Pub Date : 2019-10-02DOI: 10.1080/14755610.2020.1787474
A. Binning
ABSTRACT This paper focuses on the sacred text-production work of a Nyingma Buddhist group based in Berkeley, California. It unpacks their selective engagement with the tools afforded to them by digitisation and new media. Digitisation projects – appearing in growing numbers – offer a powerful resource for the re-assembly of Tibetan Buddhist textual collections scattered in the political upheaval of recent decades. Yet the meeting place between the digital and the sacred is sometimes contested in this context where sacred text is an embodiment of the Buddha’s speech. This paper argues that the choice to print ink-and-paper texts is more than a simple rehearsal of tradition and in fact demands alternative forms of engagement with the potential offered by media tools. It explores how the moral invectives contained within sacred Tibetan texts become reshaped through the prisms of contemporary media and the American sponsorship landscape.
{"title":"Paper’s patrons: digitisation, new media and the sponsorship of sacred Tibetan books in California","authors":"A. Binning","doi":"10.1080/14755610.2020.1787474","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2020.1787474","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper focuses on the sacred text-production work of a Nyingma Buddhist group based in Berkeley, California. It unpacks their selective engagement with the tools afforded to them by digitisation and new media. Digitisation projects – appearing in growing numbers – offer a powerful resource for the re-assembly of Tibetan Buddhist textual collections scattered in the political upheaval of recent decades. Yet the meeting place between the digital and the sacred is sometimes contested in this context where sacred text is an embodiment of the Buddha’s speech. This paper argues that the choice to print ink-and-paper texts is more than a simple rehearsal of tradition and in fact demands alternative forms of engagement with the potential offered by media tools. It explores how the moral invectives contained within sacred Tibetan texts become reshaped through the prisms of contemporary media and the American sponsorship landscape.","PeriodicalId":45190,"journal":{"name":"Culture and Religion","volume":"20 1","pages":"390 - 408"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14755610.2020.1787474","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49179612","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-10-02DOI: 10.1080/14755610.2020.1842475
Jason Bartashius
ABSTRACT Included in the DVD package of David Fincher’s Fight Club are running commentaries that function as rebuttals to initial criticism. Presenting the narrative as a Buddhist parable was a means to counter critiques of the film’s treatment of fascism. This defence was dependent on an Orientalist understanding of Buddhism as a non-violent religion. However, this paper argues that Fight Club can be read as containing allusions to both ethnocentric Japanese Buddhist militarism and white supremacy. One pivotal scene portraying the formation of the paramilitary organisation Project Mayhem first depicts a Zen monastic ritual employed to accept new members before domesticating the militia with imagery familiar to US viewers that resonates closely with white nationalism. Paralleling this trajectory, the auteurs, in recent interviews have reversed their previous strategy to either simply ignore the narrative’s Buddhist connotations or validate the alt-right’s misappropriation of the term ‘snowflake,’ a Buddhist metaphor for impermanence.
{"title":"White Samurai in a fascistic house of mirrors: Fight Club, Zen and the art of (Re)constructing ethno-nationalism","authors":"Jason Bartashius","doi":"10.1080/14755610.2020.1842475","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2020.1842475","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Included in the DVD package of David Fincher’s Fight Club are running commentaries that function as rebuttals to initial criticism. Presenting the narrative as a Buddhist parable was a means to counter critiques of the film’s treatment of fascism. This defence was dependent on an Orientalist understanding of Buddhism as a non-violent religion. However, this paper argues that Fight Club can be read as containing allusions to both ethnocentric Japanese Buddhist militarism and white supremacy. One pivotal scene portraying the formation of the paramilitary organisation Project Mayhem first depicts a Zen monastic ritual employed to accept new members before domesticating the militia with imagery familiar to US viewers that resonates closely with white nationalism. Paralleling this trajectory, the auteurs, in recent interviews have reversed their previous strategy to either simply ignore the narrative’s Buddhist connotations or validate the alt-right’s misappropriation of the term ‘snowflake,’ a Buddhist metaphor for impermanence.","PeriodicalId":45190,"journal":{"name":"Culture and Religion","volume":"20 1","pages":"351 - 370"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14755610.2020.1842475","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42261993","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-07-03DOI: 10.1080/14755610.2019.1705030
Malory Nye
Unfortunately, this is a somewhat delayed issue of Culture and Religion. In January of this year (2019), I had a very close encounter with my mortality – I underwent emergency open-heart surgery for an aortic dissection (a splitting of my aorta), which I only survived due to the excellence of the medical care at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. (For this, I cannot extol highly enough the ‘socialised’ universal medical care system of the Scottish NHS, which makes such life-saving surgery accessible for all.) Needless to say, I am very glad to still be around, and I see everything I do (on both the personal and professional level) in a very different way: from the time of my medical emergency onwards is, quite simply, a bonus. I am still in the process of recovery. So my apologies to all for the delay in the finalisation of this issue. As I write, we are just months away from the journal reaching its twentieth anniversary. When issue 21.1 arrives at some time in the first quarter of 2020, it will be two decades since Culture and Religionwas initially launched (back in early 2000, then as a twice-yearly journal by Curzon Press). There has been a lot of continuity and change since that time, both for the journal and for myself as its editor, as you would expect. But also, the discipline and the field of studies which Culture and Religion serves have also changed and developed, largely in ways which could not have been easily foreseen back in 1999. I intend to address this in more detail in an editorial for the twentieth-anniversary edition, along with a discussion of where I would like to see the journal – and of course the study of religion and culture – to develop over the next two decades (which hopefully I will still be around to see). In anticipation of that, although there has been a lot of excellent scholarship in this time that has been researched, written and published in areas close to the journal’s remit – some of which we have had the pleasure to publish here – I would sum up the situation in 2019/20 as somewhat negative and depressing, particularly in Britain (of course, Brexit notwithstanding). Ten years of public government-led austerity and the introduction of high student fees in England have severely squeezed (that is, largely decimated) the teaching of religious studies in universities (see British Academy 2019), and thus surviving units have had to make do with whatever funds and opportunities they have been able to find. CULTURE AND RELIGION 2019, VOL. 20, NO. 3, 225–230 https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2019.1705030
{"title":"Editorial","authors":"Malory Nye","doi":"10.1080/14755610.2019.1705030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2019.1705030","url":null,"abstract":"Unfortunately, this is a somewhat delayed issue of Culture and Religion. In January of this year (2019), I had a very close encounter with my mortality – I underwent emergency open-heart surgery for an aortic dissection (a splitting of my aorta), which I only survived due to the excellence of the medical care at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. (For this, I cannot extol highly enough the ‘socialised’ universal medical care system of the Scottish NHS, which makes such life-saving surgery accessible for all.) Needless to say, I am very glad to still be around, and I see everything I do (on both the personal and professional level) in a very different way: from the time of my medical emergency onwards is, quite simply, a bonus. I am still in the process of recovery. So my apologies to all for the delay in the finalisation of this issue. As I write, we are just months away from the journal reaching its twentieth anniversary. When issue 21.1 arrives at some time in the first quarter of 2020, it will be two decades since Culture and Religionwas initially launched (back in early 2000, then as a twice-yearly journal by Curzon Press). There has been a lot of continuity and change since that time, both for the journal and for myself as its editor, as you would expect. But also, the discipline and the field of studies which Culture and Religion serves have also changed and developed, largely in ways which could not have been easily foreseen back in 1999. I intend to address this in more detail in an editorial for the twentieth-anniversary edition, along with a discussion of where I would like to see the journal – and of course the study of religion and culture – to develop over the next two decades (which hopefully I will still be around to see). In anticipation of that, although there has been a lot of excellent scholarship in this time that has been researched, written and published in areas close to the journal’s remit – some of which we have had the pleasure to publish here – I would sum up the situation in 2019/20 as somewhat negative and depressing, particularly in Britain (of course, Brexit notwithstanding). Ten years of public government-led austerity and the introduction of high student fees in England have severely squeezed (that is, largely decimated) the teaching of religious studies in universities (see British Academy 2019), and thus surviving units have had to make do with whatever funds and opportunities they have been able to find. CULTURE AND RELIGION 2019, VOL. 20, NO. 3, 225–230 https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2019.1705030","PeriodicalId":45190,"journal":{"name":"Culture and Religion","volume":"20 1","pages":"225 - 230"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14755610.2019.1705030","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48823085","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-07-03DOI: 10.1080/14755610.2019.1684331
J. Barnes
ABSTRACT The cartoons Naji Al-Ali reveal the complexities of Palestinian identity in the period between the resignation following Palestinian defeats in 1948 and 1967 and the first Intifada in 1987. The present paper to add to the limited literature on Al-Ali’s cartoons through examining a unique subset of them that join Christ with the artist’s child-caricature Handhala. The image of Christ allowed Al-Ali to universalise his message, mapping the Palestinian experience onto a recognisable figure while strengthening an inchoate moral critique against Israeli occupation. Examining these illustrations provides us with a better understanding of this transitory period in Palestinian history.
{"title":"Handhala and the Messiah: christological representation in the cartoons of Naji Al-Ali","authors":"J. Barnes","doi":"10.1080/14755610.2019.1684331","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2019.1684331","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The cartoons Naji Al-Ali reveal the complexities of Palestinian identity in the period between the resignation following Palestinian defeats in 1948 and 1967 and the first Intifada in 1987. The present paper to add to the limited literature on Al-Ali’s cartoons through examining a unique subset of them that join Christ with the artist’s child-caricature Handhala. The image of Christ allowed Al-Ali to universalise his message, mapping the Palestinian experience onto a recognisable figure while strengthening an inchoate moral critique against Israeli occupation. Examining these illustrations provides us with a better understanding of this transitory period in Palestinian history.","PeriodicalId":45190,"journal":{"name":"Culture and Religion","volume":"20 1","pages":"231 - 247"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14755610.2019.1684331","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45281488","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-07-03DOI: 10.1080/14755610.2019.1705032
Noreen Mirza
ABSTRACT In this paper I discuss Islamophobia as a form of racism especially intensified in the press and media. The women in my study talked about how they coped with what they saw as a backlash of Islamophobia. I show how they have come to deal with the effects of this in their everyday life. Even though most of the women in my study were born and raised in Britain, this antipathy towards Muslims has made them question their sense of belonging. This paper brings to light the experiences of prejudice and discrimination from the perspective of middle-class British-Pakistanis.
{"title":"Everyday living with Islamophobia","authors":"Noreen Mirza","doi":"10.1080/14755610.2019.1705032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2019.1705032","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In this paper I discuss Islamophobia as a form of racism especially intensified in the press and media. The women in my study talked about how they coped with what they saw as a backlash of Islamophobia. I show how they have come to deal with the effects of this in their everyday life. Even though most of the women in my study were born and raised in Britain, this antipathy towards Muslims has made them question their sense of belonging. This paper brings to light the experiences of prejudice and discrimination from the perspective of middle-class British-Pakistanis.","PeriodicalId":45190,"journal":{"name":"Culture and Religion","volume":"20 1","pages":"302 - 321"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14755610.2019.1705032","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48787993","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-07-03DOI: 10.1080/14755610.2019.1658609
I. Wigger
ABSTRACT This article examines how German print media have represented male migrants with Muslim backgrounds in relation to mainstream society and the stereotypes drawn on and created, including that of the migrant Muslim man as a criminal and sexual perpetrator. Media reports about ‘lecherous refugees’ have risen in the wake of wider social controversies about the ‘European refugee crisis’ and the consequences of welcoming over 1.5 million refugees from predominantly Muslim countries into Germany in recent years. Many of these reports reflect the Cologne New Year’s Eve 2016 sexual attacks by migrant men against German women. This study of German print media identifies a racialisation and ‘islamicisation’ of sexual violence and proposes the original theoretical concept of intersectional stereotyping to conceptualise the intersecting of religious, racialised and gendered patterns in media representations of male Muslim migrants. The research combines and extends the analytical frameworks of intersectionality and stereotyping to develop a new concept useful in media studies and beyond. The article provides a previously unexplored insight into racialised anti-Muslim stereotyping in German society in socio-political and historical context through the lens of print media.
{"title":"Anti-Muslim racism and the racialisation of sexual violence: ‘intersectional stereotyping’ in mass media representations of male Muslim migrants in Germany","authors":"I. Wigger","doi":"10.1080/14755610.2019.1658609","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2019.1658609","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article examines how German print media have represented male migrants with Muslim backgrounds in relation to mainstream society and the stereotypes drawn on and created, including that of the migrant Muslim man as a criminal and sexual perpetrator. Media reports about ‘lecherous refugees’ have risen in the wake of wider social controversies about the ‘European refugee crisis’ and the consequences of welcoming over 1.5 million refugees from predominantly Muslim countries into Germany in recent years. Many of these reports reflect the Cologne New Year’s Eve 2016 sexual attacks by migrant men against German women. This study of German print media identifies a racialisation and ‘islamicisation’ of sexual violence and proposes the original theoretical concept of intersectional stereotyping to conceptualise the intersecting of religious, racialised and gendered patterns in media representations of male Muslim migrants. The research combines and extends the analytical frameworks of intersectionality and stereotyping to develop a new concept useful in media studies and beyond. The article provides a previously unexplored insight into racialised anti-Muslim stereotyping in German society in socio-political and historical context through the lens of print media.","PeriodicalId":45190,"journal":{"name":"Culture and Religion","volume":"20 1","pages":"248 - 271"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14755610.2019.1658609","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45465484","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-07-03DOI: 10.1080/14755610.2019.1704423
Natasha L. Mikles
ABSTRACT This article examines how published episodes from the life of Gesar—a king described in Tibetan epics—are assigned literary classifications inside and outside China. Outside of China, Tibetan publishers categorise these narratives using the explicitly Buddhist terms ‘tale of liberation’ (rnam thar) and ‘expression of realisation’ (rtogs brjod). By contrast, state-invested publishers within China designate these narratives as ‘story’ (sgrung). Although this agenda is never stated explicitly, categorising narratives from Tibetan tradition as ‘stories’ rather than Buddhist genres serves the Chinese state’s goals of constructing a ‘secular’ Tibetan culture removed from the traditional authority of Buddhist institutions. Secularising the Gesar epic helps to produce a Tibetan citizen prepared to participate in and cede authority to China’s multi-ethnic nation state, while also relegating Buddhism to a personal, private, and apolitical phenomenon. This case study has larger implications for analysing genre as a site where ideas of religion and secularity are negotiated.
{"title":"The power of genres and the project of secularisation: publishing the Gesar epic in contemporary China","authors":"Natasha L. Mikles","doi":"10.1080/14755610.2019.1704423","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2019.1704423","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article examines how published episodes from the life of Gesar—a king described in Tibetan epics—are assigned literary classifications inside and outside China. Outside of China, Tibetan publishers categorise these narratives using the explicitly Buddhist terms ‘tale of liberation’ (rnam thar) and ‘expression of realisation’ (rtogs brjod). By contrast, state-invested publishers within China designate these narratives as ‘story’ (sgrung). Although this agenda is never stated explicitly, categorising narratives from Tibetan tradition as ‘stories’ rather than Buddhist genres serves the Chinese state’s goals of constructing a ‘secular’ Tibetan culture removed from the traditional authority of Buddhist institutions. Secularising the Gesar epic helps to produce a Tibetan citizen prepared to participate in and cede authority to China’s multi-ethnic nation state, while also relegating Buddhism to a personal, private, and apolitical phenomenon. This case study has larger implications for analysing genre as a site where ideas of religion and secularity are negotiated.","PeriodicalId":45190,"journal":{"name":"Culture and Religion","volume":"20 1","pages":"322 - 350"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14755610.2019.1704423","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48036947","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-07-03DOI: 10.1080/14755610.2019.1705031
M. Chaichian, Homa Sadri
ABSTRACT In this article, we examine identity formation processes among French Muslims from former North African French colonies, focusing on Algeria. France’s violent colonial presence in Algeria has put an indelible effect on three generations of French of Algerian origin, as they have struggled to survive despite political pressures and cultural demands in post-colonial France. Using several theories and concepts pertaining identity formation among colonial subjects, including Stuart Hall’s discussion of ‘self-othering,’ Frantz Fanon’s Manichaean notions of ‘black’ and ‘white’ identity formations, and W.E.B. Du Bois’ concept of ‘double consciousness,’ we first analyse formation of a hybrid identity among three generations of French Muslims. Next, we focus on the torturous journey of French Muslim women particularly related to the hijab controversy, as they oscillate between resistance and assimilation under French Republic’s Laïcité laws. We further examine the intersectionality of gender-based, religious and rural/tribal identities in Algeria, signified by two clearly delineated ‘gendered’ public and private spaces, and boundary erosions between the two in post-colonial France. We conclude that under the false pretence of ‘gender equality,’ in its attempt to unveil Muslim women the French government is using their bodies as a cultural battleground to subject them to total submission and assimilation.
{"title":"Gendered identity formation in post-colonial France: the case of French Muslims of Maghrebi origins with a focus on Algeria","authors":"M. Chaichian, Homa Sadri","doi":"10.1080/14755610.2019.1705031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2019.1705031","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In this article, we examine identity formation processes among French Muslims from former North African French colonies, focusing on Algeria. France’s violent colonial presence in Algeria has put an indelible effect on three generations of French of Algerian origin, as they have struggled to survive despite political pressures and cultural demands in post-colonial France. Using several theories and concepts pertaining identity formation among colonial subjects, including Stuart Hall’s discussion of ‘self-othering,’ Frantz Fanon’s Manichaean notions of ‘black’ and ‘white’ identity formations, and W.E.B. Du Bois’ concept of ‘double consciousness,’ we first analyse formation of a hybrid identity among three generations of French Muslims. Next, we focus on the torturous journey of French Muslim women particularly related to the hijab controversy, as they oscillate between resistance and assimilation under French Republic’s Laïcité laws. We further examine the intersectionality of gender-based, religious and rural/tribal identities in Algeria, signified by two clearly delineated ‘gendered’ public and private spaces, and boundary erosions between the two in post-colonial France. We conclude that under the false pretence of ‘gender equality,’ in its attempt to unveil Muslim women the French government is using their bodies as a cultural battleground to subject them to total submission and assimilation.","PeriodicalId":45190,"journal":{"name":"Culture and Religion","volume":"20 1","pages":"272 - 301"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14755610.2019.1705031","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46734957","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-04-03DOI: 10.1080/14755610.2019.1619602
H. Zainal
ABSTRACT This article interrogates how the diverse realities of Muslim women fray the concept of ‘Muslim cosmopolitanism’ in Southeast Asia. By comparing how Malaysian Muslim women interpret polygamy in Malaysian and Indonesian screens, this article problematises the idea of a unified cosmopolitanism experienced by Muslims from the Malay world. Based on findings from interviews with 25 educated women, this article shows that media representations of polygamy and Muslim femininity can differ even between two Southeast Asian countries sharing common gendered and religious practices. It argues that the women’s understanding of polygamy is based on the intertwinement of their ethnic, gendered and classed subjectivities that are not necessarily informed by their religious beliefs per se but rather by the broader socio-political contexts in which they live. Through this embodiment of intersectional cosmopolitanism, they not only disrupt existing notions of ‘Muslim cosmopolitanism’ but highlight the heterogeneous experiences of Muslims within Southeast Asia.
{"title":"Intersectional cosmopolitanism: Muslim women’s engagement with polygamy on Malaysian and Indonesian screens","authors":"H. Zainal","doi":"10.1080/14755610.2019.1619602","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2019.1619602","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article interrogates how the diverse realities of Muslim women fray the concept of ‘Muslim cosmopolitanism’ in Southeast Asia. By comparing how Malaysian Muslim women interpret polygamy in Malaysian and Indonesian screens, this article problematises the idea of a unified cosmopolitanism experienced by Muslims from the Malay world. Based on findings from interviews with 25 educated women, this article shows that media representations of polygamy and Muslim femininity can differ even between two Southeast Asian countries sharing common gendered and religious practices. It argues that the women’s understanding of polygamy is based on the intertwinement of their ethnic, gendered and classed subjectivities that are not necessarily informed by their religious beliefs per se but rather by the broader socio-political contexts in which they live. Through this embodiment of intersectional cosmopolitanism, they not only disrupt existing notions of ‘Muslim cosmopolitanism’ but highlight the heterogeneous experiences of Muslims within Southeast Asia.","PeriodicalId":45190,"journal":{"name":"Culture and Religion","volume":"1 6","pages":"151 - 168"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14755610.2019.1619602","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41243468","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-04-03DOI: 10.1080/14755610.2019.1624267
D. Rubin
ABSTRACT In the twenty-first century, diversity and multicultural analysis of race often falls along a Black/White binary paradigm. Therefore, those who are perceived to be White are often left out of the discussion of diversity and multicultural education (DME) in the United States. This absence is particularly true for American Jews of Ashkenazi descent. In academic circles today, the notion of ‘Whiteness’ is often used as a determining factor for overlooking antisemitism while addressing issues of racism aimed at other racial and ethnic groups in the United States. Data show that acts of antisemitism continues to rise in the U.S., especially on college campuses. Due to a lack of acknowledgment in the university classroom, Jews continue to be overlooked in multicultural academic thought, which can have wide-ranging consequences for Jews and non-Jews alike.
{"title":"Navigating the ‘space between’ the Black/White binary: a call for Jewish multicultural inclusion","authors":"D. Rubin","doi":"10.1080/14755610.2019.1624267","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2019.1624267","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In the twenty-first century, diversity and multicultural analysis of race often falls along a Black/White binary paradigm. Therefore, those who are perceived to be White are often left out of the discussion of diversity and multicultural education (DME) in the United States. This absence is particularly true for American Jews of Ashkenazi descent. In academic circles today, the notion of ‘Whiteness’ is often used as a determining factor for overlooking antisemitism while addressing issues of racism aimed at other racial and ethnic groups in the United States. Data show that acts of antisemitism continues to rise in the U.S., especially on college campuses. Due to a lack of acknowledgment in the university classroom, Jews continue to be overlooked in multicultural academic thought, which can have wide-ranging consequences for Jews and non-Jews alike.","PeriodicalId":45190,"journal":{"name":"Culture and Religion","volume":"20 1","pages":"192 - 206"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14755610.2019.1624267","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48785311","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}