درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

One of the major challenges for a civilization - and a parameter for assessing it - is how it treats those who do not belong to that civilization. The dichotomy between “we” and “them” is made variously across civilizations. In the past, interactions across civilizations are less voluminous and less intense.  But things have changed. The world has become a global village. Yet, it remains very pluralistic in terms of religion, culture, ethnicity, and language. The diversity of the contemporary world is due to the existence of concurrent civilizations on the world, each with its distinct culture, world view and values. Western culture, Islamic culture, oriental culture and African culture are some of the more prominent cultures today. Globalization is not without its problems. For one thing, the world is being pressurized into become a mono-cultural environment patterned after western culture. This position is not because of any inherent superiority of western civilization to the other civilization but because of the cultural invasion of the world by the west.   Information flow is the world has been essentially one way - from the west to the rest. The quest for peace in the modern world must therefore address how the diverse cultures of the world are accommodated, first within specific civilizations and secondly in the world at a global level particularly within the context of the United Nations. The past offers a good lesson for the future. This paper looks at how three civilizations – Islamic, African, and western - in their pristine historical and modern forms - have approached otherness. Islamic civilization emerged from a multi-ethnic and multi-religious environment.  The Islamic approach is one of tolerance and respect for otherness in spite of the full conviction of the rightness of its religious creed and way of life.  Islam recognizes the freedom of religion for non-Muslims and expresses this in a comprehensive and complete manner. It does not impose its laws or culture on them but grants social, cultural and judicial autonomy to these strangers within its borders. This attitude which was in the past is still observable in some modern Islamic countries such as Iran. African culture is a very diverse affair. The common traits amongst Africans include their warm treatment of strangers and their respect for the cultural independence of other peoples.  The attitude of western civilization contrasts with the attitudes of Islamic and African civilizations.  The West has consistently pursued a policy of domination of other peoples based on its perceived superiority over them. This attitude, for which various ideological and intellectual justifications have been advanced in defense of, remains in contemporary times, a constant source of friction and tension. It is suggested that models provided by Islamic and African cultures be used as a basis for modern interaction by persons belonging to different cultures.

This study examines the associations of internet information literacy with two variables: (1) the ability to work with technical aspects of the internet (internet skill), and (2) attitudes about the need for qualitative necessities in the development of e-services. A hierarchical regressions software analyzes data from a national sample of 2134 internet users. In this paper, internet literacy is considered as a literacy which has two-dimensional aspects including information literacy and skill literacy. In an articulation as this, many of the capabilities associated with the internet such as technical, critical, analytical, and structural factors are studied. In addition, abilities that lead users to make distinctions between useful, safe and healthy data and fake, hateful and unhealthy data are taken into account. The analysis shows that the internet information literacy is positively related to internet skills. It is also shown that more internet information literacy leads to more demands for e-services’ qualitative necessities (in the eight indicators of cheapness, availability, usability, quickness, security, integrity, reliability, and transparency). Furthermore, some sociodemographic characteristics (i.e. age, gender, education, income, and place of residence) are explicitly associated with internet skills. Strategy suggestions are concluded for policy making in the respective fields.