Where does Islamophobia take place and who is involved? Reflections from Paris and London

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper explores and compares the socio-spatial effects of Islamophobia in Paris and London. Our research focuses on different spaces and types of discrimination against Muslims or people who are perceived to be Muslim in Paris and London using primarily quantitative data. A quantitative analysis of the geographical spaces of Islamophobia is presented, while highlighting the ways in which anti-Muslim discrimination is gendered, racialized, classed and aged. We identify the different contexts in which Islamophobia takes place in each city. This spatial analysis highlights not only particular places such as public areas, transport networks or public institutions, but it also describes specific logics of spatial organisation showing the importance of the centre and the suburbs, transport axes and pockets of segregation. Using an intersectional approach, we also demonstrate that Islamophobic discrimination is often shaped simultaneously by other types of exclusions associated with gender, race, class and age. We found that victims were more likely to be young women who wear a headscarf with the perpetrators more likely to be men in the UK and both men and women in France.