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A review by ulanur
Tangled in Terror: Uprooting Islamophobia by Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan
challenging
informative
medium-paced
5.0
This book is fantastic. Absolutely illuminating.
It focuses on islmaophobia as an oppressive institution (mostly in the UK but also touching on the US), how it is supported by law and how insidiously pervasive it is in the fabric of society. Twisted into double-speak that makes open islmaophobia not only acceptable, but encouraged. Think of the "See it. Say it. Sorted" announcements we get on public transport: we know who we're supposed to be watching out for, exactly who we're supposed to find suspicious.
Manzoor-Khan covers a wide range of issues with precision, from education, healthcare, workplace, legal and penal systems. It affects the most vulnerable in society, at the border and in prisons, targeted by the surveillance state, denied basic human rights. And yet, discussions of Islamophobia are relegated to microaggressions and slurs.
The biggest eye opener for me was an assumption, or belief, that I had never questioned before: secularism. Something I was raised to believe was the epitome of impartiality. It's not often a belief of mine is completely upended but I'm so glad this one has been (not to say I'm not used to being challenged, just that I've never seen secularism deconstructed like this before). Manzoor-Khan writes about how secularism is used by white supremacist structures to invalidate any non-Christian religions, but simultaneously uphold Christian (or Western) modes of thinking. On the one hand saying that religion shouldn't be involved in government but then using Christian morality as the basis for laws.
"Most anti-racists do not grapple enough with the fact that secularism entails discrediting most knowledge produced outside of Western European men's academic thought and is therefore an extension of the colonial project."
It focuses on islmaophobia as an oppressive institution (mostly in the UK but also touching on the US), how it is supported by law and how insidiously pervasive it is in the fabric of society. Twisted into double-speak that makes open islmaophobia not only acceptable, but encouraged. Think of the "See it. Say it. Sorted" announcements we get on public transport: we know who we're supposed to be watching out for, exactly who we're supposed to find suspicious.
Manzoor-Khan covers a wide range of issues with precision, from education, healthcare, workplace, legal and penal systems. It affects the most vulnerable in society, at the border and in prisons, targeted by the surveillance state, denied basic human rights. And yet, discussions of Islamophobia are relegated to microaggressions and slurs.
The biggest eye opener for me was an assumption, or belief, that I had never questioned before: secularism. Something I was raised to believe was the epitome of impartiality. It's not often a belief of mine is completely upended but I'm so glad this one has been (not to say I'm not used to being challenged, just that I've never seen secularism deconstructed like this before). Manzoor-Khan writes about how secularism is used by white supremacist structures to invalidate any non-Christian religions, but simultaneously uphold Christian (or Western) modes of thinking. On the one hand saying that religion shouldn't be involved in government but then using Christian morality as the basis for laws.
"Most anti-racists do not grapple enough with the fact that secularism entails discrediting most knowledge produced outside of Western European men's academic thought and is therefore an extension of the colonial project."