The full text will be available at the end of the embargo period: 5th Sept 2027

Although it is widely recognized that Muslims and Middle Easterners were negatively portrayed in the media after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, few scholars examine the long term media presentations of Islam in the United States. The studies that have explored the relationship of the portrayal of Islam by the media have used short term, limited sampling techniques, which may not properly reflect the popular media as a whole. The current research uses data from the New York Times from 2000-2008 in order to determine whether the popular media was portraying Islam in a disparaging manner. The analysis includes the use of noun phrases in the publications in order to establish if the media portrays Muslims and Islam negatively. In particular, I am interested in the trends of this media's representation of Islam, if the publications promoted a stigma towards Islam, and if the trend continued from 2000 to 2008. The results of the analyses are presented and discussed. The need for additional research in this area is also discussed.

The attacks of September 11, 2001 (9/11) caused thousands of deaths, national and global panic, and immediate action by the federal government to protect the borders of the United States of America (USA) from terrorism. In response to these attacks, the United States (U.S.) government enacted laws for law enforcement agencies to protect against terrorist activities. Law enforcement agencies are effective in combating terrorism, but their measures contain a major flaw - the improper use of race in profiling to address national security and public safety concerns. Racial profiling is an ineffective measure for preventing terrorism. There are solutions to correct this flaw through reconstructing training and implementing policies for all law enforcement agencies. The intent of this thesis is to discuss the history and the effectiveness of profiling in U.S. post-9/11 counterterrorism through theoretical research of peer-reviewed journals and articles, relevant laws, and United States Supreme Court cases to offer solutions to the problems racial profiling presents. The discussion will generate a search for new ways law enforcement agencies could conduct daily counterterrorism operations.

The thesis purports to assess the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in maintaining international peace and security and the International Criminal Court (ICC) in prosecuting individuals who have committed severe violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) and international law, during humanitarian and counter-terrorism operations. The thesis endeavours to highlight the failures of both institutions, firstly, the UNSC being unable to fulfil its institutional mandate, which is mainly attributed to the abuse of veto privileges granted to the five permanent members (P5). This has effectively allowed individuals from the militaries of the P5 and their allies elude criminal liability, promoting a culture of impunity. The UNSC’s failure to prevent P5 members use of unauthorised military force in pursuing counter-terrorism operations and interpose expeditiously in humanitarian crises, have also contributed to the erosion of the institutions’ legitimacy, which is further perpetuated by the USA’s continued ‘War on Terror’ doctrine after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Secondly, the ICC’s inability to prosecute individuals for crimes under the Rome Statute will also be highlighted as the principle of complementarity and the court’s inability to enforce arrest warrants are significant factors contributing to the institutions inability to administer international criminal justice. The thesis draws upon practical examples to substantiate the failures of both institutions by referring to the conflicts in: Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Syria and Libya. Before concluding the UNSC and the ICC have become futile, the thesis will then make recommendations for reform and propose a novel solution to restore legitimacy back to both institutions.

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Though scholars have discussed postmodernism in Islam and South Asia before, they tend to (i) assume Muslims as a monolithic group, bypassing the diversity of different cultures and the interaction of these cultures with indigenous practices of Islam; (ii) study postmodernity synchronically, thereby eliding histor(ies) and the possibility of multiple temporalities; and (iii) compare postmodernity in non-Western countries with Western standards, and when these countries fail this test, declare them not-yet-postmodern, or even modern. Negligible and scant discussions of postmodernity that do take place inside Pakistan, most of which are published in newspaper articles, tend to focus on Western postmodernity and its evolution and contemporary position. There is no book-length discussion of postmodernity and postmodernist literary texts from Pakistan and its curious sociopolitical blend of Indo-Muslim and Anglo-Indian influences and interaction with the Islamic political foundations of the country. This project discusses postmodernity and postmodern literature in Pakistan. I argue that, because of a different political, cultural, and literary climate, postmodernity and postmodern literature in Pakistan are distinct from their Western counterparts. Because of technological advancement and neoliberal globalization, Pakistan experiences a different kind of postmodernity resulting in the production of a different kind of postmodern literature. I trace the historical employment of postmodern literary tropes from Indo-Islamic genres, i.e. dastan, to contextualize this conversation. Then I discuss experimental works of fiction like Sultana's Dream (1908), Bina Shah's Before She Sleeps (2018), and Soniah Kamal's Unmarriageable (2019). The last chapter explores the relationship of postmodernity, postmodern politics, and Pakistani and Muslim historiographic metafictional literary texts: The Satanic Verses (1988) and A Case of Exploding Mangoes (2008). Hence, the work is regional and national, as well as comparative and transnational.

<p>This study considers the pedagogical significance of mourning and remembrance in the context of the commemorative culture surrounding the “9/11” attacks on America, which have stimulated recent explorations of what it might mean to commit to ethical remembrances of the dead. Critical of “9/11” memorial discourses that provide justifications for heightened “homeland” security and military mobilization in the “War on Terror,” this project not only addresses the educative force of memorial-artistic responses in creating meaning out of mass deaths, but also dissociates the concept of the public memorial as foremost an apparatus of the state, private corporations, and other institutions which seek to use memorials towards amnesiac or ideological objectives. Analyses of the memorial responses addressed in this project unpack how particular modes of remembering “9/11” and its victims are themselves reflections upon the meanings and objectives of collective remembrance. The project first explores the “September 11^th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows” organization and how it negotiates the ways public sentiment is mobilized “in the name of” victims and their families. Through an analysis of Art Spiegelman’s <em>In the Shadow of No Towers</em>,<em> </em>I examine the capacity of graphic narrative to bear witness to traumatic events and speak to their legacies in non-hegemonic ways. Lastly, the project explores how Samira Makhmalbaf’s film <em>God, Construction and Destruction</em> calls for the re-evaluation of strategic memorial practices that risk reducing “9/11” remembrance pedagogies to universalizing modes of remembrance that further subjugate already marginalized communities. Stimulated by such memorial responses that interrogate conventional practices and assumptions of collective remembrance, the project argues that the public remembrance of “9/11” is a crisis of and for education: that is, an important occasion to seek and call for modes of remembrance and sites of pedagogies that foster an openness to the critical and transformative force of historical trauma.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Engel definieren sich vor allem durch ihre Undefinierbarkeit, ihre Zwischenwesenhaftigkeit. Das Spannungsfeld unvereinbarer Bereiche ermöglicht den Engeln die Existenz. Um ihre Aufgaben – besonders die des Mittlers bzw. Boten – zu erfüllen, können sie fliegen. Jeder Engel, schreibt Rilke, sei schrecklich. Als besonders schrecklich mögen diejenigen Engel sein, die gefallen sind. Ausgewählte Fall-Studien zu ihnen stehen im Zentrum dieser Arbeit. Engel büßen bei ihrem Fall die Fähigkeit zu fliegen und ihre privilegierte Position ein. Auf sich gestellt, zeigen gefallene Engel zwei Reaktionsmuster: Macht und Melancholie. Mächtigen gefallenen Engel gelingt es – oder: sie beabsichtigen es –, die Beziehungsrelation zur göttlichen Autorität nach ihrem Fall aufrechtzuerhalten bzw. neu zu definieren: Durch Errichtung neuer Reiche, rebellischer und sinnlicher, führen sie die Versuchung fort. Aber sie sind keine Mittler mehr, weil sie keine Mitteilungen mehr empfangen, sondern Botschafter eigener Botschaften. Melancholische gefallene Engel lassen dagegen die nutzlos gewordenen Flügel hängen. Auch sie haben vor ihrem Fall in einem Beziehungsverhältnis existiert. Fällt das Gegenüber weg, sinkt ihre Erscheinung in sich zusammen, erlischt ihre Botenfunktion, senden und empfangen sie nicht bzw. nichts Neues mehr. Macht und Melancholie sind in aber auch Aktionsfelder. Der Künstler reflektiert in der objektiv – für sein künstlerisches Schaffen – wie subjektiv – für sein künstlerisches Selbstverständnis – genutzten Identifikationsfigur des gefallenen Engels beide Positionen. So greifen Macht und Melancholie, Rebellion und Resignation, Schöpfen und Scheitern ineinander. Gefallene Engel sind eigentlich ihres Botenstatus’ beraubt. Doch haben sie eine einzige letzte Botschaft – sie sind selbst die Botschaft vom Ursprung ihres Falls und haben darin ihr Ziel. / Angels are defined above all by their indefinability, their mutable essence. The conflict zone between irreconcilable areas makes the existence of angels possible. To fulfill their function – in particular that of medium or messenger – they can fly. Every angel, Rilke wrote, is terrifying. Most terrifying among the angels are, perhaps, those that have fallen. Selected case studies of those form the core of this dissertation. When angels are cast out of heaven, they forfeit their capacity for flight and their privileged position. Left to their own defenses, fallen angels display one of two reaction modes – might or melancholy. Mighty fallen angels are able – or they aim – to maintain their relationship with divine authority, or to redefine it, after the fall. By erecting new realms, more rebellious and sensual, they carry on with temptation. But they are no longer media, because they no longer receive communications. Rather they are the messengers of their own message. Melancholy fallen angels, on the other hand, let their now-useless wings droop. They too existed in a relationship before the fall. When their vis-à-vis disappears, their apparition caves in; their messenger function extinguished, they send and receive nothing or at least nothing new. Yet might and melancholy are not only reaction modes, but also fields of action. The artist, in using the identification figure of the fallen angel both objectively – for his or her artistic creation – and subjectively – for his or her sense of artistic self, reflects both positions. So might and melancholy, rebellion and resignation, creation and collapse mesh. Fallen angels are in fact robbed of their messenger status because, unable to fly, they are no longer a medium. But they do have just one last message – they are themselves the message of the origins of their fall, and that is their goal.