Jihad in Islam: The Creation of a Mujahid Identity in the Past and Present
Location
Frist Lecture Hall (4th Floor IHSB)
Presentation Type
Presentation
Start Date
11-9-2008 4:30 PM
Description
The Muslim approach to the Qur’ān as a master text is highly contextual and deeply responsive to the material realities of every day existence. Jihad in these contexts is a reactionary practice; understanding this aspect of Jihad can be useful in unraveling the complexities of the Muslim politics of resistance, as opposed to a more essentialized approach that provides, in Edward Said’s words, “a limited series of crude, essentialized caricatures of the Islamic world presented in such a way as, among other things, to make the [Islamic] world vulnerable to military aggression.” Dr. Raja will highlight the acts of retrieval within the Islamic cultural production that articulate a specific Muslim male subjectivity of a mujahid within the colonial and neoliberal paradigms of power.
Belmont alum Dr. Masood Raja moved to the United States in 1996 after resigning his commission in the Pakistan Army. He teaches in the English department at Kent State, and he specializes in Postcolonial Literature and Theory with a special emphasis on the Literature of South Asia, the Islamic world, and global responses, popular and literary, to the neoliberal globalization.
Recommended Citation
Rajaa, Masood, "Jihad in Islam: The Creation of a Mujahid Identity in the Past and Present" (2008). Humanities Symposium. 8.
https://repository.belmont.edu/humanities_symposium/2008/2008/8
Jihad in Islam: The Creation of a Mujahid Identity in the Past and Present
Frist Lecture Hall (4th Floor IHSB)
The Muslim approach to the Qur’ān as a master text is highly contextual and deeply responsive to the material realities of every day existence. Jihad in these contexts is a reactionary practice; understanding this aspect of Jihad can be useful in unraveling the complexities of the Muslim politics of resistance, as opposed to a more essentialized approach that provides, in Edward Said’s words, “a limited series of crude, essentialized caricatures of the Islamic world presented in such a way as, among other things, to make the [Islamic] world vulnerable to military aggression.” Dr. Raja will highlight the acts of retrieval within the Islamic cultural production that articulate a specific Muslim male subjectivity of a mujahid within the colonial and neoliberal paradigms of power.
Belmont alum Dr. Masood Raja moved to the United States in 1996 after resigning his commission in the Pakistan Army. He teaches in the English department at Kent State, and he specializes in Postcolonial Literature and Theory with a special emphasis on the Literature of South Asia, the Islamic world, and global responses, popular and literary, to the neoliberal globalization.
Comments
Convocation Credit: Academic Lecture