Review
“Arun Kundnani is one of Britain's best political writers, neither hectoring nor drily academic but compelling and sharply intelligent. The Muslims Are Coming should be widely read, particularly by liberals who consider their own positions unassailable.”
– Robin Yassin-Kassab, Guardian
“Kundnani’s argument is compelling in its dissection of governments’ disproportional responses.”
– Tanjil Rashid, Financial Times
“Kundnani's book is a fact-rich call for vigilance and clear thinking about the erosion of civil liberties and attitudes.”
– New Statesman
“A gripping exposition of how the west has made a post-communist enemy and, in some ways, ignited Islamicist terrorism.”
– Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Independent
“Arun Kundnani, a British-born scholar who is now an adjunct professor at New York University, is a different sort of leftist. He is not Muslim, either by background or conviction, but he maintains that "Islamophobia" is a thinly disguised form of racial prejudice, and that on both sides of the Atlantic, the war on terror has been an excuse for governments to ratchet up surveillance and harassment of people who are "guilty" of nothing worse than critical thought about their countries' domestic or foreign policies.”
– Economist
“An important and moving investigation of the costs of the ‘war on terror’ for those who have been its targets, including the thousands of innocent Muslims who have been infiltrated, entrapped, and surveilled in the search for the radicalized terrorist among us. Kundnani gives eloquent voice to the communities that have been regulated, watched, and silenced by the national security state.”
– David Cole, author of Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional Freedoms in the War on Terrorism
“A bold new look at the much discussed issue of surveillance, documenting how it impacts the communities most affected—American and British Muslims. With incisive reporting from across the US and the UK, combined with trenchant analysis, Arun Kundnani captures what it feels like to be a ‘suspect population.’”
– Deepa Kumar, author of Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire
“This timely and urgent analysis carefully examines the ideologies and law enforcement strategies that undergird the domestic War on Terror. What Kundnani finds is disturbing: sweeping, specious radicalization theory and racialized assumptions about the nature of Islam drive domestic counterterrorism practices. This has had devastating consequences for the rights and liberties of Muslims and the state of constitutional protections in the US and UK.”
– Jeanne Theoharis, author of The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks
“An incisive, scholarly, bold, and convincing critique of the never-ending ‘War on Terror,’ whose roots extend far beyond the tragedy of 9/11. An important work.”
– Wajahat Ali, cohost of Al Jazeera America's The Stream and author of The Domestic Crusaders
“Indispensable and powerful … Essential reading for government officials engaged in designing our counterterrorism policies, as well as readers trying to make sense of them.”
– Faiza Patel, Co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program, Brennan Center, NYU School of Law
“A must-read guide to the second decade of war waged on the home front.”
– John Feffer, author of Crusade 2.0: The West's Resurgent War on Islam
“Measuring his ideas against global terror experts, Kundnani offers hard alternatives to international security agencies, policing trends, and options for reasonable dissent in his thoughtful, rational plea to curb the War on Terror.”
– Publisher's Weekly
“Kundnani frankly and refreshingly moves away from ideological symptoms and toward political causes in tackling extremism.”
– Kirkus Reviews
"Excellent and timely… a compelling guide to the debate over the nature of British Islam." - Telegraph
About the Author
ARUN KUNDNANI is a visiting fellow at Leiden University in the Netherlands. He has been a visiting fellow at the London Metropolitan University, an Open Society Fellow of the Soros Foundation and the editor of the journal Race and Class. He is the author of The End of Tolerance: Racism in 21st Century Britain. He lives in New York.
