A Dangerous Text: Disciplining Deficient Readers and the Policing of the Qur'an in the German Islam Conference. (1st October 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Aguilar, Luis Manuel Hernández; Ahmad, Zubair
• Is Part Of: ReOrient. Volume 6:Number 1(2020)
• Page Start: 86
• Page End: 107
• Publication Date: 2020-10-01
• Subjects: German Islam Conference -- Muslims in Germany -- the Qur'an -- governmentality -- Orientalism; Muslims -- Periodicals; Islam and the social sciences -- Periodicals; Islam and culture -- Periodicals; Islam and politics -- Periodicals; 297.27
• DOI: 10.13169/reorient.6.1.0086
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2055-5601

Abstract

Abstract : Departing from the premise that the Qur'an has been imagined as a dangerous, almost subject-like text in the long tradition of the Eurocentric-Orientalist order, this contribution traces how Germany's Islam Conference has attempted to govern this supposedly dangerous text by disciplining its readers and policing its interpretations particularly regarding gender justice and equality. In doing so we argue that the policing of the Qur'an is an important site of political interventions and as a technology of power whereby Muslims in contemporary Germany are problematised as deficient and archaic readers. Moreover, policing the Qur'an as a racialised textual governmentality, we argue, is a further point of power application within the larger context of refashioning the racialised figure of the Muslim subject in Germany.