ABSTRACT
This chapter examines constructions of threat in post-9/11 Southeast Asian security politics, in particular the perceived threat posed by political Islam in the region as informed by expert discourses. It is concerned with how the specific historical moment of the War on Terror has significantly re-framed these threats in ways that have increased various forms of insecurity. A key aspect of post-9/11 terrorism expertise is its general preoccupation with Islam and Muslims. It seems natural to view Islam as a threat when terrorism is assumed to come out of the potential of any Muslim to become violent. The primary policy literature of the War on Terror contends that the causes of terrorism, and explanations for it, are completely exogenous to the US and its foreign policies. The tendency to conflate political Islam with terrorism paints a simplistically homogenous and ominous picture of what is actually a very complex and rich terrain of religion and politics in Southeast Asia.
