Misreading Islam in Iraq: Secular Misconceptions and British Foreign Policy

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5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Though British foreign policy toward Iraq was officially separate from counterterrorism strategy, ideas about the "global war on terror" circulated in both policy milieus. This article deploys the concept of the security imaginary, adding insights from Pierre Bourdieu's notion of the habitus, to explore why this was the case. The British security imaginary, as structured by a secular social landscape coming to terms with "radicalIslamism," was beholden to a series of problematic assumptions about religio-politics. This article focuses on British perceptions of the Islamist Jaish al-Mehdi militia between 2003 and 2004. Beyond the Iraq example, this historical incident suggests intimate connections between the experience of domestic secularity and warfare.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)592 - 623
Number of pages32
JournalSECURITY STUDIES
Volume20
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2011

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