Tsarist authorities framed Jewish and Muslim threats through opposite logics

Evidence

Over time the tsarist secret police, in particular, would associate both Jewish and Muslim populations with conspiracy in the early twentieth century, but they imagined their paths to the destruction of the empire to be quite different. Thus Muslims, too, faced scrutiny for ostensibly posing a threat to the Russian nation. But here critics tended to place the accent on Islam as an impediment to their integration. — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 545 (#expands, via linked claim)

International relations scholar Clara Eroukhmanoff argues that “political actors can both securitise Islam and simultaneously declare that ‘Islam is not a threat’ or that ‘Islamophobia is a shame’.” Statements like “Muslims are not the enemy” effectively construct Muslims as the enemy, even though the literal meaning of the phrase indicates the exact opposite because such speech activates, Eroukhmanoff argues, “an Orientalist set of assumptions about Islam” without the speaker having to resort to blatant and overt forms of racism. It works in ways akin to dog whistle tactics where certain words stand in for fully developed racial meanings among racist constituencies. As she puts it, “pre-existing registers of meaning” are typically “activated when the codewords ‘Islam’ or ‘Muslim’ are interpellated in more covert forms of speech.” She refers to this process as “indirect securitization.” Indirect securitizing speech inoculates the speaker and listeners from charges of racism. Thus, securitizing actors and audiences believe that they have not transgressed the bounds of a “post-racial,” multicultural society. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 589 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: In tsarist Russia, a Jewish identity made a subject dangerous regardless of conversion; Localized Muslim rebellions were magnified into a pan-Islamist conspiracy by Russian elites; Russian authorities framed Jewish and Muslim threats through different conspiracy narratives — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in…, 545 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Russian authorities framed Jewish and Muslim threats through different conspiracy narratives #expands (0.95) — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 545
• Denying Muslims are enemies can itself activate Orientalist registers and construct them as threats #complicates (0.72) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 589
• The unassimilability trope once applied to Jews now targets Muslims #complicates (0.70)