Followers of three world religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam are waiting for the Messiah. Muslims are even waiting for aspiritual leader al-Mahdi. Two different persons claimed the title of al-Mahdi, at the end of the nineteenth century. Theyappeared almost at the same time, at the totally different places of the earth, with a completely different message and underthe rule of the British colonial power. The aim of the study is to compare the both religious figures, Mirza Ghulam Ahmadfrom India and Muhammad Ahmad from Sudan regarding their different messages, to illustrate the social, political andreligious factors that lead to the entirely different profile and image of these two men and how their organizations havedeveloped after their death up till today.

The concept of the dynamic region has become a more prospering thought in the era of globalisation. This concerns in particular, cross border regions ? well-integrated territorial regions crossing more than one nation. In this paper I examine the development from a critical perspective and I map the democratic pitfalls of new territorial political constructions across national borders. The empirical analysis is a case report taken from the Öresund region, a cross border region between Sweden and Denmark.

A group of scientist, called the council of democracy in Sweden made a predictionabout members of political parties, in 2013 members should not exist. In this essaythat statement going to be questioned. It shows that most of the political parties losesmembers in Sweden. The only differences from year 2000 and now is that in 14 yearsthe parties has lost 65000 members, between 1991-1999 it was about 220000members. Something has changed.

The purpose of this study is to describe the motivations of women to participate in politics and to examine whether women feel that they are held back by something in their political participation. The questions of this study are:How do women motivate their participation in different fields in politics?Are there any obstacles that are holding women back in their political participation? Interviews have been used as the method to gather the empirical data. When applying the theoretical framework on the empirical material the main conclusion is that women tend to participate more frequently in political activities that are less time consuming and more sporadic in comparison to more traditional forms of political participation. Women are also more inclined to participate in political activities on a lower level that makes up part of their everyday life, one example of this is women?s increasing participating in political consumerism. Keywords: Politiskt deltagande, kvinnor, motivation, politik, politisk jämlikhet, politiska sfärer.

This study is case study of political participation among the Kani tribe from Kuttichal grama panchayat in the Thiruvananthapuram district in Kerala, India. The study is based on the collected data of 117 people of the Kani tribe living in four different settlements: Pankavu, Mangode-Valippara, Chonampara and Kaithode. The aim of the study is to examine the impact on political participation by different factors, which is done by the use of the quantitative method of cross tables. The study confirms previous studies in its conclusion that high status individuals, defined in terms of education and economic standard, are the group of the highest political participation, when this is defined as being involved in political work and holding a party membership. On the local political scene however, where political participation consists of participation in local assemblies and voluntary work, the impact of the examined variables are very limited.

I detta arbete har jag besvarat frågan vad religionen islam säger ska ske efter döden. Döden har alltid varit ett ämne med stor fascination genom mänsklighetens historia. Vare sig man har en religiös livsåskådning eller humanistisk livsåskådning så har alla en uppfattning om vad som kan hända efter döden. Jag har intervjuat en shejk för att ta få svar på vad muslimer har för tankar och tro om livet efter döden. För vissa muslimer är det självklart att själen lever vidare och att man kommer till en plats som heter Barzakh som är det arabiska ordet för den plats man kommer till efter döden. Livet efter döden består av fem olika steg som många muslimer tror att alla kommer att gå igenom.

This paper investigates whether there is a right not to suffer from poverty. The investigation is being conducted from the theoretical standpoint/view that only civil and political rights constitute justiciable rights and rights proper from a moral stance, whereas economic and social rights constitute mere political agendas or less.In the search of an answer to this question the content of economic and social rights, and thereafter civil and political rights will be outlined, followed by an inquiry of what should really be considered as rights. Finally, the arguments against economic and social rights as real rights is presented and scrutinized.This paper will conclude that the stated difference between the above-mentioned sets of rights is illusory and that the right not to suffer from poverty ought to have the same status as civil and political rights..

Under senare år har en allt mer spänd och infekterad relation uppstått mellan det svenska majoritetssamhället och den muslimska minoritetsbefolkningen i landet. Omfattande studier definierar fenomenet som islamofobiska strömningar, i Sverige och övriga Västvärlden. Studiens syfte är att få förklaringar till ungdomars inställning till muslimer och islam. Aspekterna socioekonomiska, sociala och könsrelaterade bakgrundsfaktorer anses enligt tidigare forskning påverka ungas intoleransgrad mot minoriteter, och ingår således i undersökningen. Som metod används individuella intervjuer där respondenterna får förklara sina ställningstaganden.

Since the end of the Cold War, foreign aid donors have been using political conditionality to promote human rights, democracy and good governance in recipient countries. This phenomenon has been analyzed and criticized, but mainly from a strictly empirical point of view. In this paper, the legitimacy of political conditionality is analyzed through a normative perspective based on the extrinsic value of efficiency. If the political conditions don?t result in a democratic development, including respect of human rights and good governance, they can not be justified.With at theoretical focus on the donors, based on the unequal relationship between donor and recipient, I am examining the donors? possibility and supposed will to use political conditions in development cooperation.

This is an essay about the political development of Iraq after the overthrow of the Baath regime by the coalition forces in 2003. Almost seven years later, the political scene is still characterised by chaos, even though the country entered a new phase with the adoption of democratic thinking and a new openness to the world. The unstable political situation is a product of inter-ethnic conflict and the interference by neighbouring countries. Iraq is up against two formidable tasks ? building democracy and building a nation.

This thesis uses statistical methods to investigate if political appointees working for the Swedish government are good representatives for the members of the ruling party. This is a relevant question since the number of political appointees and the political fields in which they are employed have increased. Some say that this is a sign of presidentialism, which in this context means that the prime minister and his cabinet are becoming more independent from parliament and supporting party. The research is done by comparing the political appointees with an select elite of party members regards to socioeconomic background, which interest that are promoted in society and ideology. The consequences of differences on these characteristics between political appointees and the party elite could be that some interest in society are wrongly overrepresented while others are wrongly underrepresented by the unelected political appointees.

The aim of this paper is to study and outline the factors governing political leadership at the party leader level, and to conclude to what extent a party leader rules and to what extent the party leadership is contextually determined. The theories used are based on Elgie's interactionistic study of political leadership and Stewart's organisational model of leadership as well as political culture.Thus, the questions raised are if the leader leads or if the leader follows; if the leadership environment is formed by the leader or if it is, merely, implemented on the leader; and what a model of the political leadership consist of? To answer these questions a text analysis comparing Sahlin?s speeches to the party?s political programme is used as well as in-depth interviews with members of the Board of Party.The conclusion shows that the leadership is contextually framed, but the leader is free to implement his or her ambitions within that frame as long as it is coherent to the party line..

This essay revolves around two questions: what is the nature of politics, and what kind of political order ensures a high rate of citizen participation? By using Cantal Mouffes theory on the political this essay shows how different understandings of the nature of politics can lead to diverging views on what forms democracy should take. Two such understandings are identified; one that sees the nature of politics as characterized by conflict and power, one that sees it as a space for cooperation in search for the common good. I trace these different ideas about the political in the parliamentary debate concerning Swedish constitutional reform. I conclude that the left-of-centre parties hold a view of the political closer to the conflict-perspective, while the green party together with the liberals/conservatives lean closer to the opposite view..

Syftet med den föreliggande studien är att utifrån konvertiters egna berättelser om sin väg till islam nå en ökad förståelse för vilken innebörd valet att konvertera till islam får för deras identitet och känsla av mening. Studiens frågeställningar är: Hur beskriver konveriter sin egen resa till islam, vilken betydelse har den nya religiösa identiteten för dem i deras vardag samt vilken mening finner de i sin religiösa tro idag. Studiens teoretiska utgångspunkter har varit Rambo och Farhadian's teori om konversionsstadier, Bauman, Johansson samt Berger & Luckmann's resonemang kring identitet som en process samt McGuire utifrån religion som meningssystem och konversion som omformulering av självet. Metoden som valts för att kunna uppfylla syftet och besvara frågeställningarna har varit hermeneutiken. Undersökningen har baserats på fem semistrukturerade intervjuer.

Klassrummen består idag av elever från olika kulturer och med olika religiösa bakgrunder. Eftersom alla elever har olika relationer till religion är det också svårt, för de lärare som undervisar i religionskunskap, att ge en rättvis bild av någons religion. Vid de tillfällena är det viktigt att vara tydlig med att religion både är något individuellt men också något kollektivt, samtidigt som det inte bör ges en stereotypiserande beskrivning av en religion eller dess utövare. Vid stereotypisering är det dessutom vanligt att sambanden mellan kultur och religion inte framgår och det finns alltid en ökad risk för diskriminering. Flera forskare hävdar att religion bör förklaras genom olika kärnor eller dimensioner, istället för genom den traditionella sekvenseringen uppkomst, historia, texter, människosyn, och så vidare. Religionsvetaren Ninian Smart ansåg att religion kan definieras utifrån sju olika dimensioner och i denna uppsats undersöks det vilka representationer som görs av den praktisk och rituella dimensionen i kristendom- och islamkapitlen i två läroböcker.