Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear: Islamophobia in the United States and British India, 1687–1947

Peter Gottschalk Peter Gottschalk,Gabriel Greenberg Gabriel Greenberg

doi:10.13169/islastudj.1.1.0082

Abstract

Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear: Islamophobia in the United States and British India, 1687–1947

Highlights

These expectations shape how information about Muslims is interpreted so that what fails to fit within this frame of reference (e.g., Muslim tolerance, nonviolent Muslim protest) often is overlooked: If a Mohammedan, Turk, Egyptian, Syrian or African commits a crime the newspaper reports do not tell us that it was committed by a Turk, an Egyptian, a Syrian or an African, but by a Mohammedan
In the United States, engagements with Muslims appeared to be a matter of international affairs alone, “Mohammedans” representing an “other” far more distant than the Jews, Catholics, and other religious minorities who lived among the Protestant majority
Leupolt found some beautiful Quranic passages and Muslim traditions, even if – as he stressed – these were ones that Muslims never mentioned.83. Americans and those Britons serving in India often differed in their perception of Muslims

Summary

Gabriel Greenberg

ISLAMOPHOBIA STUDIES JOURNAL VOLUME 1, NO. 1, SPRING 2012, PP. 82-106. Published by: Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project, Center for Race and Gender, University of California, Berkeley. In certain confrontations, American representations may have fixed primarily on the race, ethnicity, and/or nation of an antagonistic group that happened to be Muslim Even such depictions almost invariably included Islamophobic inflections that proved Islam to be a damning quality. In England, it was reprinted annually between 1745 and 1777, while the play premiered in New York and Philadelphia in 1780 and 1796, respectively.8 These two early examples demonstrate three significant dimensions of Anglo-American Islamophobia that would be rehearsed repeatedly over succeeding centuries. Given the lack of contact with Muslims except in moments of crisis and through missionaries, Americans often relied on British views to inform their apprehensions about Islam. “ one should hesitate to describe early Americans as conversant with Islam, they certainly conversed about Islam regularly.”

THE THREAT OF ISLAM

The successful resistance of Muslims to conversion and flourishing

CONCLUSION