An anthropology of Muslims in Europe - A modest attempt by Martijn
Although anthropology is by definition ‘public’, the relationship between its practitioners and society, its social relevance and its connections with the wider audience, have always been controversial and complex. This will be the general theme of the meeting on 5 November 2010 at Ravenstein. To be sure, it is a vast and multifaceted topic.
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.
Attributing Wilders’ victory to a rise of Dutch intolerance (although that may be the case) means neglecting a trend that has been going on for more than a decade now and the variety in people’s motives for voting for him. It also neglects the fact that other parties have been subjected to the same trend as well. This is a trend in which people increasingly perceive conflict according to a logic of ‘culture talk’.
Sociaal-wetenschappelijk onderzoek staat ter discussie. Het zou vooringenomen links zijn, niet wetenschappelijk en niet meer dan ‘de zoveelste mening’. In dit stuk ga ik in op het onbehagen ten opzichte van sociaal-wetenschappelijk onderzoek, de (twijfels omtrent de) geldigheid ervan en de rol van wetenschappers.
he International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM) as an excellently performing, internationally leading institute in its field, the institute has been closed as per 1 January 2009, due to the lack of adequate funding. The ISIM Review carries research articles by scholars throughout the world, enabling its readers to follow trends in research and offering background information on current developments and events relevant to Islam and Muslim societies. On CLOSER you find an overview of all the ISIM Reviews (incl. Newsletter) over the years with links to the full issue or separate articles (from no. 13 onwards).
In this third part of the radicalization series, I will take up an issue raised in part II; the need for critically analyzing the role of the state in counter-radicalization. One of the issues here is the distinction being made between secular society and a religious Muslim community, and between radical and liberal Islam. The secular is left unquestioned but in order to understand the particularities of counter-radicalization one must look into the secular-normative underpinnings of state policies and their political aims as well.
De uitslag van de poll voor slechtste/beste nieuwsbericht/blogentry zijn bekend!
Wat zijn de slechtste en beste nieuwsberichten en blogentries? De genomineerden zijn bekend en u kunt nu stemmen!
In 1999 my website Researchpages started that later turned into my weblog Closer. It is an attempt to make anthropology matter and to improve my own research with feedback from a wider audience. Not by just giving answers to questions the public has. It is also about questioning why particular issues are addressed in the way they are addressed by particular people and what the consequences of that are. How are particular issues and the way they are debated related to (changing) historical and cultural contexts. In my opinion this is the focus of this blog and has informed the change from my website Researchpages to Closer. It is my humble attempt to contribute to public anthropology and to find out how to make anthropology public.
Als er iets vanzelfsprekend lijkt in alle discussies over moslims dan is het wel dat zij moeten integreren. Integratie wordt over het algemeen gezien als iets dat goed is, maar is verworden tot een totalitair systeem waarin iedere eigenheid van migranten moet worden weggewerkt. Wetenschappers staan vaak vooraan om de overheid van advies te dienen over het integratiebeleid waarmee we eigenlijk kritiekloos het hele integratieparadigma reproduceren én legitimeren. Misschien is het tijd om dat niet meer te doen? Misschien is het tijd om allochtonen te adviseren vooral niet teveel in dit land te investeren? Waarom zou men immers?