Citation

Abbas MS. Br. J. Sociol. 2019; 70(1): 261-282.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, London School of Economics and Political Science, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/1468-4446.12366

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Research on UK government counter-terrorism measures has claimed that Muslims are treated as a 'suspect community'. However, there is limited research exploring the divisive effects that membership of a 'suspect community' has on relations within Muslim communities. Drawing from interviews with British Muslims living in Leeds or Bradford, I address this gap by explicating how co-option of Muslim community members to counter extremism fractures relations within Muslim communities. I reveal how community members internalize fears of state targeting which precipitates internal disciplinary measures. I contribute the category of 'internal suspect body' which is materialized through two intersecting conditions within preventative counter-terrorism: the suspected extremist for Muslims to look out for and suspected informer who might report fellow Muslims. I argue that the suspect community operates through a network of relations by which terrors of counter-terrorism are reproduced within Muslim communities with divisive effects.

Language: en

Keywords

Counter-terrorism; extremism; Muslim; Prevent; suspect body; suspect community