Research output
Complete citation
Poljarevic, Emin. “Making Sense out of 21st-Century Barbarism.” Islamic Horizons 53, no. 1 (January–February 2024).
Status
Published (2024)
Publication type
Public scholarship
Overview
Written during the assault on Gaza following 7 October 2023, this essay examines how large-scale violence becomes morally intelligible, publicly defensible, and administratively sustained. It places contemporary destruction within longer histories of settler colonialism, dehumanisation, displacement, and the political classification of populations whose lives are treated as less worthy of protection. The article considers the narratives and institutional languages through which violence is normalised, including claims of civilisation, security, self-defence, and historical entitlement. Its central concern is ethical as well as political: abundant visual evidence does not automatically produce recognition or responsibility when interpretive frameworks have already excluded victims from equal moral regard. The essay contributes a historically grounded critique of modern barbarism by connecting material violence to the categories that organise public perception, responsibility, and silence.
Research question or central concern
How do historical narratives and modern political classifications render extreme violence against Palestinians intelligible or morally permissible?
Main argument, approach, and contribution
The essay combines historical contextualisation with ethical critique, arguing that violence is enabled by dehumanising categories and selective recognition. Its contribution is to connect public narratives, institutional power, and moral responsibility.
Keywords
Gaza; Palestine; genocide; settler colonialism; dehumanisation; moral responsibility; political violence; recognition
Emin Poljarević 