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Human rights, Islam and the failure of cosmopolitanism

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 13:30 authored by June EdmundsJune Edmunds
The rise of global human rights has been presented as compelling evidence for cosmopolitan progress, especially in Europe, and with particular benefits for ethnic and religious minorities. New conceptions of citizenship – post-national, de-nationalized, disaggregated and cosmopolitan – have been used to show how minorities have created and profited from European cosmopolitanism. Some theorists have pointed to human rights activism, especially around the foulard affair, to illustrate the arrival of cosmopolitan justice. However, this paper suggests that cosmopolitan optimism has misjudged the magnitude of the impact of human rights. European cosmopolitanism’s commitment to ‘cool’ attachments has difficulty with ‘thick’ religious attachments. Muslim cosmopolitanism – expressed for example though religious pilgrimages – makes Muslims ‘bad’ cosmopolitans in the European version. This clash needs to be reconciled before Europe can define itself as the unrivalled source of cosmopolitan justice.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Ethnicities

ISSN

1468-7968

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Issue

6

Volume

13

Page range

671-688

Department affiliated with

  • Sociology and Criminology Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2013-03-14

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    University of Sussex (Publications)

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