, as well as the Islamic modalities that this tradition has instituted and how these are being regenerated in the present. Muftah advocates integrating historical and descriptive methods to understand the inherent regenerative and adaptive capacity of the texts of Islamic law. These approaches can elucidate the contexts, intellectual sources, and the languages of the texts of jurisprudence, as well as the different schools of thought and the epistemologies that they represent. For Hadeel Ali Radwan of Qatar Petroleum, Islam's legal tradition needs to support an Islamic economic system that is able to develop new economic policies that are relevant to a globalized economy and competitive with global institutions. This is especially pertinent, as Islamic law forbids commercial insurance. Radwan explores the possibility of obtaining economic services that are compatible with Islamic law to facilitate the introduction of insurance in Muslim countries as well as their implementation within the laws and regulations of the State of Qatar.

Public health and bioethics

The concern with preventing disease and prolonging the life of its citizens is pushing Qatar to promote public health and information. Qatar not only takes health measures, it also deals with the social stigma brought on by the increased awareness of diseases. For example, three decades into the epidemic, AIDS still carries a destructive stigma. Fatima Al-Kubaisi of Qatar University reported that this stigma is difficult to investigate because of the paucity of research on the topic in Arab society, and especially in Qatar. From her review of the few studies that do exist, she revealed that HIV is seen as a male disease. Scarce consideration is paid to women who are HIV-positive and who make up 30.4% of people living with AIDS in the Arab world. Al-Kubaisi has collected data from 520 students at Qatar University and analyzed the attitudes that continue to mark HIV-positive women in Qatar. Reactions to HIV-positive individuals vary according to the gender of those with the disease. The students interviewed attributed more blame and stigma to women with AIDS than to men and supported imposing harsh limits on the sexual and reproductive rights of women suffering from AIDS. Only 45% approved of women with AIDS getting married (as compared to the 63% for men), 78% believed that women with AIDS should not get married, and 56% advocated that these women be sterilized.

In order for public health intervention to effectively prevent disease and improve the health and quality of life of its citizens, Qatar needs to promote healthy behavior that is compatible with its society. As Qatar shifts from being a Bedouin nomadic society to one that is more urban, there has been a dramatic increase of diabetes and obesity in Qataris. The Qatari culture and physical infrastructure has limited the opportunities for planned and incidental physical activity for women. Kelly Knez, of Aspetar–Qatar Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital contends that to better advocate for health norms that are appropriate to the boundaries and cultures of Qatari society, we must disabuse ourselves of Western assumptions about Qatari women and focus instead on their lived experiences. Knez examines the physical and cultural conditions under which Qatari women do participate in exercise. Using a qualitative analytic approach, she has researched the lived experiences of a group of young and single Qatari women and found that they do indeed exercise. Her results attest to the central role of families in facilitating young women's physical activity, within cultural boundaries that preserve the reputation of the family. Young women must be able to work within and across cultural norms to be physically active.

The health norms of Islamic societies in the Middle East are legislated within and coextensive with a comprehensive tradition of bioethics. The Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University and its Bioethics Research Library in Washington DC and the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service Library in Qatar are collaborating on an ambitious project to create an international information resource on Islamic bioethics. Frieda Wiebe and her team are developing a core collection and database, which will include source material in bioethics and its intersections with Islamic law, Islamic studies, and the modern scientific and medical advances that are being questioned and dealt with from an Arab-Islamic perspective. Their aim is to promote the use of and access to information that will underlie scholarly studies and any research or clinical work being pursued in the field of Islamic bioethics. The material's classification and index supports the needs of scholars, researchers, clinicians, students, and the general public. This project will create a bioethics research infrastructure, establishing Qatar as the world's premiere resource on Islamic bioethics.