“Islamic Terrorism” as a Discursive Formation: Power, Paradox, and the Politics of Naming
“Islamic Terrorism” as a Discursive Formation: Power, Paradox, and the Politics of Naming Posted on 14th January, 2026 (GMT 05:08 hrs) ABSTRACT This article critically examines the persistence of the term “Islamic terrorism” in global discourse, highlighting its paradoxical nature as a contested label that essentializes Islam as inherently violent in a monolithic manner while being reinforced by the explicit religious self-framing of militant groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda. Drawing on Orientalist epistemologies, post-Cold War geopolitical imaginaries such as Huntington’s “Clash of Civilizations,” and Barthesian myth theory, the analysis reveals how the term functions as a disciplinary tool of power, asymmetrically applied to Muslim-perpetrated violence compared to similar acts by Christian, Hindu, Zionist or other extremists/fundamentalists/terrorists, thereby naturalizing civilizational hierarchies and obscuring historical contexts like colonial legacies, proxy wars, and pol...