Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:
- U.S.-backed fighters have seized the Islamic State’s “capital,” Raqqa, leaving the terrorist organization in control of a rapidly-shrinking territory.
- The same federal judge who blocked the Trump Administration’s initial travel ban has ruled a new version unconstitutional hours before it was to take effect, citing “plain[] discriminat[ion] based on nationality” and a failure on the part of the Administration to show “detriment[]” to U.S. interests.
- The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that a cross-shaped monument to soldiers killed in World War I that had stood on public land since 1925 violates the Establishment Clause by excessively entangling the government with religion; the dissenting panelist, Chief Judge Robert L. Gregory, questioned the majority’s focus on the monument’s size.
- Quebec’s National Assembly has narrowly passed a ban on wearing face coverings while giving or receiving a public service, although those affected can request an accommodation.
- Ahmad Khan Rahimi, the man responsible for a bombing in lower Manhattan last year that left dozens injured, has been convicted of terrorism charges and will receive a mandatory life sentence.
religion over almost the entirety of its existence. As early as 1917, the Bureau began to target religious communities and groups it believed were hotbeds of anti-American politics. Whether these religious communities were pacifist groups that opposed American wars, or religious groups that advocated for white supremacy or direct conflict with the FBI, the Bureau has infiltrated and surveilled religious communities that run the gamut of American religious life.
The book captures how geo-political events, and national tragedies continue to implicate individuals and communities at the domestic and local level, communities that have no connection to such tragedies and events, other than being associated with a religio-ethnic identity. The author shows how Muslim women are caught within the spectrum of the vulnerable-fanatic, always perceived to be ‘at risk’ of being ‘radicalized’. Focusing on educated Muslim females, the book explores experiences of Islamophobia and securitization inside and outside educational institutions, and highlights individual and group acts of resistance through dialogue, with Muslim women challenging the metanarrative of insecurity and suspicion that plagues their everyday existence in Britain. Islamophobia and Securitization will be of interest to scholars and students researching Muslims in the West, in particular sociologists, anthropologists, and political scientists. It will also appeal to analysts and academics researching security and terrorism, race and racialization, as well as gender, immigration, and diaspora.
terrorism charges. Some have taken the fight abroad: an American was among those who planned the attacks in Mumbai, and more than eighty U.S. citizens have been charged with ISIS-related crimes. Others have acted on American soil, as with the attacks at Fort Hood, the Boston Marathon, and in San Bernardino. What motivates them, how are they trained, and what do we sacrifice in our efforts to track them?
the region’s primary identity. In opposition are nationalists, secularists, royal families, military establishments, and others who view Islamism as a serious threat to national security, historical identity, and a cohesive society.
assesses how anti-Muslim bias within the U.S. government and the larger society undermines American security and democracy.
