عنوان

Satire and Religious Tolerance:

Number

LA112865

.Language of Text, Soundtrack etc

انگلیسی

Title Proper

Satire and Religious Tolerance:

General Material Designation

[Article]

Other Title Information

How Acceptance/Rejection of Satire is Determined by the Capacity of Religious and Political Forces to Agree on a Modern Civic Contract

First Statement of Responsibility

Remi Piet

Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.

Leiden

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

Brill

Text of Note

The January 2015 assassination at the Charlie Hebdo offices and the dozen ensuing terrorist attacks in France over the last eighteen months are the manifestation of a structural opposition between a civic identity whose most controversial manifestation is political satire and a religious identity hijacked by radicals. This paper explains how political satire is deeply entrenched in French culture and how it has been used as a democratization and liberating tool by a society eager to counterbalance the existing religious establishment. Similarly, it then addresses satire in the Muslim world and underlines that, instead of being considered a tool of the weak against the powerful, it is perceived as a neo-colonial manifestation of an exogenously imposed political order that ostracizes the citizen from his legitimate religious belief. Instead of a liberating instrument, it is perceived as attacking the foundation of a religion that many see as their refuge against authoritarian elites. This paper then analyses the historical evolution of Islamic political activism. After highlighting the existence of satire and religious representation in Islam in some of its earliest societal orders, this paper argues that the Muslim community under the leadership of its Ulema has been fractured into a range of different scholastic interpretations of Islam resulting into different acceptation of liberal civic orders. The reaction towards Charlie Hebdo and the strong/weak condemning or silent/vocal approbation are representative of their contamination by radicalism. This paper finally demonstrates that the rejection of satire is symptomatic of the incomplete evolution of the state and the weakness of national and transnational institutions. Addressing the reforming of Muslim institutions in France itself, this paper argues that there is no incompatibility between Islam and a liberal republican order guaranteeing freedom of expression and satire. The January 2015 assassination at the Charlie Hebdo offices and the dozen ensuing terrorist attacks in France over the last eighteen months are the manifestation of a structural opposition between a civic identity whose most controversial manifestation is political satire and a religious identity hijacked by radicals. This paper explains how political satire is deeply entrenched in French culture and how it has been used as a democratization and liberating tool by a society eager to counterbalance the existing religious establishment. Similarly, it then addresses satire in the Muslim world and underlines that, instead of being considered a tool of the weak against the powerful, it is perceived as a neo-colonial manifestation of an exogenously imposed political order that ostracizes the citizen from his legitimate religious belief. Instead of a liberating instrument, it is perceived as attacking the foundation of a religion that many see as their refuge against authoritarian elites. This paper then analyses the historical evolution of Islamic political activism. After highlighting the existence of satire and religious representation in Islam in some of its earliest societal orders, this paper argues that the Muslim community under the leadership of its Ulema has been fractured into a range of different scholastic interpretations of Islam resulting into different acceptation of liberal civic orders. The reaction towards Charlie Hebdo and the strong/weak condemning or silent/vocal approbation are representative of their contamination by radicalism. This paper finally demonstrates that the rejection of satire is symptomatic of the incomplete evolution of the state and the weakness of national and transnational institutions. Addressing the reforming of Muslim institutions in France itself, this paper argues that there is no incompatibility between Islam and a liberal republican order guaranteeing freedom of expression and satire.

Date of Publication

2016

Physical description

302-323

Title

International Journal of Public Theology

Volume Number

10/3

International Standard Serial Number

1569-7320

Subject Term

French republicanism

Subject Term

identity

Subject Term

institutions

Subject Term

political Islam

Subject Term

satire

Remi Piet

Call Number

10.1163/15697320-12341453

Electronic name

p

[Article]

275578

a

Y