From Virtual Internment to Actual Liberation: The Epistemic and Ontic Resistance of US Muslims to the Ideology of (Counter)terrorism–Islamophobia/Islamophilia

Abstract

This paper draws from my radical qualitative research on the link between Islamophobia/Islamophilia and (counter)terrorism in the US. For my book, Decolonial Psychoanalysis, I interviewed 19 US Muslims asking them about not only their experiences with Islamophobia but also, and more significantly, how they resist it. My conclusion, based on the analysis, is that US Muslims resist Islamophobia in at least two distinct ways: epistemically and ontically. These forms of resistance constitute what I call “actual liberation”.

Multidimensional Social Crisis and Religion Harassment in Southeast Asia

“…So far, Islamophobia is considered as one way of attacking the problem of terrorism, radicalism, and fundamentalism (Beshara, 2019). Islamophobia as a social reality seems to be a solution to eradicate hatred and terror (Gilks, 2020).…”

Racialization of public discourse: portrayal of Islam and Muslims

“…Further, the self-representation of ‘mainstream Muslim leaders’ could provide an opportunity for Muslims to “negotiate and perform politics of belonging and inclusion in United States” and resist Islamophobia according to McGinty (2012) . Beshara (2019) claimed that Muslims in United States used epistemic and ontic methods to resist Islamophobia and believed that these methods of resistance were the ‘actual liberation’.…”

Decolonizing Everyday Islamophobia Through an Antiterrorist Ethic of Resistance

“…Additionally, this essay is a contribution to my critical psychological project of “decolonial psychoanalysis” (Beshara, 2018b; Beshara, in press), which is fundamentally informed by Said’s (1978) radical humanism. Radical humanism is critical of “liberal humanism, of which Orientalism has historically been one department” (p. 254).…”