Research Catalog

Title

Hate spin : the manufacture of religious offense and its threat to democracy / Cherian George.

Author

George, Cherian

Publication

• Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2016]
• ©2016

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xviii, 308 pages; 24 cm

Summary

In the United States, elements of the religious right fuel fears of an existential Islamic threat, spreading anti-Muslim rhetoric into mainstream politics. In Indonesia, Muslim absolutists urge suppression of churches and minority sects, fostering a climate of rising intolerance. In India, Narendra Modi's radical supporters instigate communal riots and academic censorship in pursuit of their Hindu nationalist vision. Outbreaks of religious intolerance are usually assumed to be visceral and spontaneous. But in Hate Spin, Cherian George shows that they often involve sophisticated campaigns manufactured by political opportunists to mobilize supporters and marginalize opponents. Right-wing networks orchestrate the giving of offense and the taking of offense as instruments of identity politics, exploiting democratic space to promote agendas that undermine democratic values. George calls this strategy "hate spin"--A double-sided technique that combines hate speech (incitement through vilification) with manufactured offense-taking (the performing of righteous indignation). It is deployed in societies as diverse as Buddhist Myanmar and Orthodox Christian Russia. George looks at the world's three largest democracies, where intolerant groups within India's Hindu right, America's Christian right, and Indonesia's Muslim right are all accomplished users of hate spin. He also shows how the Internet and Google have opened up new opportunities for cross-border hate spin. George argues that governments must protect vulnerable communities by prohibiting calls to action that lead directly to discrimination and violence. But laws that try to protect believers' feelings against all provocative expression invariably backfire. They arm hate spin agents' offense-taking campaigns with legal ammunition. Anti-discrimination laws and a commitment to religious equality will protect communities more meaningfully than misguided attempts to insulate them from insult.

Series Statement

Information policy series

Uniform Title

Information policy series.

Subject

• Offenses against religion > Law and legislation
• Offenses against religion > Political aspects
• Freedom of speech
• Political persecution
• Hate speech > Law and legislation
• Hass
• Meinungsfreiheit
• Politische Verfolgung
• Religiöser Pluralismus

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 267-292) and index.

Contents

Hate spin as politics by other means -- By what rules?: Human rights and religious authority -- God, Google, and the globalization of offendedness -- India: Narendra Modi and the harnessing of hate -- Indonesia: Democracy tested amid rising intolerance -- United States: Exceptional freedoms, fabricated fears -- Pushing back, through media and civil society -- Assertive pluralism for a world of irreducible diversity.

Call Number

JFE 17-3495

ISBN

• 9780262035309
• 0262035308

LCCN

2016014335

OCLC

946159852

Author

George, Cherian, author.

Title

Hate spin : the manufacture of religious offense and its threat to democracy / Cherian George.

Publisher

Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2016]

Copyright Date

©2016

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Information policy series

Information policy series.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 267-292) and index.

Research Call Number

JFE 17-3495