Post 9/11 Anti-Muslim racism: a critical analysis of Canada's security policies

This paper examines the experience of Arab and South Asian Muslim-Canadians in the current climate of 'war against terror'. By investigating securitization of Arab and South Asian Muslims from a socio-political perspective, the paper will explore how race thinking has become entrenched into the institutional fabric of security discourse. Race thinking, as Sherene Razack has identified, is the structure of thought that divides the world between the deserving and the underserving. While Canada's historic policies around securitization of racialized minorities exemplifies the patterns of 'preferred' and 'non-preferred' immigrants; this paper will investigate such characteristics by examining the post-9/11 legislative changes and how they have impacted the Arab and South Asian Muslim experience. This paper has two parts to it. First, the paper will attempt to identify how issues become securitized by examining the recent changes to the anti-terrorism legislations. After examining the issue of securitization, the paper will then investigate whether Muslims have become the new 'Other'.