Woolwich Terror, Surveillance, and the (Im)Possibility of Islamic Reform

Abstract:In this essay I argue that Muslims across the board have internalized the Western discourse of the need to reform as a type of self-surveillance and as a means of living and being in the world. I examine the transnational Islamic political group Hizb ut-Tahrir's criticisms of British governmental and media-political pressures on Muslims to reform, and the Marrakech Declaration where "hundreds of Muslim scholars and intellectuals from over 120 countries … gathered in Marrakesh … to reaffirm the principles of the Charter of Medina." According to the declaration, non-Muslims in Muslim-majority countries are to be accorded freedom to live and practice their religions, in keeping with the Prophetic example. I also examine a discussion between the director of the "anti-extremism think tank" The Quilliam Foundation, Maajid Nawaz, and Sam Harris—one of the "Four Horsemen of New Atheism"—published as Islam and the Future of Tolerance: A Dialogue, in which the question of the need for Islamic reform is central.