‘Prevent’ing Education: Anti-Muslim Racism and the War on Terror in Schools

Abstract

Since the events of the 2001 riots, 9/11 and the terrorist attacks in London in 2005, we have witnessed in Western Europe an ‘end of [state] multiculturalism’ (McGhee 2008), replaced by a policy debate on the integration of Muslim communities within a heightened security context. These policy debates on racialised minority groups have coincided with the emergence and popular appeal of a ‘new British fascism’ (Goodwin 2011) in the form of British National Party (BNP), English Defence League (EDL) and the Infidels of Britain. This chapter will focus on the dichotomy between the rhetorical discourse of ‘postrace’, and the securitised governance of racialised minority groups within the context of education and schooling. It will discuss how the national meta-discourse of Muslims as a ‘pariah group’, as informed through the ‘Bush years’ (Imtiaz 2009), shapes the experiences of anti-Muslim racism within schooling. In the first section I explore the intense educational policy imperative which has emerged during the last decade and has attempted to address the ‘Muslim question’ through ethnic integration, segregation and securitised de-radicalisation policies. Major socio-political and security events at an international and domestic level have given way to policy approaches attempting to address the ‘Muslim question’ by problematising and pathologising Muslims.