This paper explores the socio-political dimensions of the strategies that have been employed in the UK against Islamic terrorism following the attacks of 9/11/2001 in the United States. The role that Muslims, as a suspect population, play must be contextualized within the socio-political framework of late modernity. This framework will be posited as a driver behind the increased isolation, exclusion and embitterment of Muslim communities in the UK. One of the main arguments proposed is a prompt for governments and counterterrorism forces to: address the drivers and ideological grounds on which radicalisation and terrorism pose a threat; tackle the socio-political grievances experienced by Muslims; and partner with and empower Muslim communities. The British multi-pronged counter-terrorism strategy will be explored in order to demonstrate that some soft measures aimed at deradicalising vulnerable individuals, marginalising extremists, removing the human capital and support for terrorist organisations and improving both the dialogue with and the integration of Muslim communities within wider society should be among the top priorities. Such measures would be essential in order to achieve durable results in fighting Islamic terrorism at the grassroots level. In following such an approach, Britain will also have to face the challenges posed by both plural Muslim identities and communities and the differing Islamic and Western values and aim at achieving full social integration of Muslims within the wider society.
This paper argues that the Prevent strand of the British counter-terrorism strategy (CONTEST) and the related normalisation of exceptional measures to combat terrorism have had a significant impact on the ways in which Muslim communities can play out their Muslimness in Britain. State treatment of Muslims as a suspect community facilitates the (re)production of widespread Islamophobia that penetrates the social fabric and reinforces a popular image of Muslims as folk devils of late modernity. Those Muslims who exhibit popularly understood signifiers of their identity (e.g.: skin colour, beard, hijab) risk becoming an easy, immediate target for state discrimination and social prejudice. After exploring how this vicious cycle is produced and reproduced at both the macro-(state) level and the meso/micro (community and individual) level, some tentative recommendations will be provided. These recommendations advocate for: preventative measures that are grounded on bottomup approaches and that are able to empower Muslim communities; the promotion of a better, more nuanced understanding of Islam within broader society; and a reflection on the philosophical ideas of difference and diversity as they relate to the coexistence of pluralistic, multi-ethnic communities within post-modern, global societies.
This document may differ from the final, published version of the research and has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies. To read and/or cite from the published version of the research, please visit the publisher's website (a subscription may be required.) Visible Muslimness in Scotland: between discrimination and integration This paper casts light on the realities and perceptions of ethno-religious discrimination among Muslims in Scotland, with particular reference to those living in Edinburgh, during both everyday social interaction with the indigenous Scottish community and contact with police and security officers. Discrimination against ethnic minorities in Scotland can be traced back in history; however, it is its post-9/11 multifaceted form that has particularly targeted Muslims qua Muslims in a global climate of distrust and stigmatization. While publicly available statistics show a decrease in racist incidents in Scotland, findings from other studies illustrate a more complex situation, in which prejudice and discrimination intermingle in ways that make it hard to quantify the precise extent of anti-Muslim sentiments in Scotland. Qualitative data specifically collected in Edinburgh suggest that Muslims' hyper-visibility has triggered ethno-religious discrimination by some members of the non-Muslim majority. However, the daily experiences of life in Scotland, and the social relations with non-Muslims, are more heterogeneous and nuanced; they include overall positive views of, and a certain engagement with, many non-Muslims in a context of relative tolerance. Contact with police and security officers at airports constitute the main area of concern for Scottish Muslims, whose confidence, sense of equality and feelings of belonging to society is severely undermined by the securitization of their ethno-religious diversity. The path towards a pluralistic Scottishness rests on socio-political and institutional efforts to reduce the discrimination of visible diversity, especially at loci of security, and to include the symbolic and physical distinctiveness of Muslimness within Scottish porous cultural boundaries.
This paper explores the emergence of self-conscious Muslim identities a decade after 9/11 within a generally inclusive Scottish context. Qualitative fieldwork conducted among Muslims in Edinburgh between 2011 and 2013 suggests that Islam has come to the foreground of Muslims' multiple identities as a force that unites an ethno-culturally diverse community in a historical moment of perceived threat and exclusion. Muslims challenge the global post-9/11 negative climate and find in Islam a powerful tool of individual and collective survival. The global stigmatization of Muslimness has local ramifications in, but is not a specific function of, Scotland. Instead, Scotland generally appears to be a place of relative tolerance in which proudly Scottish Muslims can express their Muslimness with a certain degree of freedom. Scotland promotes a uniquely Scottish experience to be Muslim and acts as a conduit for positive, rediscovered religious experiences.
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