Towards Jihad?

The task of this thesis will be to demonstrate that there is fine-tuning of nomic behavior for the existence of human life in the universe and, if a multiverse exists, that there is fine-tuning behind the multiverse. The fundamental constants of nature, laws of physics, and the mechanisms needed for bubble universe inflation will serve as evidence for the hypothesis that there is a fine-tuner. It is not the task of this thesis to answer the teleological question with a descriptive answer to what the purpose of life is; rather, the task at hand will be to argue that there is a purpose, which is detectable via purposive fine-tuning. There is no doubt among cosmologists and philosophers that the universe we inhabit is fine-tuned, per se. If the value of physical laws were any different then this universe could not produce observers. Fine-tuning is a metaphysically and religiously neutral term used to simply state that if the universe had been otherwise it would not harbor human life. The question is whether this fine-tuning is the result of a fine-tuner or whether it is just a semantic tool to describe the balanced values that is explained by competing non-fine-tuning hypotheses. The term design does, however, carry metaphysical and religious implication. In recent decades these metaphysical and religious implications have been under criticism and rejected by many as an acceptable explanatory hypothesis for the cosmological data. It is my contention that the finetuning of nomic behavior in multiverse scenarios is the consequence of an antecedent mind-a fine-tuner. The more information-the values of laws and constants-the more demand for an explanans. The more universes there are the more information there is. A mind is the only known explanans for the origin of information (and not merely the change of information).

Since 2017, Mozambique has been confronted with a jihadi insurgency. This book looks at the origins of that insurgency, and the broader and longer history of the relationship between Islam and politics in the country. Did Mozambique's Muslim politics always point towards jihad? Eric Morier-Genoud examines the period immediately after independence, when the state engaged in anticlericalism; he then moves across the decades to the 2000s, when the ruling party and the opposition alike courted Muslims for electoral purposes, before reaching the 2010s, when tensions between 'mosque and state' returned. Along the way, he explores a wide variety of phenomena, including the rise of Wahhabism, religious competition, state mediation, secularism, the alleged growth and radicalisation of Islam, and the origins of the ongoing insurgency. What emerges is a rich history, attentive to different branches and elements of the Muslim community, looking far beyond the narrow perspective of jihad. Taking a socio-historical perspective, 'Towards Jihad?' unpacks a complex dynamic, which the jihadi insurgency is in fact now disrupting. Understanding the long history of Muslims' engagement with politics in Mozambique sheds light on where the country has come from, where it stands now amidst violent unrest, and where it might go next.