Monthly Archive: August 2010

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Nu Online: Zoeken naar een ‘zuivere’ Islam

Sinds enige tijd is mijn proefschrift ook digitaal beschikbaar. Hier vindt u de link naar het proefschrift evenals links naar enkele artikelen.

Wilders drags up outdated colonial rhetoric 2

Wilders drags up outdated colonial rhetoric

‘Why did you become anti-Islamic and what is your message to Muslims? These questions were asked by Muslimsdebate.com to the Dutch politician Geert Wilders. In his reply, Mr Wilders de-scribes Islam as fatalist, tyrannical, violent and irrational and as such as the cause of the lack of de-mocracy and development in the Muslim World. Only by liberating themselves from their religion, he says, Muslims will be able to develop their real potential. Guest author Michel Hoebink responds by arguing that Wilders’ argument is a perfect sample of 19th century ‘orientalist’ rhetoric.

New Publication: Being Young and Muslim – New Cultural Politics in the Global South and North 1

New Publication: Being Young and Muslim – New Cultural Politics in the Global South and North

In recent years, there has been a proliferation of interest in youth issues and Muslim youth in particular. Young Muslims have been thrust into the global spotlight in relation to questions about security and extremism, work and migration, and rights and citizenship. This book interrogates the cultures and politics of Muslim youth in the global South and North to understand their trajectories, conditions, and choices.

Muslims and Anime Art 6

Muslims and Anime Art

Anime is an old drawing style from Japan coming from the word ‘animation’ and manga is the comics and cartoons where this style is used. In this entry I explore Muslim anime and manga. While anime is in itself already a mix of different styles and genres it gets re-appropriated by people who give meaning to it throughout the world and by making new drawings and comics themselves with both global and local influences. It is in fact a continuing story of production, reproduction and re-appropriation by mixing styles and personal experiences under the label of anime.

Sexual Nationalisms – Gender, Sexuality and the Politics of Belonging in the New Europe 1

Sexual Nationalisms – Gender, Sexuality and the Politics of Belonging in the New Europe

An increasing number of scholars in the humanities and social sciences have begun to investigate the important shifts taking place in discourses of sexual freedom and gender equality across the continent. These shifts open up new arenas for ethnographic and other empirical research. What role do sex and gender play in various European nationalisms? In which cultural terms are sexual and gender boundaries articulated? What different trajectories can be discerned, and how can differences between countries be explained? What are the effects of these transformations at the level of the formation of community and subjectivity? How do these discursive shifts become tangible in everyday life? And how can sexual politics avoid the trap of exclusionary instrumentalization without renouncing its emancipatory promise? These and more questions will be addressed at the conference Sexual Nationalisms – Gender, Sexuality and the Politics of Belonging in the New Europe. More information here.

Radicalization Series IV – Salafism as a Utopian Movement

Radicalization Series IV – Salafism as a Utopian Movement

There are many different approaches for research on Salafism and they all make clear that, although Salafism has some distinguishing features, the movement is quite diverse with many doctrinary contradictions and clashes and different politico-theological tendencies. It is therefore difficult to define Salafism in a clear, consistent way. Most definitions of Salafism focus on ideological differences or view them in a security perspective. Although helpful it does not take into account identity, gender or the idea that security and radicalization are themselves cultural constructions with specific local, national and transnational dimensions. They also take up the official doctrines, methods and identities of spokespersons and religious authorities but ignore the perspectives, ideas and practices of participants in the movements. In this entry I explore the Salafi movement in a more anthropological way focusing on the processes of meaning-making within the perspective of utopian movements.