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Muslim Teens Love Surveillance Memes That Give Them a Subversive Way to Cope
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"The message is, 'I know you’re watching me.'"
Both inside and outside of the digital world, Muslim youth are under constant surveillance. The omnipresence of the government's eye can be literal federal agents posted on residential blocks or the quieter work of algorithm programs to surveil social media. Through task forces like Countering Violent Extremism, the Department of Homeland Security spent $10 million on watching Muslims in 2017. For many, the feeling of being watched takes a significant toll, and the lack of transparency inherent in government surveillance can leave people feeling powerless. To combat the everyday impacts of surveillance, Muslim youth have turned to one specific outlet: memes.
It’s not hard to find these memes if you follow the right accounts on Muslim Twitter, especially Black Muslim Twitter. Or you can hit the jackpot by joining Facebook groups like Halal Memes for Jannah Minded Teens (HMJMT) – “Jannah” refers to paradise within Islam – which calls itself the home of the “dankest memes in the deen” and boasts over 161,000 members. Within this world, Muslim youth have cultivated a specific subsection that I call “surveillance memes,” using the internet’s favorite punchy, comedic format to rip on everything from specific programs (like Countering Violent Extremism, a popular target) to laughing at the apparent twist of a Black Muslim airport agent scanning a white woman.
The thing about surveillance is that it's hard to know how deep it goes. In 2013, an NYPD spokesperson initially wouldn’t confirm the existence to the Associated Press of its “demographics unit,” reportedly for tracking Muslims, until a New York Times reporter pressed the spokesperson again, who then claimed he only knew it through the new name, “zone assessment unit.” If you’ve ever filed a Freedom of Information Act request, you know agencies like the FBI can be notoriously slow to release documents and, if they do, the documents are often heavily redacted. But even if the U.S. government won’t admit to the full extent of its surveillance, Muslim youth we interviewed said they know what’s up. Hafeezat Bishi, a Temple University student, told Teen Vogue, “I find myself very aware of how this country treats us, and it manifests in the simplest of settings.”
For Sirad Hassan, a Princeton student who cofounded HMJMT, simple settings include airport security or even the masjid (or mosque), where police officers have been known to observe the weekly congregational prayer on Fridays, like with the NYPD's now-disbanded use of “rakers” or reportedly deploying informants called “mosque crawlers,” according to documents obtained by the Associated Press in 2012 (though the NYPD previously denied these actions). The awareness of surveillance may also lead to increased self-censorship among Muslims.
“A lot of times, my parents caution me on attending certain political rallies or presentations because of the optics. They are seemingly aware of the fact that someone is watching/listening, even if they never explicitly say who or why,” Furqan Mohamed, a Canadian student, told Teen Vogue. “As a young Black person, there is already an understanding that your relationship with institutions like the police will be different, [and] being Muslim just makes me more hyperaware of that understanding.”
Surveillance memes don’t exist in a bubble, and some of the most popular ones play off of other viral meme formats. For example, there’s this version of the “Distracted Boyfriend Meme,” where the boyfriend is labeled “FBI,” the girlfriend “A Solid Tip on a Mass Shooter,” and the hot girl walking by “Muslim Googling Anything.” That one is already a classic; Furqan said that the “FBI agent” meme is an “oldie but a goodie.” Sirad is fond of a meme in which someone recites Quran to offer dawah (an invitation to join Islam) to the FBI agent watching them through their computer.
But surveillance memes serve a purpose beyond making people laugh. Dr. Kameelah Rashad, a psychologist and founder of the Muslim Wellness Foundation, told Teen Vogue, “The constant awareness (or even suspicion) of surveillance leads many to experience increased symptoms of anxiety, depression, hypervigilance, fear, difficulty concentrating, denial or dissociation, and an overall pervasive sense of looming danger.”
By using surveillance memes, or humor, as a coping mechanism, Rashad said Muslim youth are able to “externalize the stereotypical tropes of American Muslims by exaggerating the absurdity of entrenched negative views of the community.”
Hafeezat also noted that surveillance memes can help Muslim youth feel less isolated because, even if it’s not something you want to have in common, “it’s nice to know that you have people who are going through similar things to you.”
Nisa Dang, an organizer whose experience with surveillance began well before her conversion in 2017, told Teen Vogue, “As dangerous and destructive as surveillance is, I find it corny. I don’t want to downplay how dangerous surveillance has been to movements, [but] I think memes help highlight the corniness and relieve some of the tension we feel from having to constantly navigate surveillance.”
In addition to helping Muslim youth cope, there’s a subversive nature to surveillance memes. Rashad said, “Instead of being passive victims in this disturbing phenomenon, memes are a way for youth to challenge this ‘new normal’ — the message is, ‘I KNOW you’re watching me, and I want you to know I know this AND I’m watching you too.’”
For Black Muslim youth, the subversiveness of surveillance memes are reminiscent of Simone Brown’s “dark sousveillance,” which “charts possibilities and coordinates modes of responding to, challenging, and confronting a surveillance that was almost all-encompassing.” Rather than feeling like there’s nothing they can do about surveillance, Black Muslim youth can use memes and humor to challenge it. With surveillance memes, laughing is protest and a way of confronting the state.
With the notion of dark sousveillance — using the prefix “sous,” meaning “from below” — in mind, it’s easy to see how Black Muslim youth have also popularized anti-surveillance memes. One version of these memes essentially plays on the notion that any outfit covering someone’s body and face is an anti-surveillance measure (think Cardi B’s floral fashion ensemble).
Furqan said, “As a hijabi who tries to dress as modestly as possible, the idea that my long skirt and an oversized cardigan is anti-surveillance makes me laugh. It’s like a little, comfy rebellion.”
The humor of (anti)-surveillance memes has power outside of digital spaces too. Mohamed shared, “Even small things like giving an alias at Starbucks will have my friends laughing when my ‘name’ is called, and one of them is bound to say ‘anti-surveillance queen!’”
It’s this power that helps Muslim youth stand up and watch the watchers. As Dang said, “Muslims, and especially Black Muslims who are involved in social justice work in different ways, are expected to live life afraid and to be accomplices to white supremacy, but I refuse.”
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