Unveiling the Political Framing of Muslim Boys as Terrorists in the Making
A Review of Shenila Khoja-Moolji’s The Impossibility of Muslim Boyhood
Abstract
This book review discusses The Impossibility of Muslim Boyhood by Shenila Khoja-Moolji, which provides valuable insights into how Muslim boys are constructed as potential “future terrorists” in both American and Indian contexts. Khoja-Moolji explores how this invented image denies Muslim boys innocence and is shaped by the collective trauma of past terrorist attacks and anxieties about imagined future threats. She also examines the intersectionality of this constructed image, highlighting how it is influenced by the dynamics of anti-Muslim racism, racial capitalism, public discourses, and institutional practices.
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References
Bernstein, R. (2011). Racial innocence: Performing American childhood and race from slavery to civil rights. NYU Press.
Beydoun, K. (2022). On terrorists and freedom fighters. Harvard Law Review Forum, 136(1), 1–36. https://harvardlawreview.org/forum/no-volume/on-terrorists-and-freedom-fighters/
Corbin, C. M. (2017). Terrorists are always Muslim but never white: At the intersection of critical race theory and propaganda. Fordham Law Review, 86(2), 455–485. https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/flr/vol86/iss2/5/
Khoja-Moolji, S. (2024). The impossibility of Muslim boyhood. University of Minnesota Press.
Selod, S., Islam, I., & Garner, S. (2024). A global racial enemy: Muslims and 21st-century racism. Polity Press.
Sharpe, C. (2016). In the wake: On Blackness and being. Duke University Press.
Copyright (c) 2024 Sharifa Al Battashi
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