Dune and Islam

With the release of the 2021 film Dune, a conversation about Dune’s depiction of religion and it’s connection to Islam has been re-ignited. For this episode, Vivian Asimos and Aled Thomas want to dig into the depictions of Islam in Dune, especially following scriptwriter John Spaihts comment about Islam in the current day versus when Frank Herbert wrote his book in the 1960s. We talk about Islamic history, and how Islam’s history means that Islam also has a future. We discuss the notion of Jihad in Islam, as well as Talal Asad’s conception of Islam as a “discursive tradition”.

You can read Haris Durraini’s close reading of the religion appendix in Dune here.

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Follow Vivian on twitter and instagram @vivianasimos, or go to her website incidentalmythology.com

Follow Aled on twitter @aledjllthomas