The global order of Muslim surveillance and its thought architecture

Abstract

This essay contends that since 2015 a global surveillance order has come into existence as a result of Islamophobia in the international political system in the context of the rise of Islamic State. With regard to the causes of Islamophobic surveillance, the article rejects the argument that it is a byproduct of the capitalist system. It asserts, rather, that the reasons for the surveillance order are to be found in the specific nature of the figure of the Muslim, and its genealogies over centuriesthe focus of this special issue. The particularities of Islamophobia in today's global war against Muslim terrorism demand a constant expansiona sort of imperialismof surveillance. This is the origin, missed in the literature, of the recent creation of security states, including permanent states of exception, in Europe.

The role of comparative victim beliefs in predicting support for hostile versus prosocial intergroup outcomes

“…Muslims are among the most dehumanized groups in these contexts (Kteily & Bruneau, 2017), and have been disproportionately targeted by surveillance measures and prosecutions that involve human rights abuses (Human Rights Watch, 2014;Renton, 2018).…”

Logics of care and control: governing European “returnees” from Iraq and Syria

“…In this strand of research, there is considerable criticism of Islamophobia and sexism that is seemingly built into the counterterrorism response. For example, Jiwani (2021) Andrews (2020) and Renton (2018) show how the development of an Islamophobic surveillance architecture and media tropes coconstitute the fear of the "foreign terrorist fighter", and Jackson (2021) highlights "as far as women are concerned, we remain temporarily in the same, ever-repeating moment: politically violent women are either vulnerable damsels in distress or monstrous, unfeminine villains" (no page). In this article, we consider whether there are connections to such gendered and racialised narratives of threat and rescue in the European governance of returnees.…”

Islamophobia

“…One way this is done, is through the expansion of Muslim securitisation in the War on Terror. According to Renton (2018Renton ( : 2126 this is 'the global imperialism of surveillance' which, as it expands, the more the idea of security remains insatiable and encroaches ever deeper into violating the rights of individuals. Here Britain, along with other nations, justified violent disciplining measures against Muslims.…”

“…In these narratives, the figure of the Muslim is an imposition, a disloyal element, corrupting the national imaginary (Osman 2017: 25). In the third theatre, the plight of the Muslims has increased in synchrony with the western securitisation policies (Renton 2018). While the wholesale Chinese and Myanmar measures are contrasting to those of the West.…”