The securitisation of Islam: covert racism and affect in the US post-9/11

This book is a timely analysis of the securitisation of Islam in the United States from the Bush to the Trump administration. It contributes to the debate on islamophobia in the United States and connects covert and more subtle forms of racism with the securitisation of minority groups. The book first explores what I call ‘indirect securitisation’, a securitisation realised by covert forms of speech such as indirect securitising speech acts. When the securitisation is tantamount to forms of hate speech, political actors with symbolic power will instead attempt to “save face” by wielding indirect securitising speech acts. The book then “adds texture” to the analysis of the securitisation of Islam by theorising securitisation as an affective practice. The book argues here that indirect securitisations remove the emotional experience that usually invest the act of securitisation. In turn, the de-affectivisation of the securitisation of Islam nurtures claims of white victimhood and American innocence. Lastly, this book offers a critique of the classical view radicalisation in the United States and explores instead what a quantum perspective of (counter)-radicalisation and counter-terrorism might look like.