Assemblages of (In)Security
Political Islam, Operation Luxor, and the Rise of Soft Authoritarian Security Governance in Austria
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4892032 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Esther Feeken (0009-0000-1483-0281, University of Bremen Bremen Germany) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 48 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Publication date | 2025-11-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | PoLAR Political and Legal Anthropology Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1081-6976 • E-ISSN: 1555-2934 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/plar.70025 |
| OpenAlex | W4414365621 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 37 |
Over the past few decades, Austria's conservative and right-wing parties have increasingly framed Islam as a source of terrorism and national insecurity. The center-right Austrian People's Party's (ÖVP) response to a November 2, 2020, attack by an Islamic State (IS)-linked assailant in Vienna has had profound consequences for many Muslims. As part of several antiterror measures, the ÖVP sought to criminalize and target "political Islam," establishing the Documentation Center Political Islam, and launching the so-called Operation Luxor, a large-scale police raid targeting over 100 suspects. However, 2 years after the operation, Austria's appellate court ruled the raid unlawful, citing the lack of initial suspicion. This article examines the assemblage of actors, discourses, and practices that construct the concept of "political Islam" in contemporary Austria and investigates the consequences of its implementation. I argue that political Islam constitutes a form of epistemic violence, with the ÖVP using the concept to cast Muslims as a racialized threat and quintessential Other, thus justifying political violence against them in the name of national security. Additionally, I argue that these security measures signal a shift toward soft authoritarian governance in Austria, marked by violations of the rule of law and the erosion of parliamentary oversight accountability
Authoritarianism · Construct (python library · Corporate governance · Government (linguistics · Islam · Politics · State (computer science · Terrorism · German legal, social, and political studies · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Populism, Right-Wing Movements
Postcolonial Literatures in English
Right-Wing Populism in Europe
European Others
Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture
Surveilling and Criminalizing Austrian Muslims
The Anthropology of Security
What authoritarianism is … and is not
Expert knowledge and policymaking in authoritarian contexts
No exceptions
The racialized surveillant assemblage
Criminalizing Muslim agency in Europe
Human security as power/knowledge
Recalling the caliphate
Thinking with assemblage
Monstrosity, Abjection and Europe in the War on Terror
Justifying authoritarian practices
Policing repertoire of knowledge practices in neo-authoritarian governance
Epistemic oppression, resistance, and resurgence
Constructing ‘the people
Knowledge production in the security-development nexus
Assemblage thinking as methodology
Cutting off the King's head
They Will Not Police Us
Illiberalism
Do Muslim Women Need Saving
Anthropology of security and security in anthropology
The Racialization of Muslims
The Migrant Position
Governing With Technical Precision
Devils from our past
| Highly cited | No |
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