Belated Arabo-Islamic difference in excess: racialised religious practice under modernity/coloniality in Lebanon

Kassem, Ali

doi:10.1080/13537903.2022.2045782

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 23 publications

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“…This is, in the first instance, given the larger project of which this was a part focusing on an analysis of inequalities and discrimination within the Muslim communities of Lebanon. In addition, given the complex history and realities of Lebanon and its different sects, and the powerful entwined Islamophobia, sectarianism, and unequal development in the country (see Kassem, 2022), important differences are expected to exist between the mainstream experiences of people from Muslim-majority non-urban regions and people from Christian-majority ones, for example. Given the pursuit of an in-depth phenomenological understanding, a focus on Muslim participants is both generative and useful.…”

Section: Theoretical Framework and Methodology: Modernity/ Colonialit...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Village-ness, discrimination, and urban modernity: Thinking alongside ‘village people’ in Lebanon

Kassem

2023

International Sociology

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Based on qualitative phenomenological research alongside village dwellers in Lebanon, this article identifies village-ness – an experience of being labelled as ‘non-urban’ with an upbringing and habitus considered to be ‘of the village’ – as difference and lack. I accordingly argue for the recognition of a hierarchization between those considered ‘city people’ and ‘village people’ in mainstream Lebanese imaginary that establishes experiences of discrimination, prejudice, and assault. Developing this, the article explores participants’ understandings of transformation improving these conditions. (Western-style) education, (capitalist) employment, (modern) technology, and a deepened connectivity to the city emerge as key variables in this respect. This change, my analysis shows, is conceptualised as ‘becoming urban’ understood as ‘becoming modern’, where Modernity is specifically framed as a Western-centric formation with discourses of ‘civility’, linear time, ‘development’, and ‘progress’ dominant. Accordingly, the article posits that the construction, inferiorisation, and assault of village-ness is a key site of the establishment and (re)production of a Eurocentric ‘urban modernity’ at the level of everyday lived experiences. Recognising that this phenomenon extends far beyond Lebanon, I posit the need to seriously bring the ‘urban question’ into anti/post/decolonial thought.

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Section: Theoretical Framework and Methodology: Modernity/ Colonialit...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Village-ness, discrimination, and urban modernity: Thinking alongside ‘village people’ in Lebanon

Kassem

2023

International Sociology

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‘Messy refusal’, assimilationist moves, and the reproduction of Eurocentric modernity/coloniality: examining anti-Islamophobia in Lebanon

Kassem

2023

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Belated Arabo-Islamic difference in excess: racialised religious practice under modernity/coloniality in Lebanon

Cited by 2 publications

References 23 publications

Village-ness, discrimination, and urban modernity: Thinking alongside ‘village people’ in Lebanon

Village-ness, discrimination, and urban modernity: Thinking alongside ‘village people’ in Lebanon

‘Messy refusal’, assimilationist moves, and the reproduction of Eurocentric modernity/coloniality: examining anti-Islamophobia in Lebanon

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