Gendering Islamophobia, racism and White supremacy

Peter Hopkins

doi:10.1177/2043820616655018

Abstract

Defendants in both racist and religiously motivated hate crimes in the United Kingdom are usually White men, with these incidents tending to take place in public spaces, especially those close to religious and community buildings. Focusing on the experiences of Muslim men and women in the United Kingdom – including others who look Muslim – I explore common forms of religiously and racially motivated violence and argue that these constitute gendered violence. Policies targeted at key groups who are victims and perpetrators of religiously and racially motivated violence ignore the issue of violence and fail to acknowledge its gendered nature.

Highlights

In this piece, I argue that common forms of religiously and racially motivated violence in the United Kingdom constitute gendered violence
I focus upon the experiences of Muslim men and women in the United Kingdom, including those who may be mistaken for being Muslim as a result of the complex ways in which their style of dress, skin colour or other phenotypical features – mostly associated with processes of embodiment (Longhurst and Johnston, 2014) – results in them being associated with the Islamic faith and targets of gendered Islamophobic abuse and physical assault
Recent reports about Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hate crime in the United Kingdom point to the ways in which the actions of those connected with such right-wing groups – as well as those who engage in acts of religious and racial hatred without necessarily having a group affiliation – result in persistently unjust, regularly violent and relentlessly unpleasant verbal, physical and emotional attacks against Muslims and those who are perceived to be Muslim

Summary

Introduction

I argue that common forms of religiously and racially motivated violence in the United Kingdom constitute gendered violence. These forms of gendered violence are especially targeted at Muslims; the perpetrators are overwhelmingly White men and the victims are women and men who are perceived to follow the Islamic faith.

Results

Conclusion