ANNOUNCEMENT ********************************************************* DISKUS will in future be published only on the INTERNET at: http://www.uni-marburg.de/fb11/religionswissenschaft/journal/diskus ********************************************************* # ISSN 0967-8948 ### ##### ####### ######### ####### D I S K U S ##### ### # The on-disk journal of international Religious Studies Vol. 4 No. 2 1996 If you know how to use DISKUS, please go to CONTENTS/4#2. If you are new to DISKUS, please read on... ===========================================================* HELP FOR READERS OF DISKUS Welcome to Vol.4, no.2 of DISKUS. We hope you enjoy it. You can print out the contents of DISKUS or read DISKUS on-screen. If you haven't already looked at the file called !WHAT_TO.DO, please read that file before proceeding any further. It may save you a lot of time! In a conventional printed journal, page numbers are used to find items. There are no page numbers in DISKUS. 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HELP ===========================================================* DISKUS Volume 4 No.2 1996 Contents of Vol. 4 No. 2 EDITORIAL ............................................EDIT/4#2 ARTICLES .........................................ARTICLES/4#2 Andreas CHRISTMANN An Invented Piety: Ramadan on Syrian TV........CHRISTM/4#2 Michael YORK BACRA and the Media: Defending the Cult in the Politics of Representation....................................YORK/4#2 Ron GEAVES Baba Balaknath: An exploration of Religious Identity..............................................................GEAVES/4#2 George D CHRYSSIDES New Religions and the Internet.......................CHRYSSI3/4#2 ===========================================================* ABOUT DISKUS..........................................INFO/4#2 GUIDELINES FOR CONTRIBUTORS..........................GUIDE/4#2 COPYRIGHT NOTICE.................................COPYRIGHT/4#2 ===========================================================* Editorial Welcome to the second issue of DISKUS, Vol. 4. The articles in this issue cover a wide range of matters in a number of different religious contexts, but they have perhaps in common the issue of 'representation': who represents what religion, by what means, to whom? Andreas Christmann in his study of Ramadan in Syria points out that Ramadan TV plays an active role in the representation of Islam, contemporary society and the meaning of Ramadan for the Syrian people. Michael York tackles head-on the problem of 'cults' and the use of the term 'cult' in the representation of religion, with a plea to fellow-educators not to allow ourselves to be elbowed out of the public arena of debate by the powerful but often questionable projects of mass media and government. Ron Geaves' discussion of Baba Balaknath happens to illustrate York's point; not only is the article intrinsically interesting as an account of contemporary Punjabi religiosity, in the UK as much as in India, but it also highlights the problems which arise when textbooks, teachers and representatives of 'orthodoxy' line up to generate 'official' conceptions of religion which do not fit the facts. Finally George Chryssides points to the possibilities and perils of internet-based research and information-gathering in the field of new religious movements; cyberspace can be a hall of mirrors, in which a site listed as the Jehovah's Witnesses Official Homepage turns out to be produced by their opponents. At least you may be assured that this is a genuine issue of DISKUS........ We hope that you enjoy this issue of DISKUS, which is the last to be distributed on-disk, by what has now come to be called 'snail mail'. Technology has moved on and DISKUS with it. Past and future issues of DISKUS will henceforth be published only on the internet at: http://www.uni-marburg.de/fb11/religionswissenschaft/journal/diskus Thank you, DISKUS subscribers, for your support and your interest in DISKUS since its inception in 1993. THE EDITORS ------------------------------------------------------------ Note: Contributions for DISKUS should be sent to Brian Bocking at Bath Spa University College. Email: b.bocking@bathspa.ac.uk. The full address and contributors' guidelines can be found at the end of this DISKUS file at GUIDE/4#2. ===========================================================* ABSTRACTS of ARTICLES -------------------------------------------------------------- Andreas CHRISTMANN An Invented Piety: Ramadan on Syrian TV (Full article in file CHRISTM/4#2) The article examines how Ramadan television reflects Islamic principles and social reality in Syria. It analyses the scheduling, content etc. of television programmes and religious aspects in four television genres; historical dramas, cartoons, evening shows and religious broadcasts. The televisual language of Ramadan programmes is conceptually formative. It manipulates and invents 'new' religious expressions by changing traditional aspects of Ramadan and Islam within the political and social life of Syria. -------------------------------------------------------------- Michael YORK BACRA and the Media: Defending the Cult in the Politics of Representation (Full article in file YORK/4#2) This paper traces the use of the term 'cult' by academics, the public and the mass media, from its early academic use in the sociology of religion to recent calls for the term to be abandoned by scholars of religion because it is now so overladen with negative connotations. But scholars of religion have a duty not to capitulate to popular opinion, media and governments in the arena of the 'politics of representation'. The author argues that we should continue using the term 'cult' as a descriptive technical term. It has considerable educational value in the study of religions. -------------------------------------------------------------- Ron GEAVES Baba Balaknath: An exploration of Religious Identity (Full article in file GEAVES/4#2) The textbook presentation of religions in discrete categories ('Sikhism', 'Islam', 'Hinduism' etc.) may be challenged by fieldwork which reveals complexities of religious practice and belief which transcend the boundaries set by 'orthodoxy'. The article examines Sikhism and Punjabi religion in the UK and India, focusing on the eclectic Baba Balaknath cult of the Hoshiapur/ Jullundhar area of Punjab. -------------------------------------------------------------- George D CHRYSSIDES New Religions and the Internet (Full article in CHRYSSI3/4#2) The author explores NRM-related use of the internet, taking as examples two new religious movements and their critics. The Jehovah's Witnesses' attitude to the Net is cautious, fearful of 'apostasy'. The Church of Scientology provides a contrasting case study of legal battles and successes. Anti-cultists using the Internet include principally the American Family Foundation (USA) and the Reachout Trust (Britain). The article provides numerous website addresses, highlighting the problems posed for students and scholars by the Net's vast resources. -------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------- GUIDE/4#2 DISKUS: Guidelines for Contributors Version 4 PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE SENDING IN YOUR CONTRIBUTION 'DISKUS: Guidelines for Contributors' will be included in each issue of DISKUS and amended in the light of experience. If you plan to submit an item to DISKUS, please look in your most recent issue of DISKUS for updated Guidelines. CONTENTS GUIDELINES DISKUS features: - an emphasis on contemporary religions, and contemporary issues in Religious Studies. - a mix of religious traditions in each issue of the journal - a broadly phenomenological approach, by which we mean articles about religion rather than articles written from a religious standpoint. - articles written in a lucid style, accessible to an international readership of researchers, students and educators in Religious Studies. Style Guide: Papers intended for publication in DISKUS should be submitted initially IN PRINTED FORM ONLY, two copies, double spaced and page-numbered. Short announcements, letters etc. may be submitted on paper, or on paper and disk. Referencing: Referencing may be done with numbered endnotes e.g. <3> or in the author-date style e.g. (BROOKS, 1979:23). Some writers may wish to number paragraphs in order to refer backwards and forwards in their paper. Sub-headings are often useful. Bear in mind that that readers don't like scrolling backwards and forwards looking for endnotes, so incorporate as much as possible in the main text. Special characters: Remember that DISKUS cannot handle bold text, italics, diacritics, underlining etc.. If diacritics are necessary a special list suitable for DISKUS may be useful. See file FREEMAN.2#2 for an example. Authors may wish to use the diacritical conventions used for e-mail but remember that many DISKUS readers not on the internet may be unfamiliar with those conventions. Bibliography: use single quote marks for title of articles, e.g: Brown, A. 'Religion and Reason Reconsidered', CORPUS. Vol.5, no.1, 1993, pp.3-25. For book titles, separate the title from preceding text and place a full stop at the end, before the publisher information, e.g: Smith, J. (1990) The Nature of Nature. London, Common Press. Joint Editors of DISKUS: Prof. Brian Bocking Dr Gavin Flood Study of Religions Dept. Dept. of Theology Bath Spa University College & Religious Studies Newton Park Univ. of Wales, Lampeter Bath BA2 9BN Lampeter, Wales SA48 7AR email: b.bocking@bathspa.ac.uk ===========================================================*