Policing Social Cohesion: Community Policing for Counter-Terrorism

Abstract This chapter begins with the alignment of counter-terrorism policing with multicultural social policy through the concept of social cohesion. The official discourse of Australian governments in relation to terrorism exhibit two simultaneous tendencies: it serves to valorise multiculturalism as a policy of social integration, and it expresses the limits of multiculturalism for creating social harmony. Participation in dialogue between police and community mediates a symbolic exchange of recognition in return for national belonging. Muslim isolation, segregation, and mistrust of the police acquire significance as social conflict likely to radicalise and therefore result in violence. The promise of social cohesion carries with it an obligation for Muslims to participate in the organisation of the state, by consenting to being policed. While this process of participation is promoted as an inclusive one, it relies on particular characterisations of difference that facilitate assimilatory forms of containment.