Dynamic Forces
Asynchronous Session
Leaving Religion as a Letting Go Ritual in Narratives about Apostasy View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Magdalena Grabowska
In the current paper we turn towards the symbolic dimension of apostasy. An artistic representation of it can be found in the exhibition entitled “Apostasia: Rituals of Letting Go”, presented in Garage Gallery, in Prague, featuring folk and indigenous traditions, beliefs, and crafts. According to the authors of the exhibition, apostasy exemplifies resignation strategy and an exit. It brings liberating results by being an act of resistance against institutional violence. One way of coping with the oppressive character of this institution is a turn towards unorthodox knowledge systems, such as astrology, conspiracy, or folk beliefs. Following this inspiration, we will address the question of whether the act of apostasy reveals traces of the rite of passage, whether and how apostates highlight the stage of separation, transition, and incorporation of secular identity (Van Gennep 1960) in their accounts. We try to evidence the meanings people attribute to the act of apostasy and how they evolve but also what strategies apostates employ to give access to their biographies. The material we look at includes fragments of interviews with apostates and more recent posts which were published on the Facebook group “Apostazja 2020” following author’s invitation to share views about apostasy as a letting go ritual.
Featured Arbaeen Walk: Religious Ritual or Representative of Competitive Discourses
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Soodeh Mansouri
In this paper, my focus is on power dynamics and the competitive discourses within the Shiite community in the Gulf region, as manifested in the Arbaeen Walk. I define the Arbaeen Walk as a collective Shiite ritual with multiple layers, experienced as a sociocultural carnival by the masses, and serving as a sphere of power conflicts among Shiite discourses. To analyze these layers and power dynamics, I employ Bakhtin's theory of the carnivalesque, Reicher's theory of cooperation, Stuart Hall's theory of representation, and Foucault's discourse analysis. Specifically, I concentrate on Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain, which are significant countries in the Gulf region, and explore the power relations among different discourses within this context, as well as their representation in the Arbaeen Walk. Methodologically, this research is based on the analysis of available data from primary research, various articles on online news platforms, and available surveys such as Arab Barometer.
The Freedom of Religion or Belief Nexus with Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism Projects in Kenya and Indonesia View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Fathima Azmiya Badurdeen
The paper looks at Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (PCVE) interventions in Kenya and Indonesia using Freedom of Religion or Belief (FORB) projects led by the JISRA consortium. JISRA projects in Kenya envision peaceful coexistence via the lens of freedom of religion or belief interventions. The following research questions shape the study: How do we view and understand freedom of religion or belief (FORB) initiatives in the developing global South? How do we situate FORB within projects related to preventing and countering violent extremism in Kenya and Indonesia? The role of religion is complex, and understanding the nuanced role of religion in conflict, violence, and (post-conflict) social transformation processes requires empirical evidence to situate local developmental projects in their respective countries. The study is based on postdoctoral research conducted for the Joint Initiative for Strategic Religion Action (JISRA) project "Reimagining Religion, Security, and Social Transformation." The analysis highlights the complex, nuanced role of religion in PCVE efforts while strengthening efforts on FORB in Kenya and Indonesia.
On an End-Time Revival Mission: Ghanaian Pentecostal Migrants and Placemaking in Sydney, Australia
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Dorcas Dennis
The paper suggests that the alienating nature of the mobility process for marginalized and colonized bodies from the Global South and the general culturally specific and inward-looking, non-sensitive towards migrants’ sensibilities, engender ways local migrant religions accompany the migratory movements and become pivotal in the settling process. The migrant religions serve as the symbols of familiar identity, ethos for negotiating placemaking, models of and for contesting alienating structures and negotiating dominant imposition or labels, and as presence in dominant religious spaces in the host land. The paper is based on fieldwork research among members of the Church of Pentecost—a Ghanaian migrant church in Sydney, Australia. The church, popular among Ghanaian migrants globally, is known for its appeal to their sensibilities and concerns—It is found in over 150 nations. The paper asks why migrant Christians carry their local churches into the host lands where Christian churches are already prevalent. The phenomenon leads us to Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of symbolic violence and invites us to explore the profitability of its use as a tool in understanding how the symbolic alienation of migrants informs the accompaniments of their local religions in the migration and settling process. Also, I engage Clifford Geertz's notion of religion as a cultural symbol to demonstrate how the Ghanaian local Pentecostal symbols serve as models of and for the migrants’ contestations, negotiations, and placemaking in Australia.
Of Mud Mosques, Bazaars and Mirror Mosaics: Spatial Thresholds of Muslimness
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Zahra Moeini
Mosques are often recognized as material and symbolic presences of Muslimness. In an exploration of three Mosques in three cities in Iran, one is surprised by the vitality of this identity as expressed in a world of materiality. There is firstly the remote, mud-mosque that stands for more than a century in a small town of Meybod, Yazd that expresses not only the simplicity of worship, but also the spirituality found in lineage and community interdependence as sites of the production of Muslimness. Secondly, there is the grand and elaborate designs of mirror mosaics on the ceilings of the Imamzadeh Saleh Mosque that sits adjacent to the famed Tajrish Bazaar. While the mirrors are broken into pieces, they shed light on the hopeful worshipers. There is also the majestic Naqsh-e Jahan Square courtyard in Isfahan that is home to the Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque and Imam Mosque amidst a multitude of businesses, intermingling spirituality with transactional pursuits. While these three mosques are designed in very different physical qualities and positionalities, they shed light on how Muslim subjectivities are often created and re-created in the blurred thresholds between the material and supra-material worlds.
