By What is your response to the increasing Islamaphobic events in the U.S.?
As a Muslim American, with theoretical rights as a citizen, these acts of violence are specifically perpetrated to morally exclude our community from the fabric of American society. Drawing on my past and current research, my response is to look at these acts in the context of the policies of the state.
More specifically, the state sends the message to society that not only is it acceptable to target Muslims, but that the chances that you will be held accountable are low.
In other words, the violence that state uses on Muslims and Muslim Americans serves as a model to society about how this group should be treated. More specifically, the state sends the message to society that not only is it acceptable to target Muslims, but that the chances that you will be held accountable are low.
The case of the young boy Ahmed who was arrested because he brought a homemade clock to school, serves as one of the most egregious examples of the way in which the state emboldens citizens to target Muslims. In Ahmed’s case, the state has created a set of counter-terrorism policies that are not only designed to criminalize Muslims and Muslim Americans, but which also exist to legitimize and justify fear toward members of this group.
One important thing to add here is that in the case of Ahmed, President Obama made an explicit attempt to distance state policies from the fact that Ahmed was arrested by tweeting that he wanted to invite him to the White House.
This move effectively served to position Ahmed’s case as occurring in a vacuum and to release the state from any culpability; something we should categorically reject if we want to understand both why violence towards Muslims is perpetrated and how it can be combatted.