An anthropology of Muslims in Europe - A modest attempt by Martijn
Het reduceren van de rellen tot of of criminaliteit, uiting van een stel verwende straatjochies, of morele verloedering van de samenleving, of rassenrellen of wat dan ook, is een versimpeling die een goed begrip van deze rellen in de weg staat. In dit blog een kleine verkenning.
Filmmaker Arda Nederveen and anthropologist Marina de Regt have made a short documentary about Ethiopian and Somalian women who work as domestic workers in Yemen. Many families in economically developed countries make use of migrant women as domestic workers and cleaners. But even in a relatively poor country such as Yemen, migrants and refugee women do paid domestic work. The majority of these come from the Horn of Africa. Why do these young women come to Yemen and what are their living and working conditions? Instead of portraying the women as victims, the film gives them a face and lets them show their resilience.
Sexual violence against men is used as a weapon of wartime or political aggression in several countries. Men as victims, it often remains taboo among victims, perpetrators and their families and friends. Attention to this provides us with more insight into how gender and conflict are related.
Jasmijn Rana voerde in opdracht van Forum onderzoek uit naar kickboksende Marokkaans-Nederlandse meisjes. Onlangs verscheen bij Boom Lemma Uitgevers ‘Chicks, Kicks & Glory. De betekenis van kickboksen voor Marokkaans-Nederlandse meisjes’. In dit blog geeft ze een impressie van dat onderzoek.
On March 11, 2011 at Judson Memorial Church in Manhattan, as part of Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) in NYC. John Greyson, Judith Butler and Jasbir Puar discussed new forms of activism in support of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. The debate focused on both the cultural and academic boycott and the importance of queer BDS activism in Palestine and elsewhere. “How Now BDS” centered on how BDS is done now, and what must still be done.
It is important I think to see how Breilvik’s ideas (but not his actions) not only are derived from bloggers and politicians but also who they resonate with and are grounded on a grassroots everyday level. I also think the Netherlands can give some clues to that and is relevant here since Breivik partly derived his inspiration from Wilders’ Freedom Party ideology. In this blog therefore I will present some material of the Dutch section of the Ethnobarometer research in which we held focus group discussions on issues of security and culture after 9/11, the murder of Van Gogh and the French riots and Muhammad Cartoons. It shows how people struggle with tolerance on the one hand (seen as an important part of Dutch identity) and fear of Islamization and Muslims on the other hand expressed by different modalities of culture talk. While in the case of Bawer, Breilvik and Wilders the presence of Islam and Muslims are seen as the cause of conflict and by definition leading to conflicts, the Ethnobarometer research also revealed mechanisms that can de-escalate conflicts.
In this chapter of A world of insecurity: Anthropological perspectives on human security edited by Thomas Hylland Eriksen and Ellen Bal, we (your blogger, Edien Bartels, Oscar Salemink and Kim Knibbe) take up the discussion of cultural identity as a dimension of security. We show how minority identities may enhance the internal sense of security in the group, but may lead to anxieties and (subjectively experienced) insecurity in greater society. Both majorities and minorities are inclined to feel insecure about their belonging and sense of identification in contemporary Western European societies.
Is there a link between Anders Breivik shooting spree in Norway and Wilders’ ideology? There is of course no direct link between ideology and violent action, not even when the ideology condones, supports or even calls for violence which is not the case in Wilders’ Freedom Party ideology. It just doesn’t work like that. Nevertheless, as far as we can tell now, we should also not treat violence as something that is completely inseparable from ideology; ideology can legitimize violence and can give meaning to it and can give a particular direction.
Fractie-medewerker van de PVV Sam van Rooij plaatste de volgende video onder de kop ‘Scheveningen anno 2011: kiemen van achterlijkheid’ op YouTube. Hij zette het filmpje eveneens op zijn Facebookpagina en noemde dames daar ‘tuig’. Er is al veel over te zeggen, maar hier twee zaken. Komen de dames eigenlijk wel uit Nederland? En, waarom valt Van Rooy de dames lastig als hij ze eigenlijk toch wil bevrijden? Het antwoord zit ‘m in de morele ambities van de PVV. Deze zijn zo sterk dat ze de veiligheid van gesluierde vrouwen kunnen bedreigen.
The film ‘Neither Here Nor There’ is a portrayal of the struggles of the Selimovic family from Srebrenica, Bosnia, who resettled in Missouri after the worst single act of genocide in Europe since the end of World War II. The film traces the difficulties refugees have starting over in America, and how ties to the past remain an important, unbreakable part of their lives, especially for war refugees.
