Friday, July 31, 2015

Sociologists describe Islamists as creating a "community", a substitute family

According to the Guardian the networks formed by Islamic militant groups can be described as communities that create "fictive kin", a "substitute family" (Guardian 28/7/15). This just shows how meaningless the term "community" has become. Certainly it is true that very few islamists seem to be radicalised on their own and there is always a degree of peer pressure (sometimes combined with online grooming through networks that other commentators have described as "online communities") but if we are to extend the term "community" to all and any forms of human interaction then the term will have no meaning or content as it will no longer be useful in describing any paricular forms of interaction. This is the problem with the term "community" - it constantly overreaches itself and makes us think we are saying something useful and interesting when in fact we have "taken our language on holiday" (as Wittgenstein so brilliantly puts it)

1 comment:

Andy Gregg said...

James O'Brien brilliantly uses the concept of community to demolish the notion that the "Muslim community" should apologise for all and any Islamist attacks: http://www.lbc.co.uk/hot-topics/terrorism/james-obriens-call-of-the-year-122065/