Islam in the West: Perceptions vs. Reality

Abstract

Securitizing Islam: Identity and the Search for Security. By Stuart Croft. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012. 278 pp., $35.99 paperback (ISBN-13: 978-1-107-63286-8). Framing Muslims: Stereotyping and Representation After 9/11. By Peter Morey, Yaquin Amina. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2011. 246 pp., $29 hardcover (ISBN-13: 978-0-674-04852-2). The perceptions that the societal majority have of their counterparts in minority communities are central to the effective integration of such communities within any country. Such perceptions, in turn, are shaped by interactions between those actors, and their characterizations by government officials, politicians, communal leaders, and the media. Regrettably, it is the most negative interactions that drive those representations, particularly when significant acts of violence are involved. Consider, for instance, the effects on societal perceptions of Muslim communities of terrorist attacks carried out by Islamic extremists against targets in the West. Al Qaeda's strikes against the United States on September 11, 2001, represent the most significant example of violence to date. Other examples include smaller-scale attacks by groups and individuals with Islamic extremist motivations, such as the March 2004 and July 2005 bombings of the transportation systems in Madrid and London, respectively, as well as the November 2009 Fort Hood shootings by Maj. Nidal Malik Hassan and the April 2013 Boston Marathon bombings by the brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The 9/11 attacks shocked Americans and Europeans to an extent that increased the potential for the development of new, if not deepening of existing, negative perceptions suggesting connections between Muslim communities situated in the West and Islamic extremist groups such as Al Qaeda and its affiliates. The subsequent attacks in Western Europe and the United States reinforced past media reports on such connections, rendering the expression of corresponding sentiments by members of the societal majority ever more likely and creating a demand for elected officials to fashion policies designed to mitigate threats posed by Islamic extremism. Some of the policies put in place by Western governments since 9/11 to counter terrorist threats that Islamic extremists justify on the basis of perverted interpretations of the Qur'an and Sunna have exacerbated the …