Saher Selod

The Racialization of Muslims: Empirical Studies of Islamophobia:

Racialization is a concept that is theoretically underdeveloped. Although there has been an increased interest in Islamophobia since 9/11, it is very rarely discussed as racial in its nature. In this special issue on Islamophobia and the Racialization of Muslims scholars connect racism to Islamophobia. This issue situates racialization as a way to explain and understand Islamophobia, as racism towards a Muslim population. Through empirical studies, this issue uncovers the processes of racialization of Muslims and the rise of Islamophobia in both Europe and the USA. Case studies include the experiences of middle-class US Muslims; of white British converts to Islam; of young working-class British-Pakistani men; policing practices in Ireland; and the construction of Muslim identities through online comments about a reality television show. As well as identifying some issues specific to the nation, each case study also reveals the intersection of the racialization process with class and gender experiences.

Citizenship Denied: The Racialization of Muslim American Men and Women post-9/11

The racialization of Muslim Americans is examined in this article. Qualitative in-depth interviews with 48 Muslim Americans reveal they experience more intense forms of questioning and contestation about their status as an American once they are identified as a Muslim. Because Islam has become synonymous with terrorism, patriarchy, misogyny, and anti-American sentiments, when participants were identified as Muslims they were treated as if they were a threat to American cultural values and national security. Their racialization occurred when they experienced de-Americanization, having privileges associated with citizenship such as being viewed as a valued member of society denied to them. This article highlights the importance of gender in the process of racialization. It also demonstrates the need for race scholarship to move beyond a black and white paradigm in order to include the racialized experiences of second and third generations of newer immigrants living in the USA.

The Politics of Islamophobia

Islamophobia has been widely understood as a fear of Islam and therefore largely understood to be about religious discrimination. In the years since 9/11, there has been a growing body of scholarship on Islamophobia, as the war on terror persists globally. One of the main critiques of these studies is their failure to recognize Islamophobia as a form of racism against Muslims. Reducing Islamophobia to a fear of religion ignores how Muslim bodies have become racialized, and subsequently how Muslims have been increasingly discriminated against. A fear of Islam is a fear of Muslims. In The Politics of Islamophobia, David Tyrer makes a compelling case for how Islamophobia is essentially about race. He states,

Imagining the Radicalized Muslim: Race, Anti-Muslim Discourse, and Media Narratives of the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombers

The authors explore the production of anti-Muslim racial discourse through a study of media coverage of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, widely seen as among the most significant acts of “homegrown” (i.e., born and/or raised in Western societies) Muslim terrorism on U.S. soil since 9/11. Drawing on news accounts and accompanying online reader comments from the Boston Globe, CBS Boston, and the New York Times, the authors examine the emergence of frames and narratives about the perpetrators, two brothers who were long-time U.S. residents and Muslims of Chechen origin. Findings point to the development of a color-blind anti-Muslim racial discourse that simultaneously affirms Muslim difference and makes claims to an absence of hostility and discrimination toward Muslims through a narrative of radicalization. Informed by the field of terrorism studies and counterterrorism policy making, the narrative of Muslim radicalization draws attention to individual life trajectories in which psychological and theological factors combine with exposure to radical Islamist groups to propel young “homegrown” Muslims toward extremism and violence. The potential for this narrative to challenge notions of intrinsic Muslim difference is limited by its reliance on a series of nested binaries of good versus evil and the West versus Islam as well as the incorporation of a racialized notion of violent potential whereby Muslims are seen as intrinsically inclined toward extremist violence.

Review of Race Scholarship and the War on Terror

The 9/11 terrorist attacks and heavy-handed state and popular response to them stimulated increased scholarship on American Muslims. In the social sciences, this work has focused mainly on Arabs and South Asians, and more recently on African Americans. The majority of this scholarship has not engaged race theory in a comprehensive or intersectional manner. The authors provide an overview of the work on Muslims over the past 15 years and argue that the Muslim experience needs to be situated within race scholarship. The authors further show that September 11 did not create racialized Muslims, Arabs, or South Asians. Rather, the authors highlight a preexisting, racializing war on terror and a more complex history of these groups with race both globally and domestically. Islamophobia is a popular term used to talk about Muslim encounters with discrimination, but the concept lacks a clear understanding of race and structural racism. Newer frameworks have emerged situating Muslim experiences within race scholarship. The authors conclude with a call to scholars to embark on studies that fill major gaps in this emerging field of study—such as intersectional approaches that incorporate gender, communities of belonging, black Muslim experiences, class, and sexuality—and to remain conscious of the global dimensions of this racial project.

The 9/11 generation: youth, rights and solidarity in the war on terror

this book: firstly, those interested in understanding the war on terror and how it is operationalized through colonial-racialized-Islamophobic logics. Secondly, those who “perform” for a white-gaze by wearing masks because they have been interpellated into whiteness. Finally, those, like me, who feel pressured and coerced by whiteness to don “masks” in order to live their lives as Muslims in a structurally and physically violent world. Whilst my journey to remove my “moderate mask” and reveal my “radical skin” to liberate myself from the claws of structural racism, Islamophobia, and whiteness only began properly in mid-2015, what Morsi’s book has done is empowered and inspired me to increase the speed with which I travel. This sense of empowerment and inspiration it therefore gives the reader makes Radical Skin, Moderate Masks a book that will remain relevant and relatable for Muslims and people of colour for many years to come. It is also why Muslims, people of colour and their allies who practically and epistemically work to resist structural racism and Islamophobia should not only read this book but encourage others to read it too.

Gendered racialization: Muslim American men and women’s encounters with racialized surveillance

ABSTRACT Muslim American men and women are increasingly encountering surveillance by the state and by their fellow private citizen. Interviews with 48 South Asian and Arab Muslim American men and women in the Chicago and Dallas–Ft. Worth areas reveal that Muslims are racialized in unique ways guided by their gender. This article shows the importance gender plays in organizing how Muslim men’s and women’s bodies are racially surveilled in the War on Terror. Muslim American bodies are subjected to gendered racialization via their hyper surveillance by the state and their fellow private citizen. While South Asian and Arabs have already been racialized as a result of their ethnicity, there are newer racial meanings imparted to their bodies because of their religious identity that is guided by gender. This article highlights the importance of gender in the process of racialization.

Islamophobia and Racism in AmericaIslamophobia and Racism in America, by LoveErik. New York: New York University Press, 2017. 272 pp.

Even then, much of the presentation of the cases involves recapitulating the abstract theoretical models and showing how they apply, rather than crafting a historical narrative comparing his cases using his rich, detailed knowledge of politics and policy in each country. As a result, much of the evidence, including 143 in-depth interviews with labor and civic activists, gets buried under the book’s theoretical apparatus. Related to this, Lee seeks to bolster his already convincing comparative and historical analysis with use of game theoretical models and network analysis. However, it is unclear what ‘‘gaming out’’ the universe of possible outcomes adds to the analysis beyond what could be obtained with a simple two-by-two table cross-tabulating degrees of embeddedness and cohesiveness. Similarly, the network analysis adds little to the argument, especially since the figures showing the results of the network analysis are presented with virtually no context, interpretation, or description of how exactly they were generated. Fortunately, this in no way detracts from what is a masterful comparative analysis of welfare-state development in late-industrializing countries. The book clearly shows why more serious engagement with the study of parties and unions as organizational vehicles linking states and civil society is warranted. It is a thoughtful, carefully researched, and most welcome addition to a new generation of scholarship in political sociology.

28.00 paper. ISBN: 9781479838073.

emerging powers. The chapter on China explores the paradoxical situation that China faces: its economic success constrains rather than aids its ability to aggressively pursue its own interests in trade liberalization within the WTO. China has thus eschewed a leadership role in the WTO to avoid the backlash of both western countries and countries in the South that tend to see China as a threat. The India chapter provides a powerful challenge to the United States’s rhetoric that the emerging economies are not holding up their end of the trade liberalization bargain. Hopewell demonstrates that India is not spoiling the trade liberalization party but rather has significant interests in the liberalization of services and has indeed pursued substantial unilateral liberalization. However, India must balance the interests of its internationally competitive IT sector with less competitive, politically sensitive sectors like agriculture. This mercantilist approach to WTO negotiations is not illiberal but rather central to the design of the WTO; moreover, it reflects the strategy long used by the United States and other advanced-industrialized states. Overall, this is an engaging and important book that is essential for anyone studying the global trade system, including students in graduate and undergraduate classes on globalization, development, and trade. At its root, Hopewell reminds us that inter-state competition is an enduring feature of the global capitalist system that shapes who wins and loses at different historical moments.