Bibliography 2: #BIB38531

Key	BIB38531
Reference type	Journal Article
Title	What Is Bahai Orientalism?
Journal	Humanities (Basel, Switzerland)
Author	Nash, Geoffrey
Year	2021
Issue	1
Volume	10
ISSN	2076-0787
Abstract	"Scrutinizing the literature of a modern religious movement this article argues that postcolonial theory can effectively be brought to the analysis of religions and religious writing. The case study focuses on the way in which colonialism impacted the Bahai faith in a specific and formative way, causing its leadership to present aspects of the faith’s development by employing the codes of Western Orientalism. Drawing on nineteenth and early twentieth-century European orientalist texts composed either about their own faith, or the Islamic society out of which it grew, the article demonstrates how these led Bahais “themselves [to]… adopt [..] an essentially Orientalist vision of their own community and of Iranian society”. Edward Said’s Orientalism throws light on an enduring situation in which mutual othering has crossed from culture and religion into politics, however since the late 1990s critics have demonstrated that Orientalism can function in more varied ways than Said allowed. Finally, the possibility is discussed as to whether there can be such a thing as a postcolonial Bahai scholar." Nash accuses Shoghi Effendi of an "orientalizing" attitude that creates an "othering" of Persian and Islamicate culture, leaving out that Shoghi Effendi wrote quite harshly also of European and Christian culture, Western corruption and moral laxity, Nash rehashes tropes about "conservative" leaders versus "liberal" academics from the 1980s, privileges ex-Baha'i critics from that period, and misunderstands basic elements of the Baha'i approach to social development and discourse.
Language	English
Keywords	ORIENTALISM; COLONIALISM; CONTROVERSIAL
URL	https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/10/1/2
Pages	2 (1–15)
Accession number	doi:10.3390/h10010002
File attachments	internal-pdf://3318994336/Nash - What_Is_Bahai_Orientalism - Humanities-.pdf

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