So, my end of the year list (beneden de Nederlandse posts!) 5) Throughout 2016 and 2017 I shifted my academic focus a little more to Islamophobia and racialization. The work of W.E.B. du Bois is very important here, no 5 How does it feel to be a problem? – W.E.B. du Bois on Race and […]Continue Reading →
In this Charlie Brown episode you will see religious studies scholar Reza Aslan, Will McCants (fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy and director of the Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World and co-founder of Jihadica), Michael Hanna (senior fellow at The Century Foundation) and Shadi Hamid (fellow with the Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World in the Center for Middle Continue Reading →
Radicalization has become the go-to concept to explain involvement in (Islamist) terrorism. Now 10 years after the murder of Theo van Gogh Bart Schuurman states it is necessary to re-think the concept.Continue Reading →
Salafisme. Utopische idealen in een weerbarstige praktijk dat ik heb geschreven met Joas Wagemakers en Carmen Becker verschijnt op woensdag 14 mei.Continue Reading →
The utopian beliefs of Islamism have been irrevocably changed by the processes of modernization—especially globalization—which have taken the philosophy into unmistakable new directions. A new book: Whatever Happened to the Islamists?: Salafis, Heavy Metal Muslims, and the Lure of Consumerist Islam, edited by Amel Boubekeur and Olivier Roy. Also includes a chapter of mine on modern Dutch SalafContinue Reading →
On 2 November 2004 Mohammed Bouyeri killed Dutch writer and film director Theo van Gogh. He shot him, slit his throat and planted a knife in his chest with a letter to Ayaan Hirsi Ali attached to it. One of the most remarkable references in his letter (and again strongly contested by other Muslims) was to the Prophet as the ‘laughing killer’. Where does it come from and what does it mean?Continue Reading →
The following text was used for a spoken column at the ICCT's expert meeting on Freedom from Fear: Answering Terrorism with Public Resilience on 3 October 2011. Fear is a drug, and policies and management tactics combined with politicians who use feelings of insecurity and plead loudly for ever harder measures to resolve fear, are nothing less than socially accepted models to achieve ritualistic Continue Reading →
Is it possible to have a commemoration that includes alternative meanings of 9/11 and that produces alternative forms of solidarity and public memory?Continue Reading →
A weekly round up of writings on the Internet, some relevant for my research, some political, some funny but all of them interesting (Dutch/English). (As usual to a large extent based upon suggestions from Dutch, other European, American and Middle Eastern readers. Thank you all.) This week featuring 10 years after 9/11Continue Reading →
Na de aanslagen van 11 september stond terrorisme natuurlijk hoog op de politieke agenda. En dan met name terreuraanslagen (mogelijkerwijze) gepleegd door moslims. Na 9/11 werden moslims dan ook nauwgezet gemonitored door de Nederlandse staat zoals blijkt uit een recent vrijgegeven 'secret cable' bij Wikileaks. Het beeld is ontluisterend.Continue Reading →
