Subject: RE: [BOU:] Bourdieu on Islam
Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2004 17:08:32 +0100


I apologize for some of the awkwardness in sentence structure that may
rightly be criticised; however, I am not a translator.  I hope the following
gives you a fair sense of the gist of the ideas:

Question: As for present problems, do you see in religious fundamentalism a
form of resistance to globalization?

Bourdieu: Islamic fundamentalism is an extreme but understandable reaction
to the condition of Arab and Islamic peoples and states. The logic which
rules today in the economic and political universe, that of the double
standard, "two weights, two measures," contributes to this development.  I
think that every person who participates by one means or another, directly
or indirectly, in Arab or Islamic life, experiences daily attacks or
humiliations, by action, political decisions and speech. And if the problem
of Israel/Palestine is found to be at the heart of the experience of this
scandalous injustice, it is because this same logic is represented there,
despite all the seeming solutions, in a condensed and concentrated form.

Question: How does one confront all that and what is the task of the
intellectual in this situation?

Bourdieu: Algerian, Syrien, Egyptian, Iranian and Libanase intellectuals
have not ceased to call for support from the nations that call themselves
democratic and their intellectuals. They have seen that the combat they lead
in their own countries against the advocates of the brutalization (literally
"stupefaction") of the masses is condemned to failure to the extent that
politics becomes that of the double standard--accompanied by the
indifference of western intellectuals who favor this development in doing
nothing or almost nothing to combat it.

Question: How do explain the rise of fundamentalism?

Bourdieu: If the resistance to western cultural and economic imperialism,
and in particular that of the USA, has taken the form of religious
fundamentalism it is perhaps because the countries touched by this
imperialism have no other cultural resource capable of motivating and
actually motivating the masses.  We can deplore--many Arabs and Muslims
do--that the resistance against hegemony and imperialism has not found
another means of expression other than that offered by traditional religion,
often in a severe and archaic form.  But it shouldn't be forgotten moreover
that the economic and social structures that have contributed to produce
colonial and neo-colonial domination have not encouraged the modernization
of the religious message and that the western countries and their secret
services have worked relentlessly to smother in the embryo all progressive
political and cultural movements--and that they continue to do so today.
The drama of the wretched of the earth, Latin-Americans,Africans or
Asiatics, is a tragic irony of history.  To defend their cause today, they
cannot rely on individuals and peoples, conservative based as they are--and
not simply religiously--have been used by the dominant forces that have long
monopolized the interests of people involved in the struggle for liberation.
The alliance between Bush and Putin with regard to the Afghans and the
Chechens symbolizes this in a tragic manner.

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-bourdieu-AT-lists.village.Virginia.EDU
[mailto:owner-bourdieu-AT-lists.village.Virginia.EDU]On Behalf Of Moses
Samuel
Sent: dimanche 4 janvier 2004 11:53
To: bourdieu-AT-lists.village.Virginia.EDU
Subject: Re: [BOU:] Bourdieu on Islam


Dear John,

Could we have an English translation of the main gist of this Bordieu quote?

Moses Samuel

"john.kaman" <john.kaman-AT-wanadoo.fr> wrote:
>From a Bourdieu interview:

FR : Pour en venir aux problhmes actuels, voyez-vous dans le fondamentalisme
religieux une forme de risistance ` la mondialisation ?
PB : Le fondamentalisme islamique est une riaction extrjme mais
comprihensible ` la situation des itats et des peuples arabes et islamiques.
La logique qui rigit aujourdhui les univers iconomiques et politiques,
celle du double standard, + deux poids, deux mesures ;, contribue ` ce
diveloppement. Je pense que toute personne qui participe dune manihre ou d
une autre, directement ou indirectement, ` la vie arabe ou ` lIslam,
expirimente chaque jour des atteintes ou des humiliations, en actes, en
dicisions politiques ou en paroles. Et si le problhme israilo-palestinien se
trouve au cur de cette expirience dinjustice scandaleuse, cest parce que
cette logique y est reprisentie, en dipit de tous les semblants de
solutions, sous une forme concentrie et condensie.
FR : Que peut-on faire face ` cela  et quelle est la tbche de l
intellectuel dans cette situation ?
PB : Les intellectuels algiriens, syriens, igyptiens, iraniens et libanais
nont cessi de faire appel au soutien des nations dites dimocratiques et de
leurs intellectuels. Ils ont vu que le combat quils menaient dans leur
propre pays contre les partisans de labrutissement des masses itait
condamni ` lichec, dans la mesure oy se poursuivait la politique du double
standard  accompagnie de lindiffirence des intellectuels occidentaux qui
favorisent ce diveloppement, en ne faisant rien ou presque rien pour le
combattre.
FR : Comment expliquez-vous la croissance du fondamentalisme ?
PB : Si la risistance ` limpirialisme iconomique et culturel des pays
occidentaux et en particulier des USA a pris la forme dun fondamentalisme
religieux, cest peut-jtre parce que les pays touchis par cet impirialisme
ne disposent daucune autre ressource culturelle mobilisable et
mobilisatrice. On peut diplorer  et beaucoup darabes et de musulmans le
font  que la risistance contre lhigimonie et limpirialisme nait pas
trouvi dautre moyen dexpression que celui quoffre la tradition
religieuse, souvent dans sa formule sivhre et archaoque. Mais il ne faut pas
oublier par ailleurs que les structures iconomiques et sociales qua
contribui ` produire la domination coloniale et niocoloniale, nont pas
favorisi la modernisation du message religieux et que les pays occidentaux
et leurs services secrets ont travailli sans relbche ` itouffer dans luf
tous les mouvements politiques et culturels progressistes  et quils
continuent ` le faire aujourdhui. Le drame des damnis de la terre, des
Latino-amiricains, des Africains ou des Asiatiques, est une ironie tragique
de lhistoire. Pour difendre leur cause aujourdhui, il ne peuvent plus s
appuyer que sur les individus et les peuples qui, sur base de leur
conservatisme  pas seulement religieux  ont iti instrumentalisis par les
dominants pour combattre ceux qui ont monopolisi naguhre la difense des
intirjts des personnes impliquies dans les luttes de libiration. Lalliance
entre Bush et Poutine par rapport aux Afghans et aux Tchitchhnes symbolise
cela de manihre tragique.

http://www.homme-moderne.org/societe/socio/bourdieu/entrevue/turbans.html

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