scholarly journals Understanding Muslim Identity

2010 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 95-97
Author(s):  
Adis Duderjia
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Religious Fundamentalism ◽  
Muslim Identity ◽  
Islamic Fundamentalism ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Main Thesis ◽  
Social Determinism

Gabrielle Marranci seeks to shift the analyses of “Islamic fundamentalism/radicalism” discourses away from those focusing on cultural and politicalessentialism, scripturalism, and social determinism and toward that ofexploring the dynamics of radicalization by examining the central role ofemotions on identity formation. His main thesis is that fundamentalismmust be understood as a process linked to identity and identification (nota thing) and that theories which take into account the crucial role of emotions,feelings, and the environment can explain fundamentalism, includingIslamic fundamentalism, more accurately then social deterministand/or cultural constructivist theories can (pp. 77-80). The author thus setsout to “engage with an incredibly expanding academic literature [onIslamic fundamentalism] that tends to treat religious fundamentalism onthe basis of culturalist or social theory discourse” (p. 153). He uses thesame analytical lens adopted in his Jihad beyond Islam (London: Berg,2006) ...

Memory and identity: intergenerational narratives of violence among refugees in Serbia

2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 1065-1082 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mila Dragojević
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Warning Signs ◽  
Cycle Of Violence ◽  
World War ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Second World

This article examines the role of the intergenerational memory of the Second World War (WWII) in identity formation and political mobilization. An existing explanation in the ethnic-conflict literature is that strategic political leaders play a crucial role in constructing and mobilizing ethnic identities. However, based on 114 open-ended interviews with individuals born in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia, conducted in Serbia during 2008–2011, nearly a third of the respondents make spontaneous references to WWII in their statements, usually drawing parallels between the cycle of violence in the 1990s and that in the 1940s. The question this article asks, then, is why some respondents make references to WWII spontaneously while others do not. It is argued that intergenerational narratives of past cycles of violence also constitute a process of identity formation, in addition to, or apart from, other processes of identity formation. The respondents mention WWII violence in the context of the 1990s events because they “recognize” elements, such as symbols, discourse or patterns of violence, similar to those in the intergenerational narratives and interpret them as warning signs. Hence, individuals who had previously been exposed to intergenerational narratives may be subsequently more susceptible to political mobilization efforts.

Technology of Dissidence: Action, Passion, Gaze

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 9-22
Author(s):  
Daniela Koleva
Keyword(s):  
Crucial Role ◽  
Constructivist Approach ◽  
Main Thesis ◽  
Western Media

The article applies a constructivist approach to the idea of dissidence and the ‘figure’ of the dissident. Its first thesis is that it is not only action (i.e. expressions of dissent), which is constitutive of dissidence, but also the price paid for non-conformity: being censored, marginalised, repressed, exiled, even murdered. Therefore suffering (passion in the Christian sense) is no less important than active dissent. The second and main thesis is about the crucial role of the recognition, i.e. ‘gaze’ – from outside, through transnational contacts and presence in Western media, and from inside, in the local dissident publicity (insofar as it existed). These ideas are employed to make sense of the Bulgarian debate on dissidence in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

scholarly journals Marxistische Parteiendebatte revisited

2013 ◽  
Vol 43 (171) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Steckner
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Bourgeois Society ◽  
Analytical Instruments ◽  
Focus On Forms ◽  
Do So

Different from approaches to political parties with an affirmative stance towards capitalist domination, Marxist social theory claims to assess the role of parties within Bourgeois society from a critical perspective. Nevertheless, existing debates on political parties in capitalism suffer from a narrow focus on forms and functions. They tend to become functionalist and reductionist on class struggles instead of analyzing different relations of domination. Due to this shortcoming, it is necessary to develop a materialist understanding which takes into account some helpful insights from Gramsci’s concept of political and societal party. His understanding of domination as hegemony provides us with rich analytical instruments: Now we can grasp more precisely to what extent parties play a crucial role in organizing consent within society and how they manage to do so. By critically assessing the Marxist debate on political parties and enriching it with a stronger focus on hegemony, I want to offer a more comprehensive conceptual framework which might be useful for empirical studies.

scholarly journals Writing as Resistance: A Reading of Mohsin Hamid’s Select Novels

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rongina Narzary
Keyword(s):  
Political Climate ◽  
Muslim Identity ◽  
Islamic Fundamentalism ◽  
Political Narrative ◽  
The Us ◽  
Pakistani Origin ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
Partition Of India ◽  
Fictional Representations

Mohsin Hamid, one of the powerful voices to emerge from Pakistan engages with themes that go beyond the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 and portrays contemporary issues relevant to Pakistan. In the process, Hamid consciously performs the role of the mediator and attempts to explain his country to the readers. In his two novels, Moth Smoke and The Reluctant Fundamentalist Hamid not only represents modern-day Pakistan but also offer resistance to the association of Pakistan with terrorism thereby replicating the postcolonial tendency to “write back” and reclaim one’s identity. Furthermore, he offers a nuanced understanding of the hostilities that prevail between India and Pakistan. Fictional representations of Islam and Muslim identities by writers of Pakistani origin have received increased attention, especially in the post 9/11 political climate with its attendant reductive representations of Islamic fundamentalism. The ‘war on terror’ which has had the effect of equating Islam and Muslims with terrorism has become a dominant political narrative in Europe and the US over the last decade. It is such diffused representation of Muslim identity which has evoked criticism in the ‘orient’ and Hamid shines bright in this regard.

“It’s a bit cool and awesome”

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 182-201
Author(s):  
Tom Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Inner City ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Positive Response ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Main Section ◽  
Muslim Identity ◽  
Student Responses ◽  
History Of ◽  
Christian Hospitality

Contrary to the stereotype of conflict between Christians and Muslims, St Aidan’s Church of England Primary School in inner-city Liverpool is a place where as one pupil said, “We are all united together,” arguably a remarkable achievement for an Anglican school with approximately two-thirds Muslim pupils. This article is based on my ethnographic fieldwork with Muslim pupils in St Aidan’s and examines the role of education and the Muslim heritage of Liverpool in shaping the identity of Liverpudlian Muslims today. The article comprises of four main sections. First, it briefly describes the context of St Aidan’s and the nature of my fieldwork there. Second, it discusses the idea of hospitality as translation. In the third, main, section, the article evaluates how the theory of hospitality as translation was realized in the life of the school, focusing on an RE lesson that I taught in St Aidan’s which outlined the history of Abdullah Quilliam’s “Muslim Institute,” which ran from 1889 to 1908 and housed the United Kingdom’s first registered mosque. Having outlined the content of the lesson, the article then critically evaluates student responses and argues that education concerning Muslim heritage is crucial for their identity formation as Muslims. The title for this article is a quote of a Muslim pupil’s reaction to learning about the existence of the Muslim Institute and typifies the positive response and growth in confidence of their identity as Liverpudlian Muslims. Finally, the article argues that Christian hospitality provides a distinctive framework within which the process of Muslim identity formation can be facilitated and that fieldwork can be combined successfully to form a theological enquiry.

scholarly journals From Native Pines to Diasporic Geese: Placing Culture, Setting Our Sites, Locating Identity in a Transnational Canada

2006 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian S. Osborne
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Nation State ◽  
The Arts ◽  
De Se ◽  
Liberal Multiculturalism ◽  
The Impact

Abstract: In Canada, as elsewhere, introspective and nostalgic views of community and nation-state are being challenged by the impacts of globalism and cosmopolitanism. The impact of these transformations is acute in the context of Canada, where a liberal multiculturalism is transmuting into a hybrid pluralism. Current strategies of identity formation have to accommodate a hybridity that is being fostered by an ever-increasing diasporic population for whom “lived-in places” exhibit transnationalist connections. Too often, established mnemonic tropes relate to past iconic values and norms of the nation-state, even though they are no longer connected with emerging new values that search for new modes of expression. This paper discusses the crucial role of the arts and heritage in this local anchoring of the transnational polity, arguing that symbolic landscapes become sites where new values are contested and traditional iconic values are challenged. Résumé : Içi, comme ailleurs, des représentations introspectives et nostalgiques de communauté et d’État sont remises en question suite à l’impacte des effets de la mondialisation et du cosmopolitisme. La conséquence de ces transformations est fortement marquée dans un contexte canadien où un certain multiculturalisme libéral est en voie de se transformer en pluralisme hybride. Les stratégies courantes de création d’identité doivent accommoder une hybridité stimulée par une population diasporique grandissante chez qui le lieu d’habitation présente un contenu trans-nationaliste. Il se trouve trop souvent que des tropes mnémoniques préétablis s‘apparentent à des valeurs iconiques traditionnelles et à des normes de l’État, même quand ils ne sont plus rattachés aux valeurs émergentes qui cherchent à élaborer de nouveaux modes d’expression. Cette communication examine le rôle critique des arts et du patrimoine vis-à-vis l’insertion au niveau local de l’entité transnationale. Il propose que les paysages symboliques deviennent des sites où de nouvelles valeurs sont contestées et où les valeurs ioniques traditionnelles sont remises au défi.

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