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The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the political and scholarly attention on conspiracy theories. Among other predictors, religious and spiritual influences on conspiracy beliefs have been widely discussed in the literature. We suggest analyzing the relationship between religion and spirituality on the one hand and conspiracy beliefs on the other hand from the perspective of religious information processing. Based on the Post-Critical Beliefs Scale (PCBS), we argue that literal interpretations of religious information are positively associated with conspiracy beliefs. Furthermore, we assume that individual differences in analytic cognitive style account for the relationship between religious attitudes, spirituality, and conspiracism. Using a quota sample of German adults, we find that literal interpretations of religious content positively correlate with conspiracy beliefs for the literal affirmation of transcendence (e.g., orthodoxy) and the literal disaffirmation of transcendence (e.g., atheism). These findings suggest that religious information processing is related to conspiracy beliefs for religious and nonreligious individuals. Moreover, our results show a stable association between holistic spirituality and conspiracy beliefs. The relationships between different types of religious attitudes, spirituality, and conspiracy beliefs hold, even after accounting for analytic (versus intuitive) thinking. The implications for the study of religious attitudes and conspiracy beliefs are discussed.

The Internet offers many actors in the society ways to present and raise discussion of ideas that is not possible or easy to engage in, especially in societies with conservative facades such as the Egyptian society. The number of Internet users in Egypt had reached 8.6 million by March 2008. This means that more than 10.per cent of the total Egyptian population had access to the Internet. The number of Internet users in Egypt is the third highest in Africa and represents about 17 per cent of the total number of users in Africa. By taking advantage of the opportunity of having greater access to the Internet and using the security of being anonymous, if one desired, provided by this medium of communication, increasing numbers of Egyptians started using the Internet to gain information and engage in political, social and religious discussions. This new E-public sphere in Egypt is not completely virtual, nor is it completely real.
The Internet facilitated more chances to networking, forming alliances and addressing the public. This has led to the emergence of a kind of alternative media run by professionals, semi-professionals and amateurs. And of equal importance, an increasing number of blogs and websites started addressing highly controversial social and religious issues.
This article, focusing on websites and blogs, explores the new trends which the Internet gave rise to, as well as institutions – such as government and established religious institutions – whose power to monopolise public debates has been challenged by the Internet in Egypt, till 2008. The paper also shows how the state interacts with these trends through recent attempts to increase censorship of the Internet, and in particular its usage for political mobilisation.

This article explores the way in which ethnically diverse societies govern their public sphere. It shows that the public sphere in multiethnic societies is an arena of conflict where cultural and ideological contest or negotiation among a variety of groups takes place. Drawing from Nigeria's experience, the article examines the conflict management arrangement devised to regulate hostile inter-group relations in the public sphere. It identifies power-sharing as the most fundamental conflict management strategy adopted to govern Nigeria's public sphere. The article argues that although power-sharing features as the most acceptable modality for moderating inter-group conflicts in Nigeria, its usefulness is limited by the fact that it widens the asymmetrical and oligarchic power of the dominant groups and hampers the growth of democracy.

In the quest for national development in Africa, how are the facts of linguistic diversity to be reconciled with pluralism, the African Union's ideological option for nation building? From the perspective of language planning theory, we motivate, justify, rationalise and propose a tier stratification model of language planning predicated on an adaptation of Jurgen Habermas's 1965 notion of the public sphere. Concretely, the bifurcation of the public sphere into the public and private domains and a principled stratification of languages of the nation-state into these domains, leads to a rational planning process. The process is characterised by the maintenance and consolidation of the linguistic and cultural identities of ethno linguistic communities at the micro- planning level while constructing a pluralistic national identity at the macro-planning level. The efficacy of the interaction between the two domains is mediated by two principles. The Principle of Functional Complementarities (PFC) requires that all languages be assigned (by the state) some valorising functions, i.e. functions that procure economic, social, and political advantages, thereby contributing to elevating the status of the ethno-linguistic communities. The Principle of Attitude Engineering (PAE) is expected to effect a positive change of attitude, culminating in a change of mindset congruent with the paradigm shift of national development anchored on pluralism. This model of Language Planning ensures the empowerment of linguistic minorities, provides for a reduction of ethno linguistic dominance and ipso facto, ensures the democratisation of access to knowledge, especially development-relevant knowledge for the national development enterprise.

The events leading to the Nigeria Civil War marked the triumph of force and violence over dialogue and negotiation as a means of conflict resolution. The success of the Nigerian state in imposing a military solution on the preceding political crisis, and then suppressing the ensuing Biafran rebellion, has had a lasting effect on state–society relations. As a result, the state has not refrained from using violence at the slightest provocation against competing and con- flicting ethno-religious groups. The tendency of the state to exercise domina- tion through the deployment of violence implies an ongoing crisis of state he- gemony rather than a resolution of civil unrest. This article argues that state violence was more important than ethnic divisions in triggering the secessionist attempt of Biafra, and has continued to create rather than resolve ethnic divi- sions across the country. The emergence in post-Civil War Nigeria of regimes that perpetrated or permitted mass violence against restive social groups re- mains critical to understanding the contemporary rise of ethno-nationalist move- ments and waning allegiance to the Nigerian state, particularly among the Igbo. The aim of the article is to underscore the understated salience of state violence in the debates on identity and citizenship in multi-ethnic societies.

Abstract

The decade from 1990 to 2000 was a period of sustained political activity in Africa, leading towards democratisation. Under this scope, Mozambique is widely seen as one paradigmatic success story. Yet, the country's multiparty democratic system remains challenged by a strong authoritarianism that hampers open deliberation in political public discourse.This paper discusses some reasons for this democratic hold-up in Mozambique's political and social transition within the broad and ongoing democratisation process in Sub-Saharan Africa. With an emphasis on the analysis of the political situation in the northern town of Angoche, this article argues that the persistence of central government authoritarianism is a reminder of a political liberalisation without democratising the political systems. Indeed, local municipal officials are now elected and receive revenue transfers, but remain limited by other measures.2 The central state successfully resists attempts to devolve broader decision-making authority to municipalities.
Far from the ideal Weberian type of state bureaucracy, public administration is highly politicised in the sense that the building up of the administrative capacities of the state are seen as a way of consolidating the political leverage of the ruling party – Frelimo. The paper defends, however, that indeed, a detailed analysis of the public political actions at local level, between distinct political structures, shows that successive authoritarian regimes have not totally erased the freedom of speech and thought, even if they have relegated opposition to ever more marginal spaces.

Abstract HIV is a major health problem in the world. HIV infection has the effect of reducing immunity status and increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease. Antiretroviral (ART) use as a therapy for HIV also increases the risk of heart disease. Objective: This literature review aims to identify the risk of cardiovascular disorders in HIV patients in Indonesia. Method: literature review of articles published January 2009 to September 2018 using search keywords namely 'Anti-retroviral therapy', 'Cardiovascular disease', 'Corronary artery disease', and 'HIV'. Results: There were 21 journal articles that were relevant to the design and purpose of paper and 3 articles that discussed the risk of heart disease in HIV patients in Indonesia. The results of the literature review showed that HIV patients in Indonesia are at risk of developing cardiovascular disorders which are exacerbated by the use of ART and smoking behavior. The risk of cardiovascular disease includes structural abnormalities and coronary heart disease. Conclusion: HIV patients have a high risk of developing cardiovascular disease. This is a challenge for health workers, the government and researchers, to develop appropriate strategies and methods in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disorders especially in low-middle income country countries such as Indonesia. Keyword: Anti-retroviral therapy, cardiovascular disease, HIV, AIDS, HIV in Indonesia

Le but de cet article est de montrer comment la femme nigérienne a négocié et continue de négocier sa citoyenneté dans un pays à 99 pour cent musulman. Dès l'indépendance, on voit nettement le jeu d'équilibre que faisait le président Diori Hamani pour préserver la laïcité du pays et les droits de chaque composante de la nation. En 1975, à la faveur de l'Année Internationale de la femme, celle-ci entre sur scène et depuis lors, elle revendique quotidiennement ses droits.
La démocratisation de la société nigérienne à partir de la Conférence Nationale de 1991 a amené aussi dans l'espace public les associations musulmanes et chrétiennes, avec leurs revendications propres. Ce qui distingue ces nouvelles forces sociales de celles auxquelles l'Etat nigérien était habitué, c'était que celles-ci posaient des problèmes nouveaux, d'ordre religieux. Le débat a aussi engagé l'intelligentsia du pays, qui éclairait l'opinion. Toutes ces luttes citoyennes ont permis la prise en compte des femmes dans les choix politiques malgré les pesanteurs religieuses.