Interrogating representations of “militants” and “terrorists” in the United States’ Militant Imagery Project and the Counterterrorism Calendar

Abstract

This article adopts a post-colonial approach to analyse representations of "militants" and "terrorists" in the United States' Militant Imagery Project (MIP) and the Counterterrorism Calendar. It argues that sites such as the MIP and the Calendar produce meanings of "militant" and "terrorist," wherein Muslims/Arabs are linked with violence. At the same time, similar violence committed by rightwing extremists, gun owners, and so on are ignored. There is also a related assumption about an uncritical, homogeneous audience gazing at these images. All of these serve to continually securitise Muslims and Arabs in the United States. This article aims to dismantle this racialised meaning by illustrating processes through which sites such as the MIP and the Calendar link "militant" and "terrorist" violence with Muslims and Islam. In doing so, they erase Western-led and state-sanctioned violence from representations of "terrorism." By outlining these erasures and silences, this article questions the meanings of "militants" and "terrorists" produced and communicated by the MIP and the Counterterrorism Calendar. It also directs attention to the socio-political and ethical implications of selectively labelling only some violence and violent actors as "terrorist." ARTICLE HISTORY

Terrorism Studies beyond counter-counterterrorism: opening the door to Jenseits

“…In a similar vein, writers like Chukwuma (2021;, Lunstrum (2009) and Sharp (2011) have documented how Indigenous governments emerging after the terror of colonisation have attempted to solidify their Lord-subjectivity through appeals to their ability to protect Bondsmen-citizens against the 'terrorism' of their factional enemies. Others have interrogated the strategies through which terrorism and terrorists are constituted as figures of living death in postcolonial literature (Malreddy 2015;Monaco 2021), in legislation, public statements and policy documents published by postcolonial and (neo-)imperial states (Dixit 2016;Feyyaz 2016;McQuade 2020;Meier 2022;Merskin 2004); in Counterterrorism practices in postcolonial states (Abu-Bakare 2020; Anwa & Işleyen 2023; Finden & Dutta 2024; Parashar 2018); and in news and popular media discourses both in the colony and the homeland of the coloniser (Ahmad 2016;Featherstone et al 2010;Khan 2021;Martini 2018;Nacos 2005).…”