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Showing posts with the label “Western modernity”

Who Gets to Be a Good Muslim?

“[T]he problem begins the moment we assume that a person’s political behavior can be predicted from their religion or culture. He calls this habit of thinking culture talk : the assumption that if someone is Muslim, their politics, morality, and whether they are dangerous or harmless must somehow come from Islam. In this framework, people are no longer judged by what they actually do, but by a label placed on them in advance.”

Unrest and Repetition

“From the point of view of the regime, it may well be that riots are welcome , for they guarantee  renormalisation , they permit social ‘bantustans’ to remain such, and they deflate discontents that could otherwise be perilous. Naturally, for them to perform this stabilizing function they must be subject to outward condemnation: vandalism should be denounced, violence should spark indignation, looting should cause disgust. Such reactions justify the ruthlessness of the repression, which becomes the only means to beat back the tide of barbarism. It is under these conditions that riots serve to ossify social hierarchy.” “A social system is not only characterised by its internal structure, but also by the reactions it provokes: a system founded on commandments can, in certain moments, imply reciprocal duties of aid carried out honestly, as it can also lead to brutal outbursts of hostility. To the eyes of the historian, who must merely note and explain the relationships between phenome...