What consequences does immigration control have for our freedom? This question becomes even more apposite when states invoke citizens’ rights to justify immigration control. Immigration, so understood, constitutes a threat to the citizenry if not strictly regulated. That states often discriminate between citizens and non-citizens — apropos of movement across borders, access to essential services, …
Based on extensive fieldwork carried out in the hotbeds of religious violence and in-depth interviews with those who commit violence in the name of religion, Mark Juergensmeyer, in his book Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence, seeks to understand the perplexing relationship between religion and violence. The author argues …
Terror in the Name of God: Unearthing the Puzzling Link between Religion and Terrorism Read More »
As a nationalist doctrine and movement, Hindu nationalism — or Hindutva — grew in parallel with the portrayal and solidification of Hinduism as a single, coherent, organised religious system. The former informed the construction of the latter, and a selective interpretation of the latter undergirded the former.1 In contrast with Nehruvian secularism, which is grounded …
Why is belonging so important? How far is one willing to go to gain a sense of belonging, and what does it cost? How do those uprooted from their homeland find a sense of belonging in exile, and what sacrifices do they have to make? For many, religion provides a sence of belonging. Consider the …
Seeking Belonging through Religious Conversion: The Plight of the Undocumented in Sweden Read More »
We live in a post 9/11 world, where religious fundamentalism often engenders violent conflicts between nations and within nations, between religious communities and within religious communities. For example, religious intrastate conflicts tend to last longer than non-religious ones.[1] Moreover, negotiated peace settlements are unlikely in civil wars in which at least one belligerent party anchors …
Talking about the weather is often the last resort for immigrants like me to get painfully reserved Swedes to start chatting. In this age of climate crisis, possibly being the most climate-conscious people in the world, Swedes love to talk about the vagaries of the weather: how a cold snap in late spring hampered wine …
The Climate Crisis: An Act of Epistemic Injustice? Read More »
While a humanitarian crisis was unfolding on the tarmac of Kabul International Airport, through a televised address by the French president Emmanuel Macron, Afghan refugees caught a glimpse of what to expect in life on the run. Now accused of pandering to the far-right, Macron argued that his country must “anticipate and protect itself from …
Will the West’s newfound solidarity with the Afghan refugees last? Read More »
Introduction One of the earliest postcolonial theorists, the Afro-Caribbean philosopher Frantz Fanon (1925- 1961) made profound philosophical contributions to the freedom struggles of the colonised people around the globe. Born as the descendant of a slave, under the French colonial yoke in the Caribbean Island of Martinique, Fanon began his illustrious career as a soldier. …
Fanon’s ‘The Wretched of the Earth’ at Sixty: A Philosophical Review Read More »
The Book received the International Studies Association (ISA) Theory Section’s 2018 Book Award. Based on the approach called historical ontology, first developed by Michel Foucault and Ian Hacking, Jens Bartelson, in his award-winning book ‘War in International Thought’, seeks to unearth the underlying and unvoiced assumptions about the nature of war. Bartelson contends that …
War in International Thought by Jens Bartelson: A Review Read More »
The shadowy Prophet Military coups are a run-of-the-mill reality in the Islamic world. And yet, the 1970 coup d ‘état in Syria, that set the wheels of a sectarian dictatorship in motion, kindled an unusual sense of unease in the Muslim world, particularly among its Sunni majority. The bloodless coup brought former defence minister Hafiz …
The Ahmadiyya Controversy and the Roots of Pakistan’s Blasphemy Laws Read More »
A dichotomous world In the Western world, the discourse on Islam has been dramatically shaped by contentious debates on the role of the state. The proliferation of radical ideas among the European-Muslim millennials and recent terrorist attacks across Europe has catapulted fringe right-wing views into the mainstream psyche. There is a rising trend in the …
Islam in the West: Between Culturalist and Reformist Expediencies Read More »
