Casting Out: The Eviction of Muslims from Western Law and Politics

Sherene Razack

University of Toronto Press, Jan 1, 2008 - Social Science - 250 pages

Three stereotypical figures have come to represent the 'war on terror' - the 'dangerous' Muslim man, the 'imperilled' Muslim woman, and the 'civilized' European. Casting Out explores the use of these characterizations in the creation of the myth of the family of democratic Western nations obliged to use political, military, and legal force to defend itself against a menacing third world population. It argues that this myth is promoted to justify the expulsion of Muslims from the political community, a process that takes the form of stigmatization, surveillance, incarceration, torture, and bombing.

In this timely and controversial work, Sherene H. Razack looks at contemporary legal and social responses to Muslims in the West and places them in historical context. She explains how 'race thinking,' a structure of thought that divides up the world between the deserving and undeserving according to racial descent, accustoms us to the idea that the suspension of rights for racialized groups is warranted in the interests of national security. She discusses many examples of the institution and implementation of exclusionary and coercive practices, including the mistreatment of security detainees, the regulation of Muslim populations in the name of protecting Muslim women, and prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. She explores how the denial of a common bond between European people and those of different origins has given rise to the proliferation of literal and figurative 'camps,' places or bodies where liberties are suspended and the rule of law does not apply.

Combining rich theoretical perspectives and extensive research, Casting Out makes a major contribution to contemporary debates on race and the 'war on terror' and their implications in areas such as law, politics, cultural studies, feminist and gender studies, and race relations.

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so like this book, biiiiiiig doo doo. No dragons, no wizards and no sonic! what's the point?

Popular passages

Page 47 - Political terrorists are driven to commit acts of violence as a consequence of psychological forces, and [. . .] their special psycho-logic is constructed to rationalize acts they are psychologically compelled to commit.‎

Page 10 - The fact that the other dies does not mean simply that I live in the sense that his death guarantees my safety; the death of the other, the death of the bad race, of the inferior race (or the degenerate, or the abnormal) is something that will make life in general healthier: healthier and purer.‎

Page i - Restoule is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada.‎

Page 61 - The real horror began, however, when the SS took over the administration of the camps. The old spontaneous bestiality gave way to an absolutely cold and systematic destruction of human bodies, calculated to destroy human dignity; death was avoided or postponed indefinitely. The camps were no longer amusement parks for beasts in human form, that is, for men who really belonged in mental institutions and prisons; the reverse became true: they were turned into "drill grounds," on which perfectly normal...‎

Page 192 - Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (New York: Touchstone, 1996).‎

Page 186 - Race, Civil Rights, and Immigration Law after September 11, 2001: The Targeting of Arabs and Muslims,‎

Page 25 - A permanent resident or a foreign national is inadmissible on security grounds for (f) being a member of an organization that there are reasonable grounds to believe engages, has engaged, or will engage in acts referred to in paragraphs (a) [espionage or subversion], (b) [subversion by force] or (c) [terrorism].‎

Page 123 - ... markets are constituted, and cultures from all over the world are de- and re-territorialized, puts them right there at the center along with the internationalization of capital as a fundamental aspect of...‎

Page 73 - The prime function incumbent on the socius has always been to codify the flows of desire, to inscribe them, to record them, to see to it that no flow exists that is not properly dammed up, channeled, regulated.‎

About the author

Sherene H. Razack is a professor in the Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Casting Out: The Eviction of Muslims from Western Law and Politics; G - Reference,Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series
• Author: Sherene Razack
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: University of Toronto Press, 2008
• ISBN: 080209497X, 9780802094971
• Length: 250 pages
• Subjects: Social Science / Discrimination & Race Relations