Seminar

With Nadje Al-Ali, Deniz Kandiyoti, Kathryn Spellman Poots
Monday November 11th 6:30 pm

No contemporary figure is more demonized than the Islamist foreign fighter who wages jihad around the world. Spreading violence, disregarding national borders, and rejecting secular norms, so-called jihadists seem opposed to universalism itself. In a radical departure from conventional wisdom on the topic, The Universal Enemy argues that transnational jihadists are engaged in their own form of universalism: these fighters struggle to realize an Islamist vision directed at all of humanity, transcending racial and cultural difference.

Anecdotal references, ethnography, and publication statistics indicate that, in modern societies, fictionalized versions of the Islamic past have had far greater traction than ‘academic’ narratives derived from systematic evaluation of evidence. Yet, historical fiction has received little attention as a prominent site for theoretical reflection on matters such as the purpose for writing about the past and the nature of truth claims about past time. This presentation will address this arena in two steps.