Reading Muslims

Professor Elizabeth Shakman Hurd joins the Reading Muslims podcast to discuss state surveillance of Muslims. She situates the discussion through freedom of religion within the American project and explores how it is used as a device to further US political interests abroad. This podcast episode also explores how language can be co-opted by civilizational discourse and how this effects the way Islamic texts are read and perceived by the state.

Recorded: October 8th, 2020

On Oct 16th, a French schoolteacher in the suburbs of Paris named Samuel Paty was murdered by a Muslim man for showing his classroom caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. The aftermath has placed Islam and Muslims under scrutiny with the government claiming that "Islamist separatism" is challenging the Republic's values and unity. In this podcast, Juliette Galonnier, Assistant Professor at Science Po Paris's Institute for International Research, sheds light on the Republic's fears over Islam and Muslims. Galonnier addresses how the current political upheaval has put the academic freedom of French researchers under threat. Detractors accuse French academics of appropriating "North American theories", including critical race theory, that are complicit in diminishing the threat of Islam and Muslims. In this powerful and topical conversation, Galonnier highlights ways that North American scholars can stand in solidarity with their colleagues overseas.