online
Featuring Darryl Li (Anthropology, University of Chicago); Discussant: Gehad Abaza (PhD Candidate, Anthropology)
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 this talk Darryl Li, in a radical departure from conventional wisdom on the topic, will argue 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.
Li will re-conceptualize jihad as armed transnational solidarity under conditions of American empire, revisiting a pivotal moment after the Cold War when ethnic cleansing in the Balkans dominated global headlines. Muslim volunteers came from distant lands to fight in Bosnia-Herzegovina alongside their co-religionists, offering themselves as an alternative to the US-led international community. Li will highlight the parallels and overlaps between transnational jihads and other universalisms such as the War on Terror, United Nations peacekeeping, and socialist Non-Alignment; and explore the relationship between jihad and American empire to shed critical light on both.
Join us for this virtual talk and Q&A: bit.ly/CMESTalks2021 (Zoom ID: 880 8414 1217)