Models of Governance (Asynchronous Session)
President Donald J. Trump and the Evangelicals: Support and Doubts View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Kjell Olof Urban Lejon
Donald J. Trump has been described as a president who, to a great extent, divided the American nation. Nevertheless, we consider why the white Evangelicals in the US strongly support Donald J. Trump, not only during the presidential election of 2016, but also during his presidency and throughout the election campaign of 2020. For what reasons? How does Trump relate to American civil religion? In this paper, the US religio-political situation under the Trump era is problematized and clarified.
Islamic Religious Symbols in the Western Press from the Perspective of Arab Figures View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Lana Kazkaz, Míriam Díez Bosch
Nearly 15 years after the publication of the first collection of cartoons dealing with Islamic religious symbols in the Danish press, cultural and political relations between the West and the Islamic world have witnessed multiple events that revealed the nature and understanding of historical relations between the worlds and the role of contemporary media in formulating them (Modood, 2020). This study seeks to understand the positions of a group of opinion leaders of intellectuals and influencers who represent cultural and political currents in a number of Arab countries from the phenomenon of cartoons in the Western media. It evaluates the intense reactions by rage witnessed in multiple Islamic and Arab countries after the release of these drawings between 2005 - 2008 (Zaytoon, 2017), and asks them basic questions: Did the Arab media practice and opinion leaders and intellectuals play a huge incitement role that provoked the Western media's handling of Islamic religious symbols or that this practice by the Arab media and opinion leaders came to be expected and consistent with the Arab-Islamic cultural context and its limits (Hussain, 2007) - and has there been a change in the way these intellectual and political currents understand freedom of expression and the concept of religious symbols in exchange for the continued issuance of judgments in the context of traditional stereotypes (Steiner, 2012)?
The Neoliberal Tongue: A Quantitative Inquiry Into The Relationship Between Pentecostalism And Neoliberalism in Latin America View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Bartholomew Konechni
This article examines the plausibility of two widely held (and deeply interconnected) narratives on the study of Pentecostalism in Latin America. Firstly, the narrative that Pentecostalism has represented a form of spiritual alternative (Garrard et al 2018) whose growth has been driven primarily through instability and inequality within the Latin American region. Secondly, that Pentecostalism, through its commitment to The Gospel of Prosperity (García-Ruiz & Michel 2014, Campos 2015, Lindhardt 2016) has paradoxically come to spread neoliberal values throughout the region (Martin 1990, Willaime 1999, Barker 2007, Burity 2013, Lindhardt 2013, Coleman & Lindhardt 2020). By exploiting data from the World Bank, the Latinobarómetro 2018 Survey and the Pew Research Center, in combination with methods of factor analysis and multilinear regression this paper hopes to shed light on the statistical viability of these two views. Ultimately, this paper will conclude that there is strong evidence to believe that Pentecostalism’s growth had been driven by economic instability and inequality. However, this paper will also maintain that there is little evidence that Pentecostalism is associated with more neoliberal values and that in fact being a Pentecostalist is significantly associated with holding views which are in conflict with neoliberalism.
Islamic Intersectional Theology and Emancipatory Religious Praxis
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Siavash Saffari
Some proponents of emancipatory politics continue to hold firm to Karl Marx’s assertion that genuine emancipation from oppressive and exploitative relations requires “the abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people.” On the other hand, and increasingly so in recent times, even some of the secular exponents of progressive politics have come to acknowledge the mobilizational capacities as well as the “untapped moral intuitions” (in Jürgen Habermas’s words) of public religiosity for unsettling the matrix of oppression. This paper begins by identifying Islamic liberation theology as a religious-political movement that contributes to emancipatory struggles against colonialism and imperialism, capitalism, theocratic as well as secular authoritarianism, racism, patriarchy and heteronormativity, and environmental destruction. Some of the leading figures of Islamic liberation theology (i.e. Mahmoud Mohammed Taha, Ali Shariati, Amina Wadud, Asma Barlas, and Farid Esack) are introduced, and their collective discourse is distinguished from other major Islamic-political movements, such as Islamism and Islamic liberalism. Through a dialogical reading of Islamic liberation theology and theories of intersectionality (as articulated by leading black feminists such as Patricia Hill Collins, Audre Lorde, and bell hooks), the paper then argues for a move from liberation theology to intersectional theology as a necessary development in emancipatory civic spirituality. This move, the paper contends, is not only needed to reflect our new understandings of the intersectionality of oppression and emancipation; it also facilitates meaningful dialogue and cooperation between religious and secular agents of emancipatory projects.
Joe Biden, Roman Catholicism, and Foreign Policy: The Influence and Limitations of Religious Cultural Heritage View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Brian Muzas
Joe Biden is only the second Catholic elected to the US presidency, but his Catholicism has not received the scrutiny that his Catholic predecessor, John F. Kennedy, received. Many may believe that Biden’s Catholicism is unremarkable or unimportant, but I argue that Biden's Catholicism will matter for his foreign policies, although not in the way that one might expect. I draw two important distinctions: I differentiate between what Biden thinks and how Biden thinks, and I highlight two channels of influence by which Biden's Catholic religious cultural heritage could shape the decision-making framework. I argue that Biden's Catholicism has greater influence on the process rather than the content of his thought, and I argue further that the Catholic intellectual tradition rather than the Catholic doctrinal tradition is the channel through which this influence takes effect. The methodology employed in this investigation can be used to study the influence of different types of religious cultural heritage for other leaders and religions.
Islam, Muslims, and the West: A Strained Relationship Amidst the Rise of Right-wing Populist Politics View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Anouar El Younssi
The migrant crisis that peaked in 2015 following the Syrian civil was unprecedented in Europe’s recent history, and—alongside the Brexit—it threatened to tear apart the EU body. The large numbers of mostly Muslim refugees and migrants, descending on Europe, sent shock waves throughout the continent, triggering the rise of populist, right-wing politics that espoused anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant discourse. There is some apprehension that the increasing Muslim demographics in Europe will, in the long term, pose a threat to the idea of Western civilization. Regardless of whether this rhetoric is exaggerated or not, there is no denying that an identity politics in Europe is on the rise. A key question that this paper seeks to wrestle with is whether Islam and Muslims indeed pose a threat to the idea of the West. As I embark on this discussion, I will examine the European Orientalist tradition a la Edward Said as well as the views of Muslim thinkers and intellectuals, highlighting the propositions of the late Algerian scholar Mohammed Arkoun and Turkish writer Mustafa Akyol. Departing from the views of Arkoun, Akyol, and others, I argue that, while modern interpretations of Islam—such as Jihadism and various forms of Islamism—do pose a threat, not only to the stability of Western countries but to that of Muslim ones as well, the Islamic tradition, taken as a holistic entity, is not inherently hostile to the West—real or imagined—and its putative values of rationality, religious liberty, secularity, pluralism, and democracy.
