Muslim Racialization and US Law Enforcement Agencies

Desis Divided: The Political Lives of South Asian Americans by Sangay K. Mishra (University of Minnesota Press, 2016) is the first of its kind involving the politics of South Asians in the United States. Desis Divided fills an important gap in the study of Asian American politics and speaks to a larger literature on minority political incorporation, showing both the strengths and limitations of Desi political involvement.

Desis Divided (Sangay Mishra)After the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. government responded in two ways: (1) looking for the perpetrators of the attack outside the United States, which resulted in the invasion of Afghanistan, and (2) a domestic “war on terror,” which started with the detention and interrogation of thousands of Muslims, Arabs, Middle Easterners, and South Asians. Here I briefly note some of the measures undertaken by law enforcement agencies after 9/11 attacks that underline the systematic and pervasive nature of Muslim targeting that in turn was embodied as frighteningly transformative experiences by the interviewees.

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Published in: Raiot