This panel discusses Basit Kareem Iqbal’s The Dread Heights: Tribulation and Refuge after the Syrian Revolution and how this book intervenes in contemporary Islam, political theology, and the anthropology of religion. This rich ethnography opens up a space to address some of the most urgent political and ethical questions that animate contemporary Islam (and global religion more broadly). To name a few:
- the hermeneutics of the religious tradition in times of displacement
- the ambivalence of hospitality in worlds destroyed by hostility
- the (im)possibility of repair in the face of war and violence
- the relevance of ethical practices and comportments in political exile
Iqbal brings consummate ethnographic attunement to the everyday struggles of displaced Syrian refugees, relief workers, and religious scholars in both Jordan and Canada. The panelists represent diverse disciplinary backgrounds and will discuss and debate the book's key arguments and how this monograph advances conversations in method and theory.