According to Brayne, system avoidance is when individuals who are subjected to hypersurveillance avoid surveilling institutions like medical and financial organizations (Brayne 2014). There are signs in this chapter that Muslim Americans are beginning to exhibit this behavior. When Muslim men go to great lengths to silence themselves because they want to downplay or make invisible their religious identity in order to avoid surveillance, it may very well be a sign that they will also avoid institutions that they fear may surveil them. When organizations, like CAIR, that are supposed to help advocate for Muslims are also under surveillance, Muslims are left even more vulnerable, with little recourse for social justice. In many ways, it feels as if Muslims have nowhere to go.

XREF: Connects to the concept of system avoidance as studied by Brayne, and to broader sociology of surveillance.

Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, loc. 347