Global Currents Archives | Contending Modernities

The Apocalypse is Human-Made: Playing with Fire from Al-Aqsa to Gaza

Atalia Omer
May 14, 2021May 14, 2021

The confluence of sacred times and spaces (national and religious) is explosive, and those pulling triggers and making decisions targeting religious celebrations may well be lighting the fuse.

Uyghur Religious Heritage under China’s “Anti-Religious Extremism” Campaigns

Series: Perspectives on the Uyghur Crisis in China

Rachel Harris
May 10, 2021May 10, 2021

China argues that government management of Uyghur culture is necessary to protect it from religious extremism. In fact the biggest threats to Uyghur heritage and culture are the policies of the Chinese government itself.

Contending Populisms: Pope Francis’s Response to the Politics of Division

Angus Ritchie
May 5, 2021

Our research in East London shows how citizens in some of the poorest neighborhoods of England harnessed their religious convictions to work together to discern and promote a truly common good.

Notes on the Coup in Myanmar: Karmic Kingship, Legitimacy, and Sovereignty

Ingrid Jordt
April 6, 2021April 6, 2021

Aung San Suu Kyi has been negotiating between two divergent models for political legitimacy and sovereignty. On the one hand are western principles of human rights and democracy, on the other is karmic kingship.

The IHRA’s Careless Conflations on Antisemitism (and Few Alternatives)

Moshe Behar
March 25, 2021March 26, 2021

Branding as “antisemitic” criticism of Israeli actions pertaining to its occupation—on the ground that this applies a double standard—is Orwellian.

Buddhist Studies Has a Whiteness Problem

Constance Kassor
March 23, 2021March 23, 2021

Buddhist studies, on the whole, has not acknowledged, let alone addressed, issues of colonization, white supremacy, and the erasure of Asian people and cultures within the field.

The Peace Dimensions of Fratelli Tutti: A Muslim Perspective

A. Rashied Omar
March 22, 2021

Pope Francis has inaugurated a constructive platform for credible Muslim leaders to enter into a renewed dialogue with Catholics.

Fratelli Tutti: A Muslim Perspective">Read More →

Fraternity is More Durable than Fratricide : Pope Francis Visits Iraq

Omar Mohammed and Victoria Fontan
March 18, 2021March 19, 2021

Pope Francis might have performed a diplomatic miracle: that of beginning to help bridge the religious fault lines in Iraq by encouraging, for the first time, Ayatollah al-Sistani to appear in public.

Uyghur Oppression from a Decolonial Perspective

Series: Perspectives on the Uyghur Crisis in China

Chiara Olivieri
March 5, 2021

Since post-colonial times have not (yet) come for the Uyghurs, a decolonial approach to the Uyghur issue must start by assuming the colonial nature of the relations between the Chinese nation-state and both the Uyghurs and their homeland.

Whose People? The Oppression of Uyghurs and the Idea of the Muslim World

Series: Perspectives on the Uyghur Crisis in China

Perin Gürel
February 19, 2021

Public callouts against Muslim-majority countries’ silence on Uyghur oppression demonstrate how normative ideas about “the Muslim World” and monolithic ideas about Islam in politics continue to prevail at multiple discursive levels despite vast evidence of the heterogeneity of the politics of Muslim-majority countries.

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