Post date: Oct 19, 2016 3:50:41 PM
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/09/opinion/nicholas-kristof-the-diversity-of-islam.html“The Diversity of Islam” by Nicholas Kristof, October 8th, 2014
In the New York Times opinion article “The Diversity of Islam”, Nicholas Kristof provides various examples of why “Islam” should not be equalized under the term of “violence, conflict, and terrorism”. He uses examples from tragic events in other World Religions to show that Islam is not inherently less or more violent than other religions. In fact he argues that “the caricature of Islam as a violent and intolerant religion is horrendously incomplete”. This point is in tone with Starrett's and Denny’s argument of Islamic Diversity being complex and any generalization is insufficient to represent the complexities of Islam (and other religious beliefs, too). Additionally, Kristof touches shortly the idea of Islam being “modern”, which overlaps with Deeb’s argument. Both authors want to separate themselves from Orientalist ideas by rejecting generalizations and agree on the fact that they will never be able to define Islam due to its complex diversity.
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In his aptly titled article "The Diversity of Islam," Nicholas Kristof tackles the issue of how the west perceives Islam as inherently violent, intolerant, and oppressive. By using examples of specific Muslims throughout history and juxtaposing their stories to similar ones about people of other faiths, he proves how the west pays attention to only the negative narratives of Islam but does not do the same with other religions. This article ties into our class topic of orientalism. The west has a negative image of Islam, and it is perpetuated by an acute focus on representing this image. Further, by not addressing the hypocrisy of many statements made about Islam, the west creates a "us" versus "them" dynamic. Kristof echoes Bowen (1992) and hits on our topic for this week when he says "the Islamic world contains multitudes: It is vast and varied. Yes, almost four out of five Afghans favor the death penalty for apostasy, but most Muslims say that that is nuts. In Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country in the world, only 16 percent of Muslims favor such a penalty." He displays how many westerners want to observe only the Afghan perspective on the death penalty in order to maintain their perception that Muslims are cruel and brutal, but that single statistic does not provide the whole picture. As Bowen critiques in "Essentialism and Ritual Variation," giving a synecdoche (part that represents a whole) allows for no acknowledgement of diversity.