Decolonizing Everyday Islamophobia Through an Antiterrorist Ethic of Resistance

Abstract

Decolonizing everyday Islamophobia entails both reflecting on and transforming the epistemology of (structural and interactional) Islamophobia through a radical humanist ontology. A manifestation of this ontology is an antiterrorist ethic of resistance, which involves a nonviolent praxis: a gesture of love. A gesture of love from the oppressed is the transmodern/decolonial corrective to the (counter)terrorism dispositif. This essay is written for scholar–activists, particularly critical psychologists, who desire working within a radical humanist framework in their struggle against everyday Islamophobia.

Introduction to the Special Issue on Radical Humanism, Critical Consciousness, and Social Change

“…We are pleased to introduce the scholarship within this special issue that collectively harnesses critical principles of radical intersectional humanism to transcend borders, decolonize practice and pedagogy, and support activism and solidarity. We begin with Beshara’s (2019) contribution on the decolonization of everyday Islamophobia through epistemological reflection and transformation vis-à-vis a humanistic ethic of resistance. Atallah, Bacigalupe, and Repetto (2019) trace the concept of resilience, and the ways in which it has been used in the context of natural disaster relief and response, through a critical community praxis.…”

“…Taken together, these submissions have challenged hegemonic psychological ontologies and epistemologies toward a lens of radical intersectional humanism (Hoffman, 2016). For example, Beshara (2019) dismantles a dialectic that foments everyday Islamophobia by employing a humanistic ontology—a “gesture of love.” Atallah et al (2019) bring to light uneven distributions of power, revealing that disasters are not as “natural” as they might seem but indeed are influenced in their creation and their impacts by the human forces of neoliberalism, coloniality, predatory capitalism, and human caused climate change. Similarly, Ingle, Peters, and Karter et al repoliticize the individual through humanistic analyses that contextualize individuals within their institutional climates as they examine the impact of ethnocentrism, neoliberalism, and sexual violence.…”