Prison Religion and Prison Justice

2020 ◽  
pp. 153-192
Author(s):  
Joshua Dubler ◽  
Vincent W. Lloyd
Keyword(s):  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
The Political ◽  
Malcolm X ◽  
Court Decisions ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Conversion To Islam ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Martin Luther King ◽  
The Church

Using trial records, court decisions, and ethnographic fieldwork, this chapter tracks how the disruptive religious practices of the prisoners’ rights era, including prison strikes, became the accommodating religious practices of America’s prisons today. In other words, it tells the story of the rise and fall of the collectivist prisoners’ religion of the 1960s and the subsequent ascendency of the depoliticized, accommodationist religious forms better suited to the controlled conditions of mass incarceration. Touching on a range of incarcerated people’s writings and rituals, including Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and his conversion to Islam, the Church of the New Song, and the black naturalist sect MOVE, the chapter explores how highlighting the politicizing force of prison and reclaiming the political-theological voices of prisoners might allow us to see new possibilities for justice beyond the prison. With an eye toward what has been repressed, the chapter concludes with the abolitionist promise of the new surge in prisoners’ political organizing.

Soviet Atheism and Its Aftermath

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonja Luehrmann
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
The State ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Integration ◽  
World War ◽  
Freedom Of Conscience ◽  
The Church

If Soviet atheism is a variety of secularism, it more resembles eliminationist movements viewing religions as obstacles to the political integration of citizens into the state. Before World War II, the Bolshevik government issued decrees to disentangle the state from the church. Later, Khrushchev emphasized atheism and closed churches as part of a general populist, mobilizational approach to promoting communist values. By the 1970s, religious practices were not precluded but were assigned a marginal space outside of public engagement. The post-Soviet era has seen self-reported religiosity increase, while self-reported atheism has diminished, although remaining significant. Russia’s 1997 law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations requires a denomination to exist in a region for fifteen years to enjoy the full legal and tax status. Today, Russia differentiates between “good” religions that help to promote particular moral visions and “bad” religions that create social strife, promote violence, and endanger public health.

scholarly journals Catholics in Belarus: the Deconstruction of Polish Identity?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewa Golachowska
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Social Pressure ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Transformations ◽  
National Identification ◽  
Diverse Society ◽  
The Church ◽  
Personal Matter ◽  
The Catholic Church

Catholics in Belarus: the Deconstruction of Polish Identity?The article discusses the transformations in the national identification of members of the younger generation of Catholics in Belarus through the context of the language changes resulting from the use of Belarussian in the Catholic Church and the increasing prestige attached to this language. The political transformations at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, which led to modifications in the situation of the Church in Belarus, have influenced these processes. Simultaneously, the model of religiosity has undergone reconstruction so that it has gradually ceased to be linked with issues of national identification. Religious practices are becoming a more personal matter and are less dependent on social pressure. Similarly, the choice of one’s nationality in a diverse society have become an individual matter. Katolicy na Białorusi. Czy dekonstrukcja polskiej tożsamości?Tematem artykułu są przemiany identyfikacji narodowej młodego pokolenia katolików na Białorusi w kontekście zmian językowych związanych z używaniem w Kościele katolickim języka białoruskiego oraz wzrostem prestiżu tego języka. Do tych procesów przyczyniły się przeobrażenia polityczne przełomu lat osiemdziesiątych i początku dziewięćdziesiątych XX wieku, które przyniosły zmianę w sytuacji Kościoła na Białorusi. Równolegle miała miejsce przebudowa modelu religijności, który powoli odchodzi od zagadnień identyfikacji narodowej. Praktyki religijne i stają się sprawą osobistą, i mniej zależą od presji społecznej. Również wybory narodowościowe w zróżnicowanym społeczeństwie są sprawą indywidualną.

What Did Conversion to Islam Mean in Seventh-Century Arabia?

Islamisation ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 83-101
Author(s):  
Harry Munt
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Conversion To Islam ◽  
Church Father ◽  
Muslim Majority ◽  
The Church

In a late seventh- or very early eighth-century Coptic homily anachronistically attributed to the church father Athanasius of Alexandria (d. 373), it is lamented that, following the Arab conquest of Egypt in the early 640s, ‘many Christians, Barbarians, Greeks, Syrians and from all tribes will go and join them in their faith’.1 This prophecy comes across as somewhat hysterical to many modern observers – at least within its seventh-or eighth-century context – since it is now the generally accepted consensus of historians that the processes through which the inhabitants of the conquered territories of the Middle East converted to Islam were extremely gradual and persisted for centuries. Monumental changes to the political, social and religious life of many communities in this region came in the decades and centuries after the conquests – developments to which many non-Muslims fully contributed – but Muslim-majority populations are not thought to have emerged widely until the ninth or tenth centuries at the very earliest.

The Shugden-Controversy in Contemporary Mongolia

Inner Asia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 330-349
Author(s):  
Mungunchimeg Batmunkh
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
The Political ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Current State ◽  
State Of Research

Abstract Since the political upheavals in Mongolia in 1989, the traditional Tibetan-Mongolian protective deity Dorj-Shugden has been rediscovered. Today the Buddhist monasteries Delgeriin khiid, Amarbayasgalant Monastery and Tögsbayasgalant töv venerate him. This paper analyses the role of this deity with particular emphasis on Gungaachoilinig datsan in Gandandegchilin and the Amarbayasgalant Monastery in Mongolia, based on ethnographic fieldwork and semi-structured interviews with monks from six monasteries and visitors of Amarbayasgalant conducted in 2016, 2019 and 2020. The paper also outlines the current state of research, including recent Mongolian literature. Finally, it presents findings about him sourced from social media. By exploring pro- and anti-Shugden religious practices, this article sheds some light on the Shugden controversy in contemporary Mongolian Buddhism.

FROM AN OUTCAST TO THE PROPHET: THE EVOLUTION OF MALCOLM X’S RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 192-209
Author(s):  
Andrey A. Shumakov
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
African American ◽  
Black Population ◽  
The Political ◽  
Malcolm X ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
Political Views ◽  
American Society ◽  
The 1960S

The figure of the radical African-American preacher Malcolm X has always occupied and continues to occupy a special place in the history of the protest movement of the 1960s. This is due to a number of reasons, the main of which was the pronounced ambivalence and inconsistency of the political philosophy of this public figure, who was noted for both ultra-radical religious sermons and rather progressive revolutionary and national liberation ideas at the final stage of his life. The latter, in fact, made him one of the main characters of the “rebellious decade”. While the far-right radicalism of the Harlem preacher faded into the background and began to be perceived as some “mistakes and misconceptions” that were later rethought and overcome. The question of assessing the legacy and personality of Malcolm X has always caused a lot of controversy. On the one hand, his contribution to the development of the movement of the struggle of the Black population for their rights and the formation of the African-American mentality is undeniable; on the other — it can be said that in the academic environment for all this time they practically were not subjected to critical reflection. If, during his lifetime, the ideas of the Harlem preacher were perceived by the vast majority of Americans as frankly marginal, then after his tragic death in 1965, Malcolm X became one of the most popular and iconic figures in recent US history. Any criticism of him began to be perceived extremely painfully. In this article, the author tried to trace the process of formation and evolution of the ideological and political views of Malcolm X, which was the main goal of the study. The main difference from other works on this topic was that in this article, this phenomenon is considered in dynamics, the causes of transformations and the influence of related factors are noted. At the same time, the author tried to identify certain “variables and constants” of the religious and political philosophy of Malcolm X, not only fixing them, but assessing the degree and depth of changes. That led to rather unexpected conclusions on a number of issues, the main of which was the explanation of the reasons for the incredible popularity of Malcolm X in modern American society. The main method of research is materialistic dialectics, which allows considering the political philosophy of Malcolm X in dynamics in accordance with the principle of historicism. Special attention is paid to the issues of radicalism, the transformation of ideological and political views and attitudes to religion, the debunking of myths, stereotypical and hyperbolized ideas about this figure, and the key milestones of his biography. As for the specific historical methods, the historical-genetic and historical-typological approaches are used in this work.

scholarly journals “He Gave Me the Words”: An Interview with Raoul Peck

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 203-216
Author(s):  
Leah Mirakhor
Keyword(s):  
James Baldwin ◽  
First Century ◽  
Malcolm X ◽  
Politics And Culture ◽  
Raoul Peck ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
And Shifts ◽  
Walking To School ◽  
The Voice ◽  
Martin Luther King

I Am Not Your Negro (2016) takes its direction from the notes for a book entitled “Remember this House” that James Baldwin left unfinished, a book about his three friends—Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr.— their murders, and their intertwining legacies. The film examines the prophetic shadow Baldwin’s work casts on twentieth- and twenty-first-century American politics and culture. Peck compiles archival material from Baldwin’s interviews on The Dick Cavett Show, his 1965 Cambridge lecture, and a series of banal images indexing the American dream. Juxtaposed against this mythology is footage of Dorothy Counts walking to school, the assassination of black leaders and activists, KKK rallies, and the different formations of the contemporary carceral state. Our conversation examines Peck’s role as a filmmaker and his relationship with the Baldwin estate. Additionally, we discussed a series of aesthetic choices he fought to include in the film’s final cut, directing Samuel L. Jackson as the voice for the film, the similarities and shifts he wanted to document in American culture since the 1960s, and some of the criticism he has received for not emphasizing more Baldwin’s sexuality.

The Fragmentation of the Palestinian Political Field

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 189-216
Author(s):  
Jamil Hilal
Keyword(s):  
Women Workers ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Field ◽  
Cultural Field ◽  
National Representation ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Palestinian National Movement ◽  
The Relationship

The mid-1960s saw the beginnings of the construction of a Palestinian political field after it collapsed in 1948, when, with the British government’s support of the Zionist movement, which succeeded in establishing the state of Israel, the Palestinian national movement was crushed. This article focuses mainly on the Palestinian political field as it developed in the 1960s and 1970s, the beginnings of its fragmentation in the 1990s, and its almost complete collapse in the first decade of this century. It was developed on a structure characterized by the dominance of a center where the political leadership functioned. The center, however, was established outside historic Palestine. This paper examines the components and dynamics of the relationship between the center and the peripheries, and the causes of the decline of this center and its eventual disappearance, leaving the constituents of the Palestinian people under local political leadership following the collapse of the national representation institutions, that is, the political, organizational, military, cultural institutions and sectorial organizations (women, workers, students, etc.) that made up the PLO and its frameworks. The paper suggests that the decline of the political field as a national field does not mean the disintegration of the cultural field. There are, in fact, indications that the cultural field has a new vitality that deserves much more attention than it is currently assigned.

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