The Imaginative Muslim World in the Eyes of Western Sport Management Academia

By Umer Hussain

Hussain is an Assistant Professor at Ripon College, Wisconsin. Hussain’s research focuses on understanding the intersection of race, religion, and gender in the sporting context.

Previously, critical sport management scholars have challenged the neo-colonial and Euro-centric knowledge regime operating the sport management academy (see Chen & Mason, 2018; Hussain, 2021; Singer, 2005). For example, Singer (2005) challenged the ‘epistemological racism’ present in the scholarship. Likewise, Chen and Mason (2019) underscored that sport management scholarship is embedded in epistemic injustices; therefore, researchers need to make settler colonialism evident in sport management literature.

A Recent Scoping Review Research

In a recent scoping review publication, I, with George B. Cunningham, unveiled that sport management academy promotes the Islamophobic trope against the Muslims from Global South by exaggeration, juxtaposition, misrepresentation, and facts manipulation. The Muslim world is categorized as uncultured, wild, repressive, retrograde, corrupt, and emotional that needs to be civilized by the Western world. Further, our study shows most of the research about the Muslim community is conducted in Western countries (62.4%), out of which most of the research is conducted on Muslim women living in the Western world (Hussain & Cunningham, 2022). Thereby, an imaginative understanding is developed of Muslims (both men and women) living in the Global South based on misrepresentation and epistemic bias. For example, in the extant scholarship, Muslim men are seen from the eyes of an Outsider (‘them’) that needed to be integrated within the Western (‘us’) sporting phenomenon. At the same time, Muslim women are categorized as either victim of their culture or warranting independence via the help of White men. Hence, a theoretical understanding of the experiences of Muslim women and men athletes is bounded to the Eurocentric worldview.

Orientalism and Western Academia

Edward Said’s (1978) work on Orientalism offers a theoretical tool to dismantle how Western sport management scholars perceive non-Western communities, particularly Muslims and Arabs, in contrast to Western societies. Said argued that Western Orientalist researchers have covertly and overtly recognized that there occurs a difference between the Eastern and Western culture; thus, scholars, before investigating any research problem, start their theoretical bordering by constructing a binary division between the East (‘them’) and the West (‘us’). Therefore, an epistemologically biased discourse is shaped, strengthening the ideology that the West is ‘supreme’ and the ‘East’ is inferior.

The Way Forward for the Academy- Epistemic Healing and Breaking the Silence

Following Khan and Naguib’s (2017) recommendations, I propose the notion of epistemic healing as an adequate critical reply to reverse and dismantle epistemic violence against the Muslim community in sport management research. Epistemic healing starts with recognizing the epistemic violence already present in the scholarship. Further, the Muslim and Arab community voices from the Global South need acknowledgment. Lastly, scholars of the Global South need to unite and break the silence against the Euro-centric regime governing the sport management academy. Yes, I call for our liberation and healing!!!!!! 

References

Chen, C., & Mason, D. S. (2018). A postcolonial reading of representations of non-western leadership in sport management studies. Journal of Sport Management, 32(2), 150–169. https://doi.org/10.1123/jsm.2017-0160

Chen, C., & Mason, D. S. (2019). Making settler colonialism visible in sport management. Journal of Sport Management, 33(5), 379–392. https://doi.org/10.1123/jsm.2018-0243

Hussain, U. (2021). Unconventional means to enhance Muslim women’s inclusion in sports. Doctoral dissertation, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from hhttps://hdl.handle.net /1969.1 /193290

Hussain, U., & Cunningham, G. B. (2022). The Muslim community and sport scholarship: A scoping review to advance sport management research. European Sport Management Quarterly, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/16184742.2022.2134434

Khan, F. R., & Naguib, R. (2017). Epistemic healing: A critical ethical response to epistemic violence in business ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 156(1), 89–104. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3555-x

Said, E. W. (1978). Orientalism. Pantheon Books

Singer, J. N. (2005). Addressing epistemological racism in sport management research. Journal of Sport Management, 19(4), 464–479. https://doi.org/10.1123/jsm.19.4.464