Qatar Foundation Annual Research Forum Volume 2011 Issue 1

Renouncing what some psychological studies call for regarding abandoning extending the memorization culture to children (memorization and indoctrination), and taking care of pursuing their talents and refining their creativity assuming it a basis for cognitive configuration in their future life – since the religious discourse is private in its own way of educating children. The way children are addressed requires a high degree of clarity and simplicity keeping in mind the level of their mental ability especially when dealing with religious aspects, in that it contains metaphysical matters and particular terminology. The proliferation of religious awareness as a result of the knowledge revolution through the internet and satellite TV convinced educational institutions, to a certain extent, with the importance of this dimension in modifying the behaviour and instilling values in children.

Here comes the role of preachers and religious leaders - and even those others who use the religious dimension in their discourse - in delivering religious messages to children through various means, including lectures, workshops, print, video or audio releases, and through both the traditional and new communications media.

Religious teachings have always had clear principles regarding the provision of care for children, whose right to education and access to basic needs are guaranteed. Such needs include all that fall under how they are treated and nature of messages targeting them.

This research was carried out to deal with the psychological aspects a religious spokesman needs to observe while directing a religious speech to children in the following areas:

* The carrot and stick

* Training and assignment ages

* Individual differences among children

* Comprehension & perception of speech by children

* Humanitarian needs as per Maslow's hierarchy of needs

* Communication methods and effects according to the theory of psychoanalysis

Qatar Museums Authority (QMA) is developing a variety of different museums. It is essential that QMA understands the needs and expectations of potential audiences. As part of this process, during 2011, a significant ongoing research project investigating potential family audiences for museums in Qatar was undertaken.

The objectives fall into two categories: understanding the demographics of potential family audiences and their perceptions of museums and secondly understanding current family usage of museums in Qatar and neighboring countries.

It focused upon developing an understanding of the needs of families during leisure time, and their motivations for family activities. Perceptions of museums as family destinations were sought and actual behavior in museums recorded.

The research was conducted over two phases from winter 2010 to summer 2011, and consisted of a mixture of quantitative and qualitative methodologies.

* Questionnaires were sent to all eligible schools in Qatar and forwarded to every pupil's family. Focus groups explored motivations for and expectations of, family engagement with museums.

* Motivations and expectations were further tested through observation of family visits to museums and comparable venues.

* In depth discussions with family groups.

Results have confirmed a significant interest in museum visitation. Families are motivated by a variety of factors, which can be divided into social, intellectual and emotional categories. The majority (72%) of families are motivated by social factors (e.g. the desire to spend enjoyable time with family). This percentage is significantly higher than is normally exhibited in Europe and America, suggesting a cultural difference.

Observations confirmed this social motivation, but highlighted a lack of familiarity with museums as venues for interaction. Challenges faced by family visitors were highlighted, including orientation, exhibit usage and how best to support children's learning.

The research indicated a potential family audience for museums in Qatar, and built an understanding of the motivating factors for visits, illustrating a marked difference from other countries. It has also shown several potential barriers to family engagement in museums which must be addressed for museums to successfully appeal to this key audience.

The ultimate objective of this study is to explore the strengths and weaknesses and the nature of the services available and required in Qatari communities, in order to assist the Council in promoting these communities developmentally in a balanced way, using a number of scientific and systematized methodological that enable us to develop a scientific database that can be relied upon in future planning, in order to realize the idea of sustainable development based on integrating various social groups and strata in a flexible, concrete, methodological and differentiated development process that is centered on the needs and efforts of the local community.

The study aimed to diagnose and analyze the situation in these communities in terms of: (Strengths; Weaknesses; Opportunities: available or that can be made available; Threats; Various obstacles facing developmental efforts in these communities) , to identify key players in these societies and classifying them as either: (Initiators, Influential or Decision-makers), to identify the main difficulties experienced by Qatari society regarding different services, as well as to identify the size and nature of the role played by the State through its various institutions in the following areas: Educational, Economic, Social, Entertainment, Health and Cultural services and to measure the nature and magnitude of the services provided in these communities and their ability to satisfy the needs of citizens and to assess extent of their satisfaction with these services. The study has employed a descriptive survey approach, through conducting a quantitative study on a stratified random sample of 1,100 subjects, distributed according to population distribution cited by the Census Bureau in 2006.

In addition, a qualitative study was conducted through three approaches: targeted discussion groups, through organizing 32 discussions focus groups. The qualitative study will allow us, to a great extent, to identify reasons, justifications and opinions that can only be elicited through this approach. Each session lasted for 1.5 - 2 hours and included 6-8 members of the target population. The study has also relied on in-depth interviews through the descriptive approach based on diagnosing and analyzing the reality lived by Qatari citizens through conducting in-depth interviews with a sample of natural and official opinion leaders in these communities.

Our sample consisted of 229 male and female subjects, selected from natural and official leaders. We have employed a desk research approach, through a survey questionnaire covering the most important services and resources available and required in these communities through the country's ten Municipalities. These services are economic, social, cultural, intellectual, educational, political and other services. We have also employed a comparative approach to make a comparison between the different groups of our target population, based on various demographic and psychological parameters.

Since the late 1990s, Qatar and its capital city Doha have been undergoing a new period of urbanization. Doha is viewed as an important emerging city in the Gulf region with a growing potential to constitute knowledge economies as a foundation for its future prosperity. Driven by economic diversification strategies that aim to establish the city as a global service hub, sport and media events and cultural facilities are being developed in order to brand the city as an international service center. This contribution aims at introducing a responsive framework for analyzing the complex inter-dependencies between knowledge economies and physical urban developments in Doha. In this respect, this is an ongoing research process, as part of a QNRF-NPRP funded project, which seeks to deliver insights into the complexity of the various factors that produce urban space and their individual effects on urban qualities. Based on Henri Lefebvre's triad of space production (conceived-perceived-lived), a framework has been developed and particularly devised to explore the inter-dependencies of Doha's recent economic transformation and the changing structure of its urban environment. The framework involves comprehensive analysis of urban planning decision making processes as well as in-depth investigation that applies interlocking network models to examine how urban space is currently used by companies of new economic sectors. Taking into account the importance of the role played by the employees working in these companies and their perception of contemporary urban space in the city, the framework utilizes empirical research techniques that involve survey studies, focused interviews, and behavioral mapping. In addition to investigating the various factors driving spatial transformation, the evolutionary aspects of the city's urban structure are traced and analyzed using GIS data and space syntax studies. The results of implementing this framework are amenable to establish a comprehensive understanding of the potential and deficits of Doha's urban environment, which in turn, foster the city's aspirations in establishing a thriving knowledge economy.

Background: Although researchers have studied AIDS-related stigma for three decades, there is a serious shortage of this type of work in the Arab world including the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Our review revealed only 24 published studies on the social aspects of AIDS from all the GCC countries since the beginning of the epidemic. Unfortunately nothing was published from Qatar. A closer inspection of these studies shows that people living with HIV/ AIDS (PLWHA) were treated as one homogenous group and the importance of layered stigma (e.g., being HIV-positive and female) was not considered. Although Arab HIV-positive women represent nearly 30.4% of all PLWHA in the Arab world, the majority of them contracted the virus while married. For example, a study from Saudi Arabia found that 62 out of 65 of the HIV-positive women were infected by their husbands, whereas, 111 out of the 124 men acquired it from sex workers. This is a new trend in the Arab world. In the past HIV was seen as a male disease.

Objectives: To correct these limitations this paper focuses on stigmatization of HIV-positive women in Qatar among college students.

Methods: The present study collected data from 520 college students at Qatar University using self-administered questionnaire to gauge their attitudes toward HIV-positive women compared to HIV-positive men.

Results: Findings illustrated the extreme negative view of HIV-positive women. For example, 63% of the students agreed that HIV-positive men should be allowed to get married while, 45% approved the same action for HIV-positive women. Further, we found that 78% of the students believed that HIV-positive women should not have children and 56% suggested that they should be sterilized to prevent them from having children. Other negative views and their relations to students’ knowledge of HIV, AIDS-related shame, degree of religiosity and gender will be discussed.

Conclusions: Reactions to HIV-positive people differ according to the gender of the infected individuals. Extreme measures were endorsed toward HIV-positive women compared to HIV-positive men. Further, limits were imposed on HIV-positive women's sexual and reproductive rights. Future studies need to replicate this study among other segments of Qatar society

Background: In 2009 the proposal to establish an international information resource on Islamic bioethics submitted to Qatar National Research Fund was accepted and awarded a three-year grant. The project was conceived and proposed by two of Georgetown University's research libraries: the Bioethics Research Library (BRL) at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics in Washington D.C. and the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar Library (SFSQL) with the vision to become the world's most comprehensive resource on Islamic bioethics. Building on the valuable experience of these two institutions, the project promises to serve the needs of the local and international community of researchers in the area of bioethics. The project utilizes the best practices gained from work on similar projects on bioethics scholarship in collaboration with renowned institutions in the field such as the National Library of Medicine of the National Institute of Health in the US. Currently the project is in the third year of the grant and the research team believes that the project is on schedule to achieve its vision.

Objectives: This presentation aims to demonstrate the efforts to achieve the targeted goals of the project. It also seeks to share the lessons gained from work on the different components of this project. In addition to highlighting the challenges encountered, the presentation will also illustrate the innovative solutions that were undertaken to fulfill the objectives of each of the project's components.

Methods: The presentation will address each of these components:

- The collection development: the proactive acquisition plan

- Database Development: innovative solutions

- Local Impact: partnerships and networking

- Global Impact: the world's premiere resource on Islamic bioethics

- Future Plans: further expansion and growth

Results and Conclusions: The presentation will share the policies and strategies that were implemented in order to fulfill the targeted goals of each of the components listed above. It will also demonstrate and showcase the results of the project.

Background: A recent survey by the World Bank puts Kenya as the second-highest recipient of inward remittance in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), contributing 5.7 percent to the country's GDP. The Gulf Cooperation Countries are becoming a favored destination for migrants, including those from SSA. The existing literature does not adequately examine the impact of remittance, and of migration, on migrants and their families. To our knowledge, this is the first exploratory survey of migrants from Kenya in the Gulf region.

Objectives: This research attempts to track migration and remittance trends between Qatar and Kenya that would enable policy-makers and researchers to monitor the impact of remittance on the local economy. It also serves as a valuable introduction that enhances our understanding of the challenges faced by migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa.

Methods : Original data from 52 male migrants were collected between June and December 2010. The survey covered the following issues: health, demographics, education, income, expenditure and remittance.

Results: The median Kenyan migrant has the following profile: male, 29 years of age, single, possesses some degree of college education, has been in Qatar for 1.4 years, works 9 hours a day, 6 days a week, earning US$ 3945 per year of which over half is remitted back home to his parents. The migrant has limited savings, rendering him unsatisfied. Most of the migrants surveyed intended to use their saving for further education or start a business enterprise. They also expressed concerns about a mismatch between the skill sets they had and the jobs obtained in Qatar.

Conclusions: This study raises pertinent questions that require a deeper analysis: Is it possible to match the migrants with jobs that they have trained for to reduce underemployment? How can migrants improve their savings? Our findings suggest that remittance and savings amongst Kenyan migrants help in capital accumulation and could contribute to the economic development in Kenya. Hence, there is a need for policy makers to work with Kenyan migrants, to enable them to achieve their financial goals.

This research aims to develop a new economic policy of insurance with a new Islamic template that relies on waqf in order to revive Islamic concepts, and activate their role in global economic policies, showing Islamic economic system's ability to interact with both the economic and social developments, and its ability to achieve high competitiveness with global institutions, by having additional positive features on the humanitarian side, social side and others. In greater detail, this research seeks to achieve several goals, namely:

First: avoiding of the prohibition inflicted on commercial insurance in Islamic jurisprudence and law, and obtaining services that are compatible with Islamic law, with what that entails of effects on the Muslim's life.

Second: avoiding the suspicions brought about by the Islamic mutual (takaful) insurance as it stands now.

Third: surpassing both insurances (commercial & mutual) in the role this insurance is developing small project economics, by providing free-of-charge services or for nominal fees to the owners of small enterprises thus gravely affecting the economy and the income level.

Fourth: exploring the possibility of applying this type of insurance in the State of Qatar (a study on Qatari laws), giving a preliminary design for the proposed endowment insurance company in terms of laws, activities and the distribution of money.

Through this research we will look into:

First: the need for insurance in countries in general, and in Muslim countries in particular.

Second: reasons for the inviolability of the commercial insurance.

Third: doubts and objections from scholars on Islamic mutual (takaful) insurance.

Fourth: the core of the endowment insurance and how it overcomes the problems of the two latter insurances.

Fifth: How to guide insurance surplus in endowment insurance proposal towards small business owners, and the impact of that on the achievement of social justice and economic and social development.

Sixth: how can the endowment insurance institution be created within the laws and regulations in the State of Qatar (an example).

Seventh: a projection for the endowment insurance in terms of labor regulations and the laws, in comparison to an insurance institution to a similar endowment institute that was established in South Africa, giving scholarly solutions to objections that we faced, and how can they be developed to serve the social/economic issues.

And finally: despite the novelty of this proposal, it directs scientists’ and researchers’ energy towards working on the development of economic, social & other policies, where various Islamic concepts (such as endowment, recompense, zakat, and kharaj etc…) play a role in human development on all levels, thus showing the greatness of Islamic regime which has been created to suit every time and place.

This presentation discusses the collection of Qatari child speech data. For a large project, we are obtaining audio recordings of 1/2-hour spontaneous Arabic speech produced by 140 Qatari monolingual children in natural settings (e.g. home and preschools). Fieldworkers produce digital files of the child speech recordings, and text file transcripts of the recordings. Our data are being analysed and coded in the CHILDES format.

Baseline Data for Arabic Acquisition with Clinical applications is a three-year interdisciplinary project in Linguistics and Children's Health. It is multiinstitutional and international. It is a cross-sectional study of child speech which involves research on normal conversational interaction produced by native Arabic-speaking children between the ages of 1 year and 4 months to 3 years and 7 months. The overall goal is to collect extensive new material on five colloquial Arabic dialects: Qatari, Saudi, Jordanian, Palestinian, and Lebanese.

Specifically, the project aims to achieve four online bilingual Arabic-English resources: Arabic Child Language Database, Analysis of the Arabic Child Language Database, Arabic Child Language Norms and Clinical Reference Materials for Arabic Speech-Language Pathology. The project will fill these resources with extensive material on five Arabic dialects. It will provide heretofore nonexistent baseline data on first language acquisition of Arabic, critically essential for Speech-Language pathologists working with Arabic children, and for linguists conducting research into the nature of language and first language acquisition. This is the second year of the project and we are still in the data collection stage.

The aim is to inform our language acquisition colleagues about the project, to facilitate cross-germination of ideas at this relatively early stage of our research. The presentation gives a small taste of the kind of data the Qatar team is encountering. We first summarize the progress made toward accomplishment of the aims of the project in Qatar, and problems and difficulties encountered and how they are being solved. We hope this will be helpful for fellow researchers who do child language research in the Arab Gulf region.

Contemporary Muslim communities, regionally and around the globe, are facing a defining moment. The post 9/11 incident—as agreed upon by different researchers—established a new milestone in the contemporary history of Muslim communities. Crucial questions related to identity, image, misconception and misjudgment of Islam as a religion and Muslims as part of the human community flourished in political, religious, economical and cultural literature. The declared ‘war on terror’ shouldn't be transformed into a war on Islam. As a result of massive fabrication of Islam as an enemy of civilized society as intensified in western media. Islam has become an issue in America. Islamophobia has emerged as an ideology that threatens the tradition of tolerance.

Mosques are undoubtedly the most clear physical representation of Islam as a religion, principles and values. Basically, the mosque is an ideological manifestation in space, time and matter. This paper will examine the architecture and urban status of contemporary mosques in selected contexts with the Arab and Western communities. The paper claims that formerly powerful and dominating image of the mosque is currently subjected to accelerating resistance and rejection. Numerous incidents around the world have shown clearly the volume of such new phenomenon. Ideological conflicts which have emerged after 9/11 and the declared war against terrorism, paved the way for a new perception of Islam and many of its related symbols and icons. The mosque is no exception in this newly constructed western perception which, as many researchers argue, is based on fear.

The paper invites Muslim and non-Muslim architects and planners to transcend the typical mosque prototype extensively scattered around the globe. A move from exclusive to inclusive spatial composition of the mosque is urgently needed. Mosques can be designed as part of a global network of social, cultural and spiritual activities inserted within and blended with global cities and towns. Hence, mosque design could seek creative and innovative solutions by which its form, spatial order, functional components, transparency, and communicated meaning can holistically contribute to diminish the swiftly accelerating Mosquephobia.