Interrogating representations of “militants” and “terrorists” in the United States’ Militant Imagery Project and the Counterterrorism Calendar

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ABSTRACTThis article adopts a post-colonial approach to analyse representations of “militants” and “terrorists” in the United States’ Militant Imagery Project (MIP) and the Counterterrorism Calendar. It argues that sites such as the MIP and the Calendar produce meanings of “militant” and “terrorist,” wherein Muslims/Arabs are linked with violence. At the same time, similar violence committed by right-wing extremists, gun owners, and so on are ignored. There is also a related assumption about an uncritical, homogeneous audience gazing at these images. All of these serve to continually securitise Muslims and Arabs in the United States. This article aims to dismantle this racialised meaning by illustrating processes through which sites such as the MIP and the Calendar link “militant” and “terrorist” violence with Muslims and Islam. In doing so, they erase Western-led and state-sanctioned violence from representations of “terrorism.” By outlining these erasures and silences, this article questions the meanings of “militants” and “terrorists” produced and communicated by the MIP and the Counterterrorism Calendar. It also directs attention to the socio-political and ethical implications of selectively labelling only some violence and violent actors as “terrorist.”