Footnoted readings 04 – CVE, jihad & liminality
The story of Narsingh (above), the fourth avatar of Vishnu in Vaisnavism, also captures the idea of what’s meant by thresholds very nicely:
A tyrannous and oppressive king obtained a boon from the gods that he should die “neither by day nor night, neither within the palace nor outside it, neither at the hand of man nor beast” and thought his boon conveyed immortality — but when he persecuted his son, a devotee of God, a half-man half-lion figure — the Narsingh avatar of Vishnu — met him on his own doorstep at dusk and slew him, so that he died neither by day nor by night, neither within the palace nor outside it, and neither at the hand of beast nor of man.
Dusk, doorsteps and metamorphs are all liminal — with respect to day and night, home and abroad, man and beast respectively.
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Two other references at the intersection of terrorism and liminality:
Arthur Saniotis writes in Re-Enchanting Terrorism: Jihadists as “Liminal Beings”:
Religious terrorists have been the subject of much scholarly scrutiny. While such analyses have endeavored to elucidate the ideological logic and implications of religious terrorism, the transnational character of jihadists necessitates new ways of understanding this phenomenon. My article attempts to explain how jihadists can be defined as liminal beings who seek to re-enchant the world via their symbolic and performative features. Jihadists’ strategically position themselves as ambiguous not only as a distinguishing device, but also to enhance their belief of a cosmic war on earth. Jihadists’ use of symbolic imagery on the internet works within the ambit of a magical kind of panoptic power which seeks to both impress and terrify viewers.
And Marisa Urgo Shaalan, in the course of a post on Liminality at her Making Sense of Jihad blog powerfully comments:
perhaps the most important factor drawing many young men into jihad is the sense that it is authentic and sacramental life. [And I mean sacramental. Jihad is a sacred act that they are told guarantees them paradise.]
Recommended.
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I’d be very interested to learn more about Dr Younis’ insights into liminality in jihadist recruitment, and it’s implications for CVE.
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Graham:
April 3rd, 2017 at 4:17 pm
The story of Narsingh reminds me of this similar story from Welsh mythology:
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There is a considerable similarity between the Goidelic geis and the Brythonic tynged. This is not surprising given the close origins of many of the variants of Celtic mythology.
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For example, the Welsh hero Lleu Llaw Gyffes (in one version of his story) was destined to die neither “during the day or night, nor indoors or outdoors, neither riding nor walking, not clothed and not naked, nor by any weapon lawfully made.” He was safe until his wife, Blodeuwedd, learning of these foretold conditions, convinced him to show her how he could theoretically be stepping out of a river onto a riverbank sheltered by a roof and put one foot on a goat, and so on, thus enabling the conditions that allowed him to be killed.
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This from the article on the Irish concept of the “geis”, the set of taboos imposed on a man [or woman, IIRC] at birth and which impose positive and negative obligations at extreme peril. Irish legends are full of them.
Charles Cameron:
April 3rd, 2017 at 5:34 pm
Stunning. Thank you, Graham.
Sam Dalambert:
April 6th, 2017 at 9:36 pm
I like how Theodore Dalrymple describes Islamic terrorists as liminal beings who seek to solve the competing obligations of adolescence:
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“…radical Islam, that ideology that simultaneously succors people with an existential grudge against the world and flatters their inflated and inflamed self-importance. It also successfully squares the adolescent circle: the need both to conform to a peer group and to rebel against society.”
https://www.city-journal.org/html/thoughts-woolwich-11211.html