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Table of Contents
Liberal democracies must outlaw blasphemy in order to promote tolerance
Liberal democracies must outlaw blasphemy in order to promote tolerance
Ryan Schram
Mills 169 (A26)
ryan.schram@sydney.edu.au
21 May 2015
Readings
Keane, Webb. 2009. “Freedom and Blasphemy: On Indonesian Press Bans and Danish Cartoons.” Public Culture 21 (1): 47–76. doi:10.1215/08992363–2008–021.
Mahmood, Saba. 2013. “Religious Reason and Secular Affect: An Incommensurable Divide?” In Is Critique Secular?: Blasphemy, Injury, and Free Speech, edited by Talal Asad, Wendy Brown, and Judith Butler, 64–100. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://criticism.english.illinois.edu/2012%20Spring%20pages/Readings/Mahmood_Is_Critique_Secular%20.pdf.
Weill, Nicolas. 2006. “What’s in a Scarf?: The Debate on Laïcité in France.” French Politics, Culture & Society 24 (1): 59–73.
Other media
Lee, Amos. 2015. “Lee Kuan Yew Is Finally Dead!” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jMODDfNE0Y. WARNING: Contains obscenity and adolescent lèsé majesté.
Mackey, Robert. 2015. “Teenager Faces Charges After Mocking Singapore’s Founding Father on YouTube.” The New York Times, March 30. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/31/world/asia/teen-faces-charges-after-mocking-singapores-founding-father-on-youtube.html.
Ramzy, Austin. 2015. “Singapore Arrests Teenager Over Video Critical of Lee Kuan Yew.” The New York Times, March 30. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/31/world/asia/singapore-arrests-teenager-over-video-critical-of-lee-kuan-yew.html.
Theodorou, Angelina. 2015. “Which Countries Still Outlaw Apostasy and Blasphemy?” Pew Research Center. Accessed May 13. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/05/28/which-countries-still-outlaw-apostasy-and-blasphemy/.
Key ideas for this week
- Speech acts, or 'performatives' according to J. L. Austin.
- Fighting words, hate speech, “trigger warnings.”
- Blasphemy, and blasphemy laws.
- Should blasphemy be illegal? Why or why not?
- Laws against proselytism around the world (Fox 2015: 193).
- Semiotic ideology: indexicality of language, register, ritual, and style.
- Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartooons controversy, September 2005 to January 2006.
- Terry Jones and threatened Qu'ran burning, July to September 2010.
- What is this conflict really about?
A guide to the unit
ANTH 2667: The anthropology of religion—a guide to the unit