Negotiations with whiteness in British Turkish Muslims’ encounters with Islamophobia

In the post-9/11 and 7/7 era in Britain, Muslim subjects have been raciallylabelled as non-white, equated with a security threat. Similarly, withinTurkey’s secular public sphere, Muslims are portrayed as anti-modern andilliberal. This prompts some British Turkish Muslims, descendants ofimmigrant Turks, to strategically embrace white, European identities. Drawingfrom semi-structured interviews, this article reveals how’whiteness’is aprivileged category that certain Turkish Muslims adopt or align with tocounter Islamophobia. Following Hall’s racism framework and Gramsci’s ideas,the paper underscores how British Turks sustain and propagate’whiteness’toassimilate into society and evade racialisation challenges faced by otherMuslims. Importantly, the article interprets the adoption of hegemonic whiteidentities not just as a response to British Islamophobia but also as amanifestation of a secular Turkish Orientalism, depicting Islam as a backward,illiberal, and irrational religion