A Foucauldian Theory of American Islamophobia

• Main Author: Sriram, Shyam K.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Department of Theology and Philosophy, Faculty of Islamic Studies, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2016
• Online Access: http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11022/1/IJIT-Vol-10-Dec-2016_5_47-54.pdf; http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11022/; http://www.ukm.my/ijit/volume-10-dec-2016/

With the emergence of ISIS andAmerican public furor over allowing Syrian refugees safe haven, Muslim Americans find themselves once again in the cross-hairs of a nation obsessed with searching for answers and someone to blame. I argue that the premise behind American anti-Muslim sentiment is rooted in two of Michel Foucault’s concepts -“biopower” and “pastoral power.” This article is divided in two halves. In the first, I argue that American nationalism is articulated in a unique way, particularly through “pastoral power.” In conjunction with an “imagined” American nationhood (Anderson 1983), it has created a state that is often viewed as secular, but is quite Christian ideologically and structurally. Drawing on Göle (1996), I surmise that the Western “culture of confession,” an extension of pastoral power, is incompatible with Islam – or at least is viewed as such. In the second half, I present my main argument towards a new understanding of Foucault’s (1990) biopower in the context of the sovereign and its ability to designate who is “sacred,” a la Agamben (1998). I suggest that a new evaluation of Agamben (1998) should be undertaken to account for the renewed racialization of and discrimination towards American Muslims.