Hydra's heads: PAGAD and responses to the PAGAD phenomenon in a Cape Muslim community
People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (PAGAD), a Cape Town-based movement that arose out of the context of some of the most violent and crime-ridden Coloured townships in Cape Town in the 1990s, has attracted a lot of interest in the media and from academics. A central issue in the debate on PAGAD ha...
| Published in: | Journal of Southern African studies |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Routledge Taylor & Francis Group
2005
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| In: |
Journal of Southern African studies
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| Further subjects: | B
Militia
B Vigilantes B Africa B Marginal group B Political movement B Social movement B Muslim |
| Summary: | People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (PAGAD), a Cape Town-based movement that arose out of the context of some of the most violent and crime-ridden Coloured townships in Cape Town in the 1990s, has attracted a lot of interest in the media and from academics. A central issue in the debate on PAGAD has been what role Islamist discourses have played in the generation of support for the movement. (...) On the basis of ethnographical data, I argue that PAGAD ought to be seen as a movement attracting actors from a variety of social backgrounds within Muslim communities in Cape Town, and that the common-sensical assertion of a linkage between Islamist discourses and PAGAD violence therefore is problematic. (...) PAGAD was bound up with the hybrid social and religious formations of Coloured communities in Cape Town, yet its outward expressions as an Islamist movement cannot be reduced to a mere epiphenomenon in relation to its social and cultural origins. (...) This article emphasises the general significance of local social and cultural contexts for the understanding of so-called Islamist movements. (JSAS/DÜI) |
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| ISSN: | 0305-7070 |
| Contains: | In: Journal of Southern African studies
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