Negotiations with whiteness in British Turkish Muslims’ encounters with Islamophobia

Özge  Onay; Gareth Robert Millington

doi:10.1080/01419870.2024.2317955

Negotiations with whiteness in British Turkish Muslims’ encounters with Islamophobia

Özge Onay^*, Gareth Robert Millington

^*Corresponding author for this work

Sociology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

In the post-9/11 and 7/7 era in Britain, Muslim subjects have been raciallylabelled as non-white, equated with a security threat. Similarly, withinTurkey’s secular public sphere, Muslims are portrayed as anti-modern andilliberal. This prompts some British Turkish Muslims, descendants ofimmigrant Turks, to strategically embrace white, European identities. Drawingfrom semi-structured interviews, this article reveals how’whiteness’is aprivileged category that certain Turkish Muslims adopt or align with tocounter Islamophobia. Following Hall’s racism framework and Gramsci’s ideas,the paper underscores how British Turks sustain and propagate’whiteness’toassimilate into society and evade racialisation challenges faced by otherMuslims. Importantly, the article interprets the adoption of hegemonic whiteidentities not just as a response to British Islamophobia but also as amanifestation of a secular Turkish Orientalism, depicting Islam as a backward,illiberal, and irrational religion

Original language	English
Number of pages	22
Journal	ETHNIC AND RACIAL STUDIES
Early online date	23 Feb 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2024.2317955
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 23 Feb 2024

Bibliographical note

Access to Document

10.1080/01419870.2024.2317955Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

Negotiations with whiteness in British Turkish Muslims encounters with Islamophobia
© 2024 The Author(s).
Final published version, 1.94 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

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