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Post 9/11 Anti-Muslim Racism: a Critical Analysis of Canada' Security Policies

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Post 9/11 Anti-Muslim Racism: a Critical Analysis of Canada' Security Policies POST-9/11 ANTI-MUSLIM RACISM: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF CANADA’S SECURITY POLICIES by Imran Khan, B.A., University of Toronto, 2011 A Major Research Paper Presented to Ryerson University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Program of Immigration and Settlement Studies Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2013 © Imran Khan 2013 AUTHOR'S DECLARATION FOR ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION OF A MAJOR RESEARCH PAPER (MRP) I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this Major Research Paper. This is a true copy of the MRP, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I authorize Ryerson University to lend this MRP to other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research I further authorize Ryerson University to reproduce this MRP by photocopying or by other means, in total or in part, at the request of other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. I understand that my MRP may be made electronically available to the public. Imran Khan ii POST-9/11 ANTI-MUSLIM RACISM: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF CANADA’S SECURITY POLICIES Imran Khan Master of Arts (2013) Immigration and Settlement Studies Ryerson University Abstract This paper examines the experience of Arab and South Asian Muslim-Canadians in the current climate of ‘war against terror’. By investigating securitization of Arab and South Asian Muslims from a socio-political perspective, the paper will explore how race thinking has become entrenched into the institutional fabric of security discourse. Race thinking, as Sherene Razack has identified, is the structure of thought that divides the world between the deserving and the underserving. While Canada’s historic policies around securitization of racialized minorities exemplifies the patterns of ‘preferred’ and ‘non-preferred’ immigrants; this paper will investigate such characteristics by examining the post-9/11 legislative changes and how they have impacted the Arab and South Asian Muslim experience. This paper has two parts to it. First, the paper will attempt to identify how issues become securitized by examining the recent changes to the anti-terrorism legislations. After examining the issue of securitization, the paper will then investigate whether Muslims have become the new ‘Other’. Key words: Toronto 18; Operation Project Thread; Hassan Almrei; Mohamed Harkat; Anti-Muslim Racism; Anti-terrorism; Canadian Security Policies; Securitization; Race Thinking. iii Acknowledgement I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Tariq Amin-Khan, for his tremendous guidance and support throughout the writing of my MRP. I could not have completed my research without the optimism and continuous support provided to me by Dr. Amin- Khan. I would like to also extend most gratitude to my family and friends who have always believed in me and inspired me to do better for myself. To my parents – thank you for always being there for me and for the countless sacrifices you have made for my siblings and I. Your sacrifices have not gone unnoticed. iv Table of Contents I. Introduction: ................................................................................................................. 1 II. Literature Review: ...................................................................................................... 7 Anti-Terrorism Policy Implications: ........................................................................... 7 Process of Marginalization: ........................................................................................ 8 Who should be the Target? .......................................................................................... 9 Life in Fear, a Constant Rhetoric: ............................................................................ 10 III. Methodology: Critical Social Research ................................................................... 11 IV. Demographic, Scope of Research, and Self-Disclosure: ......................................... 14 Demographic ............................................................................................................. 14 Scope of Research ...................................................................................................... 15 Self-Disclosure .......................................................................................................... 15 PART I: How Issues Become Securitized: ........................................................................ 17 V. Theoretical Framework: Securitization of Racialized Minorities: ........................... 17 VI. Legislation: Examining Recent Changes ATA ....................................................... 22 PART II: Are Muslims the New Other? ............................................................................ 26 VII. Policy Implications: Toronto 18 and Operation Project Thread: ........................... 26 Operation Project Thread: A Plot Destined from Abroad ........................................ 27 Toronto 18: The Threat of Young Muslim Canadians ............................................... 30 VIII. Policy Implications: Hassan Almrei and Mohamed Harkat: ................................ 34 Hassan Almrei: A Suspected Bin Laden Affiliate ...................................................... 35 Mohamed Harkat: An Alleged Algerian Jihadist? .................................................... 38 IX. Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 42 Reference List: ................................................................................................................... 44 v I. Introduction: Incidences of Anti-Muslim Racism in Canada: “In August 2010, Inas Kadri was assaulted by a woman for wearing the traditional face veil at Sheridan Centre in Mississauga.” “Dawood Hepplewhite, a Muslim Convert, was stranded in Canada after being denied permission to fly home because he’s on the U.S. no-fly list.” “Mehwish Ali claims that she was fired for wearing an Islamic headscarf because the salon ‘promotes hair’.” I situate this paper in this post-9/11 decade of vulnerability of the Muslims living in the West amidst the dominant narrative of fear and insecurity in Western society. This narrative of fear and insecurity in the West has been, and continues to be, reinforced by Samuel Huntington’s “Clash of Civilization” theory. For much of the Cold War period, Huntington heavily promoted the idea of modernization in the global South as he projected that unless the decolonized states of Africa and Asia embrace capitalism, they will be left behind in both political and economic development. This was done with the aim of getting as many of these decolonized states to align with the US during the Cold War as modernization theorists, such as Huntington, Parsons, and Rostow, saw traditional cultures of emerging decolonized states as inferior and needing to emulate the ‘superior’ European-North American values (Amin-Khan, 2012: 57). As a result, Huntington, Parsons, and Rostow became influential modernization theorists due to their orientalist stance on the need for states in the emerging Global South to become ‘modern’ in order to move away from the ‘inferiorized’ reality of traditional society. As the intense Cold War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union came to an end in 1990s, Huntington reintroduced another binary along the lines of 1 traditional modern society to signify the new threat to the US and Western hegemony. The new binary was said to be between the 'civilized' West and the 'less-than-civilized' Muslims/Islam and the communist Chinese, and was articulated in his now well-known, Clash of Civilizations text. This civilizational narrative can be also seen as the new Orientalism1. While Huntington identifies several reasons behind Islam’s professed danger, one key indicator is the historical differences in culture, creed, and political ideologies that have accompanied a great risk of having a prominent presence of Arab/Muslims within the territorial boundaries of the West (Huntington, 1993; Landscheidt and Wollny, 2004; Funk and Said, 2004; Cox and Marks, 2003; Razack, 2008). However, although Huntington categorizes Islam’s cultural and historical traditions to be a threat to the West, he fails to acknowledge the manner through which the concept of ‘Jihad’ was promoted throughout Afghanistan, during the Cold War, as the United States attempted to spur resistance against the Soviet occupation of the country (Fox, 2001; Rais, 2000; Ottaway and Stephens, 2002). For example, during the end of the Cold War, the United States spent millions of dollars to promote violent images and militant Islamic teachings in schools and to the broader public in Afghanistan (Ottaway and Stephens, 2002: 1). This resulted in the country to exult and charge itself with talks about jihad and strict fundamentalist rules in order to maintain and preserve the autonomy of Afghanistan from the Soviets (Ottaway and Stephens, 2002: 1). As such, the 1 The concept of orientalism was first introduced in Edward Said’s book Orientalism (1978). Orientalism is a foundational text in the Post-Colonial Studies as it provides a comprehensive understanding of the orientalist perception of the Third World (specifically post-colonial states) as ‘backward’ and unable to sustain itself. As a result, the West must interpret the life for both East and West, as the ‘Orient’ cannot understand itself (Said, 1979: 43). While Said’s orientalism
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