The Nomos of the Mosque: The Logic of Liberalism, Security, and the Islamic Tradition

Abstract

This article attends to the relationship between protection, safety, and security in a Muslim American community and living and practicing an Islamic form of life under conditions of racial violence and surveillance. In the past decade, Muslim American communities have taken accountability for the security and safety of their communities and have solicited the counsel and assistance of law enforcement agencies that have surveilled and encroached on their communities since the 1990s and prior. Instead of critiquing these initiatives, the article examines the logic that encourages them and the curious convergences that emerge in the encounter between Islamic communities and law enforcement agencies in the United States. Where previously the language of security, safety, risks, and threats entailed police surveillance and counterterrorism protocols when it came to Muslims in the US, I consider how racialized Muslim Americans today embrace this language and its logic and, in turn, fundamentally transform the manner through which they exercise Islamic virtues.