James Renton - Islamophobia and Surveillance (Ethnic and Racial Studies)

The War on Terror has established a new global order of political structures, legislation, and technologies designed to spy on the worlds Muslims. This book explains the origins and trajectories of this political system.

The contributors argue that a constellation of Western ideas about Muslims have evolved over time to produce an insatiable desire for all-pervasive, ever-expanding surveillance in our contemporary moment. The book posits that the surveillance order is not, however, only the result of conceptions of Muslims. It is, rather, the outcome of centuries of European thought regarding religion, governance, and revolution. Islamophobia and Surveillance traverses the existential desire for wakeful vigilance, the religious wars of early modern Europe, colonial India, the Balkan frontier of the EU, and the walls of the United States-Mexico border.

The consequences of the new surveillance order transcend the Wests Muslim Question and threaten the very existence of the liberal democratic state. This book will, therefore, be of interest to those studying a range of subjects related to international co-operation, modern political systems, and security studies, as well as Islamophobia.

Islamophobia and Surveillance was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

James Renton is Professor of History at Edge Hill University, UK, and Academic Advisor at MONITOR Global Intelligence on Racism at the European University Institute. He is the co-editor, with Ben Gidley, of Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe: A Shared Story? (2017).

Ethnic and Racial Studies

Series editors:

Martin Bulmer, University of Surrey, UK

John Solomos, University of Warwick, UK

The journal Ethnic and Racial Studies was founded in 1978 by John Stone to provide an international forum for high quality research on race, ethnicity, nationalism and ethnic conflict. At the time the study of race and ethnicity was still a relatively marginal subfield of sociology, anthropology and political science. In the intervening period the journal has provided a space for the discussion of core theoretical issues, key developments and trends, and for the dissemination of the latest empirical research.

It is now the leading journal in its field and has helped to shape the development of scholarly research agendas. Ethnic and Racial Studies attracts submissions from scholars in a diverse range of countries and fields of scholarship, and crosses disciplinary boundaries. It is now available in both printed and electronic form. Since 2015 it has published 15 issues per year, three of which are dedicated to Ethnic and Racial Studies Review offering expert guidance to the latest research through the publication of book reviews, symposia and discussion pieces, including reviews of work in languages other than English.

The Ethnic and Racial Studies book series contains a wide range of the journals special issues. These special issues are an important contribution to the work of the journal, where leading social science academics bring together articles on specific themes and issues that are linked to the broad intellectual concerns of Ethnic and Racial Studies. The series editors work closely with the guest editors of the special issues to ensure that they meet the highest quality standards possible. Through publishing these special issues as a series of books, we hope to allow a wider audience of both scholars and students from across the social science disciplines to engage with the work of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Most recent titles in the series include:

Rethinking Reconciliation and Transitional Justice After Conflict

Edited by James Hughes and Denisa Kostovicova

Migration and Race in Europe

Edited by Martin Bulmer and John Solomos

Race and Crisis

Edited by Suman Gupta and Satnam Virdee

Why Do We Still Talk About Race?

Edited by Martin Bulmer and John Solomos

Islamophobia and Surveillance

Genealogies of a Global Order

Edited by James Renton

Super-Diversity in Everyday Life

Edited by Jan Willem Duyvendak, Nancy Foner and Philip Kasinitz

The Mechanisms of Racialization Beyond the Black/White Binary

Edited by Bianca Gonzalez-Sobrino and Devon R. Goss

Edited by

James Renton

First published 2019

by Routledge

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and by Routledge

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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Introduction, Chapters 1-2, 4, 6 2019 Taylor & Francis

Chapter 3 2017 Anya Topolski. Originally published as Open Access.

Chapter 5 2018 Piro Rexhepi. Originally published as Open Access.

With the exception of Chapters 3 and 5, no part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. For details on the rights for Chapters 3 and 5, please see the chapters Open Access footnotes.

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 13: 978-0-367-19030-9

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Publishers Note

The publisher accepts responsibility for any inconsistencies that may have arisen during the conversion of this book from journal articles to book chapters, namely the inclusion of journal terminology.

Disclaimer

Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders for their permission to reprint material in this book. The publishers would be grateful to hear from any copyright holder who is not here acknowledged and will undertake to rectify any errors or omissions in future editions of this book.

James Renton

Gil Anidjar

James Renton

Anya Topolski

Rashna Darius Nicholson

Piro Rexhepi

Luis A. Romero and Amina Zarrugh

For Michael and Clem

This book is based on the 2015 ErRS symposium at Edge Hill University, UK. I would like to thank the ErRS convenors for their enthusiasm for the project, the University for funding the event, and Gil Anidjar for delivering the keynote. I am extremely grateful to the Editors of Ethnic and Racial Studies for giving us the opportunity to publish Islamophobia and Surveillance as a special issue, and now as a book. The journals Managing Editor, Amanda Eastell-Bleakley, ensured that the project remained on track with great patience and sage advice throughout; her contribution was invaluable.

The project derived from a book that I co-edited with Ben Gidley on the relationship between antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe. I wanted to investigate further the origins of what appeared to be a unique element of anti-Muslim racism. Yet, as the pages that follow show, the Islamophobic surveillance of the 21st century is embedded in centuries of Western thought regarding religion, governance, and revolution.