Policing Muslims: Counter-terrorism and Islamophobia in the UK and Australia

This chapter examines the policing of Muslims in the UK and Australia, within the context of the racialized moral panic known as the War on Terror. Whilst sharing distinct colonial histories, the policing of Muslim communities in both countries has been driven by state-led Islamophobia in the form of counter-terrorism programmes. Such programmes have disproportionately focused on and harmed Muslim communities through techniques such as racial profiling, community surveillance, entrapment, and the infiltration of educational spaces. In this chapter, we highlight how counter-terrorism policing in the UK and Australia has relied on and fed into Islamophobic stereotypes. In the same vein as the globally resonant Black Lives Matter movement, we engage with and centre the ongoing legacies of racist and oppressive histories of colonialism and imperialism. The success of the Black Lives Matter movement in generating mass public support for protests against police brutality and racial injustice has led to a renewed wave of anti-racism under the banner of decolonization, to which we contribute.