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2020 | Buch

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Manufacturing Terrorism in Africa

The Securitisation of South African Muslims

verfasst von: Dr. Mohamed Natheem Hendricks

Verlag: Springer Singapore

Buchreihe : Islam and Global Studies

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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This book uses Securitisation Theory to explore how Muslims have been constructed as a security issue in Africa after the 9/11 attacks in the United States. These attacks became the rationale for the US’s Global War on Terror (GWOT). The centrality of Africa as an arena to execute the GWOT is the focus of this book.

This book explores, particularly, how western-centred security discourses around Muslims has permeated South African security discourse in the post-apartheid period. It claims that the popular press and the local think-tank community were critical knowledge-sites that imported rather than interrogated debates which have underpinned policy-initiatives such as the GWOT.

Such theorisation seems contrary to the original architects of securitisation theory who maintain that issues become security concerns when institutional voices declare these as such. However, this book confirms that non-institutional voices have securitised the African Muslims by equating them with terrorism.

This book illustrates that such securitisation reproduces partisan knowledge that promote Western interests.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. Prolegomenon: The White Widow—The Kenyan Westgate Mall Attack

Abstract

This chapter analyses the DStv Carte Blanche documentary, The Kenyan Attack, which was aired on 29 September 2013. A theme in this documentary is that the South African Muslim community poses a security threat because they are associated with terrorism and provides sanctuary to Islamic terrorists.

In the documentary, a former US Secretary of State declared that al Shabab recruited Somalis in South Africa for suicide attacks. This is securitisation. This declaration needed no substantiation since she had the assumed power and authority to state this as ‘fact’. Thereafter the appropriate securitising agencies, the media and security ‘experts’, transferred ‘knowledge of the threat’ to relevant audiences.

Mohamed Natheem Hendricks

Chapter 2. The United States: Pivotal in the Terrorism Debate in Africa

Abstract

This chapter seeks to position the United States of America (US) at the centre of security and terrorism debates in Africa. This is because the former US President George W. Bush initiated the internationalisation of the ‘Global War on Terror’. His utterance—after ‘9/11’—reinforced the equation of Islam with the idea of terror and successfully securitised Muslims. This equation of Islam with terrorism resonates with Samuel P. Huntington’s ‘Clash of Civilizations’ thesis which argued that future global conflict will have its origin in the idea of conflict between civilisations with Islam and the West as the primary antagonists. This is an ideological move which conflates politics, histories and cultures of Muslims.

Mohamed Natheem Hendricks

Chapter 3. Conceptualising Securitisation

Abstract

This chapter conceptualised and problematised securitisation theory through a review of the relevant literature. Securitisation theory conceives of security as an intersubjective rhetorical practice which, through the act of uttering security, brings a new social order into existence that provides justification for extraordinary measures to urgently stop the declared threat. But, uttering ‘security’ is a political act which is influenced by multiple environmental factors. The architects of securitisation theory propose that the utterances of ‘security’ is limited to state representatives employing their institutional voices to make securitising moves. However, this publication confirms that non-institutional voices, such as think-tanks, experts and the press, also have the capacity to make securitising moves.

Mohamed Natheem Hendricks

Chapter 4. The Invisible College

Abstract

The scholarly literature suggests that think-tanks are research institutions with material interests aiming to influence public policy processes and research. Despite such ideological partiality, their works are regarded as legitimate forms of knowledge because they are associated with the rituals of research.

This chapter examines the roles and functions of think-tanks within the policy development processes and explores how their ideas are transferred to policy-makers. The chapter continues and introduces four South African-based think-tanks that focus on security. These are the South African Institute of International Affairs, the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), the Brenthurst Foundation, and the Centre for International Policy Studies. To contextualise each think-tank, this chapter explores their historic developments.

Mohamed Natheem Hendricks

Chapter 5. Expertise, Epistemes and the Construction of a Suspect Community

Abstract

South African-based security think-tanks have been pivotal in the securitisation of Islam and Muslims in Africa. They have imported a Western security agenda into the local security discourse by associating Islam and Muslims with violence and terrorism.

Security think-tank experts have drawn their insights from epistemic networks that have their roots in Terrorism Studies and Counterinsurgency. These networks have been sponsored by the United States government from the 1970s.

This chapter argues that South African security experts have introduced and appropriated a particular Western narrative on the origins of contemporary terrorism into African security discourses. In order to increase their credibility, they created a local node within a global terrorism epistemic network.

Mohamed Natheem Hendricks

Chapter 6. Writing Insecurity: Representations of Muslims and Islam in the South African Print Media

Abstract

National newspapers have been pivotal in the securitisation of Muslims as they have transferred the security priorities and policy agendas of the West into South Africa. Consequently, they have endorsed the discourse that construct Islam as an existential threat to Western civilisation and African society.

In support of the ‘Global War on Terror’, the press propagated that South Africa has become a sanctuary for ‘Islamic terrorists’ and that ‘Islamic terrorism’ was a bigger threat to South Africa than the ‘white right-wing’. Such declarations of securitisation moves by non-institutional voices encouraged policy makers to introduce emergency measures to stop the security threat.

Mohamed Natheem Hendricks

Chapter 7. Conclusion

Abstract

The chapter concludes this book which unveiled the continuous practices and complicated processes involved in the securitisation of Islam in Africa. The unique contribution this publication makes to the scholarly literature is its use of securitisation theory to analyse the construction of Islam as a threat in Africa by security think-tanks and national newspapers. In doing this, this publication constitutes part of a growing body of academic literature that uses securitisation as an analytical framework to conceptualise how security has been constructed.

Theoretically, it widens securitisation theory by identifying think-tanks and the press as securitising actors. This exposes the power-practices of institutions that are often viewed as neutral observers in relation to security.

Mohamed Natheem Hendricks

Correction to: Expertise, Epistemes and the Construction of a Suspect Community

Mohamed Natheem Hendricks

Backmatter

Titel: Manufacturing Terrorism in Africa
verfasst von: Dr. Mohamed Natheem Hendricks
Verlag: Springer Singapore
Electronic ISBN: 978-981-15-5626-5
Print ISBN: 978-981-15-5625-8
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5626-5

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Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. Prolegomenon: The White Widow—The Kenyan Westgate Mall Attack

Chapter 2. The United States: Pivotal in the Terrorism Debate in Africa

Chapter 3. Conceptualising Securitisation

Chapter 4. The Invisible College

Chapter 5. Expertise, Epistemes and the Construction of a Suspect Community

Chapter 6. Writing Insecurity: Representations of Muslims and Islam in the South African Print Media

Chapter 7. Conclusion

Correction to: Expertise, Epistemes and the Construction of a Suspect Community

Backmatter

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