Don't Mention the War: UK Counter-Terrorism on the Home Front since 9/11

In the latest installment of our Engaging Sociology series, Dr Rizwaan Sabir will present a special guest lecture: "Don't Mention the War: UK Counter-Terrorism on the Home Front since 9/11".

Abstract

An increasing number of individuals and organisations within the security, military and think-tank sectors are beginning to view the threat from armed Islamic groups and individuals as a "global Islamic insurgency". To what extent has this perception of the opponent in the 'war on terror' become embedded in current British counter-terrorism policy and practice? What are the consequences of embedding such an approach on (Muslim) communities, dissenters and activists more broadly? This lecture answers these questions by mapping UK counter-terrorism policy and practice since the attacks of 9/11 and 7/7, and argues that the increasing criminalisation and construction of Muslims and dissenters as "suspect" is not an unpleasant by-product of mistakes, ignorance or arrogance, but rather, the consequence of adopting a counterinsurgency warfare approach that seeks to co-opt, coerce, and control Muslim populations and those who stand with them.

About the speaker

Dr Rizwaan Sabir is a lecturer in criminology at Liverpool John Moores University and specializes in the study of UK counter-terrorism, counterinsurgency, and the British "war on terror”. His research was motivated by his false arrest and detention as a suspected terrorist ("The Nottingham Two") for possessing a copy of the al-Qaida training manual that he was using for his postgraduate research on al-Qaida and Hamas. After settling his legal case with the police in 2011, he was awarded £20,000 in compensation, issued an apology for being unlawfully stopped and searched, and had incorrect intelligence that was being held on him removed from police computers. He tweets at @RizwaanSabir.