Radical Skin, Moderate Masks: De-radicalising the Muslim and Racism in Post-racial Societies

by Yassir Morsi

Radical Skin, Moderate Masks explores a voice trapped by the War on Terror. How can a Muslim speak about politics? And, in what tone can they argue? In today's climate can they "talk back" without being defined as a moderate or radical? And, what do the conditions put on their political choices reveal about liberalism and its deep and historical relationship with racism? This timely work looks at ongoing debates and how they call for Muslims to engage in a "de-radicalisation" of their voice and identities. The author takes his lessons from Fanon and uses them to make sense of his many readings of Said's Orientalism. He reflects on the personal and scholarly difficulty of writing this very book. An autoethnography follows. It shows (rather than tells of) the felt demand to use a pleasing "Apollonian" liberalism. This approved language, however, erases a Muslim's ability to talk about the "Dionysian" more Asiatic parts of their faith and politics.

Genres: Nonfiction, Islam, Politics, Race

186 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2017

About the author

Psychology
Politics
Therapy
Islamicate

Reviews

[Asim Qureshi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a longer review that I have written for this excellent book of reflections and analysis by Yassir Morsi, but want to leave some immediate thoughts. Ultimately this book is one that challenges the Muslim living in the West to rethink their relationship to power, and the extent to which faith and its manifestation are performative - for who and for what purpose. The auto-ethnographic approach of Morsi takes the book from the academic to the introspective, allowing for a great deal of reflection for the reader.

[Muneerah Razak]

This is a definite must read, for everyone to understand how the War on Terror and white supremacy has caused a type of everyday aggression/violence on the Muslim and his/her faith and identity. Yassir Morsi grapples with the impact of structural racism and islamophobia by highlighting how it has affected Muslim subjectivity - the wearing of different masks.

Using Fanon (and Said), he speaks of the Muslim putting on masks to perform for different gazes and discourses.
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“Fabulous” Mask
This is where Muslims negate the radical - “We negate the negative of stereotypes after we accept that it is our starting point.” This mask represents how Muslims don’t question imperialism, colonial violence, white supremacy (the roots of “Islamic” extremism) etc but puts forward a peaceful, good Islam/Muslim.
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“Militant” Mask
This mask is worn by Muslims who is militant against problems within Islam and the Muslim community. “It is conclusively a plea for Muslims to accept responsibility. Sure, but it also disregards the world’s unequal structures.” (p.79)
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“Triumphant” Mask
“The triumphant moderate is submerged in the glory of the West’s attraction.” Wearing this mask of the moderate naturalises the West. It becomes logical that it is the end/success/goal of human political societies. To be a good Muslim is to be a Muslim of material progress and high spirituality/culture (literally what SG Ministers have been encouraging SG Muslims to be in recent years).
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In the end, the mask wearer has to ensure that his/her identity is reconstructed in a way that is accepted to the expectations of others.
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The style of his writing is also easy to follow as he uses alot of personal anecdotes and observations (auto-ethnography) vs wholly academic language. I left his book with the exact question he has: which mask am I wearing now? Can the Muslim exist outside the War on Terror? Can I exist authentically, as “I”?

[Mohamud · Rating 5 out of 5]

For an academic critique of Countering Violent Extremism programmes, "Radical Skin, Moderate Masks" dispenses with the traditional academic voice; dispassionate, analytical, coldly logical 'Cartesian' in the words of the author, for something more reflexive. In the words of the author, the book is an 'undisciplined auto-ethnography', his attempt to rigorously analyse CVE and the discourses of securitisation and radicalisation it is embedded in while being subject to those same discourses. Readers expecting a orthodox academic treatment may find the auto-ethnography format ... well ... unorthodox. Dr. Morsi uses anecdote and personal narrative freely alongside analysis and critique, making the reading experience more personal and intimate than academia is known for. The triumph of "Radical Skin, Moderate Masks" is in relating (a) Muslim subjectivity while losing none of its analytical power.

[tanzimmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Should be Fard reading for every woke Muslim.

[Kris Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Radical Skin, Moderate Masks is written with such urgency that the reading experience matches the writing experience. Thrown down in six weeks, it’s so full of energy, of anxiety, of the extremely personal mixed with the scholarly, it feels like a therapy session for both reader and writer.

Morsi is a juggler of ideas – I was just trying my best to keep up and not drop anything. And just as he says something you don’t agree with, he’s already onto something else that you do. It’s your smartest friend grabbing you by the collar and saying, ‘you have to listen to this.’

How you feel about the public figures he criticises may ultimately influence how you feel about the book itself. But it's never less than compelling. As for those Morsi admires, he illuminates his ever-changing relationship with the work of Edward Said and Frantz Fanon in forensic detail.

Through discussing Joseph Conrad and Mohsin Hamid, the theme of storytelling becomes a constant. And while the hero’s journey usually refers to the hero taking action and propelling the narrative, Morsi notes that, for a Muslim, accepting the call is accepting someone else’s terms – “It is when we accept the role of telling our story, telling it within the story of the war of terror; a story-within-a-story; when we accept its vocabulary, when we remain blind to its trap.”

Morsi quotes Stacey Holman-Jones’ definition of auto-ethnography 'a blurred genre', and that’s a great description – this book flies past you in a blur.

[Adnan Rahman · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent analysis of how racism operates, and how western literature and structures have sought to racialise Islam and Muslims. Morsi's reflection on both himself and his actions as well as the structures that power be makes it a cathartic and relatable read. His analogy of the 'apollonian' and 'dionysian' does a really good job in exposing modern day western liberalism and its attempt to gloss over racism and colonial violence. A must read for those seeking to understand how racism and violence operates within a western liberal framework.