Abstract

This article takes up Giorgio Agamben's formulation of “bare life” (1998) and applies it to the contemporary perpetuation of violent Islamophobia in online spaces, producing what I term a figuration of the (Muslim) cyber homo sacer. Particularly focusing upon the proliferation of virulent, anti-Muslim rhetoric and discourse on Twitter, I follow the hashtags #Muslimban and #BanMuslim to demonstrate how Agamben's concepts of homo sacer, state of exception, and the camp—though with important differences—helpfully illuminate the ways in which current Islamophobic and anti-Muslim sentiment online can be understand as a refiguration of Muslims as bodies which exist in a state of in-betweenness. In this “state of exception,” Muslims become more vulnerable to verbal, emotional, psychic, and ultimately physical violence, at the same time as they become less recognizable to the policies and laws which should, ostensibly, protect them.

Highlights

  • Hatred towards marginalized communities, Muslims, in the West is at its peak in the era of information technology, where social networking sites (SNS) like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram dominate digital spaces

  • Given the current political climate, where fear and suspicion towards Muslim communities persists, verbal and political attacks against Muslims are increasing in cyberspace (Awan 2014; Magdy et al 2015; Williams and Burnap 2016)

  • In the current political climate, where fear and suspicion towards Muslim communities persists, verbal, emotional, psychic, and political attacks against Muslims are increasing in cyberspace

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Summary

Zeinab Farokhi

ISLAMOPHOBIA STUDIES JOURNAL VOLUME 6, NO. 1 Spring 2021, PP. 14–32. Published by: Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project, Center for Race and Gender, University of California, Berkeley. They are not the expression of the editorial or advisory board and staff. Either expressed or implied, is made of the accuracy of the material in this journal, and ISJ cannot accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions that may be made. The reader must make his or her own evaluation of the accuracy and appropriateness of those materials

INTRODUCTION
THE MUSLIM BODY AS A SPACE OF EXCEPTION
MUSLIMS AS CYBER HOMO SACER
Findings
CONCLUSION
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