Transcript Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11

Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• The terrorist attacks of September 2001
negatively impacted international migration and
diasporic communities across the globe.
• Partial closing of national borders, severe
restrictions legislatively imposed on trans border
movement across international boundaries,
detentions, interrogation, trial by military
tribunals, and/or deportation as regulatory
mechanisms all affected the migrants.
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• In the post-9/11 period, territorial borders
of domestic "homelands" – particularly
those in countries of North America and
Europe - have entered a "nervous" period
that coincided with legal maneuvering to
allow for greater deportation of
immigrants.
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• On the morning of September 11, 2001, 19
armed terrorists, hijacked four airplanes all
departing from airports along the metropolitan
eastern seaboard of the United States.
• The largest attack ever led towards the United
States of America on its own soil.
• Over 3,000 US citizens, permanent residents,
immigrants, and foreign visitors died that day.
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• These events marked the beginning of a
"nervous" and volatile period of "terror," war, and
"war on terror."
• January 2002, President Bush delivered his
presidential State of the Union address,
declaring Iraq, Iran, and North Korea the "Axis of
Evil," a declaration that paved the way to war in
Iraq and that fueled anti-American sentiments
and public opinion in Iran and North Korea.
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• In March 2003, United States and the coalition of
the willing (that included Spain, Italy, and Britain
but notably did not include traditional US
European allies like France or Germany)
initiated air strikes over Baghdad that marked
the beginning of the Iraqi War.
• US unsubstantiated and later disproved claim
that the dictatorship of Sadam Hussein was
stockpiling "weapons of mass destruction"
(WMDs).
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• Following the beginning of the Iraqi War, more
terrorist attacks followed, this time in places like
Spain, London and Turkey.
• Following these, we witnessed the proliferation
of extra-territorial sites of detention and
interrogation, increased detention for asylums
and illegal border crossers, expanded ground for
legal deportation of immigrants, and the
tightening of international boundaries and the
restriction of trans border migrations in the name
of "homeland security."
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• Supported and sanctioned by the US
Patriot Act, new measures for surveying,
tracking, and regulating citizens, as well as
their financial transactions, internet
searches, international telephone calls,
purchases, and even library records
started leading to authorizing arrest,
search, interrogation, and detention of
immigrants.
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• More restrictive legislation: authorizing wide
spread use of surveillance technologies,
including face recognition devices, and
proposals to issue national identification cards,
to maintain national citizen , and immigrant
registry databases, and to detain suspected
terrorists without warrant has been passed in the
US and UK since 2001.
• These became controversial since it violates the
long-protected, common law rule of habeas
corpus, the right to know the charge on which
one is being held.
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• Immigration laws, and particularly refugee
laws, have also become increasingly
restrictive after 9/11.
• This is true for the United States, as well
as other historically immigrant-receiving
countries, like Canada, Britain, Australia,
and New Zealand, and more closed
countries like Austria, Germany, France,
and other parts of Europe.
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• Refugee movements and asylum seekers
have been regarded with a heightened
wariness as sources of instability and even
potential sources of terrorism.
• Extra-territorial detention have further
served to imperil civil liberties and
circumscribe the hegemonic dominance of
the US militaristically.
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• Acts of torture, sexual humiliation, and physical
abuse - as documented in digital photographs
that surfaced in April 2004 and circulated in the
news media not only unsettled concerned
citizens in the US and worldwide, but also raised
speculation about similar forms of abuse
operative in detention centers at the US Naval
Base in Guantanamo and the Air Base at
Baghram, and rumored torture sites in Syria and
other countries.
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• Since September 11,2001, the Guantanamo Bay
Naval Base has also became famous for the
initial detention in 2002 of more than 700 men
comprised of more than 40 nationalities,
including Afghans, Australians, BosniaHerzegovinians, Brits, Kuwaitis, Pakistanis, and
US citizens) who were arrested during the USled military offensive against the Taliban regime
in Afghanistan.
• They were defined as not as “prisoners of war”,
but rather as “enemy combatants.”
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• During times of war or political crisis such as the
terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 in the
United States, minorities that share the same
ethnic or religious background as the "enemy" of
the state are subject to backlash.
• This backlash takes several forms.
• First, members of the majority population may
engage in scapegoating of the targeted
population.
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• Second, pre-existing, or newly created, negative
stereotypes of the targeted group(s), propagated
in the media, often fuel the actions of the
hatemongers.
• Third, the state responds to perceived threats to
the nation's security and sovereignty by
targeting members of the ethnic/religious
group(s) for scrutiny and repression, allegedly
because they constitute a fifth column, or have
the potential to become a fifth column, within its
borders.
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• Unlike previous incidents, the events of 11 September
irrevocably changed the status of Muslim minority from
relatively invisible group to notorious terrorism suspects.
• A common denominator among all nineteen of the 9/11
terrorists was Islam. The events alerted the American
public to the presence of Muslim populations in their
midst.
• Muslims became the "Other" among the American
population. Thanks to ignorance of the culture,religion,
and history of the targeted peoples, the "Other" was
reified as a homogeneous group.
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• Many immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa
(the Arab world, Iran, and Turkey) identify more strongly
with their national origin than with their religion.
• Yet there is an emerging trend toward religiosity,
especially among the second generation; and, as a term,
"Islam" has gained political currency and come to
incorporate ethnicity, nationality, religiosity, and
community as one construct in American society.
• Consequently, the Muslim diaspora in the United States
has emerged as a viable political and social entity
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• Perhaps the most unexpected
consequence of the 9/11 backlash against
Muslims was their mobilization. Instead
of capitulating to hate crimes and bias
incidents, as well as a series of
government executive orders, initiatives,
and legislation that targeted Muslim
immigrants, this group moved to claim its
rightful place in American society
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• Mosques and Islamic centers provide a public space for
meetings and facilitate networks of activism, fundraising,
and dissemination of information.
• Muslim American advocacy organizations, representing
these populations, mobilized their constituents to defend
their civil rights and to hasten their integration into
America's mosaic.
• It was in the 1990s that two of the most prominent
Muslim organizations, the Muslim Public AffairsCouncil
(MPAC) and the Council on American-Islamic
Relations(CAIR), were established.
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• As an example of resource mobilization,
interfaith alliances provide a means by
which Muslims in diaspora formulate
claims.
• Interfaith activities mushroomed after 9/11,
with the goal of fostering greater
understanding and toleraince between
Christians, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, and
members of other religions.
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• The immigration of non-Western religious
groups in the last decades of the twentieth
century has given rise to serious
theological and social challenges that put
the future of a pluralist, multicultural
America at stake.
• Interfaith activities have been promoted as
bridges between faiths and people during
this time.
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• Prior to 9/11, Muslim diaspora leaders in the
United States were preoccupied with the
government's use of secret evidence in
immigration cases.
• In response to the Anti-Terrorism Act's validation
of "secret evidence," Muslims felt the need to
mobilize and establish grassroots and national
organizations in the United States to advocate
for their rights.
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• The extent and pace of political mobilization grew
exponentially after 9/11.
• Four ways in which the Muslim diasporas in the United
States have engaged in mobilization:
• (1) condemning terrorism and distancing the groups they
represent from it;
• (2) protesting government initiatives and profiling;
• (3) informing the American public about Islam and
Muslims and, at the same time, educating Muslims about
American civic engagement; and
• (4) participating in electoral politics.
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• Distancing and Condemning
• They denounced acts of violence and
called for tolerance.
• In the years since these tragic events,
Muslim American organizations'
statements have become clearer and
more categorical in publicly condemning
acts of terrorism around the world.
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• Protesting government initiatives and
profiling
• Muslim American advocacy organizations were
particularly upset that the government had not
consulted them in the fight against terrorists.
• Leaders were particularly distressed that the
political climate after the terrorist attacks had
deterred some politicians and officials from
addressing the grievances of Muslims in the
United States
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• Informing the American public about Islam
and Muslims and, at the same time, educating
Muslims about American civic engagement;
• The terrorist attacks awakened in many
members of the American public a desire to
better understand Islamic cultures and the
Muslim faith.
• At the same time, Islamic centers and
organizations realized the need to educate and
inform their members and constituents about
civic and political engagement in American
society.
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• Participating in electoral politics
• Traditionally, Muslim immigrants have
shied away from "politics," because they
often come from authoritarian countries in
the Middle East and South Asia where
political activity is discouraged.
• But Voter registration drives multiplied
after 9/11.
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• Witnessing of the "invention" of American
Islam in the United States in the post-9/11
period, an invention that demanded
institution building and accommodation.
• The "Americanization" experience ignites
immigrants' zeal to maintain their ancestral
faith in the New World and, more
importantly, incorporates religion as a
prominent component of their identity.
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• The community hall and its adjacent kitchen,
common in American religious architecture,
have heen integrated in Islamic center
architecture in the United States.
• Following the example of Catholic schools and
Jewish day schools, Muslims have founded
ahout 200 Islamic day schools in the United
States, where they are educating approximately
20,000 children.
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• The changing of ethnic traditions to
religious ones; the development of
voluntary associations, both religious and
secular; the creation of communal spaces
to socialize; the provision of social,
educational, and other services for
newcomers; and continual efforts to raise
funds.
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• Contrary to the notion of the homogeneity
of the Islamic culture championed by
Samuel Huntington (1994) and Bernard
Lewis (1990), particular forms of Islam or
variations in the interpretations and the
applications of Islam, although not entirely
different, are certainly differentiated by
specic social and cultural constraints .
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• Certainly one must interrogate and situate the
various practices and interpretations of Islam
within their national and ethnic contexts while
also taking into account the place that Islam
plays in the construction of a particular national
identity.
• Outside its most central ritualized practices
(Qur’anic obligations, namely, the five pillars of
Islam), Islam is often shaped in accordance with
the social and ideological cleavages of societies
which at the same time unconsciously
incorporate religion into their social relations.
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• Muslims in France are mostly of
Maghrebin descent (Arab and Berber).
• The majority are members of families that
migrated to France from Algeria, Morocco,
Tunisia and black African countries such
as Senegal and Mali.
• More than 30% of the Muslim population in
France are second-generation
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• It is clear that France refuses to accept any
ideological group and is thus intolerant of all
signs that seem incompatible with its culture.
• More than 40 years after the independence of
Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia from France,
migrant workers from these respective countries,
the largest Muslim groups in France, have made
the connection between the iniquities of having
been subjects in the colonial era and the
inequalities of being immigrants or new citizens
in France.
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• How could France accommodate Muslim
people?
• Islam may be incorporated into the French
Republic has been repeatedly posed but never
adequately resolved since the French
colonization of Algeria in the 1830s.
• The object of these discussions is not just the
immigrant communities but the French nation
itself which is experiencing what might be called
the phenomenon of Islamicization.
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• The resurgence of Islam throughout the
1980s
• The Iranian Revolution, Afghan War and
Mujahadden
• Hizbollah, Muslim Brotherhood
• Hamas and Intifada
• Mouvement de la Tendance Islamique in
Tunisia and Front Islamique du Salut in
Algeria
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• These events have provoked concerns in
the west.
• They made the news and caught people’s
eye in France despite the fact that the
media presented them with a threatening
confusion.
• Islam is represented in the west as a ‘jihad
culture’.
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• No subject about Islam and Muslims
received more attention, aggravated
attitudes, provoked more fear and anger
and more broadened the divide that
separates France from its five million
Muslim residents than the controversy of
the hijab.
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• The hijab is not just a shawl anymore. It
has had meanings and connotations
imposed on it by the media and the
dominant culture that range from
backward, religious, Islamist, extremist,
and, importantly, it is seen also as a sign
of inferiority, oppression, passivity, and
docility.
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• The media made generalizations in a selective
and a reductive process that have had negative
effect on the perception of Muslims in France
and elsewhere: (1) the media showed that this is
how Muslims treat their daughters; and (2) these
people are in ‘our’ country and could turn into
fundamentalist s applying the Shari’a (Islamic
law) in France, therefore injecting fear: an
Islamic threat to liberal values.
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• The rise of the right wing has forged racist
ideas and xenophobic discourse against
immigrant communities.
• The incident of the hijab has given new
importance to the issue of immigration and
ethnicity/race.
• The ethnic and religious categories
became infused with essentialist
characteristics: ‘Islam: the jihad culture’
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• Islam is an identity for many North African
immigrants in France not in only the
religious meaning to have a sense of
history and direction for their lives.
• More importantly, it is a social bond for
these people who live the common
experience of marginalization.
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• Identity gives the Maghrebin immigrant through
Islam a sense of personal location in the global
diverse and western society of France, and
provides him/her with some stability in a harsh
environment through emphasizing particularity
and variety; it also defines gender and social
relations.
• The French assimilationist model seems to lack
its true meaning. This limited interaction is
rooted in the colonial relationship
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• From this perspective the secular Christian
national identity is a form of collective
identity. The defense of this identity
against the threat of Islamism gets into the
most cliche´nationalism and produces
racist attitudes toward Muslim immigrants.
• The hijab was seen as challenging to the
French cultural homogeneity
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• The model of citizenship that the nation
state has installed does not take into
account the cultures of the immigrants’
experience.
• The immigrants don’t see themselves fully
integrated in the society and therefore they
focus more on their background.
Muslim Diasporas in Post 9/11
• France has adopted what seems to be a
fair model to integrate non-Europeans in
its society as full-•edged citizens. This
model is known as the ‘assimilationis
model’ which in fact is an old colonial
discriminating model. In reality, it does not
mean integration, because it does not
mean political representation and
participation of Muslims or recognition of
Islam.