Impact and Insecurity: The Securitisation of State Relations with British Muslim Communities

Abstract

In the wake of 9/11, London 7/7, and subsequent al-Qaeda influenced attacks, the notion that ‘communities defeat terrorism’ — borrowed from Britain’s experiences in Ireland — has been reestablished and embedded as a security mantra in which Muslim communities are the overwhelming focus (Spalek, El Awa and McDonald 2008; Spalek, Lambert and Baker 2009; McDonald and Spalek 2010; Spalek, McDonald and El Awa 2011; McDonald 2011). Although intended at one level to engender a sense of inclusion and partnership between state-led operations and communities, the result has often been the effective profiling of an entire faith group, not only in relation to religion, but geographical locations, ethnicities, socialites and political affiliations (McDonald and Spalek 2010). The direct impact of these counter-terrorism policies and practices, including government-led preventative and pursuit tactics, has been well documented (spikes in police stop-and-search of young Muslim men, travel disruptions and heavy-handed policing at international borders under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000,¹ pre-charge and pre-trial detentions, covert data collection and spying, control orders and Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures, or TPIMs), 2 as has evidence that such tactics are actually counterproductive in terms of preventative action (Kundnani 2009, 2014; McGovern and Tobin 2010; Weeks 2013). But beyond the implications for state security and its practices, the impact on human life and experience of ‘belonging’ is deep and long lasting, and as this chapter argues, responsible for shaping social relations in the UK far more broadly.