Suchergebnisse

Religieuze betekenisgeving doet ertoe, laat Radicale verlossing zien. Maar hoe verhoudt dergelijk werk zich tot een context waarin moslims geproblematiseerd worden op basis van ideeën over islam, politiek en terrorisme?

AbstractThe topic of hijra is very much present in the ideological messages of IslamicState and Al Qaeda as well as in many studies exploring why and how people are motivated to join the violent struggles in Syria. Yet, with a few exceptions, many studies mention hijra as something self-evident without exploring the meanings attached to hijra among the volunteers who joined Al Qaeda and/or IS. Based upon ethnographic work among Dutch Islamic militant activists of the Behind Bars network constituting a very vocal early contingent of male Syria volunteers, this article explores the meanings of hijra. I will show that ideas about hijra were essential to the construction of their departure narratives and examine how hijra for them, in different and sometimes contradicting ways, became a pathway to an ethical and political transformation. One which was, at the same time, being instrumentalized to strengthen the very type of governance they tried to escape.

Abstract
In this article I reflect upon my own work on Salafism in the Netherlands, particularly with militant activists, in order to think through some of the ethical and methodological dilemmas that arose throughout the research when many of my interlocutors left for Syria to join Jahbat al-Nusra and/or IS(IS). This culminated in my becoming a witness and an Expert Witness at a trial, testifying against several of my known contacts. After introducing this research and outlining my experiences in court, I set out to show how academic knowledge about Salafism and militant activism is used in a process of racialised categorisation and closure. This article contributes to critical reflections on the positionalities of social scientists and of social science in public in a context of racial securitisation and politicisation.

Dutch researchers and activists have drawn attention to the huge number of Islamophobic events taking place; ranging from degrading remarks to violent attacks. In this article I look at the work of anti-Islamophobia initiatives within the broader framework of the racialisation of Muslims. Firstly, I argue that racialisation interpellates Dutch Muslims as an unacceptable "Other." Secondly, I illustrate how anti-Islamophobia activism is informed by, and at the same time challenges, the racialisation of Muslims. In so doing I want to contribute to the debates about how Muslims are able to claim a 'Muslim voice' in a context in which racialisation seems all-encompassing.1

De auteur dankt Edien Bartels van de afdeling Sociale en Culturele Antropologie van de Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam en de redactie van Kwalon voor hun kritische commentaar op eerdere versies van dit artikel.

Abstract
In this 'Current Debate' article, we discuss the entanglement of academic discourse and public debates on Islam and Muslims in the Netherlands. Academic output is a crucial but complex constituent of that debate. Many academics write policy reports, or take part in the debate through the media, and, whether they like it or not, their regular work is often co-opted by one of the discursive communities that take part in the debate. Research on Islam and Muslims is thus entangled with predominating knowledge regimes and policy priorities. We discuss several Dutch publications of the last three decades, and three recent books in particular, in order to show this entanglement.

This article is an inquiry into how the transnational networks of Salafism in Europe and the Middle East are structured by looking at two case studies: one about a Lebanese-Palestinian preacher in Sweden and one about a Dutch preacher in the Netherlands and theuk. By presenting these case studies we explain the predominance of informality in these networks, and highlight the different ways in which they link European Salafi preachers to the Middle East, yielding different types of social capital. Our findings are based on ethnographic fieldwork in Lebanon, the Netherlands, Sweden and theukbetween 2007 and 2012.