Postsecular resistance, the body, and the 2011 Egyptian Revolution

Abstract

At the heart of the notion of the postsecular is an implied and largely under-theorised idea of resistance against the pathologies of modern secular formations. This is most notably exemplified by Jü rgen Habermas's highly influential approach which argues that these pathologies can be resisted through a cooperative cognitive effort of secular and religious consciousnesses. This article contends that this understanding overlooks more embodied forms of resistance to the effect that it curtails our capacity to conceptualise postsecular resistance in international relations. Following a contextualisation of Habermas's approach in the broader Kantian tradition to which it belongs, the article develops a contending Foucauldian reading of the body as a locus of resistance and uses this framework to analyse some of the events leading to the 2011 Egyptian revolution. The focus is on the publication of images and videos of police abuses by Egyptian bloggers and independent media as a practice of resistance to the widespread and systematic use of torture. The emotional response to these images, it will be argued, contributed to unite Egyptians despite longstanding fractures, most notably that between secularists and Islamists, thus turning the body from an 'inscribed surface of events' into a postsecular locus of resistance. The article concludes by highlighting the main implications of this analysis for future research agendas on the postsecular in international relations.

Postsecular geographies: theo‐ethics, rapprochement and neoliberal governance in a faith‐based drug programme

“…More recently, research has highlighted the emergence of postsecularity in the discourses and practices of international development and humanitarianism (Ager and Ager ; Deneulin and Rakodi ; Kessler and Arkush ; Khanum ), as well as the growth of ‘alternative’ economic spaces linked to Islamic theo‐ethics in global political‐economic networks (Atia ; Pollard and Samers ). Furthermore, postsecularity has been shown to characterise the pluralistic sensibilities and horizontalist organisation of recent social movements – Occupy Wall Street, Taksim Gezi Park and the Arab Spring (see Barbato 2013; Dabashi ; Mavelli ) – all of which have been marked by an explicit ‘crossing over’ of religious and secular narratives, symbolism, practices and performances in public space. Each of these cases indicate not so much a differentiation of religion from supposed secular spheres of political, cultural and economic life (Wilford ); but instead, evidence how the mutually constitutive dynamics between religious and secular are becoming increasingly visible in the public domain and are creating liminal thirdspaces where these frameworks are fusing into a metaphysical composite (Baker and Beaumont ).…”

“…). Across a number of spaces – community‐organising (Jamoul and Wills ), contemporary civil rights activism (Pattillo‐McCoy ), trade unions mobilisation (Holgate ), contemporary social movements (Barbato ; Dabashi ; Mavelli ) – the boundaries of religion (=private) and secular (=public) seem to be breaking down as diverse religious and non‐religious voices adopt collaborative pragmatism to work towards common ethical and political commitments.…”

Devrim Teorileri Işığında 2011 Mısır Devrimi ve Sonrası: Ne Tür Bir Devrim Gerçekleşti?

“…Mübarek eski bir asker olmasından ötürü ve ordunun sadakatini satın almak için askerlere 30 yıl boyunca büyük imtiyazlar tanımış ve Mısır ordusu tahminlere göre ekonominin % 5 ilâ % 60'ını kontrolünde bulunduracak iktisadî güce ulaşmıştır (Hauslohner, 2014). Ancak ahbap-çavuş kapitalizminin neticesinde Mübarek ailesi ve ordunun zenginliğinin aksine, halkın büyük çoğunluğu oldukça fakirdi ve işsizlik oranı yüksekti (Mavelli, 2012(Mavelli, : 1073Teti ve Gervasio, 2011;Badran, 2014: 273;Berman, 2013: 260). Nüfusun %40'ı günde 2 doların altında bir gelirle yaşamaktaydı (Wahba, 2011).…”

Post-secular rapprochement in peripheralized regions – politics of withdrawal and parish community responses

“…Emerging from common grounds of "key ethical issues" (Cloke, 2011:486), "urban social issues" (Beaumont, 2008) or "crucial social issues" (Cloke and Beaumont, 2013:28), post-secular rapprochement is often situated in the "the public arena" (Cloke and Beaumont, 2013:28), e.g., on Tahrir Square in the process of the Egyptian Revolution united in their fight against the political regime (Mavelli, 2012). Putting it more generally, yet in line with the general assumptions of the aforementioned statements, a number of studies essentially highlight questions of social or spatial justice (e.g., Conradson, 2008;Beaumont and Dias, 2008).…”