'Ta-Ta Qatada' : Islamophobic moral panic and the British tabloid press

The racialised ‘Muslim Other’ has since 9/11 become the pre-eminent ‘folk devil’ in the global ‘West’. Morgan and Poynting (2012) argue that the moral panic framework, suitably developed to recognise the contemporary globalisation of the process, can usefully comprehend this construction of the global Muslim figure of evil and moral threat. This chapter examines the media-driven furore in 2012 over the detained London-based Muslim cleric, Abu Qatada, as a case study exemplifying this. The so-called ‘hate preacher’ and supposed fundamentalist Islamist proponent of terrorism is quite a stock figure in the global iconography of Islamophobia, and Abu Qatada provides a clear instance. The symbiosis between crusading populist media and political leaders determined to outbid each other in their tough profile in the ‘war on terror’ is well demonstrated by this case. It also illustrates the ideology of purported ‘failed multiculturalism’ and supposed excessiveness of ‘human rights’ promoted in recent neo-conservatism, as well as some characteristic ideological elements of contemporary global Islamophobia.