I know who I am, but who do they think I am? Muslim perspectives on encounters with airport authorities.

Abstract

In this paper we report an analysis of individual and group interviews with thirty-eight Scottish Muslims concerning their encounters with authority – especially those at airports. Our analysis shows that a key theme in interviewees’ talk of their experience in this context concerns the denial and misrecognition of valued identities such as being British, being respectable and being Muslim. One reason why such experiences are so problematic concerns the denial of agency associated with being positioned in terms that are not one's own. The implications of these findings for understanding the dynamics of intergroup relations are discussed.