THE PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT AND CHANGES
In the project proposal five areas of focus were specified within a framework of a contemporary intra-Muslim discourse on Islam and HIV/AIDS. All concern how this discourse relates to other "sub-discourses" within a larger framework of a discourse on Islam and modernity. The project has outlined the place of the discourse on HIV/AIDS in the intra-Muslim polarisation of interpretational paradigms, first and foremost related to the basic religious sources, the Qur'an and the Sunna. Furthermore, the project has outlined how the subdiscourse on HIV/AIDS and Islam related to other subdiscourses of sexuality and gender, and related to these conception of a "clash of civilisations" between Islam and the West. The remaining two focus areas identified in the original research plan was the scientific, medical discourse, and the intra-Muslim legal discourse.

Three of the five focus areas have been the topic of individual articles published or accepted for publications in peer-reviewed publications (sex, gender and the contemporary debate on Islamic authenticity). One background article on Islam and sexuality has also been published.

For the medical discourse, material has been collected and integrated into the analytic tool Nvivo9 for qualitative and quantitative analysis, and preliminary analysis have been made. Concerning the fifth area of focus, however, further researched showed that the potentiality for contributing anything substantial to what had already been shown in previous research was slight. Instead, the effort was put into developing a new theoretical perspective useful for answering a key question for the project as a whole, albeit not originally specified as an area for research; Why is the theme of HIV/AIDS as a divine punishment so prominent within the discourse?

THE MOST IMPORTANT RESULTS
It was possible to confirm the hypothesises put forward in the original application. The sub-discourse of HIV/AIDS and Islam does intersect with other contemporary sub-discourses on gender, sexuality and Islamic authenticity in a manner where HIV/AIDS becomes "good to think with". A transnational connection between theological rethinking with a post 9/11 movement of "progressive Islam" and Muslim HIV/AIDS activism directed at HIV prevention and destigmatisation of PLWHA was confirmed, and the connections were even stronger than initially anticipated.
The theoretical expansion in relation to the orginal proposal, based in the cognitive science of religion turned out to be especially fruitful. It has provided important concepts for the analysis of the discourse, but also a model for explanation for the spread of the notion of HIV/AIDS as a divine punishment that I claim is more likely to be true than alternative explanations found in previous research. With the help of these theoretical tools, some elements in the discourse could be identified as more central than others, and the tools have made it possible to formulate further hypothesises for empirical testing.

One further result must be viewed as preliminary at this moment in time, since the analysis of the data is not complete. A meta-study of published articles within the fields of medical science and the caring sciences addressing the theme of "HIV/AIDS and Islam" has been initiated. There are some tendencies in this material that can be noted already at this stage. Islamic religious affiliation is construed as a possible causal factor influencing prevalence; "liberal" interpretations of Islam are seen as potentially useful allies in general prevention work and the struggle against the stigmatisation of PLWHA; and, as a mirror image of this, notions of HIV/AIDS as a divine punishment are construed as a problem. The way in which "islam" is presented in these articles tend to be rather essentialistic, and there is view on a causal connection between formal religious affiliation, religious beliefs and religious practices. Furthermore, the material shows examples where researchers with apparent Muslim religious affiliation utilises results indicating low prevalence among Muslims as "proof" of the superiority of Islam as a religion.

NEW RESEARCH QUESTIONS
It is too early to speculate what, if any, spin-off effects the project will have in the long run, for the myself or for others. On a personal level, the project has contributed to the development of competence in using the software Nvivo for qualitative (and also quantitative) analysis.

The participation in the conference Sexuality, AIDS and Religion: Transnational Dynamics in Africa, in Oxford 2011led to new international contacts with researchers in the field of HIV/AIDS and religion in Africa. This resulted in som discussions on future joint projects on religion in Africa.

At the moment, I have no immediate plans to further develop research in the field of HIV/AIDS and Islam. The impression I have from the discussion at the moment is that the topic is becoming less central. A possible explanation for this is that medical research has progressed, and that antiretroviral drugs have become more widely available around the world. Since HIV/AIDS to a larger extent than before is an illness that can be controlled, and not necessarily leads to suffering and death, part of the motivation to include it within a theological framework has disappeared.


THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT PUBLICATIONS
1. "Islam, HIV/AIDS and activism: a critical analysis of some themes in Positive Muslims' 'theology of compassion'" (under publicering i tidskriften Islam and Muslim-Christian relations, Routledge). ??

The article is, as can be read from the title, a critical analysis of the "theology of compassion" that the South African NGO Positive Muslims has constructed. The theology is aimed at using religious argumentation and reinterpretation of Islam in order to counter stigmatisation of Muslim PLWHA.??In the critical analysis the rhetoric that characterises the theology is in focus, and it is approached with the help of a series of theoretical concepts rooted in cognitive science and evolutionary psychology: foremost among them are meta-representation, source tagging and Theory of Mind. The hypothesis is that the theology of Positive Muslims rests upon mental modelling of the anticipated audience and their minds, influenced by consideration as for both traditional interpretation of Islam, and contextual social factors. ??The article is at the same time a presentation of an example of a contemporary theological response to HIV/AIDS and a mapping of the foundational presuppositions of that response, compared to other traditions of interpretation in history and in the contemporary world. Furthermore, it is an attempt at formulating and applying a model for analysis that I claim has general relevance for the study of religious discourses. ??One of the contributions that the article makes to contemporary research is that it shows how the case (the theology of compassion) must be understood in relation to wider, global, or rather transnational, ideological currents in contemporary Muslim discourses on religious authenticity. This becomes evident both in the argumentation as such, but also in the authorities cited, and which tendencies the theology positions itself against (explicitly and implicitly). The issue of HIV/AIDS is is important for positioning in this discourse in a manner that transcends the issue at hand as such. ?

2. "God's rage - Muslim representations of HIV/AIDS as a divine punishment from the perspective of the cognitive science of religion" (accepted for publication i Numen, Brill) ??The main theme of the article is a development and evaluation of a hypothesis. The notion that HIV/AIDS is a divine punishment for sexual transgressions is so often recurring, and so difficult to counter in the contemporary intra-Muslim discourse because it has certain inherent advantages in what the anthropologist Dan Sperber has termed "the epidemiology of representations". The relevant factors here are both established religious traditions concerning God and his nature, and intuitive inferences grounded in human cognition. The hypothesis is posed against others, suggested in previous research, and according to the article it provides a better explanation to the observed facts. Among the basic cognitive mechanisms providing the advantage can be mentioned the proclivity to attribute events of an existential nature to superhuman actors with intentions, an intuitive morality and the positive self-image generated among those who are not infected, by them related to their religious affiliation. ??The article concludes with a comparison between existing theodicies concerning HIV/AIDS and their potential for spread, and it also makes a couple of predictions that can be tested in further research, among them that the potential for spread is affected by how widespread the notion of divine immanence are, and also by to what extent there is a view of sexuality as a topic for social (and not just individual) concern. ?

OTHER FORMS OF DISSEMINATION OF RESULTS
The article "Kättja, kontroll och kontroverser. Muslimska perspektiv på sex" in the edited volume, Sex för Guds skull was something of a starting point for the publications within the project, and has been followed up by a lecture at Lund University. Results from the project have been presented at two international conferences.

COMMENTS ON THE ECONOMIC PRESENTATION
The funds have been used to cover salaries, for conference participation, and for the software Nvivo 9 and inter-library loans of articles. Linnaeus made a co-financing in order to cover some of the over overhead-charges.