Radical Skin, Moderate Masks: De-radicalising the Muslim and Racism in Post-racial Societies (Challenging Migration Studies)

Radical Skin, Moderate Masks explores a voice trapped by the War on Terror. How can a Muslim speak about politics? And, in what tone can they argue? In today's climate can they "talk back" without being defined as a moderate or radical? And, what do the conditions put on their political choices reveal about liberalism and its deep and historical relationship with racism? This timely work looks at ongoing debates and how they call for Muslims to engage in a "de-radicalisation" of their voice and identities. The author takes his lessons from Fanon and uses them to make sense of his many readings of Said's Orientalism. He reflects on the personal and scholarly difficulty of writing this very book. A messy autoethnography follows. It shows (rather than tells of) the felt demand to use a pleasing "Apollonian" liberalism. This approved language, however, erases a Muslim's ability to talk about the "Dionysian" more Asiatic parts of their faith and politics. Radical Skin, Moderate Masks explores a voice trapped by the War on Terror. How can a Muslim speak about politics? And, in what tone can they argue? In today's climate can they "talk back" without being defined as a moderate or radical? And, what do the conditions put on their political choices reveal about liberalism and its deep and historical relationship with racism? This timely work looks at ongoing debates and how they call for Muslims to engage in a "de-radicalisation" of their voice and identities. The author takes his lessons from Fanon and uses them to make sense of his many readings of Said's Orientalism. He reflects on the personal and scholarly difficulty of writing this very book. An autoethnography follows. It shows (rather than tells of) the felt demand to use a pleasing "Apollonian" liberalism. This approved language, however, erases a Muslim's ability to talk about the "Dionysian" more Asiatic parts of their faith and politics. I. INTRODUCTION. / 1. (My Other) Research Question / 2. Background (or the Muslim's psychic register) to Question / 3. (My auto-ethnographic) Method, Outline & Objectives / II. FABULOUS / 4. Introducing (the First Act or) Case Study One / 5. (The "Fabulous" Mask of) Waleed Aly / 6. Finding(s) in Case Study One (the First Orientalism) / III. MILITANT / 7. Introducing (the Second Act or) Case Study Two / 8. (The "Militant" Mask of) Hamza Yusuf / 9. Finding(s) in Case Study Two (the Second Orientalism) / IV. TRIUMPHANT / 10. Introducing (the Third Act or) Case Study Three / 11. (The "Triumphant" Mask of) Maajid Nawaz / 12. Finding(s) in Case Study Three (the Third Orientalism) / V. CONCLUSION / 13. Social (Ir)relevance of Research / 14. (Questioning my) Contribution / 15. (The lack of a) Conclusion (or the Moebius strip) / Bibliography The War on Terror has acted as a catalyst for a range of liberal states including the US, UK and Australia to enact a vast range of nation security measures including de-radicalisation programmes. This timely work examines the State's use of narrative to "reform" violent political subjects, and explores how these narratives intersect with issues of immigration, border control and a post-racial era of accepting difference. It examines the racial assumptions hidden within public and institutional debates around Muslim radicals through a liberal state's appropriation of moderate Muslim voices. The book illustrates how insidiously the problem of race connects post-racially with a range of negative discourses and images conjured up by the narrative of the War on Terror