Search results for ""Author S. Sayyid""

Since September 11 the term Islamophobia has entered common parlance across the globe. Widely used but diversely and inconsistently defined and deployed, Islamophobia remains hotly disputed and frequently disavowed both as word and concept. To its supporters it names a defining feature of our times and is an important tool to highlight injustices faced by and specific to Muslims, but its effectiveness is weakened by lack of agreed meaning and of clarity in relation to such terms as racism and orientalism. To its detractors Islamophobia is either a fundamentally flawed category or, worse, a communitarian fig leaf behind which 'backward' social practices and totalitarian political ambitions are covered up. The backdrop to these debates and more generally to the mobilizations and contestations, to which they give expression, is a succession of 'moral panics' centred on the figure of the Muslim. Adopting a global perspective this collection is conceptually framed in terms of four arenas which provide the four distinct contexts for the problematization of Muslim identity, and the ways in which Islamophobia may be deployed. Drawing on diverse fields of disciplinary and geographical expertise twenty six contributors address the question of Islamophobia in a series of interventions which range from large and sustained arguments to illustrations of particular themes across these contexts: 'Muslimistan' (broadly the OIC member countries); states in which Muslims either form a minority or hold a socio-economically subaltern position but in which the Muslim minority cannot be easily dismissed as recent arrivals (such as India, Russia and China as well as Thailand); lands in which Muslims are represented as newly arrived immigrants (Western plutocracies), and the regions in which the Muslim presence is minimal or virtual and the problematization of Muslim identity is vicarious. Rejecting both uncritical transhistorical uses of the term Islamophobia and no less uncritical dismissals of the term the collection navigates a course in betwixt and between these two extremes pioneering a path to a series of investigations of Islamophobia that are predicated in the articulation of Muslim agency as its necessary ground.

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As late as the last quarter of the twentieth century there were expectations that Islam's political and cultural influence would dissipate as the advance of westernization brought modernization and secularization in its wake. Not only has Islam failed to follow the trajectory pursued by variants of Christianity, namely confinement to the private sphere and depoliticisation, but it has also forcefully re-asserted itself as mobilizations in its name challenge the global order in a series of geopolitical, cultural and philosophical struggles. The continuing (if not growing) relevance of Islam suggests that global history cannot simply be presented as a scaled up version of that of the West. Quests for Muslim autonomy present themselves in several forms - local and global, extremist and moderate, conservative and revisionist - in the light of which the recycling of conventional narratives about Islam becomes increasingly problematic. Not only are these accounts inadequate for understanding Muslim experiences, but by relying on them many Western governments pursue policies that are counter-productive and ultimately hazardous for Muslims and non-Muslims alike. "Recalling the Caliphate" engages critically with the interaction between Islam and the political in context of a post colonial world that continues to resist profound decolonization. In the first part of this book Sayyid focuses on how demands for Muslim autonomy are debated in terms such as democracy, cultural relativism, secularism and liberalism. Each chapter analyzes the displacements and evasions by which the decolonization of the Muslim world continues to be deflected and deferred, while the latter part of the book builds on this critique, exploring and attempts to accelerate the decolonization of the Muslim Ummah.

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"A Postcolonial People" is a lively, critical survey of contemporary South Asian Britain that fills a conspicuous gap in the literature. This specially commissioned book combines conceptually innovative analysis with empirically rich studies to map out the diversity of the British Asian way of life. The migration and settlement of South Asians in large numbers in Britain is examined in the context of the postcolonial condition, in which boundaries between the West and Rest, centre and periphery, home and abroad are increasingly blurred. The contributors provide both fresh insights and vital information on the Asian British experience in its socio-economic, historical and cultural dimensions. The topics covered include: identity, the transformation of urban space, policing, healthcare, electoral politics, music, British Asian theatre and cinema.

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