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This chapter assesses the effects of corporate governance (CG) variables on the level of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure (CSRD), Shari'ah Supervisory Board Disclosure (SSBD), and Financial Disclosure (FD) for Islamic banks. This study, based on a sample of 95 Islamic banks, assessed this in 2013. The findings suggest that CG mechanisms, firm's age, auditor and shari'ah auditing department are effective in influencing SSBD, CSRD, and FD practices in Islamic banks. This chapter encourages regulators to improve CG mechanisms in their Islamic banking systems through the optimization of ownership structure (dispersed ownership) and the board's characteristics in order to promote transparency and disclosure. Moreover, the findings support theoretical arguments that firms disclose CG information in order to mitigate information asymmetry and agency costs and to improve investor confidence in the reported financial statements. The empirical evidence of this study enhances the understanding of the CG disclosure environment in Islamic banks as a promoting new financial system.

Al-Tahrir Square (Liberation Square, in Arabic) is one of the main public spaces in Cairo, Egypt, and was the focal point for the Egyptian Revolution of January 2011. Although Tahrir Square is traditionally a noisy disliked crowded traffic zone, people gathering and demonstrating during 2011 transformed the a space into a livable interactive civic place (Bricoleurbanism, 2019). The study integrates three main subjects affecting each other: first; Tahrir history and its architectural description, second; activities and events of 2011 revolution at Tahrir and thirdly; theories and concepts of place/space transformations. Many space and place transformation cycles of the Al-Tahrir square have been studied for over a century. It shows that transformation happens when a “meaning” is added and “memories” turn into “behavior” and belonging (Pallasmaa, 2014). This chapter discusses how both the functions and the mental image of Al-Tahrir Square changed with the events along with the behavior of its occupants during 2011.

The square was analyzed to discover the mechanisms, motives, and reasons that caused such change. Furthermore, a comparison between Tahrir Square's status before and after 2011 was offered, according to “New Urbanism's successful places criteria” (PPS, 2009). Recently, physical and moral evacuation of the square deliberately enforced to replace its iconographic status as a place of revolution, with ancient Egyptian elements. This study elaborates on these results demonstrating how Cairo's Tahrir Square is a remarkable example of the dynamic nature of public spaces turning into places, and then into spaces again, due to actions of authority or the will of people.

The nature of the relationship between the Arabs and China in its historical and current dimensions raises the issue of compatibility and coexistence and the possibility of its continuity among nations and cultures. During the fifteenth-century-period, in which Arab–Chinese relations developed, a model of coexistence and harmony between the two civilizations and cultures emerged, which is rare to find in the history of relations between societies and countries. In this chapter, the researchers attempt to return to history to discuss the forms of the development of peaceful relations between China and Arab societies, and the cultural and psychological motives that led to the normalization of political relations in a pattern of mutual respect and peaceful cooperation on many common issues, which still continue to affect positively the relations between China and the Arab world nowadays. The study found that the nature of the eastern mentality of both parties and the positive stereotypes that each side has about the other long time ago have contributed decisively to shaping these relations in the subsequent centuries.

This chapter examines the ways in which the provision of training and development for leaders and managers in Cairo underwent profound change during the Arab Spring. It provides an important insight into the capacity of higher education institutes (HEIs) to respond to social and political movements and to the ways in which we might frame education and training.

The chapter draws directly on the experience of the author and her colleagues as they responded to the explicit and implicit needs of the social movements on the streets of Cairo during the Arab Spring of 2011.

The chapter illustrates the extent to which HEIs can be responsive to expressed needs and it offers insights and understandings of the professional relationships between colleagues and participants as they seek to co-construct a new curriculum.

The chapter examines important social change through the perspective of an HEI whose values are ones of promoting learning and professional development in a context where such ideas and concepts are being explicitly challenged and rewritten.

Using the notion of sustainable impactful strategies for waqf management, this study examines the governance and best practices on idle waqf management by the Malaysian States Islamic Religious Councils (SIRCs) in selected states like Penang, Perak and Kuala Lumpur. The waqf management of the SIRCs is also assessed based on the model framework countries such as Singapore, Kuwait and United Arab Emirates (UAE). The findings of this chapter indicate that ineffective administration and management on waqf have hindered its development and expansion in Malaysia. Also, an effective and robust governance framework based on Shariah could and should be implemented to ensure that waqf in Malaysia are managed effectively to gain socio-economic sustainability of Muslim communities. The findings of this chapter will fill the research gap on good governance and best practices in waqf administration and management as a way forward for Malaysia by providing a way forward for SIRCs and policymakers in Malaysia, to enhance the performance of waqf entity using selected other countries as model framework of good governance and best practices. Furthermore, an emphasis on good governance and best practices is important to attract waqf donors. It is imperative to note that to date, there is no qualitative study that compare the impact of good governance and best practices on the management of waqf by selected SIRCs in Penang, Perak and Kuala Lumpur to Singapore, Kuwait and UAE as model framework countries.