Abstract
Islamophobia has been a controversial concept ever since it first gained popular currency. One of the main sticking points over the term is whether or not it refers to religion. For both detractors and advocates of the term alike, religion should be or is removed from the meaning of Islamophobia, which is conceived as a form of anti-Muslim racism. Islam, we might say, is thereby removed from Islamophobia. Yet, in doing so, it falls short on two of its key objectives, i.e., identifying the particular forms of discrimination that Muslims face in society and subsequently providing a positive basis from which to address this discrimination. In this article, the question asked is if we should put Islam back into Islamophobia and, if so, on what basis? According to the existing literature as well as a study of converts to Islam, it is suggested that Islam as a religion is both an important feature of Islamophobia as well as central to the identities of many Muslims, and then it is suggested why and how we should think about including religion into the scope of thinking on Islamophobia and how it is addressed.
Highlights
Islamophobia has been a controversial concept ever since it first gained popular currency following the Runnymede Trust report Islamophobia: A Challenge for us All in1997
Debates about the term itself, whether we should instead use anti-Muslim racism or anti-Muslimism for instance, as well as debates about whether it refers to religion, ethnicity, or culture, have been the focus of much academic as well as political commentary
Report Islamophobia Defined (APPGBM 2018). Both of these reports shared the definition of Islamophobia as anti-Muslim racism; to quote the All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims (APPGBM), “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness”
Summary
Islamophobia has been a controversial concept ever since it first gained popular currency following the Runnymede Trust report Islamophobia: A Challenge for us All in. It would be easy to see these disagreements as a purely political issue, one of left vs, right, ‘progressive’ anti-racists vs, conservative traditionalists, for instance, but this would miss a vital and defining factor, one that serves to highlight something of a common feature of both some supporters as well as detractors of the definition. Some recent research is discussed that suggests that patterns of discrimination aimed at Muslims manifest in relation to religion, rather than or at least as well as ‘race’, and brings to bear findings from a study of converts to Islam in Britain, which helps highlight issues of religiousness It is suggested on what terms we might be able to begin to think about understanding and addressing the religious aspect of discrimination
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