Exercising Control over the "Threat"
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The first document I opened when preparing for this class was Bill M-103. I scrolled through all of the votes and laughed at how stark the voting differences were. I thought, "of course, the Bloc Quebecois and Conservatives voted no." When reading the discussion guiding questions, I thought about how silly it was that their reason for voting no was that the language of the bill would lead to censorship of criticisms of Islam. However, as I read Rana and Husain's articles I began to think about how Islam is a threat to the Western world, but not in the way they portray it as.
With motifs like the violent terrorist, Muslims are painted as a threat to the Western world's safety. They play the role of the victim. Rana brings up the Muslim question in his article, which is the question of what the Muslim's place is in relation to modernity and late capitalism. Rana argues that "Muslim racism and Islamophobia are central to the narrative of modern nations- and to modernity itself” and I wholeheartedly agree. Husain writes of the scavenger ideology that the Western world employs with racism. Racism feeds on and absorbs certain ideas from its surroundings. For example, the institution of migrant illegality in places where they exploit migrant workers and need them to feed their economy.
There is a need to control every aspect where the Western world feels threatened. Both Husain and Rana briefly mention how Muslims are a threat to the white Christian world, but I think this is the basis of why Islamophobia is so deeply ingrained into modernity. The Western world feels threatened by "Muslims," so they encourage free-fire zones. They refuse to pass bills that condemn Islamophobia because they fear rescinding some of their power over Muslims. Islamophobia severely inhibits the existence of Muslims across the world, and it is just another way the West can maintain control of the perceived threat.