An international research network exploring the representation of Muslim identities in contemporary cultural discourses.

Katherine Brown and Tahir Abbas, April 17 2008

Last Updated on Wednesday, 02 September 2009 22:35

Katherine Brown discussed the impact of security debates in the UK on the development of British Muslim identities and citizenship in her presentation:  'Gender, Security and Citizenship: the gendered politics in and of Britain's Muslim communities', and Tahir Abbas discusses media representations in his presentation:  'Islamophobia and media (mis)representation: a post 07/07 analysis'

This event took place at SOAS, April 17 2008

Speaker: Katherine Brown

Paper Title: 'Gender, Security and Citizenship: the gendered politics in and of Britain's Muslim communities'

Abstract:This paper assesses the impact of security debates in the UK on the development of British Muslim identities and citizenship. The discourses of state agencies locate Islam and Muslim communities not simply as "problem communities" but as security concerns. Thus, debates about how minority communities can realise rights and citizenship are more than the 'politics of difference' and now include the 'politics of fear'. This paper argues that for some Muslim women adopting a religio-political identity has enabled complex forms of political engagement with the state through the opening up of 'opportunity spaces' generated by security discourses. Paradoxically, this engagement relies on and challenges both the "politics of fear" and the "politics of difference". The paper uses 'gender' as a variable by focusing on Muslim women and as an analytical category with which to deconstruct the simplified assumptions prevailing in the securitization of Muslim communities. The paper will focus on three case studies: shari'a law debates in the UK; the pro-hijab campaigns and the 'forced marriage-immigration' debate.

Speaker Biography: Katherine recently joined the department of Defence Studies of Kings College London, prior to which she had been a lecturer in the Department of Politics and IR at the University of Southampton. Her current research project examines the role and appropriation of Muslim women in security politics/policies in the UK. Another element within this research considers Muslim women's participation in political violence and resistance. This research stems from an interest in the role of gender in the securitisation of political Islam as part of the 'war on terror'.

Speaker: Tahir Abbas

Title: 'Islamophobia and media (mis)representation: a post 07/07 analysis'

Brief Description
Tahir Abbas shows how contemporary representations of Muslims in the news and entertainment media rely on a longstanding structure of feeling having its roots in the twin projects of Orientalism and colonialism. 9/11 and the War on terror have merely given fresh impetus to existing stereotypes depicting Muslims as the West’s demonic and dangerous Other which also work to distract attention from key factors in alienation such as racism and economic deprivation. Abbas uses the examples of the Danish cartoon controversy and British politician Jack Straw’s comments on veiling to show how the news media recycles imagery while ignoring the pre-history of the very tropes it deploys.

Speaker Biography: Tahir Abbas is Reader in Sociology and Director of the Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Culture at the University of Birmingham. He was previously a Senior Research Officer at the Home Office as well as the Department for Constitutional Affairs in London, Project Director of Race Equality West Midlands in Worcester, ESRC Research Fellow at the University of Central England Business School, and PhD Research Student at the University of Warwick Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations. He has published widely and his key books include, The Education of British South Asians, and as editor, Muslim Britain, Islamic Political Radicalism, and Immigration and Race Relations: Sociology and John Rex (with Frank Reeves).

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