Liberal Articulation of Islamophobia: Politics of Multicultural Recognition in Pearl Abraham's American Taliban
This article seeks to examine academic scholarship on Islamophobia in the West that attributes anti-Muslim racism to a crisis of multiculturalism and proposes the recuperation of the liberal multicultural ethos as a countermeasure to redress Islamophobia without investigating its complicity with...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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National University of Modern Languages (NUML), Islamabad
2022-06-01
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| Series: | NUML Journal of Critical Inquiry |
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| Online Access: | https://jci.numl.edu.pk/index.php/jci/article/view/223 |
| _version_ | 1811186205858988032 |
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| author | Amal Sayyid |
| author_facet | Amal Sayyid |
| author_sort | Amal Sayyid |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
This article seeks to examine academic scholarship on Islamophobia in the West that attributes anti-Muslim racism to a crisis of multiculturalism and proposes the recuperation of the liberal multicultural ethos as a countermeasure to redress Islamophobia without investigating its complicity with racism. Through an analysis of Pearl Abraham’s novel American Taliban (2010), I probe an ambivalence at the heart of the liberal multicultural project of recognition (for the other) and argue that despite its claims of libertarian principles of justice and equality, multicultural recognition becomes the ideological backdrop against which changing contours of Islamophobia are articulated. This is unpacked through a fissure in Abraham’s narrative which, on the surface, draws upon the Hegelian principle of intersubjective recognition in order to critique the illiberal paradigm of Islamophobia and its concomitant framework of the clash of civilizations. Yet, it remains complicit with anti-Muslim racism through the generation of another Manichean frame that shifts reductive constructs of dangerous alterity to the Muslims who follow the normative tradition of Islam. At the same time, it offers positive recognition to Sufi Muslims who are aligned with secular liberalism. With a critical focus on Abraham’s novel, this paper deploys G.W. F. Hegel’s concept of ‘becoming’ with Gregory Lipton’s ‘critique of the secular reconstruction of Sufism in order to explore the complicity of multicultural recognition with Islamophobia, and, thus, it nuances the existing Western scholarship.
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| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T13:42:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-482f27b1ae634de7a1020cf8a6368b26 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2789-4665 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T13:42:44Z |
| publishDate | 2022-06-01 |
| publisher | National University of Modern Languages (NUML), Islamabad |
| record_format | Article |
| series | NUML Journal of Critical Inquiry |
| spelling | doaj.art-482f27b1ae634de7a1020cf8a6368b262022-12-22T04:21:11ZengNational University of Modern Languages (NUML), IslamabadNUML Journal of Critical Inquiry2789-46652022-06-0120I10.52015/numljci.v20iI.223Liberal Articulation of Islamophobia: Politics of Multicultural Recognition in Pearl Abraham's American TalibanAmal Sayyid0a:1:{s:5:"en_US";s:87:"Assistant Professor, Department of English, International Islamic University, Islamabad";} This article seeks to examine academic scholarship on Islamophobia in the West that attributes anti-Muslim racism to a crisis of multiculturalism and proposes the recuperation of the liberal multicultural ethos as a countermeasure to redress Islamophobia without investigating its complicity with racism. Through an analysis of Pearl Abraham’s novel American Taliban (2010), I probe an ambivalence at the heart of the liberal multicultural project of recognition (for the other) and argue that despite its claims of libertarian principles of justice and equality, multicultural recognition becomes the ideological backdrop against which changing contours of Islamophobia are articulated. This is unpacked through a fissure in Abraham’s narrative which, on the surface, draws upon the Hegelian principle of intersubjective recognition in order to critique the illiberal paradigm of Islamophobia and its concomitant framework of the clash of civilizations. Yet, it remains complicit with anti-Muslim racism through the generation of another Manichean frame that shifts reductive constructs of dangerous alterity to the Muslims who follow the normative tradition of Islam. At the same time, it offers positive recognition to Sufi Muslims who are aligned with secular liberalism. With a critical focus on Abraham’s novel, this paper deploys G.W. F. Hegel’s concept of ‘becoming’ with Gregory Lipton’s ‘critique of the secular reconstruction of Sufism in order to explore the complicity of multicultural recognition with Islamophobia, and, thus, it nuances the existing Western scholarship. https://jci.numl.edu.pk/index.php/jci/article/view/223Liberalismmulticulturalismintersubjective recognitionIslamophobiaAnti-Muslim RacismSecular Sufism |
| spellingShingle | Amal Sayyid Liberal Articulation of Islamophobia: Politics of Multicultural Recognition in Pearl Abraham's American Taliban NUML Journal of Critical Inquiry Liberalism multiculturalism intersubjective recognition Islamophobia Anti-Muslim Racism Secular Sufism |
| title | Liberal Articulation of Islamophobia: Politics of Multicultural Recognition in Pearl Abraham's American Taliban |
| title_full | Liberal Articulation of Islamophobia: Politics of Multicultural Recognition in Pearl Abraham's American Taliban |
| title_fullStr | Liberal Articulation of Islamophobia: Politics of Multicultural Recognition in Pearl Abraham's American Taliban |
| title_full_unstemmed | Liberal Articulation of Islamophobia: Politics of Multicultural Recognition in Pearl Abraham's American Taliban |
| title_short | Liberal Articulation of Islamophobia: Politics of Multicultural Recognition in Pearl Abraham's American Taliban |
| title_sort | liberal articulation of islamophobia politics of multicultural recognition in pearl abraham s american taliban |
| topic | Liberalism multiculturalism intersubjective recognition Islamophobia Anti-Muslim Racism Secular Sufism |
| url | https://jci.numl.edu.pk/index.php/jci/article/view/223 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT amalsayyid liberalarticulationofislamophobiapoliticsofmulticulturalrecognitioninpearlabrahamsamericantaliban |