Islamic Culture

Though Muslims have been living in Nepal from the 15th century, they have started practicing their religious activities freely only after enactment of new civil code in 1963. This paper aims to explore the potentials and problems on the existing mosques, perception of the religious structures by Muslim community and analysing of existing legal and institutional framework before drawing a conclusion. The research methodology consists of combination of field visit and collection of detailed information, structured questionnaire survey and consultation with local leaders and municipal staffs. Detailed analysis of ‘Jame Masjid’ in Kathmandu and another ‘Masjid’ at Trishuli Bazaar in Bidur reveals that these mosques have become the centre of practising Islamic culture, promoting brotherhood among Muslim communities, learning place of Islamic education, besides their sentimental attachment. Social harmony between Muslims and other religious communities together with coexistence of mosques and ‘madrasa’ with Hindu religious structures in the same vicinity has presented a unique situation. However, inadequate information, low level of awareness among the mosque visitors and above all lack of government’s specific plans and policies have hampered the conservation and development of mosque architectural and Islamic culture. To reverse this trend,development of mosques as Islamic cultural and community development centre, incorporation of salient features ofIslamic culture into local planning and building codes as well as in school syllabus and networking with domestic and international organisations working for local development is suggested.

During the last decade, tourism has always had an ascending approach in appealing new audiences. One of the types of tourism, which is considered the most popular type of tourism in this century, is war tourism. In Iran, war tourism is organized in the form of war tourism camps and is based on the memories and stories of the eight years of holy defense. Preserving the memory and sacrifices of the past generation is one of Iran's cultural priorities, and war tourism camp is one of the most important related cultural events in the country, which transmits these concepts to the new generation. Students and professors are among the influential groups in the society's culture and are among the main audiences of tourism, knowing more about their attitudes and views towards the war tourism can contribute to increase the productivity of this event and the satisfaction of tourists. In this regard, the aim of this study is to identify and categorize the views of the academic community towards war tourism camps. The method was to use Q approach to survey experts and categorize their views. Then, with k-means clustering algorithms, students' opinions have been analyzed with a larger sample size. According to the findings of Q analysis, 3 categories of views have been identified, and according to the outputs of the clustering algorithm, 5 clusters of views have been identified, and the generalities of these cases are very similar.