Uninformed and reactionary responses in the years following the events of 9/11 and the ongoing ‘War on Terror’ have greatly affected ideas of citizenship and national belonging.

In Securitized Citizens, Baljit Nagra, develops a new critical analysis of the ideas dominant groups and institutions try to impose on young Canadian Muslims and how in turn they contest and reconceptualize these ideas. Nagra conducted fifty in-depth interviews with young Muslim adults in Vancouver and Toronto and her analysis reveals how this group experienced national belonging and exclusion in light of the Muslim ‘other’, how they reconsidered their cultural and religious identity, and what their experiences tell us about contemporary Canadian citizenship.

The rich and lively interviews in Securitized Citizens successfully capture the experiences and feelings of well-educated, second-generation, and young Canadian Muslims. Nagra acutely explores how racial discourses in a post–9/11 world have affected questions of race relations, religious identity, nationalism, white privilege, and multiculturalism.

Baljit Nagra is an assistant professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of Ottawa.

Baljit Nagra's profile page

‘Nagra effectively captures the experiences, perceptions, and feelings of young Canadian Muslims in the immediate aftermath of September 11, 2001. Securitized Citizens is a critical addition to the field.’

Reading Religion, April 27 2018

‘This timely book makes an outstanding contribution to the disciplines of religion, race-ethnicity, and public policy.’

Choice Vol 55:12: August 2018