A Clash of Racializations: The Policing of ‘Race’ and of Anti-Muslim Racism in Ireland

Abstract

National manifestations of anti-Muslim racism reflect both transnational and local self-imaginings and relations of power. In this article, Carr and Haynes present Irish anti-Muslim racism as exemplifying the confluence of such forces. They argue that Muslims are caught in a clash of racializations; in this instance, between exclusionary Irishness and racialized Muslimness. Both operate to expose Muslims to racist activity while concomitantly excluding them from the protection of the State. Carr and Haynes argue that the State’s failure to tackle anti-Muslim racism is part of a wider dismantling of the apparatus to address racism, which reflects both the neoliberalization of ‘race’ and the racing of neoliberalism. In support of these arguments, Carr and Haynes present extensive primary data which evidences the complex intersectional relationship between religion, ‘race’, ethnicity and gender in the lived experience of anti-Muslim racism and underline its existence as a cohesive phenomenon.