Between Normalisation and Exception: The Securitisation of Islam and the Construction of the Secular Subject

Abstract

In recent political and scholarly debates, the notion of 'securitisation of Islam' has acquired increasing relevance, yet very little attempt has been made to investigate the theoretical implications of the securitisation of Muslim subjects carried out by secular regimes for thinking security. This article aims to partially fill this gap by exploring the securitisation of Muslim minorities in Western societies as a process of construction and reproduction of secular modes of subjectivity. To this end, the article outlines the contours of an approach to securitisation which draws on both the Copenhagen and the Paris schools of security studies, as well as on a gender/body perspective which focuses on the subjectivities that securitisation aims to produce. Following some illustrations of the securitisation of Islam in the aftermath of 9/11 and 7/7, an exploration of a Western notion of subjectivity revolving around the securitisation of Christianity and the construction of Islam as a threatening deviation from this historical trajectory, and an analysis of the securitisation of the headscarf and the burqa in France, the article concludes that securitisation rests on both logics of political normalisation and exception which warrant an exploration of the discursive sediments which make them possible.

Branding Rights: The position of political cartoons in the securitisation of population groups in a democracy

“…Literature looking at the processes of securitization beyond the traditional framework has placed emphasis on the role of images in securitisation as they are designed from a particular ideological outlook and projected to a known audience (Williams 2003, McDonald 2008, Rostbøll 2009& Mavelli, 2012. A seminal work by Hansen (2011b) presents an intervisual and intertextual model that can be used to analyse the social processes that underpin securitisation of a threat beyond the linguistic process.…”

“…Within the field of security studies, the process of securitisation refers to the emergence of an existential threat as a result of the politicisation of particular threats (Williams 2003, McDonald 2008, Rostbøll 2009& Mavelli, 2012. Traditional security frameworks placed significant importance on assuring security militarily and ideologically (Buzan et al, 1998).…”

Freunde führen einander – Der kommunalpolitische Dialog mit dem „Islam“ im Modus einer Gouvernementalität der Freundschaft

“…Verstärkt seit den 2000er Jahren sind "Islam" und "Muslime" zu den Objekten integrations-und sicherheitspolitischer Überlegungen und Maßnahmen in Deutschland und Europa geworden (Schiffauer, 2006(Schiffauer, , 2008Tezcan, 2007;Silvestri, 2010;Rodatz, 2012;Mavelli, 2013;Spielhaus, 2013). Diese Zugriffe reproduzieren vielfach die Vorstellung einer homogenen, spezifisch integrationsbedürftigen "muslimischen" Bevölkerungsgruppe und können ferner als Ausdruck einer allgemeinen Kulturalisierung gesellschaftlicher Selbstbeschreibungen gedeutet werden (Tezcan, 2011b).…”

“…Er fasst lokale Dialogmaßnahmen als Machttechnologien, die auf die Re-Konfigurierung "muslimischer" Identitäten zielen. Die lokale Perspektive verspricht dabei neue Einsichten, insofern der politische und gesellschaftliche Umgang mit "Islam" bislang überwiegend mit Blick auf die nationale (und supra-nationale) Ebene thematisiert wurde (Koenig, 2003;Modood et al, 2006;Tezcan, 2009Tezcan, , 2012Peter, 2008Peter, , 2010Silvestri, 2010;Amir-Moazami, 2011a;Mavelli, 2013;Schiffauer, 2006;Schubert und Meyer, 2011;Isik und Schmitz, 2015). Ich werde argumentieren, dass der Dialog mit dem "Islam" als eine emotionalisierte Technologie lokaler Vergemeinschaftung gefasst werden kann (De Wilde, 2015).…”

Security Traps and Discourses of Radicalization: Examining Surveillance Practices Targeting Muslims in Canada

“…Canadian officials, often citing the successfulness of the U.K. "Prevent" strategy, are positioned to follow a similar course and, in effect, risk fulfilling Hacking's "looping effect" (1995) where human kinds are reconstituted to fit the categories that have been pre-designed to understand them. A net result of the emerging fixation on domestic Muslim radicalization-what Mavelli (2013) has called the securitization of Islam-is a feedback loop that simply re-circulates demands for more programs, more information gathering, more surveillance. Scholarship from critical security studies and Surveillance Studies can offer useful guidance for critically analyzing these contemporary trends.…”