Book review: How to fight inequality (and why that fight needs you) by Ben Phillips

In How to Fight Inequality (and Why That Fight Needs You), international civil society activist Ben Phillips offers a new book that aims to empower readers to join the fight to bring an end to inequalities, showing how lessons from the past are key to building a more equitable future. Filled with powerful stories of change secured through the organising of ordinary people, this well-written book provides valuable insights for those who want to engage in a more just world, finds Samira Azabar. If you are interested in this review, you can watch a video or listen to a podcast of Ben Phillips discussing his book alongside Masana Ndinga-Kanga, Pedro Telles and Dr Armine Ishkanian at an LSE International Inequalities Institute event, recorded on 18 March 2021. How to Fight Inequality (and Why That Fight Needs You). Ben Phillips. Polity. 2020

Assessing Islamic religious education curriculum in Flemish public secondary schools

Islamic tradition promotes a holistic approach of personality development in which, we argue, three educational concepts take the centre stage: tarbiyah, ta’leem and ta’deeb. Looking through the lens of these concepts, we analyse two Islamic religious education (IRE) curricula: the 2001 and 2012 curricula for Flemish public secondary education provided by the Representative Body for IRE. We conduct a systematic thematic document analysis of the 2001 and 2012 curricula to map curricula elements that potentially contribute to Islamic personality development through IRE classes. Crucially, this article seeks to investigate whether the 2001 and 2012 curricula for Flemish public secondary education are in line with these central IRE concepts. We observe that the 2012 curriculum does contain relevant anchor points to work on tarbiyah, ta’leem and ta’deeb and to strengthen an Islamic personality in Muslim pupils. Hence, we argue that there is an urgent need for a new, adequate and sufficiently comprehensive IRE curriculum for Flemish public secondary education, developed by an expert committee—which should include Belgian-educated educational experts—in order to meet the expectations of all the stakeholders. Since in our view, this is the first step for a qualitative update of Flemish IRE. Further reflections on both curricula and recommendations for a new IRE curriculum are outlined in the discussion and conclusion sections

Good Muslims, good citizens? An intersectional approach to Muslims' everyday (hidden) resistance tactics in Belgium

Abstract: This paper explores Muslim participants' political endeavours, aiming to tackle their marginalization in a secular racialized environment. Drawing on critical race scholarship (Du Bois), resistance studies (de Certeau, Scott) and lived experiences captured by in-depth interviews with Muslims in Belgium, I focus on everyday hidden resistance tactics enacted by my research subjects to challenge the status quo. I find my research participants aiming to counter racialization through everyday (hidden) practices such as reversing the Muslim gaze, modelling their religious behaviour as a form of da'wa and building up a counterpower to achieve recognition as citizen. Second, this study shows the salience of Du Bois' notion of double consciousness - or Muslim participants seeing themselves through the eyes of the dominant group - shaping subordinate forms of political resistance