Interrogating the fantastical ‘claims to truth’ in counterterrorism.

• In Event: 'Claims to Truth' in Qualitative Criminological Research.

Abstract

Fantasy and imagination, as tools of counterterrorism, pervade the ‘war on terror’ and the racialised construction of the Muslim threat underpins a ‘worst case thinking’ mindset in numerous policy domains. Relying on fantasy and fiction in counterterrorism has been made necessary in the face of a crisis of knowledge, conditioned by a ‘passion for ignorance’, that pervades the field. This paper is animated by questions that seek to understand how that which is ‘known’ is made ‘unknown’ in counterterrorism and the challenges for researchers posed by the contradictions of counterterrorism when challenging its ‘claims to truth’ and confronting its subjugation of knowledge. I do this in two ways. Firstly, by analysing the implementation of the Prevent Duty in UK Higher Education, for which the crisis of knowledge at the heart of counterterrorism necessitates a wilful ignorance of expertise to ensure the coherence and integrity of the policy, and to enable compliance with the legal duty. Secondly, by analysing the ways in which evidence that challenged claims of an ‘Islamic plot’ in the Trojan Horse Affair was sidelined through an ‘epistemology of ignorance’, to enable the production and implementation of new counterterrorism and counter-extremism strategies. In doing this, the paper reveals some of the processes of knowledge production in counterterrorism and the consequences for researchers in interrogating some of its ‘truths’.

Author

• Fahid Qurashi, University of Salford