Islamophobia in an American studies approach as seen in Donald Trump�s speech documentary videos

Kasiyarno Kasiyarno,Didik Murwantono

doi:10.30659/e.7.1.177-191

Abstract

Donald Trump�s rhetoric in his campaign was markedly different, his speeches on Islamophobia and anti-immigrant rhetoric became a big issue. Trump used the rhetoric of fear to induce his followers against Muslims and immigrants by linking to both groups with the terrorism issue. This article has aims to analyse Trump�s speeches for protecting American people surrounded by the terror threat through an American studies framework.� This research was under descriptively qualitative research supported by an interdisciplinary approach of American Studies. Theory of Conservatism and theory of Discursive Psychology were used to analyse American experiences of Islamophobia as seen from Donald Trump�s speeches of documentary videos as the primary data. The completion of this research shows that American conservatives in the era of Donald Trump were strongly enough and the discourse psychological approach was designed to persuade. The discursive approach also allows for an understanding of how American identity, history, and values are both invoked and constructed. It is like American identity of conservatives who are proud of their nationality of Americans.

Highlights

Islamophobia is a phenomenon related to notions of fear, hate, and anger
The findings of research showed that American Studies along with its main characteristic of interdisciplinary approach could strongly see the phenomenon as a holistic view
Theory of conservatism and theory of discursive analysis were used to analyse the phenomenon of Islamophobia. we classified those theories along with some cases supported by word cloud of NVivo program as follows: Figure 1

Summary

Introduction

Fear is the main reason of Islamophobia associated with Islam, such as Mosque, Muslims, the Holy Qur’an, hijab, and other related Islamic issues in specific and textured ways in the context of the global War on Terror. Such a fear, it is pointed to some practices like men with beard having Muhammad in the first name or the names that sound Arabic and different types of dress or clothes. That means Islamophobia rests in people mind makes people have xenophobic attitudes of intolerance and hatred.

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Conclusion