Manufacturing Terrorism in Africa

“Theoretically sophisticated, empirically rich and always interesting, Manufacturing Terrorism in Africa adds greatly to our knowledge of the globally dominant terrorism discourse and its damaging effects on community relations and counterterrorism policy-making. Highly recommended.”

— Professor Richard Jackson, University of Otago, New Zealand

“Natheem Hendricks challenges the sensationalist media hysteria on so-called “Islamic terror in South Africa”. He also presents a much-needed corrective to a small coterie of so-called experts who spew Islamophobic tropes about a growing “Islamic terror threat in South Africa.”

— Dr. A. Rashied Omar, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame, USA 

 This book uses Securitisation Theory to explore how Muslims have been constructed as a security issue in Africa after the 9/11 attacks in the United States. These attacks became the rationale for the US’s Global War on Terror (GWOT). The centrality of Africa as an arena to execute the GWOT is the focus of this book. 

This book explores, particularly, how western-centred security discourses around Muslims has permeated South African security discourse in the post-apartheid period. It claims that the popular press and the local think-tank community were critical knowledge-sites that imported rather than interrogated debates which have underpinned policy-initiatives such as the GWOT.

Such theorisation seems contrary to the original architects of securitisation theory who maintain that issues become security concerns when institutional voices declare these as such. However, this book confirms that non-institutional voices have securitised the African Muslims by equating them with terrorism. 

This book illustrates that such securitisation reproduces partisan knowledge that promote Western interests.

Dr Mohamed Natheem Hendricks, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Education, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa. His interest in security matters was sparked by debates related to Regional, Water and Human Security.