Kirstine Sinclair | University of Southern Denmark (original) (raw)
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Papers by Kirstine Sinclair
BRILL eBooks, Apr 25, 2023
Journal of Muslims in Europe, 2019
Temenos - Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion
In this article on the role of religion in the formation of modern subjectivities we use a contem... more In this article on the role of religion in the formation of modern subjectivities we use a contemporary transnational Islamist organization, Hizb ut-Tahrir, as our example. We examine how technologies of domination are combined with norm-setting technologies of the self in shaping new modern Muslim subjectivities among its members. First, we present our theoretical perspective and analytical framework. Then we describe the ideological roots of Hizb ut-Tahrir in the intellectual universe of nineteenth-century thinking about Islamic reform. Third, we analyse the practice of tooling or processing minds, souls, convictions, physical appearance, and behaviour among members of the organization. As our major interest lies not in Hizb ut-Tahrir as such but in the role of religion in the formation of modern social subjectivities, we conclude with some general reflections on this question.
Tidsskrift for Islamforskning, 2016
I stedet for et abstract er her artiklens første side:Mediernes forenklede dækning af islam, vold... more I stedet for et abstract er her artiklens første side:Mediernes forenklede dækning af islam, voldelig ekstremisme og integrationsproblemer har gennem de seneste år resulteret i en række ukonstruktive politiske tiltag. I denne artikel ser vi nærmere på mediernes dækning og den politiske debat i kølvandet på terrorangrebet i København i februar 2015 og TV2’s serie af dokumentarprogrammer om forholdene i danske moskeer fra marts 2016. Disse to eksempler illustrerer, hvordan mediernes dækning ikke blot har skabt en voldsom, følelsesbetonet og forplumret politisk debat, men også har medvirket til at eskalere de problemer, man har ønsket at afdække. Som forskere er vi bekymrede for denne udvikling, hvor vi ser en stigende tendens til, at både private og licensbetalte nyhedsmedier prioriterer sensation, drama og frygt over saglighed. Desuden vækker det vores bekymring, at landets lovgivere tilsyneladende lader sig diktere af mediernes dækning. De to eksempler, vi diskuterer i denne ar...
In March, the Danish TV Channel TV2 broadcast a series of three documentaries on life in and arou... more In March, the Danish TV Channel TV2 broadcast a series of three documentaries on life in and around a number of Danish mosques. The programme series was entitled " The Mosques behind the Veil " and the bulk of the material from the mosques – including interviews with leading Imams – was recorded using hidden cameras. The documentaries sparked a heated debate as the featured Imams were demonstrating questionable morals in encouraging fraud and physical abuse of women and children. Summary In March 2016, the Danish TV Channel TV2 broadcast a series of documentaries based on recorded conversations and meetings with representatives of Danish mosques. The TV Channel had planted two moles, " Fatma " and " Mo-hammed " , and instructed them to act as a married couple facing different difficulties related to their marriage and conceiving. On this basis, they were sent to ask advice from Imams from different mosques throughout Denmark. The answers and suggested solutions they got raise a number of new questions regarding religious subcultures, minority identity formation and the success of integration efforts in the country. Here, I take a closer look at what the documentaries revealed and the nature of the debates which followed.
The threat of the pending beheading of Abdul-Rahman Kassig by Islamic State.
Taking its point of departure in the conceptual debate about modernities in the plural, this arti... more Taking its point of departure in the conceptual debate about modernities in the plural, this article presents a heuristic framework based on an interpretative approach to modernity. The article draws on theories of multiple modernities, successive moder-nities and poststructuralist approaches to modern subjectivity formation. In combining conceptual tools from these strands of social theory, we argue that the emergence of multiple modernities should be understood as a historical result of idiosyncratic social constructions combining global social imaginaries with religious and other cultural traditions. In the second part of the article we illustrate this argument with three short excursions into the history of Islamic reform in the 19th and 20th centuries. In this way we interpret the modern history of Muslim societies as based on cultural conflicts between different forms of social order and individual identities similar to those present in European history. Contrary to the European experience, however, religious traditions gradually assumed an important role in defining 'authentic' Muslim modernities, leading to a relatively hegemonic role of so-called Islamic modernities toward the end of the 20th century.
Denne artikel ønsker at bidrage til diskussionen af moderniteter i flertal. Argumentet er, at fre... more Denne artikel ønsker at bidrage til diskussionen af moderniteter i flertal. Argumentet er, at fremkomsten af mangfoldige moderniteter må forstås som resultatet af historiske processer af idiosynkratiske kombinationer af globale, sociale forestillinger med religiøse og andre kulturelle traditioner. Vi tager udgangspunkt i den begrebsmaessige debat om moderniteter i flertal, og det første skridt er en uddybning af vores analytiske ramme. Her udpeger vi tre teoretiske kilder: Teorier om mangfoldige moderniteter, teorier om fortløbende moderniteter samt poststrukturalistiske tilgange til moderne subjektivitetsformation. Således ser vi den moderne subjektivitets konkurrerende ordener af sociale og diskursive praksisser og subjektivitetsformer som kollektive men omstridte kulturelle typer, som individet kan henvise til og traekke på i konstruktionen af egen identitet. I artiklen undersøger vi, hvorledes mo-derne muslimske reformtaenkere har konstrueret islamiske former for modernitet. Tilsyneladende konstruerede islamiske reformtaenkere i det 19. og 20. århundrede deres islamiske variationer over temaerne social orden og succesfuld muslimsk subjektivitet ud fra mere generelle, globale forestillinger. Dog med den forskel, at religion har haft en dominerende rolle i definitionen af " autentiske " muslimske moderniteter.
This article discusses national and transnational tendencies in the global Islamist enterprise Hi... more This article discusses national and transnational tendencies in the global Islamist enterprise Hizb ut-Tahrir. In the article, it is argued that one can find simultaneous national and transnational tendencies Hizb ut-Tahrir depending on what level of the organisation one studies. Thus, the article distinguishes between four analytical levels: an ideological level, an organisational level, a practical memberoriented level and finally a media-related level. On the ideological level, Hizb ut-Tahrir is transnational, and this is also reflected in self-perceptions among members. However, on the organisational and practical levels, the tendency is that national branches are becoming more and more different according to their different contexts. And also the media-related level of the organisationinternet activities and websites which by definition are not tied to territory and can address audiences world wideturn out to be marked by local and national agendas and preferences to a growing extent.
BRILL eBooks, Apr 25, 2023
Journal of Muslims in Europe, 2019
Temenos - Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion
In this article on the role of religion in the formation of modern subjectivities we use a contem... more In this article on the role of religion in the formation of modern subjectivities we use a contemporary transnational Islamist organization, Hizb ut-Tahrir, as our example. We examine how technologies of domination are combined with norm-setting technologies of the self in shaping new modern Muslim subjectivities among its members. First, we present our theoretical perspective and analytical framework. Then we describe the ideological roots of Hizb ut-Tahrir in the intellectual universe of nineteenth-century thinking about Islamic reform. Third, we analyse the practice of tooling or processing minds, souls, convictions, physical appearance, and behaviour among members of the organization. As our major interest lies not in Hizb ut-Tahrir as such but in the role of religion in the formation of modern social subjectivities, we conclude with some general reflections on this question.
Tidsskrift for Islamforskning, 2016
I stedet for et abstract er her artiklens første side:Mediernes forenklede dækning af islam, vold... more I stedet for et abstract er her artiklens første side:Mediernes forenklede dækning af islam, voldelig ekstremisme og integrationsproblemer har gennem de seneste år resulteret i en række ukonstruktive politiske tiltag. I denne artikel ser vi nærmere på mediernes dækning og den politiske debat i kølvandet på terrorangrebet i København i februar 2015 og TV2’s serie af dokumentarprogrammer om forholdene i danske moskeer fra marts 2016. Disse to eksempler illustrerer, hvordan mediernes dækning ikke blot har skabt en voldsom, følelsesbetonet og forplumret politisk debat, men også har medvirket til at eskalere de problemer, man har ønsket at afdække. Som forskere er vi bekymrede for denne udvikling, hvor vi ser en stigende tendens til, at både private og licensbetalte nyhedsmedier prioriterer sensation, drama og frygt over saglighed. Desuden vækker det vores bekymring, at landets lovgivere tilsyneladende lader sig diktere af mediernes dækning. De to eksempler, vi diskuterer i denne ar...
In March, the Danish TV Channel TV2 broadcast a series of three documentaries on life in and arou... more In March, the Danish TV Channel TV2 broadcast a series of three documentaries on life in and around a number of Danish mosques. The programme series was entitled " The Mosques behind the Veil " and the bulk of the material from the mosques – including interviews with leading Imams – was recorded using hidden cameras. The documentaries sparked a heated debate as the featured Imams were demonstrating questionable morals in encouraging fraud and physical abuse of women and children. Summary In March 2016, the Danish TV Channel TV2 broadcast a series of documentaries based on recorded conversations and meetings with representatives of Danish mosques. The TV Channel had planted two moles, " Fatma " and " Mo-hammed " , and instructed them to act as a married couple facing different difficulties related to their marriage and conceiving. On this basis, they were sent to ask advice from Imams from different mosques throughout Denmark. The answers and suggested solutions they got raise a number of new questions regarding religious subcultures, minority identity formation and the success of integration efforts in the country. Here, I take a closer look at what the documentaries revealed and the nature of the debates which followed.
The threat of the pending beheading of Abdul-Rahman Kassig by Islamic State.
Taking its point of departure in the conceptual debate about modernities in the plural, this arti... more Taking its point of departure in the conceptual debate about modernities in the plural, this article presents a heuristic framework based on an interpretative approach to modernity. The article draws on theories of multiple modernities, successive moder-nities and poststructuralist approaches to modern subjectivity formation. In combining conceptual tools from these strands of social theory, we argue that the emergence of multiple modernities should be understood as a historical result of idiosyncratic social constructions combining global social imaginaries with religious and other cultural traditions. In the second part of the article we illustrate this argument with three short excursions into the history of Islamic reform in the 19th and 20th centuries. In this way we interpret the modern history of Muslim societies as based on cultural conflicts between different forms of social order and individual identities similar to those present in European history. Contrary to the European experience, however, religious traditions gradually assumed an important role in defining 'authentic' Muslim modernities, leading to a relatively hegemonic role of so-called Islamic modernities toward the end of the 20th century.
Denne artikel ønsker at bidrage til diskussionen af moderniteter i flertal. Argumentet er, at fre... more Denne artikel ønsker at bidrage til diskussionen af moderniteter i flertal. Argumentet er, at fremkomsten af mangfoldige moderniteter må forstås som resultatet af historiske processer af idiosynkratiske kombinationer af globale, sociale forestillinger med religiøse og andre kulturelle traditioner. Vi tager udgangspunkt i den begrebsmaessige debat om moderniteter i flertal, og det første skridt er en uddybning af vores analytiske ramme. Her udpeger vi tre teoretiske kilder: Teorier om mangfoldige moderniteter, teorier om fortløbende moderniteter samt poststrukturalistiske tilgange til moderne subjektivitetsformation. Således ser vi den moderne subjektivitets konkurrerende ordener af sociale og diskursive praksisser og subjektivitetsformer som kollektive men omstridte kulturelle typer, som individet kan henvise til og traekke på i konstruktionen af egen identitet. I artiklen undersøger vi, hvorledes mo-derne muslimske reformtaenkere har konstrueret islamiske former for modernitet. Tilsyneladende konstruerede islamiske reformtaenkere i det 19. og 20. århundrede deres islamiske variationer over temaerne social orden og succesfuld muslimsk subjektivitet ud fra mere generelle, globale forestillinger. Dog med den forskel, at religion har haft en dominerende rolle i definitionen af " autentiske " muslimske moderniteter.
This article discusses national and transnational tendencies in the global Islamist enterprise Hi... more This article discusses national and transnational tendencies in the global Islamist enterprise Hizb ut-Tahrir. In the article, it is argued that one can find simultaneous national and transnational tendencies Hizb ut-Tahrir depending on what level of the organisation one studies. Thus, the article distinguishes between four analytical levels: an ideological level, an organisational level, a practical memberoriented level and finally a media-related level. On the ideological level, Hizb ut-Tahrir is transnational, and this is also reflected in self-perceptions among members. However, on the organisational and practical levels, the tendency is that national branches are becoming more and more different according to their different contexts. And also the media-related level of the organisationinternet activities and websites which by definition are not tied to territory and can address audiences world wideturn out to be marked by local and national agendas and preferences to a growing extent.