The global order of Muslim surveillance and its thought architecture

Abstract

This essay contends that since 2015 a global surveillance order has come into existence as a result of Islamophobia in the international political system in the context of the rise of Islamic State. With regard to the causes of Islamophobic surveillance, the article rejects the argument that it is a byproduct of the capitalist system. It asserts, rather, that the reasons for the surveillance order are to be found in the specific nature of the figure of the Muslim, and its genealogies over centuries – the focus of this special issue. The particularities of Islamophobia in today’s global war against Muslim terrorism demand a constant expansion – a sort of imperialism – of surveillance. This is the origin, missed in the literature, of the recent creation of security states, including permanent states of exception, in Europe.