·
In my last post, I talked about my final paper
(5/2/12, titled "My Final Paper: Globalization, Deterritorialization, and
Gender"). One overall conclusion I draw in this paper is that Islam is not
inherently misogynist. I realized that this conclusion is very similar to what
Mahmood Mamdani talks about in the article "Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: A
Political Perspective on Culture and Terrorism." In this article, Mamdani
writes that "culture talk" creates easy categories: "good Muslims"
and "bad Muslims." "Good Muslims" are moderate and modernized – i.e. are more
Westernized. "Bad Muslims," on the other hand, are traditional and
fundamentalist and interpret the Quran literally. A common assumption is that
Bad Muslims have the dominant voice in Islam. But this is not actually the
case. In my paper, I argue a very similar thing. Muslims do wrestle with various social and theological issues. Gender relations
is one of these issues. Some Muslim sects and individuals reach conservative
conclusions, and reach more progressive conclusions. Therefore I, like Mamdani,
challenge the dominant discourse of Muslim misogyny.
·
In the article "CyberResistance: Saudi
Opposition between Globalization and Localization," Mamoun Fandy talks
about the encounter of Saudi society with various globalization processes. Among
other things, Fandy argues that the modern world has compressed time and space
(p. 124). This compression entails the creation of a "hyperreal
state" – that is, the delinking of state from physical territory (pp. 125,
140). When reading this, I was immediately struck by the similarity between the
concept of hyperreal state and the concept of deterritorialization. Arjun Appadurai
talks about deterritorialization in his book Modernity at Large. He defines
it as "the loosening of the holds between people, wealth, and
territories" (p. 49). This is virtually identical to Fandy's definition of
a hyperreal state.
-GGM
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