Reading Power: Muslims in the War on Terror Discourse

This paper analyzes the relationship between Muslims and the west defined at a particular moment in post 9/11 America and the war on terror context through a conversation in the novel The Submission (2011) by Amy Waldman. It critiques the construction of knowledge about Muslims and how this knowledge functions as part of a hegemonic discourse of Orientalism. The novel is about a public competition for an architectural design for a memorial marking the site of the World Trade Centre attacks in New York City. Khan is the architect who wins the competition through a blind selection process. But when his identity is revealed, public controversy erupts. Claire, the other protagonist in this encounter, is a white woman with two children, widowed in the 9/11 attacks. She is also a member of the selection committee. While Claire's assumptions denote western, hegemonic representations that define Muslims in narrow ways, Khan's responses represent a critique of this Orientalist construction, as well as indicating how it can be reshaped, with all the tension that this process provokes. This fictional encounter offers an opportunity to reflect on decolonial possibilities in the ‘real life’ encounter between Muslims and the west in the war on terror context.

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

Dr. Uzma Jamil

Journal

Journal ID (doi): 10.13169

Journal ID (publisher-id): islastudj

Title: Islamophobia Studies Journal

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN (Print): 23258381

ISSN (Electronic): 2325839X

Publication date (Print): Fall 2014

Volume: 2

Issue: 2

Pages: 29-42

Affiliations

Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the International Centre for Muslim and Non-Muslim Understanding at the University of South Australia

Article

Publisher ID: islastudj.2.2.0029

DOI: 10.13169/islastudj.2.2.0029

SO-VID: 4e5c1906-e199-4eee-8da7-80e3a8de6176

Copyright statement: © Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project, Center for Race and Gender, University of California, Berkeley

License:

All content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. Articles published in the journal are distributed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

ScienceOpen disciplines: Social & Behavioral Sciences

Keywords: Muslim,war on terror,power relations,Orientalism

Notes

George W. Bush. Presidential Address to Joint Session of Congress and American People. September 20, 2001. http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010920-8.html Accessed March 19, 2014.
Richard Jackson, Writing the War on Terror: Language, Politics and Counter-terrorism , (Manchester & New York: Manchester University Press, 2005).
John Carroll, Terror: A Meditation on the Meaning of September 11 , (Melbourne: Scribe Publications, 2002).
Bush, Presidential Address to the Joint Sessions of Congress.
Bush, Presidential Address to the Joint Sessions of Congress.
Uzma Jamil and Cécile Rousseau, “Challenging the ‘Official’ Story of 9/11: Community Narratives and Conspiracy Theories” Ethnicities , Vol. 11, No. 2 (2011), pp. 245–261.
Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics (London: Verso, 1985).
Chantal Mouffe, Agonistics: Thinking the World Politically (London: Verso Books, 2013), p. 2.
Edward W. Said, Orientalism , (New York: Vintage Books, 1978), p. 2.
Said, p. 3.
Said, p. 3.
S. Sayyid, A Fundamental Fear . 2nd edition. (London: Zed Books, 2003), p. 33.
Sayyid, p. 34.
Said, p. 13.
Said, p. 300.
Said, p. 301.
Sayyid, p. 32.
Mouffe, p. 2.
Sherene Razack, Casting Out: The Eviction of Muslims from Western Law and Politics (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008), p. 6.
Razack, p. 5.
Mahmood Mamdani, “Good Muslim, bad Muslim: A political perspective on culture and terrorism.” American Anthropologist 104(3) 2002, pp. 766–775
Tram Nguyen, We are All Suspects Now , (Boston: Beacon Press, 2005); Louise A. Cainkar, Homeland Insecurity: The Arab American and Muslim American Experience after 9/11 , (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2009).
Hatem Bazian, “National Security Entry-Exit Registration System: Arabs, Muslims and Southeast Asians and Post 9/11 ‘Security Measures’” Islamophobia Studies Journal , Vol. 2, No. 1 (Spring 2014), pp. 82–98.
Glenn Greenwald and Murtaza Hussain. “Under Surveillance: Meet the Muslim-American leaders the FBI and NSA have been spying on.” The Intercept . July 9, 2014. https://firstlook.org/theintercept/article/2014/07/09/under-surveillance/ [Accessed July 19, 2014].
Sharon Otterman. “Developer Scales Back Plans for Muslim Center Near Ground Zero.” New York Times. April 29, 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/30/nyregion/developer-scales-back-plans-for-mustim-center-near-ground-zero.html [Accessed July 19, 2014].
Omid Safi. “Good Sufi, Bad Muslims.” The University of Chicago Divinity School. January 27, 2011. http://divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings/good-sufi-bad-muslims-omid-safi. [Accessed July 19, 2014].
Amy Waldman, The Submission , (New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2011), p. 265.
Waldman, p. 265.
Waldman, p. 265.
Waldman, p. 265.
Waldman, p. 266.
Waldman, p. 267.
Waldman, pp. 267–268.
Waldman, p. 268.
Waldman, p. 269.
Waldman, p. 269.
Waldman, p. 270.
Waldman, p. 270.
Waldman, p. 271.
Waldman, p. 271.
Waldman, p. 271.
Waldman, p. 271.
Peter Winch, “Understanding a Primitive Society,” American Philosophical Quarterly , Vol. 1, No. 4 (October 1964), p. 317.
Greenwald and Hussain, 2014.
James C. Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts , (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990).
Scott, p. 2.
Scott, p. 4.
Scott, pp. 4–5.
Edward Said, After the Last Sky: Palestinian Lives , (London: Faber and Faber, 1986), p. 65.
Said, p. 65.
Scott, p. 8.
Waldman, p. 268.

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] George W. Bush. Presidential Address to Joint Session of Congress and American People. September 20, 2001. http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010920-8.html Accessed March 19, 2014.

[2] Richard Jackson, Writing the War on Terror: Language, Politics and Counter-terrorism , (Manchester & New York: Manchester University Press, 2005).

[3] John Carroll, Terror: A Meditation on the Meaning of September 11 , (Melbourne: Scribe Publications, 2002).

[4] Bush, Presidential Address to the Joint Sessions of Congress.

[5] Bush, Presidential Address to the Joint Sessions of Congress.

[6] Uzma Jamil and Cécile Rousseau, “Challenging the ‘Official’ Story of 9/11: Community Narratives and Conspiracy Theories” Ethnicities , Vol. 11, No. 2 (2011), pp. 245–261.

[7] Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics (London: Verso, 1985).

[8] Chantal Mouffe, Agonistics: Thinking the World Politically (London: Verso Books, 2013), p. 2.

[9] Edward W. Said, Orientalism , (New York: Vintage Books, 1978), p. 2.

[10] Said, p. 3.

[11] Said, p. 3.

[12] S. Sayyid, A Fundamental Fear . 2nd edition. (London: Zed Books, 2003), p. 33.

[13] Sayyid, p. 34.

[14] Said, p. 13.

[15] Said, p. 300.

[16] Said, p. 301.

[17] Sayyid, p. 32.

[18] Mouffe, p. 2.

[19] Sherene Razack, Casting Out: The Eviction of Muslims from Western Law and Politics (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008), p. 6.

[20] Razack, p. 5.

[21] Mahmood Mamdani, “Good Muslim, bad Muslim: A political perspective on culture and terrorism.” American Anthropologist 104(3) 2002, pp. 766–775

[22] Tram Nguyen, We are All Suspects Now , (Boston: Beacon Press, 2005); Louise A. Cainkar, Homeland Insecurity: The Arab American and Muslim American Experience after 9/11 , (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2009).

[23] Hatem Bazian, “National Security Entry-Exit Registration System: Arabs, Muslims and Southeast Asians and Post 9/11 ‘Security Measures’” Islamophobia Studies Journal , Vol. 2, No. 1 (Spring 2014), pp. 82–98.

[24] Glenn Greenwald and Murtaza Hussain. “Under Surveillance: Meet the Muslim-American leaders the FBI and NSA have been spying on.” The Intercept . July 9, 2014. https://firstlook.org/theintercept/article/2014/07/09/under-surveillance/ [Accessed July 19, 2014].

[25] Sharon Otterman. “Developer Scales Back Plans for Muslim Center Near Ground Zero.” New York Times. April 29, 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/30/nyregion/developer-scales-back-plans-for-mustim-center-near-ground-zero.html [Accessed July 19, 2014].

[26] Omid Safi. “Good Sufi, Bad Muslims.” The University of Chicago Divinity School. January 27, 2011. http://divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings/good-sufi-bad-muslims-omid-safi. [Accessed July 19, 2014].

[27] Amy Waldman, The Submission , (New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2011), p. 265.

[28] Waldman, p. 265.

[29] Waldman, p. 265.

[30] Waldman, p. 265.

[31] Waldman, p. 266.

[32] Waldman, p. 267.

[33] Waldman, pp. 267–268.

[34] Waldman, p. 268.

[35] Waldman, p. 269.

[36] Waldman, p. 269.

[37] Waldman, p. 270.

[38] Waldman, p. 270.

[39] Waldman, p. 271.

[40] Waldman, p. 271.

[41] Waldman, p. 271.

[42] Waldman, p. 271.

[43] Peter Winch, “Understanding a Primitive Society,” American Philosophical Quarterly , Vol. 1, No. 4 (October 1964), p. 317.

[44] Greenwald and Hussain, 2014.

[45] James C. Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts , (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990).

[46] Scott, p. 2.

[47] Scott, p. 4.

[48] Scott, pp. 4–5.

[49] Edward Said, After the Last Sky: Palestinian Lives , (London: Faber and Faber, 1986), p. 65.

[50] Said, p. 65.

[51] Scott, p. 8.

[52] Waldman, p. 268.