Saher Selod, Forever Suspect: Racialized Surveillance of Muslim Americans in the War on Terror

Abstract

American Religion 27, no. 1 (Fall 2019), pp. 155–157 Copyright © 2019, The Trustees of Indiana University • doi: 10.2979/amerreli.1.1.11 Book Review Saher Selod, Forever Suspect: Racialized Surveillance of Muslim Americans in the War on Terror (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2018) Kayla Renée Wheeler Grand Valley State University, Allendale, USA Forever Suspect by Saher Selod examines the racialization of Islam post-9/11, as well as the state and private citizen surveillance that followed. Specifically, Selod explores how racialized surveillance has impacted Arab and South Asian Muslims’ relationship to whiteness and their position within the US racial hierarchy . Her research is based on forty-eight interviews with South Asian and Arab Muslims in Chicago and the Dallas/Fort Worth area between 2009 and 2012. Selod’s primary conversation partners are Moustafa Bayoumi, Nadine Naber, Neil Garner, and Junaid Rana, who have all worked on the racialization of Islam and anti-Muslim sentiment. Selod adds to this conversation by providing a nuanced, multi-layered definition of racialization, which moves beyond phenotypes to also include clothing, names, and behaviors. Drawing from sociology, gender studies, and critical race theory, she defines racialization as “the process by which bodies become racial in their lived realities because of biological and/or cultural traits as a result of the intersection and cooperation between ideologies, policies, laws, and social interactions that results in the denial of equal treatment in society” (23). Additionally, her exploration of how gender dictates both how Muslim men and women are surveilled differently, as well as how they respond to surveillance contributes to the field of sociology of religion. American Religion 1:1 156 Forever Suspect is broken up into five chapters. The first chapter provides an overview of Arab and South Asian migration to the United States, beginning in the early twentieth century. This chapter highlights how once distinct ethnic groups have begun to mirror each other, collapsing under the unified category of “Muslim.” Through providing a migration history, Selod shows how historically the US government has deemed Islam and whiteness to be incompatible. Chapter two explores the phenomenon of “flying while Muslim.” Selod highlights how Muslims travelers are treated as national security threats who need to be monitored, rather than as citizens in need of protection (50). Surveillance happens at the institutional level—in the case of airports, via the Transportation Security Administration (TSA)—as well as the individual level, a point that Selod returns to in chapter four. Selod notes that airport surveillance is gendered. Her male interlocutors were put on lists that forced them to undergo additional security screenings—subject to multiple “random searches” or prevented them from flying altogether. Women were only subject to multiple random screenings if they were with Muslim men. Otherwise, only women who wore hijabs or jilbabs were subject to additional screening at the security checkpoint. This observation affirms her argument that clothing acts as a racial marker of difference. Chapter two concludes with an exploration of the self-surveillance practices Muslims engage in airports and on planes to prevent being targeted including not praying or speaking Arabic. I found chapter three to be the most interesting due to its focus on interpersonal relationships. Here, Selod explores the ways in which private citizens participate in surveillance under the guise of the Department of Homeland Security’s “If you see something, say something” campaign. Private citizens are encouraged to monitor each other for suspicious behavior, although as Selod notes, the state never defines what constitutes suspicious behavior. As such, individuals rely on stereotypes and misconceptions of Islam and Muslims. This too, is a gendered practice. While Muslim men experience the brunt of state surveillance , covered Muslim women are disproportionately affected by private citizen surveillance. Muslim women who wear hijabs, visibly marking their religious identity, are simultaneously seen as oppressed and as threats to Western values. Covered Muslim women are often verbally and physically assaulted. They have their citizenship questioned and must navigate the non-Muslim gaze, which alters how they move in public spaces. Selod found that Muslim men only had these types of encounters when they were with visibly Muslim women. While her study focuses on the...