Abstract
For a number of years, but most particularly since the events of 9/11 and the transport bombings in London in 2005 (7/7), Muslim youth in Britain have been subjected to a corrosive stereotyping (Hamid, 2011). Youth, in particular male youth, have been at times portrayed as ripe for radicalisation, while female youth struggle with stereotypes related to misogynist religious traditions. While these constructions do little to enhance our understanding of British Muslim youth, they have become commonplace in media, policy and academic circles (Hamid, 2011). The attention to the Muslim youth potential for radicalisation and terrorism masks not only the reality of life for these youth but also serves to shroud the everyday experiences of youth in a veil of suspicion whereby identity categories become statements of loyalty or disloyalty to the state, where identity ranking is required to demonstrate national allegiance, where expressions of support for victims of war become an ideological position on terrorism and where transnational relationships become potential terrorist networks. These stereotypes also obscure the realities of youth processes, developments that are central to that period and shared across cultural, political and religious boundaries (Hamid, 2011). This chapter will address the notion of victimisation as experienced and expressed by Muslim youth in London and also examine the exclusion and othering experienced by this group.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Allen, C. (2010) ‘Fear and loathing: The political discourse in relation to Muslims and Islam in the British contemporary setting’, Politics and Religion, 2 (4), 297–313.
Anderson, B. (2006) Imagined Communities (London: Verso).
Awan, A. (2007) ‘Radicalization on the internet?’ The RUSI Journal, 152, 76–81.
Bam-Hutchison, J. (2008) Race, Faith, and UK Policy: A Brief History. A brief historical interpretation of the background to diversity and equality policy created in the UK. Available from: http://www.york.ac.uk/ipup/projects/raceandfaith/discussion/bam-hutchison.html. Accessed 12 March 2012.
BBC News (2003) Million March Against Iraq War. 16 February. Available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/2765041.stm. Accessed 26 April 2012.
Brighton, S. (2007) ‘British Muslims, multiculturalism and UK Foreign policy: Integration and Cohesion in and beyond the state’, International Affairs, 83 (1), 1–17.
Briley, D. A. and Wyer, R. S. (2002) ‘The effect of group membership salience of avoidance of negative outcomes. Implications for social and consumer decisions’, Journal of Consumer Research, 400, 400–415.
Chakraborti, N. (2012) ‘Introduction: Hate crime victimisation’, International Review of Victimology, 18 (3), 3–6.
Charmaz, K. (2006) Constructing Grounded Theory; A Practical Guide Through Qualitative Analysis (London: Sage).
Communities and Local Government (2005) Preventing Extremism Together, Working Group Report. Available from: http://www.communities.gov.uk/archived/publications/communities/preventingextremismtogether. Accessed 10 June 2011.
Copsey, N. (2010) The english defence league challenging our country and our values of social inclusion, fairness and equality. Available from: www.Faith-Matters.org. Accessed 12 March 2012.
Esposito, J. L. (1999). The Islamic Threat, Myth or Reality? (New York: Oxford University Press).
Fenwick, H. and Choudhury, T. (2011) The impact of counter-terrorism measures on Muslim communities. Equality and Human Rights Commission. Available from: http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/uploaded_files/research/counter-terrorism_research_report_72.pdf. Accessed 21 May 2013.
Githens Mazer, J. and Lambert, R. (2010) Islamophobia and Anti Muslim Hate Crime UK Case Studies. Available from: http://centres.exeter.ac.uk/emrc/publications/IAMHC_revised_11Feb11.pdf. Accessed 7 May 2012.
Halliday, F. (1999) ‘Review article “Islamophobia” reconsidered’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 22 (5), 892–902.
Hamid, S. (2011) ‘Mapping youth work with Muslims in Britain’, Youth Work and Islam, 2, 83–97.
Hillyard, P. (1993) Suspect Communities (London: Pluto Press).
Hogg, M. and Vaughan, G. (2002) Social Psychology, 3rd Edition (New Jersey: Prentice Hall).
Hopkins, N. (2011) ‘Dual identities and their recognition: Minority group members’ Perspectives’, Political Psychology, 32 (2), 251–270.
Hopkins, N., Blackwood, L. and Richer, S. (2011) Muslim encounters at airports: The production of disengagement. PDRA Research Project. Available from: http://www.sipr.ac.uk/downloads/AnnRep2011/Muslim_encounters.pdf. Accessed 10 August 2012.
Jeremy, A. W. (2003) ‘Religious Offences’, Ecclesiastical Law Journal, 7 (33), 127–142.
Kegley, C. W. (2002). The New Global Terrorism: Characteristics, Causes, Controls (New Jersey: Prentice Hall).
Kundnani, A. (2005) ‘The politics of a phoney Britishness. There can be no social cohesion while an entire group of citizens is cast as the enemy within’, The Guardian Friday 21 January 2005. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2005/jan/21/islamandbritain.comment11.
Lambert, R. (2011) Countering al-Qaida in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership (London: Hurst).
Landau, M. J., Johns, M., Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., Martens, A. Goldberg, J. L. and Solomon, S. (2004) ‘A function of form: Terror management and the structuring of the social world’, Journal of Personal and Social Psychology, 87, 190–210.
Liberty (2004) The Impact of Anti-Terrorism powers on the British Muslim Population. Available from: http://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/policy/reports/impact-of-anti-terror-measures-on-british-muslims-june-2004.pdf. Accessed 24 October 2013.
Lousberg, M., Griffioen-Young, H. J., Dyevre, A. and Goetz, P. (2010) Containing radicalisation in modern. Europe CRIME project for the Directorate-General for Justice, Security and Liberty. Available from: http://www.nuansa.nl/uploads/e3/b7/e3b7c9d6fbbdc87899e811b6eb8924f3/CRIME.pdf.
Lynch, O. (2013) ‘British Muslim youth: Radicalisation, terrorism and the construction of the ‘other”, Critical Studies in Terrorism, 6 (2), 241–261.
MacDonald, L. Z. (2011) ‘Securing identities. Resisting terrorism: Muslim youth work in the UK and its implications for security’, Religion, State and Society, 39 (2), 177–189.
Mandaville, P. (2009) ‘Muslim transnational identity and state responses in Europe and the UK after 9/11: Political community, ideology and authority’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 35 (3k), 491–506.
Mayors Office (2006) Muslims in London (London: Greater London Authority). Available from: http://legacy.london.gov.uk/gla/publications/equalities/muslims-in-london.pdf.
Meer, N. and Modood, T. (2009) ‘The multicultural state we’re in: Muslims, multi-culture and the civic re-balancing of British multiculturalism’, Political Studies, 57, 473–497.
Muhammad, A. (2005) ‘Issues, policy and practice’ in T. Abbas (ed.) Muslim Britain: Communities under Pressure (London: Zed Books). pp 31–46.
Muslim Council of Great Britain (2012). The Muslim Council of Britain — its history, structure and workings. Available online at http://www.mcb.org.uk/downloads/MCB_acheivments.pdf. Accessed August 10th, 2012.
Muslim Parliament of Great Britain (2012). The Muslim Parliament — a Historical Background. Available from: http://www.muslimparliament.org.uk/history.htm. Accessed 10 August 2012.
Nagel, J. (1994) ‘Constructing ethnicity: Creating and recreating ethnic identity and culture’, Social Problems, 41 (1), 152–176.
Nickels, H. C., Thomas, L., Hickman, M. and Silvestri, S. (2012) ‘Constructing “suspect” communities and Britishness: Mapping British coverage of Irish and Muslim communities, 1974–2007’, European Journal of Communication, 27, 135–151.
Pantazis, C. and Pemberton, S. (2009) ‘From the old to the new suspect community. Examining the impacts of recent UK counter-terrorist legislation’, British Journal of Criminology, 49, 646–666.
Peek, L. (2005) ‘Becoming Muslim: The development of a religious identity’, Sociology of Religion, 66 (3), 215–242.
Poole, E. (2002) Reporting Islam: Media Representations of British Muslims (London: Tauris).
Post, J. M. and Sheffer, G. (2007) ‘The rise of radicalisation and terrorism in US Muslim communitites’, Brown Journal of World Affairs, 13 (2), 101–112.
Priest, D. (2005) Wrongful imprisonment: Anatomy of a CIA mistake. Washington Post 4 December. Available from: http://www.kuwaitifreedom.org/media/pdf/Washington%20Post%20December%204,%202005.pdf. Accessed 14 May 2012.
Ramadan, T. (2002) ‘Islam and Muslims in Europe: A silent revolution toward rediscovery’ in Y. Haddad (ed.) Muslims in the West. From Sojourners to Citizens (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Rydgren, J. (2007) ‘The power of the past. A contribution to a Cognitive Sociology of ethnic conflict’, Sociological Theory, 25 (3), 225–244.
Samad, Y. (2004) Muslim Youth in Britain: Ethnic to Religious Identity. Paper presented at the International Conference Muslim Youth in Europe. Typologies of religious belonging and sociocultural dynamics, Edoardo Agnelli Centre for Comparative Religious Studies, Turin, 11th June 2004. Available from: http://www.cestim.it/argomenti/02islam/02islam_uk_sanad.pdf. Accessed 15 July 2012.
Samad, Y. (1998) ‘Media and Muslim identity: Intersection of generation and gender’, Innovation: European Journal of Social Science, 10(4), pp 425–438.
Schmid, A. (2012) Strengthening the role of victims and incorporating victims in efforts to counter violent extremism and terrorism. ICCT Research Paper. Available from: http://www.icct.nl/download/file/ICCT-Schmid-Strengthening-the-Role-of-Victims-August-2012.pdf. Accessed 12 January 2014.
Spalek, B. and Imtoual, A. (2007) ‘“Hard” approaches to community engagement in the UK and Australia: Muslim communities and counter-terror response’, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 27 (2), 185–202.
Spalek, B. and Lambert, B. (2008) ‘Muslim communities, counter-terrorism and counter-radicalisation: A critically reflective approach to engagement’, International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, 36, 257–270.
Spalek, B. and Lambert, R. (2007) ‘Muslim communities under surveillance’, Criminal Justice Matters, 68 (1), 12–13.
Stalker, P. (2000) Workers without Frontiers. The Impact of Globalisation on International Migration (Boulder, CO.: Lynne Rienner Publishers Inc.).
Terrorism Act (2000) Available from: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/11/contents. Accessed 10 June 2014.
Terrorism Act (2006) Available from: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/11/contents. Accessed 10 June 2014.
The Runnymeade Trust (1997) Islamophobia; A challenge for us all. Report of the Runnymede Trust, Commission of British Muslims and Islamophobia. Available from: http://www.runnymedetrust.org/uploads/publications/pdfs/islamophobia.pdf.
Werbner, P. (2009) ‘Revisiting the UK Muslim diasporic public sphere at a time of terror: From local (benign) invisible spaces to seditious conspiratorial spaces and the “Failure of Multiculturalism” discourse’, South Asian Diaspora, 1 (1), 19–45.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2015 Orla Lynch
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lynch, O. (2015). Suspicion, Exclusion and Othering since 9/11: The Victimisation of Muslim Youth. In: Argomaniz, J., Lynch, O. (eds) International Perspectives on Terrorist Victimisation. Rethinking Political Violence Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137347114_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137347114_8
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-46725-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-34711-4
eBook Packages: Palgrave Intern. Relations & Development CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)