The Muslim Stranger: The Combined Effect of Xenophobia and Islamophobia

Abstract

This paper builds on Georg Simmel’s definition of the stranger to examine Muslims’ twofold position as outsiders and insiders within European societies. This specific status has triggered two distinct fears: xenophobia and Islamophobia. Both are at work in the current political treatment of Islam and Muslims and reinforce each other, independently of the legal, national, and social status of the concerned persons. Additionally Muslims are not only strangers but also enemies within the Western European societies. This perception of the enemy has expanded to Muslims in the United States since 9/11.