Inquisitive, relevant, thought-provoking. A blog for reflection on religion as an element of public life, coordinated by the Centre for Religion, Conflict and Globalisation, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Groningen.
On 7 March 2017, the eve of International Women's Day, the Centre for Religion, Conflict and the Public Domain, in collaboration with the Centre for Gender Studies, hosted a panel discussion evening on 'Gender and Sexual Equality in a Post-Truth Age'. Four panellists contributed to the conversation and over the next few weeks we will be …
Continue reading "Sexual equality and post-truth: making distinctions"
Renée van der Harst - Wagenvoorde has written an analysis of the campaigning period and how it differs from previous years of the Dutch parliamental elections that will take place on the 15th of March. Renée is a postdoctoral research fellow and the funding officer of the Centre of Religion and the Public Domain. …
Continue reading "The quarter finals against populism: national identity in the Dutch elections"
One week ago today, Donald J. Trump became the 45th President of the United States of America. Despite pledging that ‘a new national pride will heal our divisions’, Trump’s first week in office has been conspicuous by its lack of conciliation towards those who did not support him in his run for the White House …
Continue reading "The insidious inequality of contemporary democracy"
On Tuesday this week, images of a woman on a beach in Nice being forced by armed police to remove portions of her swimwear began circulating on the internet. The so-called 'burkini ban' has sparked outrage and controversy, not least because it is yet another variation of an age-old problem - the control over women's …
Continue reading "The scandal of women’s bodies in secular Europe"
“Perhaps we should ask ourselves if these people have not rather come here to save us.” (Erik Borgman) In today’s post Ton Groeneweg continues his analysis of liberal de-culturalization as a deeper trend exposed by the responses to the attacks in Paris. In this second part of his blog, he focuses on how …
Continue reading "Inviting our future: liberal de-culturalization and the Paris attacks – Part two"
Today's post continues our series of reflections on the attacks in Paris, Beirut and Iraq. Joram Tarusarira responds to Erin Wilson's call to accept ambiguities, posing a few problems and questions with this approach. In the wake of the attacks in Paris, Beirut and Iraq which saw many people losing their lives, an avalanche of …
Western policymakers once understood the dynamics of secular politics in the Middle East, but this knowledge has been subsumed under a fixation on Islam’s supposed threat to western security interests, writes today´s guest contributor Dr Stacey Gutkowski. Much western, particularly French, media coverage of the January attacks on the Charlie Hebdo offices and the kosher …
Continue reading "It’s not all about Islam: misreading secular politics in the Middle East"
