This paper introduces the debates surrounding how state terrorism is defined in relation to other... more This paper introduces the debates surrounding how state terrorism is defined in relation to other forms of state violence. While terrorism is a highly contested term, nevertheless there is now sufficient agreement among scholars on the key constitutive elements of terrorism. ...
A spectre is haunting Europe. Since about 2012, and not for the first time, right-wing racist mov... more A spectre is haunting Europe. Since about 2012, and not for the first time, right-wing racist movements are on the march across the continent and have parliamentary beachheads in a number of countries; at the same time, the European Parliament is possibly disintegrating, from the upsurge of Golden Dawn in economic crisis-ridden Greece, to the arrival of English Defence League (EDL) thugs on British streets. Then, Brexit was still inconceivable, however, and indeed it failed to be conceived by the British elite until they were surprised by the result of the 2016 referendum and the effectiveness of its anti-immigration campaign. Nor had the crisis of refugees fleeing from war in Syria and other devastation from the Arab Winter been imagined - at least not on the scale that eventuated, with its impact and reaction in Europe.
The violence of the British state in the global ‘war on terror’ is a form of state crime, but as ... more The violence of the British state in the global ‘war on terror’ is a form of state crime, but as these crimes are largely committed as a ‘junior partner’ in the unlawful violence of a US-led empire’s counter-terrorism, they are better understood as ‘empire crime’. This article considers three levels of complicity by the British state with such empire crime
International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, Oct 5, 2015
This special issue deals with anti-Muslim racism, crime, criminalisation and attacks-both ideolog... more This special issue deals with anti-Muslim racism, crime, criminalisation and attacks-both ideological and material-on Muslims and their communities in countries like Britain, Canada and Australia. A new spectre is haunting these places: an imagined 'other' is seen to be subversively spreading Muslim 'extremism' and exhorting anti-Western violence from within these societies, supporting global terrorism abroad and at home, and espousing hyperpatriarchal, homophobic and sexually exploitative culture. The 'Muslim other' has become the folk demon of our time in a racialising ideology that circulates internationally and has strikingly similar effects in quite different local contexts.
Ethnocentrism and orientalism have been part of the landscape of the Australian press since its i... more Ethnocentrism and orientalism have been part of the landscape of the Australian press since its inception, so in some ways anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism has always gone with the territory. Since the early days of the White Australia Policy in 1908, the masthead of the Sydney magazine Bulletin bore the motto: "Australia for the White Man" until it was removed in 1961. Arabs were not white, though some struggled strategically to accumulate the measures of this whiteness (Monsour, 2002; Hage, 1998.
Books about September II and the 'War on Terror' have become a veritable growth industry since 20... more Books about September II and the 'War on Terror' have become a veritable growth industry since 200 I. This edited book, published in 2002, was one of the first and is still one of the best. Many of its 35 chapters agree that, despite the cliche ofthe September II genre, the world did not change on that date; rather, causal relations long since set in train produced effects which were suddenly and globally manifest. Christian Parenti (pp I 0-19), for example, writing while smoke still seeped from the ruins of the twin towers, identifies a 'boomerang' in the turning back against the US empire of the Islamic fundamentalist militias that were nurtured and fostered by it in fighting for the downfall of the Soviet Union, notably in Afghanistan. 'America's open-ended jihad is precisely the type of policy that will compound the existing problems from which emerged the four suicidal jet-bombs of September II ' (p 18).
The study of state crime can always benefit from a perspective on social change towards eradicati... more The study of state crime can always benefit from a perspective on social change towards eradicating such wrongs. This book presents an original, empirically informed and highly systematic investigation of the Global Justice Movement (GJM) and argues that there is ample coherence in understandings, ideals and even policy to justify reference to "the" movement in the singular. The global financial crisis, the global food crisis and the global climate change crisis have all had their share of criminal causes and certainly criminal opportunities, commonly abetted by neo-liberal states championing "market globalism". Steger, Goodman and Wilson closely examine the organizations of "justice globalism" that are pitted collectively and with demonstrated solidarity against the criminogenic and harmful globalism of the market. This is not a book about crime but about the (rather surprisingly) organized struggle for global justice pursued by component bodies of the World Social Forum (WSF). This is shown, in the current conjuncture, to be principally an "ideological" struggle, albeit one of considerable maturation, and the book justifiably concludes that the struggle needs to become political. Justice Globalism focuses on 45 of the 150-plus constituent organizations of the WSF, which was formed in January 2001 to discuss and promote alternatives to the hegemony of neo-liberal globalization. The early chapters (2 and 3) of the book present a detailed analysis of indicative texts from these 45 organizations, mainly comprised of websites, media releases and statements/declarations, in order to chart their core concepts and key claims. The methodology used, inspired by Michael Freeden, is Morphological Discourse Analysis, with the authors probing the coherence of the movement's political ideology, tracing its "conceptual structure" and delineating the "decontestation chains" of justice globalism (p. 7). These are conceptual schema that (attempt to) establish the principles of the movement in common sense as taken for granted or incontestable. Steger et al. find, in chapter 2, that the central principles exhibited are transformative/paradigm change, participatory democracy, equality of access to resources or opportunities, social justice, universal rights, global solidarity and sustainability.
It is the Islamophobia of today’s Australia that is the subject of this chapter. Regretfully, thi... more It is the Islamophobia of today’s Australia that is the subject of this chapter. Regretfully, this could fill several books. So we present in this chapter a series of recent case-study snapshots of state and media Islamophobia in Australia, which we believe build up a bigger picture of the current situation faced by Muslims in the ‘War on Terror’ downunder. For the most part, the multifarious and complex connections between contemporary Islamophobia and the Australian state, its coercive apparatus (military, police, courts) and the consent-constructive apparatus of hegemony (notably the media), the common sense of folk wisdom found in civil society and informing its movements, and counter-hegemonic movementswill need to be merely gestured at here. Following Morgan and Poynting (2012), we assert that Islamophobia is now as thoroughly globalised as the world’s media, and is sustained with stock images, circulated transnationally. If we are right, then readers from other continents will readily recognise similar tropes and indeed the same ideology. De te fabula narratur
According to the Runnymede Trust's (1997) report, Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All, the t... more According to the Runnymede Trust's (1997) report, Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All, the term Islamophobia was originally "coined in the late 1980s, its first known use in print being in February 1991, in a periodical in the United States. The word is not ideal, but is recognizably similar to xenophobia and Europhobia and is a useful shorthand way of referring to dread or hatred of Islam - and, therefore, to fear or dislike of all or most Muslims" (p. 1)
This paper introduces the debates surrounding how state terrorism is defined in relation to other... more This paper introduces the debates surrounding how state terrorism is defined in relation to other forms of state violence. While terrorism is a highly contested term, nevertheless there is now sufficient agreement among scholars on the key constitutive elements of terrorism. ...
A spectre is haunting Europe. Since about 2012, and not for the first time, right-wing racist mov... more A spectre is haunting Europe. Since about 2012, and not for the first time, right-wing racist movements are on the march across the continent and have parliamentary beachheads in a number of countries; at the same time, the European Parliament is possibly disintegrating, from the upsurge of Golden Dawn in economic crisis-ridden Greece, to the arrival of English Defence League (EDL) thugs on British streets. Then, Brexit was still inconceivable, however, and indeed it failed to be conceived by the British elite until they were surprised by the result of the 2016 referendum and the effectiveness of its anti-immigration campaign. Nor had the crisis of refugees fleeing from war in Syria and other devastation from the Arab Winter been imagined - at least not on the scale that eventuated, with its impact and reaction in Europe.
The violence of the British state in the global ‘war on terror’ is a form of state crime, but as ... more The violence of the British state in the global ‘war on terror’ is a form of state crime, but as these crimes are largely committed as a ‘junior partner’ in the unlawful violence of a US-led empire’s counter-terrorism, they are better understood as ‘empire crime’. This article considers three levels of complicity by the British state with such empire crime
International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, Oct 5, 2015
This special issue deals with anti-Muslim racism, crime, criminalisation and attacks-both ideolog... more This special issue deals with anti-Muslim racism, crime, criminalisation and attacks-both ideological and material-on Muslims and their communities in countries like Britain, Canada and Australia. A new spectre is haunting these places: an imagined 'other' is seen to be subversively spreading Muslim 'extremism' and exhorting anti-Western violence from within these societies, supporting global terrorism abroad and at home, and espousing hyperpatriarchal, homophobic and sexually exploitative culture. The 'Muslim other' has become the folk demon of our time in a racialising ideology that circulates internationally and has strikingly similar effects in quite different local contexts.
Ethnocentrism and orientalism have been part of the landscape of the Australian press since its i... more Ethnocentrism and orientalism have been part of the landscape of the Australian press since its inception, so in some ways anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism has always gone with the territory. Since the early days of the White Australia Policy in 1908, the masthead of the Sydney magazine Bulletin bore the motto: "Australia for the White Man" until it was removed in 1961. Arabs were not white, though some struggled strategically to accumulate the measures of this whiteness (Monsour, 2002; Hage, 1998.
Books about September II and the 'War on Terror' have become a veritable growth industry since 20... more Books about September II and the 'War on Terror' have become a veritable growth industry since 200 I. This edited book, published in 2002, was one of the first and is still one of the best. Many of its 35 chapters agree that, despite the cliche ofthe September II genre, the world did not change on that date; rather, causal relations long since set in train produced effects which were suddenly and globally manifest. Christian Parenti (pp I 0-19), for example, writing while smoke still seeped from the ruins of the twin towers, identifies a 'boomerang' in the turning back against the US empire of the Islamic fundamentalist militias that were nurtured and fostered by it in fighting for the downfall of the Soviet Union, notably in Afghanistan. 'America's open-ended jihad is precisely the type of policy that will compound the existing problems from which emerged the four suicidal jet-bombs of September II ' (p 18).
The study of state crime can always benefit from a perspective on social change towards eradicati... more The study of state crime can always benefit from a perspective on social change towards eradicating such wrongs. This book presents an original, empirically informed and highly systematic investigation of the Global Justice Movement (GJM) and argues that there is ample coherence in understandings, ideals and even policy to justify reference to "the" movement in the singular. The global financial crisis, the global food crisis and the global climate change crisis have all had their share of criminal causes and certainly criminal opportunities, commonly abetted by neo-liberal states championing "market globalism". Steger, Goodman and Wilson closely examine the organizations of "justice globalism" that are pitted collectively and with demonstrated solidarity against the criminogenic and harmful globalism of the market. This is not a book about crime but about the (rather surprisingly) organized struggle for global justice pursued by component bodies of the World Social Forum (WSF). This is shown, in the current conjuncture, to be principally an "ideological" struggle, albeit one of considerable maturation, and the book justifiably concludes that the struggle needs to become political. Justice Globalism focuses on 45 of the 150-plus constituent organizations of the WSF, which was formed in January 2001 to discuss and promote alternatives to the hegemony of neo-liberal globalization. The early chapters (2 and 3) of the book present a detailed analysis of indicative texts from these 45 organizations, mainly comprised of websites, media releases and statements/declarations, in order to chart their core concepts and key claims. The methodology used, inspired by Michael Freeden, is Morphological Discourse Analysis, with the authors probing the coherence of the movement's political ideology, tracing its "conceptual structure" and delineating the "decontestation chains" of justice globalism (p. 7). These are conceptual schema that (attempt to) establish the principles of the movement in common sense as taken for granted or incontestable. Steger et al. find, in chapter 2, that the central principles exhibited are transformative/paradigm change, participatory democracy, equality of access to resources or opportunities, social justice, universal rights, global solidarity and sustainability.
It is the Islamophobia of today’s Australia that is the subject of this chapter. Regretfully, thi... more It is the Islamophobia of today’s Australia that is the subject of this chapter. Regretfully, this could fill several books. So we present in this chapter a series of recent case-study snapshots of state and media Islamophobia in Australia, which we believe build up a bigger picture of the current situation faced by Muslims in the ‘War on Terror’ downunder. For the most part, the multifarious and complex connections between contemporary Islamophobia and the Australian state, its coercive apparatus (military, police, courts) and the consent-constructive apparatus of hegemony (notably the media), the common sense of folk wisdom found in civil society and informing its movements, and counter-hegemonic movementswill need to be merely gestured at here. Following Morgan and Poynting (2012), we assert that Islamophobia is now as thoroughly globalised as the world’s media, and is sustained with stock images, circulated transnationally. If we are right, then readers from other continents will readily recognise similar tropes and indeed the same ideology. De te fabula narratur
According to the Runnymede Trust's (1997) report, Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All, the t... more According to the Runnymede Trust's (1997) report, Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All, the term Islamophobia was originally "coined in the late 1980s, its first known use in print being in February 1991, in a periodical in the United States. The word is not ideal, but is recognizably similar to xenophobia and Europhobia and is a useful shorthand way of referring to dread or hatred of Islam - and, therefore, to fear or dislike of all or most Muslims" (p. 1)
Like all ideology, the demonization of Islam perpetuated by the Western warriors of the 'clash of... more Like all ideology, the demonization of Islam perpetuated by the Western warriors of the 'clash of civilizations' (Huntington, 1997) has had profound material consequences. One of these is the surge in anti-Muslim racism in all hemispheres of the globe: north to south; east to west. This article focuses on the phenomenon in two nation-states: the United Kingdom and Australia. The first, as former colonial power, had a particular shape to its history of
This article reconsiders the 2005 Cronulla riots after ten years. We begin by examining three exa... more This article reconsiders the 2005 Cronulla riots after ten years. We begin by examining three examples of events misread ten years ago, to illustrate some key changes that have since shaped Australian racism. The first two, concern the rallying call to ‘Leb and wog bashing day’ at Cronulla in December 2005, and the attack there on two Bangladeshi students. These are shown to be indicative in a shift in the focus of racist Othering in Australia, from the ‘Arab Other’ to the ‘Muslim Other’, as Islamophobia becomes increasingly mainstreamed in Australian culture following the trend throughout the global West. Second, the incongruous chivalry-cum-feminism of the beachgoers who participated in the riot and were interviewed in the 2006 Four Corners television documentary, Riot and Revenge, illustrates some key features of Islamophobia as it has developed and become entrenched: such as accusing Muslims of …
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