RT Article
T1 Producing ‘internal suspect bodies’: divisive effects of UK counter‐terrorism measures on Muslim communities in Leeds and Bradford
JF The British journal of sociology
VO 70
IS 1
SP 261
OP 282
A1 Abbas, Madeline-Sophie
LA English
YR 2019
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1685926916
AB Research on UK government counter‐terrorism measures has claimed that Muslims are treated as a ‘suspect community’. However, there is limited research exploring the divisive effects that membership of a ‘suspect community’ has on relations within Muslim communities. Drawing from interviews with British Muslims living in Leeds or Bradford, I address this gap by explicating how co‐option of Muslim community members to counter extremism fractures relations within Muslim communities. I reveal how community members internalize fears of state targeting which precipitates internal disciplinary measures. I contribute the category of ‘internal suspect body’ which is materialized through two intersecting conditions within preventative counter‐terrorism: the suspected extremist for Muslims to look out for and suspected informer who might report fellow Muslims. I argue that the suspect community operates through a network of relations by which terrors of counter‐terrorism are reproduced within Muslim communities with divisive effects.
K1 Counter-terrorism
K1 Extremism
K1 Muslim
K1 Prevent
K1 Suspect body
K1 Suspect community
DO 10.1111/1468-4446.12366