To create and to regulate: the discursive construction of the ‘Muslim community’ in parliamentary counter-terrorism debates

Abstract

Since 7/7, there has been increasing fears over ‘homegrown terrorism’, generating a need for soft forms of counter-terrorism legislation that repelled the forces of radicalisation. However, this legislation came with intense scrutiny, within academic and public discourse, as it disproportionately targeted the British Muslim community. Essentially, counter-terrorism legislation constructed a Muslim ‘suspect community' in the United Kingdom. However, these critiques fail to consider the role of Parliament in constructing a racialized ‘Muslim community’, legitimizing said-discriminatory legislation. Therefore, I pose the question: How has parliamentary discourse constructed a Muslim ‘suspect community’ within counter-terrorism legislation? I find that UK parliamentary discourse have enabled and legitimised counter-terrorism practices as a form of permanent pre-emption, by discursively constructing a collective racialised identity, the ‘Muslim community’, as always at-risk of ‘becoming terrorists’. This finding allowed me to understand how political discourses have legitimised specific counter-terrorism practices, namely the Prevent Strategy (2011), that aim to discipline and manage British Muslims and their radical skin.