This article explores the hip-hop response to the hypersecuritization faced by Muslim minorities in the aftermath of September 11. Often, this confrontational style includes subverting the hegemonic narrative of Muslims as terrorists and turning the gaze to state operators and the structural and everyday discrimination faced by Muslims. Another exciting aspect of the Muslim hip-hop movement is how many hip-hoppers see their work as continuing the work of the Prophet. These hip-hoppers of the September 11 generation shirk their label as ‘enemy of the state’, instead embracing the role of flag bearers of an entire generation that has been deviantized by their ascribed status. The potency of hip-hop culture has also seen Western powers engage in hip-hop diplomacy as a form of soft power in Muslim countries. This alternative foreign policy tool is a form of soft power that acts as a more subtle C.V.E. (Countering Violent Extremism) policy that has been institutionalized.
ButcherM (2008) F.O.B. boys, V.C.s and habibs: Using language to navigate difference and belonging in culturally diverse Sydney. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies34(3): 371–387.
11.
CheneyC (2005) Brothers Gonna Work It Out: Sexual Politics in the Golden Age of Rap Nationalism. New York: New York University Press.
12.
ContiU (2017) Between rap and jihad: Spectacular subcultures, terrorism and visuality. Contemporary Social Science12(3–4): 272–284.
13.
DrisselD (2009) Hip-hop hybridity for a glocalized world: African and Muslim diasporic discourses in French rap music. Global Studies Journal2(3): 121–142.
14.
DruryM (2017) Counterorienting the war on terror: Arab hip-hop and diasporic resistance. Journal of Popular Music Studies29(2): 1–11.
15.
EdmundsA (2021) Precarious bodies: The securitization of the ‘veiled’ woman in European human rights. British Journal of Sociology72(2): 315–327.
16.
Floyd-ThomasJ (2003) A Jihad of words: The evolution of African American Islam and contemporary hip-hop. In: AnthonyP (ed) Noise and Spirit: The Religious and Spiritual Sensibilities of Rap Music. New York: New York University Press, pp.49–70.
17.
HilalR (2020) Refusing the interrogation: Hip-hop’s challenge to narratives of terrorism. Journal of Popular Music Studies32(1): 57–77.
JasperJ (1997) The Art of Moral Protest: Culture, Biography and Creativity in Social Movements. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
20.
KamaludeenMN (2012) Poetic Jihadis: Muslim youth, hip hop and the homological imagination. In: PossamaiA (ed) Handbook of Hyper-real Religions. Leiden: Brill, pp.321–338.
21.
KamaludeenMN (2015) The September 11 generation, hip-hop and human rights. Journal of Sociology51(4): 1039–1051.
22.
KamaludeenMN (2016a) Boycotts as moral protests in Malaysia and Singapore. International Sociology31(4): 396–412.
23.
KamaludeenMN (2016b) Globalized Muslim Youth in the Asia Pacific: Popular Culture in Singapore and Sydney. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
24.
KamaludeenMN (2018) Hip-hop Islam: Commodification, cooptation and confrontation in Southeast Asia. Journal of Religious and Political Practice4(3): 374–389.
25.
KamaludeenMN (2020) Representing Islam: Hip-hop of the September 11 Generation. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
26.
KamaludeenMN (2021) Contemporary young Muslims: Globalized, glocalized or alienated? In: SagirS (ed) Rocking Islam: Music and the Making of New Muslim Identities. Munster; New-York: Waxmann Verlag, pp.17–24.
27.
MairaS (2016) The 9/11 Generation: Youth Rights and Solidarity in the War on Terror. New York: New York University Press.
28.
MandavilleP (2009) Hip-hop, nasheeds, and ‘cool’ sheikhs: Popular culture and Muslim youth in the United Kingdom. In: ChristianeTJohanLHanneloreRBarbaraS (eds) In-between: Spaces Christian and Muslim Minorities in Transition in Europe and the Middle East. Brussels: Peter Lang, pp.149–68.
29.
MasquelierASoaresB (2016) Muslim Youth and the 9/11 Generation. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press.
30.
MattarY (2003) Virtual communities and hip-hop music consumers in Singapore: Interplaying global, local and subcultural identities. Leisure Studies22(4): 283–300.
31.
MeerNModoodT (2019) Islamophobia as the racialisation of Muslims. In: IreneZImranA (eds) The Routledge International Handbook of Islamophobia. London: Routledge, pp.18–31.
32.
MochM (2017) Language, migration and globalization: French hip-hop versus Arabic diaspora hip-hop. In: BorodoMHouseJWachowskiW (eds) Moving Texts, Migrating People and Minority Languages. Singapore: Springer, pp.41–51.
33.
MohamedA (2008) War against terror: Countering the threat of self-radicalisation. The Straits Times, February.
34.
Moreno-AlmeidaC (2018) Reporting on selective voices of ‘resistance’: Secularism, class and ‘islamist’ rap. International Journal of Cultural Studies21(4): 343–358.
PashaS (2021) Humanitarianism, securitization, and containment in Jordan’s Za’atari Refugee Camp. British Journal of Sociology72(4): 1141–1155.
38.
RanaJ (2011) Terrifying Muslims: Race and Labor in the South Asian Diaspora. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
39.
RantakallioI (2013) Muslimhiphop.com: Constructing Muslim hip-hop identities on the internet. CyberOrient7(2): 8–41.
40.
RoseT (2008) The Hip-Hop Wars: What We Talk about When We Talk about Hip-Hop and Why It Matters. New York: Basic Civitas.
41.
SaloisK (2014) The U.S. department of state’s ‘hip-hop diplomacy’ in Morocco. In: AhrendtRFerragutoMMahietD (eds) Music and Diplomacy from the Early Modern Era to the Present. New York: Palgrave, pp.231–249.
42.
SealyTModoodT (2025) Between race and religion: Multiculturalism and Islamophobia in Britain. In: ZainA (ed) The Routledge Handbook of Islam and Race. London: Routledge, pp.1–14.
