'A Storm on the Horizon': Discomforting Democracy and the Feeling of Fairness

Ann Pellegrini

doi:10.5130/csr.v18i2.2754

PDF

Published: Sep 17, 2012

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5130/csr.v18i2.2754

Keywords:

Anti-Shariah law, Oklahoma, Ground Zero mosque, tolerance, discomfort

Ann Pellegrini

New York University

Abstract

This essay examines an ‘anti-Shariah’ law passed by voters in the US state of Oklahoma in 2010, alongside contemporaneous controversies over the so-called ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ in New York City. In both these cases, the terms of debate framed American Muslims as outsiders and, even, threats to the nation. Together, these two case studies reveal the religious traces that mark even ostensibly secular debates over democratic belonging. They also reveal the failures of liberal ‘tolerance’ and ideals of ‘reasonableness’ to make room for wider forms of social difference.

Issue

Vol. 18 No. 2 (2012): Secular Discomforts and On Mad Men

Section

Secular Discomforts: Religion and Cultural Studies (Peer Reviewed)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Copyright Notice

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

a) Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed undera Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share and adapt the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

b) Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

c) Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Open Access Citation Advantage Service). Where authors include such a work in an institutional repository or on their website (ie. a copy of a work which has been published in a UTS ePRESS journal, or a pre-print or post-print version of that work), we request that they include a statement that acknowledges the UTS ePRESS publication including the name of the journal, the volume number and a web-link to the journal item.

d) Authors should be aware that the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) License permits readers to share (copy and redistribute the work in any medium or format) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the work) for any purpose, even commercially, provided they also give appropriate credit to the work, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. They may do these things in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests you or your publisher endorses their use.

Author Biography

Ann Pellegrini, New York University

Ann Pellegrini is Associate Professor of Performance Studies and Religious Studies at New York University, where she also directs NYU's Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality. She is the author of Performance Anxieties: Staging Psychoanalysis, Staging Race (1997); Love the Sin: Sexual Regulation and the Limits of Religious Tolerance, co-authored with Janet R. Jakobsen (2004); Queer Theory and the Jewish Question, co-edited with Daniel Boyarin and Daniel Itzkovitz (2003); and Secularisms, co-edited with Janet R. Jakobsen (2008). She is currently completing two new projects: a solo book, Excess & Enchantment: Queer Performance between the Religious and the Secular, and You Can Tell Just by Looking and Twenty Other Myths about LBGT Life and People, co-authored with Michael Amico and Michael Bronski.

Article Sidebar

Main Article Content

Abstract

Article Details

Ann Pellegrini, New York University