ABSTRACT
While facilitating a workshop called ‘Openness to Islam’ in Oslo prior to the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001, Andrew asked the participants to disclose the images that came to their minds when the word ‘Islam’ or ‘Muslim’ was mentioned. The request generated much unease and discomfort. The participants, who were all non-Muslim religious professionals and LGBTQI rights activists, were visibly uncomfortable with disclosing their thoughts, possibly being concerned about transgressing the social codes of political correctness and presumed middle-class liberalism. Insisting on using such images as the basis of challenging fear and prejudice, Andrew persisted, and in the end the participants opened up, collectively identifying two primary images – a gullible bearded young man who was easily radicalised (thus in need of rehabilitation); and an equally gullible veiled young woman whose freedom and liberty are constrained (thus in need of liberation). Following the terrorist attacks on European and American soils since 2001, and the various high-profile controversies, such as the debate about the veil in France and Britain, these two images have become even more entrenched in the Western popular imagination (e.g. Modood 2005, Modood, Zapata-Barrero and Triandafyllidou 2005).
