I read this really interesting book this week, In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong by Amin Maalouf. Maalouf is Lebanese but has spent much of his life in France. The book is written over 20 years ago, but I was amazed at how insightful it is for contemporary dynamics and the spirit of the air as it relates to identity and expressions of identity-based violence including ethnic, religious, and political conflict.
Today it’s not hard to see the prevalence of so many people asserting their “identity” in the face of some historical power that has marginalized or oppressed that perceived identity to some degree. This is some of the spirit of critical theory and postcolonial theory globally. Maalouf offers a really great critique of identity as it so often is used today as a license for violence, where violence is expressed in the range of “othering” people who have different beliefs or views than you. This violence towards the other can be through exclusionary or toxic anger and judgment or it can involve physical violence as the more extreme tactic to eradicate differing viewpoints or threats to one’s “identity.”
Maalouf warns of the toxic nature of allowing one component of identity to become the organizing principle around one’s self and life. As I’m reading other things on this topic now, what Maalouf is talking about is the radicalization of some aspect of identity, which can take place around ethnic, national, religious, gender, political, and other lines. Maalouf uses his own story as an example of someone with a very complex identity, in that he has many fascinating aspects to his identity, but he asserts strongly that he has one identity. And that identity is not synonymous with one feature of his life but a combination of “allegiances” that shape his unique identity in this world. He explores some of the dangers in the past and potentially in the future of people militarizing one aspect of identity for the sake of belonging or justice.
A section of his book is called “Taming the Panther,” reflecting a metaphor for how to approach identity. Panthers attack if persecuted and may attack if neglected or left alone or if wounded, yet they can be tamed. Much of the book is exploring how particular aspects of identity become radicalized because of hostility or persecution or hegemony. He also talks about how the same can happen as a result of globalization and the unseen forces that tend to move towards uniformity and conformity. An interesting element was the argument that political correctness or the militant efforts to ensure rights at all cost against the other in the long run actually works to erode diversity completely and create a different type of tyranny.
I found this to be a really insightful critique of contemporary identity politics and what is happening in many places globally. Maalouf identifies as an Arab, Christian, living in France for much of his life (aspects of his identity). Much of Maalouf’s thought I believe does flow out of a deeper reflection about the image of God, just community, and social order out of concern for the oppressed and marginalized. Several of these ideas have practical value for the challenging matters of how to govern and create safe spaces for people of difference.
