Danish vs. Muslim: (Re)Imagining the Citizen through Terror Law Prosecution

Liberal, pluralist European rights constructions protect freedom of religion and promisenon-discrimination based on race. The rights and freedoms that form the basis ofEuropean governance are further protected under obligations stemming from membershipin the Council of Europe (COE), Europe’s “guardian of human rights.” The COE’sEuropean Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) explicitly addresses freedom of religionand freedom from discrimination under Articles 9 and 14, respectively. Yet, these rights arechallenged by recent Danish terror law jurisprudence, which has revoked citizenshipthrough exclusionary legal constructions of Muslim belief and Danish belonging. ThisDanish case law has been unanimously upheld at the COE’s court, the European Court ofHuman Rights (ECtHR). This article examines Danish terror law jurisprudence and itslegitimation by the ECtHR in order to consider what this jurisprudence indicates regardingthe question animating this special issue: who is Europe for? The article argues that thecitizenship revocation elements of Danish terror law jurisprudence reify a neocolonial,illiberal, racialized notion of the state. This reification is occurring through law, and underthe guise of the application of precisely those liberal rights constructions designed topermit plurality and constrain discrimination.