Tue. 22^nd June, 2021
16:15-17:45 Hrs (CEST/UTC+2h)

Online
━ ZOOM Link
Meeting ID: 832 6480 4133
Passcode: 737844

Poster

Credit: flicker.com

Abteilungskolloquium (SoSe 2021) | Colloquium (Summer Semester 2021)
[Co-organized with the Chair for Buddhist Studies, HCTS]

▍ The Rise of Buddhist Islamophobia: Formations and Explanations

Prof. Dr. Iselin Frydenlund
(MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society, Oslo)

This lecture deals with the last decade’s rise of anti-Muslim sentiment and violence against Muslim communities in Buddhist majority communities such as Sri Lanka and Myanmar. Such campaigns involve several aspects familiar from European or North-American Islamophobic discourses, such as the securitization of Islam and Muslims; theories of the “Great Replacement” and demographic changes; but also, aspects more specific to Asia, such as Buddhist-Muslim economic competition, and anti-halal and anti-slaughter campaigns. Since the COVID-19 Pandemic, we also see a new form of Islamophobia, one that links the coronavirus to Muslim religious practices, such as burials. By looking at temporal as well as spatial variations, I will explore differences and similarities in Islamophobic tropes and anti-Muslim policies in the two Buddhist majority countries.

Furthermore, such massive anti-Muslim campaigns – from state and non-state actors alike – beg the question of how we are to explain Islamophobia in Buddhist contexts? In the talk I will draw attention to several explanatory models for the rise of Islamophobia in Buddhist majority societies, emphasising Islamophobia as a political strategy at the local level, but at the same time, recognizing the role of Buddhist actors in the production of anti-Muslim tropes and themes. By doing so, I explore how current forms of Islamophobia may also be seen to match certain religious patterns within the Buddhist tradition itself.