The Impossibility of Muslim Boyhood

by Shenila Khoja-Moolji

How the construction of Muslim boys as proto-terrorists is integral to the story of American racial capitalism How do we understand an incident where a five-year-old Muslim boy arrives at Dulles airport and is preemptively detained as a “threat”? To answer that question, Shenila Khoja-Moolji examines American public culture, arguing that Muslim boyhood has been invented as a threat within an ideology that seeks to predict future terrorism. Muslim boyhood bridges actual past terrorism and possible future events, justifying preemptive enclosure, surveillance, and punishment. Even in the occasional reframing of individual Muslim boys as innocent, Khoja-Moolji identifies a pattern of commodity antiracism, through which elites buy public goodwill but leave intact the collective anti-Muslim notion that fuels an expanding carceral and security state. Framing Muslim boyhood as a heuristic device, she turns to a discussion of Hindutva ideology in India to show how Muslim boyhood may be resituated in global contexts.

116 pages, Paperback

Published July 2, 2024

Reviews

[🪐 · Rating 4 out of 5]

well-researched and defined argument. great reference to america’s history of surveilling and incarcerating black and brown bodies. wish it was longer!

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW

[Becca Richman · Rating 5 out of 5]

did my précis on this one!! so interesting - but i’m still lost on where the gender is in all of it. i think i’ll be in office hours for this one this week!