Register Here | Read the Article Here
Join us for a Virtual Chai Chat via zoom.
Dr. Sherman Jackson’s short article “Liberalism and the Muslim American Predicament” lays out a series of important questions about Muslim politics in America and our ability to express our political goals and aspirations in a secular culture.
Join us for a conversation to unpack the issues in the article to think through some of the pressing political crises of today:
American Foreign Policy and the Genocide in Gaza
Student Protests, Speech, and Moral Commitment
A selection from the article:
This is eminently reflected in the most popular form of political liberalism, which basically requires that individuals vindicate themselves in public debate by reference to “liberal reason.” This is not the preserve of anyone’s specific religious, ideological or historically constituted community ; it is a form of “public reason” that is supposed to belong to no one and thus to everyone . But it is precisely here that we begin to see a convergence of liberal slights of hand . By imagining a public reason on which we all have equal purchase, we also imagine a public space that is neutral. Clearly, however, our histories and other specific endowments come with us into the public space, alongside our respective traditions of reasoning. But how can the “reason” of the historically dominated, marginalized or feared ever be equal in the court of public opinion to that of the historically dominant , exemplary and feared (though a very different kind of fear) ? And inasmuch as equality cannot be operationalized without an exemplar by means of which we can assess whether I am being treated “equally” (equal to whom ?) , does my equal treatment always necessarily deliver me from domination?