Azam, Shireen
(2016)
The Violence of Secular Critique.
Master thesis, Master Religion and the Public Domain.
Abstract
In 2005, Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten invited cartoonists to “draw Muhammad as they see him” and published the responses which many found to insult, hurt and estrange Denmark’s minority Muslim population. The newspaper (and the public prosecutor) refuted the offence, not by citing freedom of artistic expression of the cartoonists, but as freedom of opinion and freedom of the press, citing a western liberal tradition of questioning and “critiquing” in the public sphere that is needed to counter extremism. In this thesis I examine this idea of critique which legitimises itself against harm and violence, and investigate the implicit violence in critique when it is based on an abstraction of experience and a selective treatment of itself, i.e. when it insists on its symbolic importance but disowns its content. I look at political philosophers Mill and Kant to understand the basis of this selective treatment and how freedom of speech silences its opposers when endowed with self-righteous critique. I purport that since critique is insufficient to incorporate power imbalances in contemporary societies, the practice of critique by itself is neither free nor tolerant and cannot be the sole legitimizing factor in an issue such as the cartoon controversy. While critique is legitimized on the claim that it is abstract and disinterested, I purport that the bravado of critique is a source of violence when it is accompanied by a lack of conviction of its content.
| Type: |
Thesis
(Master)
|
| Supervisors (RUG): |
| Supervisor | E-mail | Tutor organization | Tutor email |
|---|
| Wilson, E.K. | E.K.Wilson@rug.nl | | | | Jedan, C. | C.Jedan@rug.nl | | |
|
| Degree programme: |
Master Religion and the Public Domain |
| Academic year: |
2014- 2015 |
| Date of delivery: |
18 Nov 2016 |
| Last modified: |
25 Nov 2016 10:19 |
| URI: |
https://rcs.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/81 |
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