Conference Abstracts
8. Benhayoun, Jamal Eddine; Faulty of Letters Tetouan:
"Terrorism and the City"
My paper examines what is essentially a recognisable
and problematic connection between terrorism and the city. The events
of September 11, 2001, May 16, 2003, March 11, 2004 (to name but
a few) make it clear that terrorism is a form of violence conceived
and devised within and against what can be qualified as urban culture.
While it is imperative to stand in defence of such cities as New
York, Casa Blanca, Madrid, and Istanbul, etc. and to mourn the loss
of human life as occasioned by extremism and hatred, it is also
equally important, even more urgent, to redefine these cities in
terms of the social and ideological tensions developing and proliferating
within them under the cracked veneer of liberal lifestyles and material
prosperity. In other words, my point is to highlight and, therefore,
not to deny the connection between terrorism and the city. The city
is a space that can be championed for the ideals most of us cherish
in much the same way as it can be indicted for the forms of violence
and attitudes of intolerance emerging out of it. The city is not
only a place where some of the finest expressions of the human mind
can be felt, enjoyed and admired but also a place where the harrowing
stories of violence, crime and social injustice seem systematic
and incessant.
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