2025/02/27 by Irfan Ahmad · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #African history and culture analysis #Ancient history #Anthropology #Epistemology #Ethnic group #Excellence #History #Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies #Middle East Politics and Society #Palestine #Pedagogy #Philosophy #Political science #Social science #Sociology
paper · doi:10.1080/13562517.2025.2466001
openalex publication_date 2025/02/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/14
Taking Habermas’ 2023 statement on Palestinians-Israel as the point of entry, this article examines his concept of critique. Against the dominant view of him as a philosopher of ‘universalism’ and ‘critical rationality,’ my thesis is that Habermas is an ethnic thinker, for, his ideas of critique and universalism unidirectionally rest on ‘to all’ rather than ‘from all.’ Consequently, it is missionary and borders on Islamophobia, particularly after 9/11. I show how Habermas’ denial of Palestinians’ genocide and his unqualified support to ‘Israel's right to exist’ as integral to Germany's ‘democratic ethos’ is neither an ample departure from his participation in the Hitler Youth nor from his understanding of the Enlightenment-modernity but largely their offshoots. I also juxtapose Habermas’ role as a public intellectual with that of Imam Malik (d. 795) who chose to be flogged rather than parrot unjust language of power elites. I conclude with three broad implications this article has in the field of teaching in higher education.