C L O S E R

An anthropology of Muslims in Europe - A modest attempt by Martijn

Category: Public Islam

José Casanova – God in a Cold Climate. Religion in the Secular Public Sphere: Challenges and Responses 0

Public Islam / Religion Other

José Casanova – God in a Cold Climate. Religion in the Secular Public Sphere: Challenges and Responses

José Casanova will deliver a lecture at Radboud University Nijmegen on 10 March 2011 on the topic of religion in a secular public sphere. Within Western societies, some of which are secular through-and-through, the activities or religious movements that claim a prominent role in society cause a climate of conflicts and tensions. But the success of these religious movements proves that modernity and religion are far from mutually exclusive phenomena and that modern secularized society must find a way of integrating them in its fabric.

Publication – The Quest for Religious Purity in New Age, Evangelicalism and Islam 0

Important Publications / ISIM/RU Research / Public Islam / Religion Other / Religious and Political Radicalization

Publication – The Quest for Religious Purity in New Age, Evangelicalism and Islam

Together with my colleagues of Erasmus University Rotterdam, Johan Roeland, Stef Aupers, Dick Houtman and Ineke Noomen, I have written an article the first edition of the Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion, published by Brill on the quest for religious purity in the Netherlands.

New Book – Muslim Diaspora in the West 0

Important Publications / ISIM/RU Research / Multiculti Issues / My Research / Public Islam / Young Muslims

New Book – Muslim Diaspora in the West

I had the honour of writing a chapter for a new volume Muslim Diaspora in the West edited by Haideh Moghissi and Halleh Ghorashi. In my chapter Understanding Dutch Islam – Exploring the Relationship of Muslims with the State and the Public Sphere in the Netherlands, I explore the culturalization of citizenship with the shifting modes of governance of minorities and the secular and the religious in the Netherlands during the last 30 years. The volume brings together work from experts within Europe and North America to explore the processes that shape the experiences and challenges faced by migrants and refugees who originate in countries of Islamic cultures. It addresses the realities of diasporic life for self-identified Muslims, addressing questions of integration, rights and equality before the law, and challenging stereotypical views of Muslims.

Gülenbeweging brengt in Tweede Kamer SP en PVV nader tot elkaar 4

Guest authors / Important Publications / Public Islam

Gülenbeweging brengt in Tweede Kamer SP en PVV nader tot elkaar

Het kabinet stuurde deze week een rapport naar de Tweede Kamer over de Gülenbeweging, die de afgelopen weken weer in de publieke aandacht was geweest met alarmerende krantenberichten. De Gülenbeweging is de snelst groeiende Turks-islamitische beweging en is tegenwoordig in een honderdtal landen actief. Het rapport, werd donderdag behandeld in een spoeddebat met minister Donner, dat was aangevraagd door het SP-Kamerlid Sadet Karabulut. Eerdere Kamervragen van Karabulut waren de aanleiding geweest tot een onderzoeksopdracht aan de auteur van het rapport, Martin van Bruinessen, die hier een samenvatting van het rapport geeft en een impressie van het kamerdebat.

Debate: Sharia's in the West – A Place for religious Laws in Western Democracies? 0

ISIM/RU Research / Multiculti Issues / Public Islam

Debate: Sharia's in the West – A Place for religious Laws in Western Democracies?

How should a modern secular State respond to the wishes and principles of religious minorities? A debate at Radboud University about implementation of Sharia’s in Europe. In his lecture, John Witte, specialist in family law and religious freedom, gave his views on these matters. Piet Hein van Kempen and Jan Jaap de Ruiter responded.

Global Voices – Islam Goes Pop in Nijmegen 0

Arts & culture / Public Islam / Youth culture (as a practice)

Global Voices – Islam Goes Pop in Nijmegen

Combinaties van kunst en amusement met religiositeit zijn voor hen niet altijd evident. In vele landen in de islamitische wereld vinden er debatten plaats tussen moslimgeleerden, politici, kunstenaars en publiek over de relatie tussen kunst en islam. Het onderzoeksproject ‘Islam and the performing arts in Europe and the Middle East’, uitgevoerd door de afdeling Islam en Arabisch aan de Radboud universiteit, onderzoekt deze en andere vragen. Met de Egyptische filmmaker Ismail Elmokadem over zijn nieuwste film Pop goes Islam, de islamitische muziekgroep El Waefa uit Den Haag en met Joseph Alagha, Nina ter Laan en Karin van Nieuwkerk van Islam en Arabisch aan de Radboud universiteit.

Cartoonesque 17: That is (not) funny! 0

anthropology / ISIM/RU Research / Public Islam

Cartoonesque 17: That is (not) funny!

Jokes can be funny, or not. What matters is who has the power to define what is funny and what the position of the target of the joke is. It is the transgressive quality of jokes that makes them funny but also very suitable for political uses. Which jokes are made at the responses to these jokes reveal important processes, hierarchies and discourse in society.

Image bites – The Great Burqa Robbery and other political ads 2

Multiculti Issues / Public Islam

Image bites – The Great Burqa Robbery and other political ads

The visual features of much of the modern mass media is important in understanding the use of films for distributing ones messages and signify a trend in which politics and public debate are not only about verbal arguments but also about visual narrative representations. The visual message literally makes visible the preferred perspective, while obscuring potential alternatives. In a compelling campaign the verbal and visual messages are carefully constructed and interact with social and cultural environments in ways which maximize their acceptance. At the same time given the ambiguity of visual communication the visual narrative is also vague and broad enough to enable to interpret the message in their own way. Here there examples: Wilders from the Netherlands, Swedish Democrats and Ground Zero.

Wilders drags up outdated colonial rhetoric 2

Guest authors / Multiculti Issues / Public Islam

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.

De betwiste vrijheid van meningsuiting 0

ISIM/RU Research / Multiculti Issues / Public Islam

De betwiste vrijheid van meningsuiting

De uitzending van South Park met de profeet Mohammed ging niet door, dankzij uitlatingen van twee (!) moslims. Dat ontlokte Joep Smaling tot de zoveelste claim over de vrijheid van meningsuiting die bedreigd zou worden. Commentaar door Linda Duits op de eenzijdigheid van zijn stuk en het gebrek aan nuance werd weggehoond. Deze discussie lijkt exemplarisch te zijn voor het debat over de vrijheid van meningsuiting die steeds vaker geclaimd wordt in allerlei moralistische termen waarbij rationele secularisten zichzelf tegenover irrationele intolerante gelovigen stellen; juist daar zit de bedreiging voor de vrijheid van meningsuiting.