1/9: This is a terribly misguided guidance on Palestine. I normally don't comment on these as unity is important, but this document actively contributes to Islamophobia.
In addition, in trying to avoid some allegations of anti-semitism, it might perpetuate another kind.🧵

https://twitter.com/MuslimCouncil/status/1721627507470876676

2/9: As others mentioned, Israel and genocide are absent from the document.
As a scholar of Islamophobia, I’ve long argued that the depoliticisation of Muslim distress (erasing the conditions of our marginalisation) is one of the main issues we’re confronting as a community.

1/ Let's discuss the role of psychology and psychiatry in upholding Israeli apartheid and the limitations of addressing Palestine within a framework of therapy and mental health. 🧵 2/ Two examples from the US and UK reveal how Zionism is normalized in mental health settings. In the US, consider Lara Sheehi who co-authored the excellent book, "Psychoanalysis in Times of Occupation."

[🧵] Important piece @theprimalplot @hizzy20 on the so-called crisis of masculinity. It unravels the union of Muslim's panic of “men not being men”, and alt-right's panic of decline of Western civilisation, both affirming feminism as existential threat scienceopen.com/hosted-documen… The piece critiques some of the major Muslim writers and thinkers who've been lamenting this moral panic surrounding the loss of masculinity and rise of feminism. The following are a few thoughts this piece inspired while reading it: [2]

[🧵] In light of the upcoming release of my book, The Muslim, State and Mind, the following thread is a summary of the themes and chapters of the book.
The book looks at the intersection of psychology, politics and Muslims. Link for the book is here: /1

uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/the-… To begin, the book takes a critical stance towards the usual approaches to Islamophobia and mental health. These approaches ask the question “what is the impact of Islamophobia on Muslims?”, then relies on negative health outcomes to demonstrate Islamophobia is real/legible /2

[thread] I'm going to briefly explain my issue with saying there's a "mental health crisis" in this pandemic. Psychology talk is often a convenient means of sucking out the politics which produce the sort of despair we're experiencing today./1 Political or economic mismanagement (i.e. rise in neoliberal policies) will inevitably be followed by widespread suffering and despair, especially for the underprivileged. We should therefore normalise saying this is a "political/economic crisis".../2

Take a minute to listen to this ridiculous Prevent referral, and why Prevent is the hallmark of institutional racism. Here I want to draw attention to this line "he looked really pleased with himself". Not the first time I hear this. Think about this line for a moment/1

https://twitter.com/Maslaha/status/1328998045997002752

To be pleased with oneself--bragging! This GP in the NHS committed a prejudicial and racist act. How does this come about? The GP is pleased because, we imagine, he understands to have completed his 'duty', caught a pre-criminal and made an appropriate Prevent referral/2

Need to draw attention to these egregious tweets by David Toube of Quilliam (follow link). It's inhumane. Out of the blue, David goes after Sally, a mother whose son left for Syria. As a mother, she sent her son £233 which a judge.../1

https://twitter.com/CampaignforJack/status/1329045034872819712

confirmed wasn't to support terrorism, but him. A mother trying to help her son--I'm sure anyone with a heart can understand. But David doesn't. Look at how he keeps shutting her down, repeating "you are a convicted criminal". This is outrageous behaviour./2

[thread] Grateful to have been invited to contribute to this fantastic and timely anthology. If you haven't purchased it, it's on sale right now for only £10.19! Otherwise, read below for a quick summary of my chapter/1
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526151476/ This book is about the experience of racism/Islamophobia, and the total denial of how this racism operates and impacts communities. The need to condemn is not something ppl are just born with--it arises from a life on the boundaries where it is never sure 'which side you're on'/2

[thread] This is a full response to Peter Neumann’s “sorry for the tone BUT apology.” I’ll post it on my website for posterity but share the entire response below. Here is the thread that drove him to write his “apology” in the first place:

https://twitter.com/Tarek_Younis_/status/1322467138112815105

/1 @PeterRNeumann, if you wanted to apologise, you should’ve done it last week when I flagged your first expression of Islamophobia and disrespect. That was your window. It closed the moment you disregarded the Islamophobia then, even while so many others pointed it out to you./2

[thread] I was being harassed by Peter Neumann last night, who is trying to get me in trouble with my employer. This thread is going to discuss this very awkward and threatening behaviour which I’m looking to submit as a formal complaint./1

https://twitter.com/PeterRNeumann/status/1322286388331642880

Last week, Neumann said terrorism is a cause of France’s implosion. When I questioned him, he asked if I at least condemn the killing of innocents. This is entirely inappropriate, and indicative of the Islamophobia Muslims navigate when requesting nuance/2

https://twitter.com/Tarek_Younis_/status/1320060180520947715

[thread] This thread is important to me. I engaged Neumann today with the most basic of questions, requesting how he can justify his assertion that “France’s implosion is caused by terrorism”. His response was so extraordinary and unjustifiable, it warrants more discussion/1

https://twitter.com/Tarek_Younis_/status/1320021721911611393

I was going to explain the flaws, drawing on several works, eg @alainbertho and his analysis of increasing unrest, @aurelmondon and @aaronzwinter analysis how French disillusionment with politics, and of course many writings on French racism through its colonial legacy/3

Watched the #TheSocialDilemma last night, and while it's a great intro into the depraved reality of surveillance capitalism, its analysis is really incomplete at times, esp as it relates to psychology. This most likely a result of only including tech ppl in the discussion/1 First, the tech capitalists didnt learn to 'abuse' our psychology, psychology (as discipline) is inherentely an artifact of capitalism. From its disciplinary beginnings, psychology has always been about maximising the 'value' of people. Nothing about this has changed/2

[thread]Seeing excellent commentary on Dept of Educ new guidance, especially as it relates to ridiculously contradicting its own liberal aim to champion "free speech", and its obvious fascist curtailing of anti-racism/nationalism/capitalism (everything) gov.uk/guidance/plan-… /1 I just wanted to add this follows the spirit of normalising Prevent’s counter-extremism strategy into education, mental health, etc, without stating it as such. See for example this pic of what counts as grievance (as a risk factor) in Prevent NHS guidance/2

[thread] Delighted to share an open-access article I was fond of writing, The Psychologisation of Counter-Extremism: Unpacking Prevent, in @Race_Class. This is a summary why I think psychologisation is key in understanding “post-racial” colourblindness/1 journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11… This is a companion article to my previous piece which outlines how to understand institutional racism through (performative) colourblindness, whereby racialised Muslims are constantly referenced then erased through public CVE—evading charge of racism/2

https://twitter.com/Tarek_Younis_/status/1207957292190183425

[thread] Following the racist-letter-in-BPS fiasco, I just wanted to remind ppl that there's no reason for qualified psychologists to NOT be racist. Therapy is not an apolitical space, and psychologists aren't impartial to moral panics manufactured and circulated in society/1 The problem is often that people expect "psychologists=accepting". But racism isn't (only) about overt hostility--if anything this is the least controversial aspect of it. I've been made aware of many really terrible incidents of "well-intended" discrimination in therapy. /2

[thread] I wrote a short article on the Last of Us Part II and its depoliticisation of anticolonial resistance. The game takes a “there’s two sides to every story” approach to violence, virtue-signalling “middle ground” but effectively erasing power/1
tarekyounis.org/blog/blurred-v… Druckmann, the creative director, following the lynching of two IDF soldiers, sought to interrogate the hatred which culminated in this scene and his own wanting to “push a button and kill all these people that committed this horrible act”/2 washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/…

This is a really important by Muneeza Rizvi & Paula Thompson. It excellently summarises how the drive to reduce/defund policing must recognise how many State/non-State bodies are involved in “police work”/1 aljazeera.com/indepth/opinio… Big example of this is mental health. As authors explain, even "End of Policing" Alex Vitale sees mental health as non-violent alt. to police—in theory. In reality, as Prevent makes clear, pre-crime securitises mental health and endows psy-professionals with pseudo-police roles/2

Piggy-backing off this thread to point out how dirty this garbage "mosque attendance" point is, even by HJS's own garbage logic (no thanks to Eric Kaufmann it seems, who I guess was the "critical" external examiner). See below/1

https://twitter.com/DrKElshayyal/status/1291074540706168832

The exec summary is cherry-picking the interaction between "mosque attendance" and "Jews are more loyal to Israel than the UK" to paint a picture of anti-semitism./2

[thread] The Telegraph just published a hit piece on this great forthcoming book. I have a small addition to what others have said. Disclosure: I have a chapter in it. If you want to buy it, MUP has graciously given 50% with the code: resistingracism /1
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526151469/ Obviously, there’s wild irony in a bunch of gov-funded organisations—who syphon millions in public funds with pseudo-scientific counter-extremism expertise, demonising Muslims—calling out a publisher for allowing a book that is critical of reckless ‘guilt by association’/2

[Thread] With increased interest in racism in health (and specifically mental health), my article on colorblindness was made open access for everyone. It looks at how racism is institutionalised as policy, which "better training/diversity" cannot address/1 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/14… Before I go on, I'll be discussing some of this work for the launch of this really excellent report tomorrow by @Medact, looking at (among other things) how politics/racism operate in the NHS. The panelists are great and really recommend tuning in/2 medact.org/event/false-po…

"Massive NHS COVID-19 data deal with private tech firms, the UK government has caved to pressure and released all the contracts governing its deals with Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and controversial AI firms Faculty and Palantir. /1 @Medact
opendemocracy.net/en/under-press… The contracts, released to openDemocracy and tech justice firm Foxglove today, reveal details of what has been described as an ‘unprecedented’ transfer of personal health information of millions of NHS users to these private tech firms./2