Iconic Books and Gestures: Aḥādīth al-Ṣifāt in the Public Sphere

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Livnat Holtzman
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Index Finger ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
Public Controversy ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Events ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Ubiquitous Presence

This chapter examines the ubiquitous presence of aḥādīth al-ṣifāt in the public sphere by focusing on four iconic texts: the caliphal Qadiri Creed, Ibn Khuzayma’s (d. 924) Kitāb al-Tawḥid, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi’s (d. 1210) Asās al-Taqdīs and Ibn Taymiyya’s (d. 1328) al-Ḥamawiyya al-Kubrā. These iconic texts, which offer various discussions of aḥādīth al-ṣifāt, stood at the centre of public attention, and were revered as objects of political power. This chapter fully unfolds the connection between these four texts, and the role that they played in political events that took place in different venues from tenth century Nishapur to fourteenth century Damascus. Both the extremely popular Asās al-Taqdīs and al-Ḥamawiyya al-Kubrā ignited a public controversy about the performance of two iconic gestures that were linked to the recitations of aḥādīth al-ṣifāt: pointing the index finger heavenward and raising both hands in prayer. The chapter highlights al-Ḥamawiyya al-Kubrā’s iconicity by addressing the derogative name ḥashwiyya (vulgar anthropomorphists) which was central to this public controversy. The iconic books and gestures that are discussed in this chapter underscore the interface between theology and politics, and reveal a layer as yet unknown of the controversy between the ultra-traditionalists (Hanbalites) and the rational-traditionalists (the later Ashʿarites).

Trials and Tribulations

2020 ◽  
pp. 65-97
Author(s):  
Stephen Lovell
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
The Public ◽  
High Profile ◽  
The People ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
People Movement ◽  
The City

This chapter tells the story of public speaking in Russia from the imposition of greater restrictions on the public sphere in 1867 through to the eve of Alexander II’s assassination in 1881. It shows that in this period the focus of the Russian public switched from the zemstvo to the courtroom, where a number of high-profile trials took place (and were reported, sometimes in stenographic detail, in the press). The chapter examines the careers and profiles of some of Russia’s leading courtroom orators. It also explores the activities of the Russian socialists (populists), in particular the ‘Going to the People’ movement of 1873–4 and later propaganda efforts in the city and the courtroom. It ends by considering the intensification of public discourse at the end of the 1870s: the Russo-Turkish War saw a surge of patriotic mobilization, but at the same time the populist adoption of terrorism seized public attention.

In the Stars: Astrology, Psychic Powers and the Australian Media

2014 ◽  
Vol 150 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-95
Author(s):  
Kate Darian-Smith
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
New Age ◽  
Broadcast Media ◽  
The Public ◽  
Scant Attention ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
New Age Spirituality ◽  
Ubiquitous Presence

Although astrological divinations, demonstrations of psychic powers and the teachings of non-conventional and New Age spirituality have had a ubiquitous presence in the Australian print and broadcast media for almost a century, they have attracted scant attention from media scholars. This article surveys the history of astrological and psychic content in the Australian media from the 1920s, arguing that such content generated new genres of programming and entertainment, and challenged the established authority of religion and scientific knowledge in the public sphere.

scholarly journals The Limited Influence of Right-Wing Movements on Social Media User Engagement

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 205630512110416
Author(s):  
Carsten Schwemmer
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Information Diffusion ◽  
User Engagement ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
Online Data ◽  
The Public ◽  
News Reports ◽  
The Public Sphere

This article generates new insights into the dynamic interplay between social media content generated by right-wing movements, user engagement, and the public attention movements receive. I argue that movement leaders seek to achieve high user engagement for utilizing mechanisms of information diffusion to increase both online and on-site mobilization. In a case study, I analyze the German right-wing movement Pegida, which uses Facebook for spreading its anti-Islam agenda online. Data from Pegida’s Facebook page are combined with news reports over a period of 18 months to measure activity on Facebook and in the public sphere simultaneously. Results of quantitative text and time series analysis show that Pegida cannot influence user engagement by simply creating more posts. Instead, it is the content of posts that matters. Moreover, findings highlight a strong connection between Facebook activities and the public sphere. In times of decreasing attention, the movement changes its social media strategy in response to exogenous shocks: Pegida resorts increasingly to radical mobilization methods by posting xenophobic content that is more likely to incite users to engage on Facebook.

scholarly journals “No More Apologies”: Violence as a Trigger for Public Controversy over Islam in the Digital Public Sphere

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 132-152
Author(s):  
Johanna Sumiala ◽  
Anu A. Harju
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Public Controversy ◽  
The Public ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
Media Ethnography ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Terrorist Violence

This article investigates how violence associated with religion, here namely Islam, functions as a trigger for public controversy in the Turku stabbings that took place in Finland in 2017. We begin by outlining the Lyotard-Habermas debate on controversy and compound this with current research on the digital public sphere. We combine cartography of controversy with digital media ethnography as methods of collecting data and discourse analysis for analysing the material. We investigate how the controversy triggered by violence is constructed around Islam in the public sphere of Twitter. We identify three discursive strategies connecting violence and Islam in the debates around the Turku stabbings: scapegoating, essentialisation, and racialisation. These respectively illustrate debates regarding blame for terrorism, the nature of Islam, and racialisation of terrorist violence and the Muslim Other. To conclude, we reflect on the ways in which the digital public sphere impacts Habermasian consensus- and Lyotardian dissensus-oriented argumentation.

scholarly journals Social Media Strategies of Right-Wing Movements - The Radicalization of Pegida

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carsten Schwemmer
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
The Public ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Exogenous Shocks ◽  
User Activity ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Public Sphere

This paper investigates how right-wing movements strategically utilize social media for communication with supporters. I argue that movements seek to maximize user activity on social media platforms for increasing on-site mobilization. To examine what factors affect social media activity and how right-wing movements strategically adjust their content, I analyze the German right-wing movement Pegida, which uses Facebook for spreading its anti-Islam agenda and promoting events in the Internet. Data from Pegida’s Facebook page are combined with news reports over a period of 18 months to measure activity on Facebook and in the public sphere simultaneously. Results of quantitative text and time series analysis show that the quantity of posts by Pegida does not increase user activity, but it is the content of posts that matters. Moreover, findings highlight a strong connection between Facebook activities and the public sphere. In times of decreasing public attention, the movement changes its social media strategy in response to exogenous shocks and resorts increasingly to radical mobilization methods.

scholarly journals THE DYNAMICS OF SUNNI-SHIA RELATIONS IN THE CITY OF A THOUSAND CHURCHES MANADO

Al-Qalam ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 119
Author(s):  
Taufani Taufani ◽  
Muh. Natsir ◽  
Nurman Said ◽  
Andi Aderus
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Physical Violence ◽  
Minority Status ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Events ◽  
Grassroots Level ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The City ◽  
Internal Group

<div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span>This article aims to discuss dynamics of the Sunni and Shia relations in Manado. The data were collected from interviews, observation, and documentation. This study shows that the Sunni and Shia Muslim relations in Manado lived in harmony at the grassroots level. They lived next door, visited, and also helped each other in various matters. However, the relations between Sunni and Shia had been in tension due to anti-Shia campaigns by local Sunni elites and Salafi-Wahabi groups in the public sphere that took advantage of the momentum of the Sunni-Shia conflicts in the country and also the Middle East. They also took advantage of the particular political events deemed to benefit the Shia’s existence. Although the Shia groups had become the target of hatred, it did not result in physical violence. The abuse that occurred on the Shia was of verbal and symbolic. This study concludes that the minority status does not always lead to a harmonious relationship within its own internal group.</span></p></div></div></div>

Public Sphere(s), Publics, and Counterpublics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damien Smith Pfister
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Communicative Interaction ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
Public Spheres ◽  
The Public ◽  
Media Technologies ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Interdisciplinary Scholarship

Public spheres are sites of communicative interaction that feature citizens turning their attention to collective problems and democratically legitimate solutions. Closely associated with German critical theorist Jürgen Habermas, the idea of public spheres constituted by a range of publics and counterpublics animates a broad array of interdisciplinary scholarship relating to democracy and political theory, argumentation and deliberation, citizenship and civic engagement, media ecologies and the press, and institutions and power relations. Habermas originally theorized the emergence of the bourgeois public sphere as a counterpoint to the aristocratic regimes of early modern Europe, aiming to rescue select democratic practices from an otherwise flawed ideology. Critics of Habermas’s early formulation of the bourgeois public sphere have noted the presence of a multiplicity of public spheres, rather than a single public sphere, the problem of the public/private divide that is definitive of the public sphere, the role of bodies and emotions in addition to language and reason in the formation and operation of publics and counterpublics, the role of media technologies in sustaining and expanding critical publicity, and the difficulties in extracting knowledge claims from the power relations that constitute them. The idea of public spheres has remained resilient despite these criticisms, as any functioning democracy requires a space between the family, the market, and the state to thematize, problematize, and address the challenges of life in groups. Strong public spheres are characterized by hospitality to counterpublics, groups that distinguish themselves from the rational-critical debate of dominant publics through different dispositions, styles, and strategies for steering public attention. Scholarship on public spheres, publics, and counterpublics continues to proliferate, with new directions accounting for the increased prominence of visuality, ecology, digitality, and transnationality in deliberating bodies.

scholarly journals Disobedience of Judges as a Problem of Legal Philosophy and Comparative Constitutionalism: A Polish Case

Res Publica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mateusz Pilich
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Difficult Problem ◽  
The State ◽  
Special Role ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Public Sphere

AbstractThe article takes up the difficult problem of the so-called disobedience of judges against the background of the experiences of the Polish departure from constitutional democracy in 2015–2020. The special role and responsibility of a judge in the state imposes restrictions on her freedom of opinion in the public sphere. Openly manifesting opposition to government policy, which in the case of an ordinary citizen is only the implementation of human rights and freedoms, may be described as controversial and contrary to applicable ethical regulations. The main thesis of this paper is the assertion that although judges who act as impartial arbitrators in disputes should generally refrain from ostentatiously opposing the actions of political authorities, they are not deprived of the possibility of protest. Also in the exercise of office, and not outside the sphere of their duties, judges should take into account overriding moral values that should be implemented by the legal order, and not the values or declarations guiding the government policies. The integrity of the judge, which prescribes restraint in statements and actions in the public sphere, as well as the care for the dignity of the office held, should not be confused with absolute subordination to the legislature or the executive, even if the judge is obliged to apply the law. The traditional attitude of the members of the judiciary, consisting in focusing only on the application of the law in individual cases and the lack of any political involvement, is being reviewed in the face of the spread of majoritarianism and the law abuse as normal techniques of exercising public authority. The disobedience of judges—although difficult to defend at first sight—may seem to be the only possible way to draw public attention to the corruption of the state system. The ‘disobediant’ judges can even be assigned the role of ‘whistleblowers’, which should help to ease their legal liability or their future rehabilitation.

The Vernacular Millennium and the Quotidian Revolution

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Lee Novetzke
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Narrow Band ◽  
Social Equality ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
The Public Sphere

Reflects on the quotidian politics of vernacularization in the centuries that followed the narrow band of decades that consumes the majority of the book. From the fourteenth century onwards, Jnandev’s sonic equality was transformed into a vision of social equality and a champion of the figure of the everyday life. Conversely, I discuss how the Mahanubhavs receded into obscurity in the centuries after their founding, precisely because they increasingly rejected the quotidian world to become a secretive and secluded ascetical sect, a kind of antivernacularization. The book ends with a reflection on how these ideas, formulated with materials from the thirteenth century, might accompany an analysis of the vernacularization of democracy and of the public sphere in India today.

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