Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/8948
Title: Liquid racism and the Danish Prophet Muhammad cartoons
Authors: Weaver, S
Keywords: Fundamentalism;Islamophobia;Liquid racism;Postmodernity;Prophet Muhammad cartoons
Issue Date: 2010
Publisher: Sage
Citation: Current Sociology, 58(5), 675 - 692, 2010
Abstract: This article examines reactions to the October 2005 publication of the Prophet Muhammad cartoons in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. It does so by using the concept of ‘liquid racism’. While the controversy arose because it is considered blasphemous by many Muslims to create images of the Prophet Muhammad, the article argues that the meaning of the cartoons is multidimensional, that their analysis is significantly more complex than most commentators acknowledge, and that this complexity can best be addressed via the concept of liquid racism. The article examines the liquidity of the cartoons in relation to four readings. These see the cartoons as: (1) a criticism of Islamic fundamentalism; (2) blasphemous images; (3) Islamophobic and racist; and (4) satire and a defence of freedom of speech. Finally, the relationship between postmodernity and the rise of fundamentalism is discussed because the cartoons, reactions to them, and Islamic fundamentalism, all contain an important postmodern dimension.
Description: This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2010 The Author.
URI: http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/8948
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0011392110372728
ISSN: 0011-3921
Appears in Collections:Sociology
Dept of Social and Political Sciences Research Papers

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