Unit 2 Inclusive Practices – Blog Post 2: Faith

Is our limited view of ‘Western Liberalism’ the only appropriate stance at an Arts HE?

As teachers at an Arts-focused HE, we often expect our students to have a left-leaning political stance. This includes the false assumption of atheism/agnosticism as being leftist. I grew up in a Hindu household, sharing those beliefs. Over time, I have seen more problems being caused by organised religion, especially in the growing extremism around the world, and have become agnostic (though culturally still Hindu – I at times wear Hindu-Indian outfits and celebrate Hindu festivals, thus Hinduism is my ‘social identity’ [Rekis 2023]). Simultaneously, I recognise the harm caused by the prejudice and violence against certain religions, especially Islam.

In this case of Islam, Crenshaw’s (1989) theory of intersectionality is applicable to most Muslim people as only 8% of Muslims in the UK in 2015 were white (Nye and Ahmad 2015), making Islamophobia a racialised issue. Just as people of colour often cannot ‘pass off’ as the privileged white on the street, so are ‘visible Muslim women’ (Jawad 2022) who adopt a modest dress immediately set apart as distinct, the Other in society. This is made all the more complicated considering the negative connotations associated with the hijab and niqab, to the point of being banned in several countries in Europe (BBC 2018). ‘The concept of modesty applies to both men and women (Quran 24: 30; 24: 31)’ in Islam (Jawad 2022), thus some Muslim men adorn headwear and facial hair – which has led to attacks against them and even Sikhs (Basu 2016). However, visible Muslim women are intersectionally more vulnerable. This is due to the conversations around (Western, white) feminism:

Figure 1 epitomises the false assumption that the more empowered feminist woman takes charge of her body and sexuality and proves this by showing more skin (complexity around showing skin being feminist vs playing into the patriarchal male gaze is also relevant to the recent pop culture controversy around artist Sabrina Carpenter’s album cover [Horton 2025]). Intersectionality is significant in these matters because it underscores that no one group is homogenised and that there lie differing identity factors that affect individual experience. For instance, one’s faith could be a ‘social identity’ (as is my Hindu identity, discussed above) or a ‘worldview’ and thus people’s relationships with their faith can differ (Rekis 2023). This intersectionality and heterogeneity within groups is a view that Singh (2016) emphasises in his classroom, and something I will in the future too.

Appiah (2014) engages in an interesting philosophical discussion of what constitutes as religion. He concludes that our perception of religion is limited, thus the debate of whether religion is good or bad is irrelevant. This is amusing and can be used to widen the scope of what ‘religion’ is in the long term. But when today people are discriminated against due to their religious beliefs/faith, statements such as ‘there isn’t such a thing as religion’ become meaningless. The readings and Workshop discussions have taught me to be more careful and inclusive in my language within the classroom. And that while considering my positionality (Bayeck 2022), I must not suppose that my students will share my religious and/or political stances. As the ‘authority figure’ in the classroom (more can be done to democratise classrooms, which I discuss in my Reflective Report), my aim is to create a welcoming environment where no student feels that they won’t fit the ‘mould’ of an Arts student if they don’t share my views.

References

Appiah, K A (2014) ‘Kwame Anthony Appiah: Is religion good or bad? (This is a trick question)’, TED [Online]. YouTube. 16 June. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2et2KO8gcY (Accessed 15 July 2025).

Basu, M (2016) ’15 years after 9/11, Sikhs still victims of anti-Muslim hate crimes’, CNN. Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/2016/09/15/us/sikh-hate-crime-victims (Accessed 16 July 2025).

Bayeck, R Y (2022) ‘Positionality: The Interplay of Space, Context and Identity’, International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 21, pp 1-9. DOI: 10.1177/16094069221114745 (Accessed 10 July 2025).

BBC (2018) ‘The Islamic veil across Europe’. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13038095 (Accessed 16 July 2025).

Crenshaw, K (1989) ‘Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics’, University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1989(1), pp 139-167. Available at: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1052&context=uclf (Accessed 16 July 2025).

Evans, M (2011) ‘Burkas and Bikinis’. Available at: https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22728118 (Accessed 16 July 2025).

Horton, A (2025) ‘Is the Sabrina Carpenter album art really that offensive?’, The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/jun/14/sabrina-carpenter-album-art-offensive (Accessed 16 July 2025).

Jawad, H (2022) ‘Islam, Women and Sport: The Case of Visible Muslim Women’, LSE. Available at: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/religionglobalsociety/2022/09/islam-women-and-sport-the-case-of-visible-muslim-women/ (Accessed 16 July 2025).

Nye, C and Ahmad, A (2015) ‘Muslims in Britain: What figures tell us’, BBC. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31435929 (Accessed 16 July 2025).

Rekis, J (2023) ‘Religious Identity and Epistemic Injustice: An Intersectional Account’, Hypatia, 38, pp 779–800. DOI: 10.1017/hyp.2023.86 (Accessed 16 July 2025).

Singh, S J (2016) ‘Challenging Race, Religion, and Stereotypes in Classroom’, Trinity University [Online]. YouTube. 1 December. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CAOKTo_DOk (Accessed 15 July 2025).