Hassan Bashir
Abstract
Hijab is a sign, a sign of cultural differences which has various emergences in different communities. In this article the Islamic veil among Muslims in the West is discussed as an “Islamic Identity” and as a phenomenon of “Cultural Difference” with the Western societies. This ...
Read More
Hijab is a sign, a sign of cultural differences which has various emergences in different communities. In this article the Islamic veil among Muslims in the West is discussed as an “Islamic Identity” and as a phenomenon of “Cultural Difference” with the Western societies. This sign has represented the Muslim not only as a religious group, a minority which belongs to the East, and a group of people that their culture is different with the dominant culture of the West, but also is different from Westerners how does not accept the culture of veil for women in general. Furthermore, it is emerging different cultural and religious discourses in the Western societies which could be assumed as a challenge to the dominant culture of freedom, liberalism and feminism discourse. This paper aims to clarify the approaches of cultural semiotics, especially, the cultural policy of difference as a new approach to strengthen the neo-orientalism and neo-colonialism approaches and how the discourse of the veil and the otherness is developed in the Western societies. Discourse analysis of various news and reports in Western Media demonstrate the emergence of new methods of discourse on issues related to Islam and Muslims in general and the “Islamic veil” as a special way of life to put the “Islamic Identity” in opposition to the “Western Identity” which is affected by the orientalism discourse on its old and new approaches. This new way of discourse is trying to institutionalize the idea of “I and the other” based on the new understanding of “otherness” and “the cultural policies of difference”.
Hasan Bashir; Mohammad Reza Rohani
Abstract
Increasing presence of Islam all over the world is an undeniable truth, and not only Muslims, but also other people endorse this truth. In the USA, like other countries, a Muslim minority has appeared which is in interaction, or even in confrontation, with the hegemonic majority. Among the intercultural ...
Read More
Increasing presence of Islam all over the world is an undeniable truth, and not only Muslims, but also other people endorse this truth. In the USA, like other countries, a Muslim minority has appeared which is in interaction, or even in confrontation, with the hegemonic majority. Among the intercultural communication’s theorists, Mark Orbe and Regina Spellers study this interaction or confrontation in their theory of co-culture. Thus, applying phenomenology and theory of “the silent group” and theory of “point of view”, one can study Muslim agents’ behavior as a co-cultural group confronting the hegemonic group which is hierarchically in the high level of identity. In such a condition, American Muslims have applied a special communication strategy, both in relation with each other and with the dominant structure. This may occurred either as complete conformity with the dominant condition, or as insulation, or as cambium interaction; all depending on the historical experiments and deep interactions.
