Defining Islamic modernity through creative writing: a case study of Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong

Indonesian domestic workers (IDWs) have been frequently stereotyped as uneducated and submissive women with little or no bargaining power in transnational labour migration. This article examines why and how literacy practices help foster the activism of IDWs in Hong Kong. In particular, I seek to understand the significance of IDWs’ writing in relation to Islamic modernities. Using the framework of alternative modernities, I argue that the creative process of IDWs’ writing sheds light to their attempts to exercise individual and collective agency. Specifically, the article looks at the role of Forum Lingkar Pena (Pen Circle Forum, FLP) Hong Kong, an IDW writing community, to reveal how its collective literacy practices help affirm Islamic values as part of a modernisation process on IDWs’ own terms.     

Order in Chaos: Security Culture as Anarchist Resistance to the Terrorist Label

To be a terrorist in the twenty-first century is to occupy an incomparable deviant status in the state's eyes.The United States government has labeled and treated anarchists as potential terrorists for over a century. Since 2001, the U.S.-led “War on Terror” officially sanctioned warrantless surveillance and confinement as a legitimate social control strategy to counter terrorism. This is a sociological study of resistance to the terrorist label in an anarchist community in a post-9/11 world. Security culture is a form of collective resistance that functions as a protective mechanism against the panoptic gaze that the terrorist label authorizes. This study suggests that the authority to wield the terrorist label in a post-9/11 context is a powerful form of social control, affecting members' consciousness, movements, and interactions in everyday life, but does not diminish their capacity for resistance. Rather, it amplifies antipathy toward the state.     

Misreading Islamist Terrorism: The "War Against Terrorism" and Just-War Theory

Abstract: The Bush administration's military war on terrorism is a blunt, ineffective, and unjust response to the threat posed to innocent civilians by terrorism. Decentralized terrorist networks can only be effectively fought by international cooperation among police and intelligence agencies representing diverse nation‐states, including ones with predominantly Islamic populations. The Bush administration's allegations of a global Islamist terrorist threat to the national interests of the United States misread the decentralized and complex nature of Islamist politics. Undoubtedly there exists a “combat fundamentalist” element within Islamism. But the threat posed to U.S. citizens by Islamist terrorism neither necessitates nor justifies as a response massive military invasions of other nations. Not only does the Bush administration's war on alleged “terrorist states” violate the doctrine of just war, but in addition these wars arise from a new, unilateral, imperial foreign‐policy doctrine of “preventive wars.” Such a doctrine will isolate the United States from international institutions and long‐standing allies. The weakening of these institutions and alliances will only weaken the ability of the international community to deter terrorism.     

Will we be harmed,will it be severe,can we protect ourselves? Threat appraisals predict collective angst (and its consequences)

Across four studies, we applied the cognitive model of anxiety to explicate the appraisals that elicit collective angst (i.e., concern for the in‐group's future vitality). In Study 1a, consistent with the model, Québécois experienced collective angst when they appraised the following: (1) a threat as likely to harm their group, (2) a threat as severely harming their group, and (3) Québécois as not having efficacy to protect their group. In Study 1b, results were replicated in the context of the realistic threat that Islamic extremists pose to Christian‐Lebanese. In Studies 2a and 2b, we manipulated the three appraisals and found a similar pattern of results in the context of a potential terrorist attack on American soil by Islamic extremists. Importantly, collective angst mediated the threat appraisal effect on (non‐Muslim) Americans' prejudice towards Muslims. The utility of the appraisal model for regulating collective angst (and thus its consequences) is discussed.     

A nation challenged: the impact of foreign threat on America's tolerance for diversity

Three experiments investigated how perceived foreign threats to the United States can influence Americans' endorsement of assimilation and multiculturalism as models for foreign and domestic intergroup relations. The initial study, conducted during the 6-month anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks (9/11), discovered that a diverse group of Americans preferred assimilation as a foreign policy and multiculturalism as a domestic policy. After reading that foreigners were supporting the dominant global status of the United States, however, Americans in Experiment 2 no longer expressed this preference for assimilation as a model for foreign intergroup relations. Experiment 3 discovered that Americans primed with 9/11 (i.e., a foreign threat) revealed higher levels of national identity than did those primed with the Columbine massacre (i.e., a domestic threat); moreover, level of national identity predicted support for multiculturalism as a domestic policy and assimilation as a foreign policy.     

Moralized memory: binding values predict inflated estimates of the group’s historical influence

ABSTRACT

Collective memories are memories or historical knowledge shared by individual group members, which shape their collective identity. Ingroup inflation, which has previously also been referred to as national narcissism or state narcissism, is the finding that group members judge their own group to have been significantly more historically influential than do people from outside the group. We examined the role of moral motivations in this biased remembering. A sample of 2118 participants, on average 42 from each state of the United States, rated their home state’s contribution to U.S. history, as well as that of ten other states randomly selected. We demonstrated an ingroup inflation effect in estimates of the group’s historical influence. Participants’ endorsement of binding values – loyalty, authority, and sanctity, but particularly loyalty – positively predicted the size of this effect. Endorsement of individuating values – care and fairness – did not predict collective narcissism. Moral motives may shape biases in collective remembering.     

Playing Follow the Leader: Status-Determining Traits in Relation to Collective Efficacy across Cultures

Increasing pressure on managing international teams has created a need for further understanding culturally relevant group processes. In this study, the cultural context of power distance is examined in relation to the status characteristics possessed by group members and their influence on group efficacy estimations and performance. Data obtained from 288 senior managers coming from England, France, Thailand, and the United States were used to test the hypothesis that power distance would moderate the influence of member status on collective decisions made by a group. Results demonstrate that in high power distance cultures, collective judgments of group capability are more strongly tied to higher rather than to lower status group members' personal judgments. In low power distance cultures, members appear to contribute comparably to collective efficacy judgments. The implications of the study are discussed in terms of status differentials and group decision making across cultures. Copyright 1999 Academic Press.     

Is television traumatic? Dreams, stress, and media exposure in the aftermath of September 11, 2001

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, were traumatic for people living throughout the United States. It has been suggested that people living far from the attacks experienced increased stress because of their exposure to the terrorist events via the media, particularly via television. Following a traumatic or stressful event, individuals may have dreams that reflect that experience. As part of a course on dreaming, individuals recorded their dreams both prior to and following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. On September 12, these same individuals reported their activities and media exposure the previous day. Results revealed (a) changes in dream features following the attacks and (b) a strong relation between exposure to the events on television and changes in dream features after the attacks. Because of the study's within-subjects design, the results provide evidence for a direct association between television viewing and subsequent increases in stress and trauma.     

COVID-19 Interconnectedness: Health Inequity,the Climate Crisis,and Collective Trauma

The COVID-19 pandemic brings to the forefront the complex interconnected dilemmas of globalization, health equity, economic security, environmental justice, and collective trauma, severely impacting the marginalized and people of color in the United States. This lack of access to and the quality of healthcare, affordable housing, and lack of financial resources also continue to have a more significant impact on documented and undocumented immigrants. This paper aims at examining these critical issues and developing a framework for family therapists to address these challenges by focusing on four interrelated dimensions: cultural values, social determinants of health, collective trauma, and the ethical and moral responsibility of family therapists. Given the fact that family therapists may unwittingly function as the best ally of an economic and political system that perpetuates institutionalized racism and class discrimination, we need to utilize a set of principles, values, and practices that are not just palliative or after the fact but bring forth into the psychotherapeutic and policy work a politics of care. Therefore, a strong call to promote and advocate for the broader continuum of health and critical thinking preparing professionals to meet the challenges of health equity, as well as economic and environmental justice, is needed. The issues discussed in this paper are specific to the United States despite their relevance to family therapy as a field. We are mindful not to generalize the United States' reality to the rest of the world, recognizing that issues discussed in this paper could potentially contribute to international discourse.     

On the So-Called War on Terrorism

Abstract: Since the terrorist attacks on the United States in September 2001, the country has embarked on a so‐called war on terrorism. This essay argues that so‐called war on terrorism has used the pretext of responding to terrorist attacks in the U.S. in September 2001 to wage wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that have objectives other than stamping out terrorism. It further argues that war requires a moral justification that cannot be provided for either the war in Afghanistan or the war in Iraq.     

A prospective investigation of the relationship between just-world beliefs and the desire for revenge after September 11, 2001

We prospectively examined the relationship between individuals' belief in a just world and their desire for revenge against the perpetrators of the September 11 terrorist attacks against the United States. Eighty-three undergraduate students who had completed a measure of just-world beliefs prior to the terrorist attacks were assessed approximately 2 months following the attacks. The more strongly they had endorsed just-world beliefs prior to the attacks, the more distressed they felt about the attacks and the more they desired revenge. Furthermore, the relationship between belief in a just world and the desire for revenge was mediated by feelings of distress in response to the terrorist attacks. The results point to the importance of justice beliefs in understanding responses to the terrorist attacks.     

Terrorists and Democrats: Individual Reactions to International Attacks

Three experiments conducted in 1997 and 1998 explored individual responses to reported fictitious international conflict involving the United States and other nations. Participants escalated the conflictual level of their responses to repeated attacks. In Experiment 1, escalation of conflict was greater in response to terrorist attacks than to military ones. In Experiment 2, after the initial attacks, men were more conflictual in responding to terrorist attacks by a democratic nation than by a nondemocratic nation, whereas the opposite pattern was found for women. In Experiment 3, participants responded with a higher level of conflict to terrorist attacks on military targets than to attacks on cultural/educational targets. Participants with greater personality dominance showed steeper escalation of conflict in their responses across successive attacks. These results are interpreted within the framework of an image theory of international relations and an expansion of the democratic peace hypothesis.     

Visions of the future: social processes and terrorism in Europe1

Abstract: When we think of terrorism, we tend to think of Islamic terrorism but in fact most of the violent happenings in our societies are caused by ‘domestic terrorism’ and it has been suggested by authors such as Twemlow that there is a developmental continuum between social activism and terrorism. The generalized rise in what the author terms ‘a terrorist worldview’ has been linked to many different social, political, economic and psychological conflicts but the present paper suggests that this is not sufficient and that in order to understand it it is necessary to take into consideration certain processes in contemporary civilization. At present, I am suggesting that Western civilization is characterized by the generalized breakdown of values and of signifying structures and by the gradual weakening of the models of state power and institutions that previously guaranteed the unity and security of our societies. The result is a crisis of identity which is particularly evident among the youth of today and when this is exasperated by the failure of authority to provide an adequate explanatory system of contemporary reality and by the tendency to resort to repressive mechanisms, all too often the result is the degeneration of social activism into social violence. It is becoming urgent that our societies reflect on more efficient ways of preventing social activism degenerating into terrorism, both internationally and domestically.     

The cultural dimension of intergroup conspiracy theories

Although conspiracy theories are ubiquitous across times and cultures, research has not investigated how cultural dimensions may predict conspiracy beliefs. The present research examined intergroup conspiracy beliefs in United States and Chinese samples at the peak of the trade war. In two studies (one pre-registered; total N = 1,092), we asked US participants to what extent they believed Chinese institutions and companies were conspiring against the United states and Chinese participants to what extent they believed US institutions and companies were conspiring against China. Results revealed that such beliefs were stronger among Chinese than US participants due to higher power distance values and vertical collectivism. In particular, these cultural dimensions were associated with increased psychological involvement in intergroup conflict (as reflected by higher levels of collective narcissism and perceived outgroup threat), which in turn predicted intergroup conspiracy beliefs. Exploratory analyses suggested that particularly power distance values mediate these effects. We conclude that cultural dimensions that promote hierarchy in society are associated with increased intergroup conspiracy beliefs.     

The intelligence community and the war on terror: the role of behavioral science

The United States intelligence community has been under intense scrutiny from both inside and outside in the aftermath of September 11. Post mortem assessments of intelligence breakdowns may judge the events as more predictable than was in fact the actual reality. In a troubled world, when threats to national security can materialize very quickly, the intelligence community must be able to effectively and swiftly develop and implement plans to prevent further terrorist attacks on the homeland. Numerous scenarios need to be considered for the management of crisis situations. Intelligence actions must make it more difficult for terrorists to strike at their targets. The war on terror must confront a new generation of enemies who threaten to attack the United States with weapons of mass destruction. This essay will focus on the role of behavioral science and how related reforms within the intelligence community could improve its capability to respond to a huge challenge.     

Nation,State and the Incarnation in the Political Writings of Vladimir Solov'yev: The Transfiguration of Politics

Introduction A great volume of popular literature produced by Islamists strives to demonstrate the universal validity of the Islamic political principles and their applicability in any time and place. Although there is an agreement on certain characteristics of a government in a Muslim society, the debate reflects quite varied interpretations and some essential theoretical differences. The controversy stems largely from the conditions that scholars live in. Regarding the revived interest in creating a state based on Islamic political and moral guidelines, it is possible to encounter various interpretations and different standpoints. For instance, one point of view asserts that ‘the undemocratic nature of Islamic political ideology, popularised in the present times by fundamentalist ideologues, commends it to regimes which have no popular support and need to find some measure of legitimacy’ (Tibi, 1998). With the failure of man-made ideologies and withdrawal of imperialist western powers, according to another standpoint, the inhabitants of the Third World countries were led to revitalise their own sociopolitical values and institute their own political systems. In the case of the Islamic world, the idea of a state based on Islamic political principles, envisaged in the latter perspective, is ’the rekindling of the typical Islamic political ethos‘; in that Islam unifies the spiritual and social realms, it is therefore impossible to divorce politics from religion (Sulaiman, 1987). There is a wide range of contributions and critiques on the issue of Islamic principles guiding the constitutional aspects of a state, particularly since the Iranian Revolution in 1979. The interest in this matter has increased since the terrorist attacks in the USA on 11 September 2001, coinciding with a rising interest in such issues as Islamic social order and so-called Islamic terrorism. Nevertheless, most of these writings are popular and sensational; analytical studies are few. This article aims to fill the gap in scholarly inquiry into such an important matter by exploring the political ideas of major contemporary Muslim thinkers, and by identifying some essential characteristics for a state based on Islamic political principles in the light of the views of these scholars.     

What Does It Mean to Be an American? Patriotism,Nationalism, and American Identity After 9/11

The period of heightened nationalism in the United States that followed the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 provided unusual conditions for investigating issues surrounding the distinction between patriotism and nationalism and the relationship between national identification and pluralistic values. In a survey of national identity and social attitudes conducted in late September 2001, two different definitions of national unity were inserted in the introduction to the questionnaire in an attempt to prime activation of different conceptualizations of nationality. Results demonstrated that the priming conditions did have an effect on the pattern of interrelationships among measures of patriotism, nationalism, and tolerance for cultural diversity.     

The Motivations of Islamic Martyrs: Applying the Collective Effort Model

This paper examines the motivations of Islamic martyrs through the Collective Effort Model (CEM). The CEM postulates that individuals work hard in a group only if they believe their work, input, or efforts will help attain their individually valued outcomes. In addition, people will work even harder as a group if they have close affinities with that group or if they are persuaded that their effort will be recognized (Karau & Williams, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 65(4):681–706, 1993). In the context of this analysis, it seems appropriate to apply the CEM to the motivations of Islamic martyrs to engage in suicide bombing as one can easily see the effects of their own efforts on their group’s organizational goals. Determining the motivations of Islamic martyrs may also help us identify the specific recruiting strategies used by terrorist organizations looking to acquire followers for their cause.     

The pivotal role of perceived emotional synchrony in the context of terrorism: Challenges and lessons learned from the March 2016 attack in Belgium

Since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack against the World Trade Center in New York City, terrorism has become one of the most distressing large‐scale societal threats. The March 22, 2016 terrorist attack in Brussels, the capital of Belgium undermined the collective sense of perceived security and social cohesion. The present research investigates Belgian civilians’ (N = 202) terrorist threat perception, personal emotions, and the role of perceived emotional synchrony in the construction of the perceived socioemotional climate in Belgium. The main purpose of the current study was to examine the role of perceived emotional synchrony emerging in collective gatherings as a regulatory mechanism improving the perceived socioemotional climate of the country. Additionally, the precise components (personal vs. collective) shaping the perceptions of terrorist threat were also examined. This study was conducted by a questionnaire during the collective gatherings in Brussels 1 week after the terrorist attack. The main results suggest that the terrorist threat has been perceived at the collective level rather than at the personal level. Furthermore, the perceived emotional synchrony with others mediated specifically the relationship between positive personal emotions and the perceived positive socioemotional climate in Belgium. Such findings point to the importance of considering the perceived emotional synchrony in order to provide a better understanding of lay people's psychosocial responses to terrorism and the subsequent construction of collective macro‐social phenomena in post‐terrorist contexts.