When the FBI Knocks: Racialized State Surveillance of Muslims

Alimahomed-Wilson, Sabrina

doi:10.1177/0896920517750742

Cited by 32 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…The increase in hate crimes against Muslims and people perceived as Muslims has coincided with the implementation of federal policies that have led to increased government surveillance and profiling of Muslims in the U.S. (Alimahomed-Wilson, 2018;O'Connor & Jahan, 2014) Aden & Whitehead, 2001;O'Connor & Jahan, 2014;Shora, 2003).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Interpersonal Violence to Institutionalized Discrimination: Documenting and Assessing the Impact of Islamophobia on Muslim American

Nadeem

Quinn

Limaye

et al. 2021

Journal of Muslim Mental Health

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Background: Muslims and people perceived as Muslims in the U.S. face Islamophobia, defined as anti-Muslim or anti-Islam sentiments. Reports of hate crimes motivated by Islamophobia have increased, as have other forms of Islamophobia, such as workplace discrimination. This qualitative study examined the impact of Islamophobia on Muslim Americans, ranging from school and workplace discrimination to policies that target Muslims, such as government surveillance. The objectives of this study were: 1) Document the spectrum of Islamophobia in the U.S.; and 2) Assess the impact of Islamophobia on Muslim Americans.Methods: Components of grounded theory guided data collection and analysis. Using a semi-structured interview guide, a total of 40 participants (20 women, 20 men) were interviewed regarding self-reported experiences with Islamophobia and responses to bias incidents. Participants self-identified as Muslim, were at least 18 years of age, and represented various ethnic groups. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using Nvivo 12.Results: Findings indicate that Islamophobia and xenophobia are significant sources of long-term stress. Participants discussed physical assaults in public locations, vandalism at their homes, persistent questioning regarding their country of origin, and verbal harassment in the form of derogatory terms.Conclusion: Islamophobia in the U.S. is multifaceted and a significant source of stress for Muslim Americans. Findings from this study and others on this topic highlight the need for interventions to support Muslim Americans.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Interpersonal Violence to Institutionalized Discrimination: Documenting and Assessing the Impact of Islamophobia on Muslim American

Nadeem

Quinn

Limaye

et al. 2021

Journal of Muslim Mental Health

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“…Following 9/11, the FBI began conducting thin surveillance through the deployment of over 15,000 paid informants" (Aaronson 2013). 8 Informants are trained with counterterror models that regard Muslims, who regularly attend worship services, grow facial hair, wear traditional garb, discuss politics, and devoutly practice Islam as suspicious (Federal Bureau of Investigation 2006;Naber 2008;Kundnani 2014;Alimahomed-Wilson 2018). With this training, informants are tasked with mapping Muslim communities, taking photos, and gathering voice records (Goldman and Apuzzo 2012;Shamas and Arastu 2013).…”

Section: Surveillance Of American Muslimsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Researching American Muslims: A Case Study of Surveillance and Racialized State Control

Al-Faham¹

2021

Perspect. polit.

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How does surveillance shape political science research in the United States? In comparative and international politics, there is a rich literature concerning the conduct of research amid conditions of conflict and state repression. As this literature locates “the field” in distant contexts “over there,” the United States continues to be saturated with various forms of state control. What this portends for American politics research has thus far been examined by a limited selection of scholars. Expanding on their insights, I situate “the field” in the United States and examine surveillance of American Muslims, an understudied case of racialized state control. Drawing on qualitative data from a case study of sixty-nine interviews with Arab and Black American Muslims, I argue that surveillance operated as a two-stage political mechanism that mapped onto research methodologically and substantively. In the first stage, surveillance reconfigured the researcher-researchee dynamic, hindered recruitment and access, and limited data-collection. In the second stage, surveillance colored the self-perceptions, political attitudes, and civic engagement of respondents, thereby indicating a political socialization unfolding among Muslims. The implications of this study suggest that researchers can mitigate against some, but not all, of the challenges presented by surveillance and concomitant forms of state control.

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“…Within the matrix of gendered Islamophobia, the disciplinary domain is significant because of its capacity to saturate a wide array of institutional arenas. Under the guise of the War on Terror, Muslims are managed, monitored, and tracked as potential domestic security threats, which has become a normalized, routine feature of state security (Alimahomed-Wilson 2018). In the United Kingdom and the United States, some Muslim activists also experience “political profiling” as a consequence of the disciplinary domain.…”

Section: Disciplinary Domain: Surveilling Muslimsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Matrix of Gendered Islamophobia: Muslim Women’s Repression and Resistance

Alimahomed-Wilson

2020

Gender & Society

Self Cite

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Drawing on 75 semi-structured qualitative interviews with Arab, South Asian, and Black Muslim women social justice activists, ages 18–30 years, organizing in the United States and the United Kingdom, I theorize their experiences as the basis of the matrix of gendered Islamophobia. Building upon Jasmine Zine’s concept of gendered Islamophobia, I synthesize this concept with Patricia Hill Collins’s theory of the matrix of domination to give a more in-depth and nuanced structure of how gendered Islamophobia operates and is resisted by Muslim women activists. This article identifies the overlapping configurations of power that affect Muslim women’s lives through structural, disciplinary, hegemonic, and interpersonal domains, countering reductionist accounts of Islamophobia as a universalized, unvariegated social force impacting all Muslims in similar ways (thereby privileging Muslim men’s experiences and subjectivities while contributing to the erasure of Muslim women’s agency). Instead, the matrix of gendered Islamophobia locates Islamophobia within shifting axes of oppression that are simultaneously structured along the lines of gender, race, class, sexuality, and citizenship. The findings of this research reveal a dialectical relationship between Muslim women’s oppression and simultaneous contestation of gendered Islamophobia via their collective remaking of alternative ideas, politics, discourses, and organizing practices.

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When the FBI Knocks: Racialized State Surveillance of Muslims

Cited by 32 publications

References 14 publications

From Interpersonal Violence to Institutionalized Discrimination: Documenting and Assessing the Impact of Islamophobia on Muslim American

From Interpersonal Violence to Institutionalized Discrimination: Documenting and Assessing the Impact of Islamophobia on Muslim American

Researching American Muslims: A Case Study of Surveillance and Racialized State Control

The Matrix of Gendered Islamophobia: Muslim Women’s Repression and Resistance

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