Seeing Islamophobia in Black: Contesting Imperial Logics in the Anti-Racist Moment

Abstract

Motivated by Kundnani's [Kundnani, The Muslims Are Coming! (London, 2015), 10] commentary that racialization within counterterrorism politics reflects "an imperialist political culture,"this article theoretically engages with and expands from the political moment that was Muslim counterterrorism policymaker Baroness Sayeeda Warsi speaking at the launch of Runnymede's Islamophobia: Still a Challenge for Us All (A 20th Anniversary Report) in 2017. Noting Warsi's appeal to political blackness made during her speech contesting state-sponsored Islamophobia, it is argued that embedding Warsi's rhetoric in a wider analytical framework organized around black-centric traditions prompts a wider conversation about the intricacies of racism within Britain and its international underpinnings. Inspired by the arguments of Aydin [Aydin, The Idea of the Muslim World (Cambridge, 2017)] and Narayan [Narayan, "British Black Power,"The Sociological Review 67 (2019): 945-67], this article examines what it means for both immediate and conceptual resistance to Islamophobia if it and its racialization are considered as part of a wider global history of Muslims engaging in "black"as a mode of imperial resistance. By examining the relationship between anti-imperial blackness and Muslimness, this article offers a unique angle to understand the presence of the international, as several groups across the world endeavor to resist the racism of national security regimes.