anti-Islamic Discourse Research Articles

The Messenger: A Tale Retold (2008) by Kader Abdolah as a Polemic Biography of Prophet Muḥammad

ABSTRACT This article offers an analysis of the novel De boodschapper [‘The messenger’], a fictional biography of the prophet Muḥammad, by the Dutch author of Iranian origin, Kader Abdolah. The book, published in 2008 along with an adapted translation of the Quran, is a variation on the sīrah, a genre devoted to telling Muḥammad’s life story. Although Abdolah declares that his project aims at promoting mutual understanding between Dutch and Muslim culture underscoring his appreciation for the Prophet, his presentation of Muḥammad is not only secularized, but also strikingly negative. This article argues that the novel can in fact be regarded as an example of polemic biography, a type of Western anti-Islamic discourse, aimed at discrediting Muḥammad as a prophet. The major tropes of this literary tradition will be analysed here as used in Abdolah’s rendering of the Prophet’s life story.

Leona Caetani’ye Göre Kâ’b b. Eşref’in Ölümünü Meşru Kılan Sebepler

Orientalism is an institutional activity from the West that studies the Eastern world in fields such as religion, language, science, thought, art, and history and produces value judgments about the East. Those who are engaged in this work are orientalists. Orientalists have closely examined Islamic civilization and its sources by going into the field and have produced many works. However, their attitude to get familiar with Eastern Islamic society was based on their superiority and the denigration of Islamic civilization. They made groundless claims against the most crucial source for Muslims, the Holy Qurʾān and hadiths. One of these orientalists was the Italian Leona Caetani. His work Annali Dell'Islām, which he wrote from an Orientalist point of view, was considered by Westerners as a school book in Islamic history and was accepted as a reference work in its field. This work, translated into Ottoman by Hüseyin Cahit Yalçın, caused great resentment and anger among the intellectuals of the Republic of Turkey at the time and led to the writing of refutations. The massacre of Ka'b Ashraf, which took place in the third year of the Hijrah, in Caetani's History of Islam, has always been a debate in Islamic history. With the spread of the Prophethood in Arabia, different balances emerged, and with the migration from Mecca to Medina, this situation took on another aspect. The new religion could not get used to the change in the balances in Medina, and the Jews, who could not digest this situation, embarked on hostile activities to humiliate the Prophet and Islam. One of these people was the Jewish poet Ka'b b. Ashraf, did his best to reveal his enmity to the Prophet Muhammad and Muslims on this path leading to his murder. His enmity, which peaked with the victory of the Muslims in the Badr War, increased even more, and the defeat of the polytheists, whom he called "the ruler of mankind", aroused great sadness in him. He went to the city of Mecca with his entourage, saying, "If Muhammad really killed so many people, the earth is better than the earth above it". He wrote poems to arouse the people there and to keep their pain even more vivid. Caetani, in his History of Islam, expressed what a dangerous and disturbing enemy Ka'b b. Ashraf was by saying that when he returned to Medina, he made violent attacks on the Prophet and the new religion, and even tried to seduce Muslim women, in other words, he did everything possible to earn the Prophet's most hatred and to become a man who angered him the most. In the face of such a dangerous enemy, the Prophet asked his companions, "Who can save me from the speech of Ka'b b. Ashraf? Because he disturbs Allah and His Messenger". Thereupon, Muhammad b. Maslama accepted this job. Together with Ka'b's milk brother Abu Nailah b. Salamah, Abbad b. Bishr, Haris b. Aws and Abu Abs, made a plan to eliminate Ka'b b. Ashraf slaughtered him—the killing of Ka'b b. Ashraf took place for various reasons and was not a selfish and unlawful killing. The background of this event with its causes and consequences in the historical process should be thoroughly analyzed, and inference should be made without focusing on the arbitrariness of the killing of Ka'b b. Ashraf. Caetani, who makes anti-Islamic discourses on many subjects and does not hesitate to express his opinion when necessary, did not make a counter-discourse on the massacre of Ka'b b. Ashraf in his History of Islam. In our study, we will evaluate Caetani's views by centering them.

Believing and belonging in multicultureel Europa: een minderheidsperspectief

As a consequence of international migration, religion has returned – if it had ever disappeared – as an important group boundary in contemporary society. This is evident in research on attitudes and social contacts that repeatedly shows social segregation and negative stereotyping particularly between Muslims and non-Muslims, but also between religious and non-religious individuals. The research outlined in this inaugural lecture focuses on the question under what conditions this group boundary becomes stronger, and when it takes on a more symbolic character or fades altogether. Drawing on large-scale survey research I aim to establish when people with a migration background can identify with and participate in European societies that are prevalently secular but where an anti-Islamic discourse is strong. What role do length of stay and intergroup friendship relations play in this process? I will argue that in addition to counting practice frequencies and the importance of religion, we need to better understand the different meanings that immigrants derive from their religion to get a grip on how and why religion acts as a social boundary in contemporary society.

Traces of Anti-Islamic Discourses in European Media

Günümüz temel bilgi kaynaklarından olan kitle iletişim araçları aynı zamanda ötekinin kurgulandığı, ideolojik amaçlarla nefret söyleminin inşa edildiği ve algı yönetiminin yapıldığı bir zemin olma özelliği taşımaktadır. Bu durumun somut izlerini medyanın İslam ve Müslümanlar ile ilgili içeriklerinde gözlemlemek mümkündür. Tarihsel bir oryantalist ön yargı taşıyan, ayrımcılığı ve yabancı düşmanlığını sürdüren Batı medyası, üretmiş olduğu içeriklerle İslamofobik tutum ve eylemlerin artış göstermesine sebep olabilmektedir. Bu çalışmada da Avrupa medyası örneğinde, medyanın İslam ve Müslümanlar ile ilgili oluşturmuş olduğu içerikler incelenmiştir. İslamofobinin medyatik üretimine ilişkin bir sorgulamayı içeren ve 16 Avrupa ülkesindeki farklı medya türlerinde yer alan güncel meselelerde İslam’ın ve Müslümanların temsil/sunum şeklini sorgulayan çalışmada nitel yönelimli içerik analizi yöntemi kullanılmıştır. Araştırma sonucunda, Avrupa’daki birçok yazılı ve görsel medyada, İslam ve Müslümanlara yönelik tarihsel süreçten beslenen negatif bir ton taşıyan ve İslam karşıtlığı içeren ifadelerin/anlatımların/kurguların sıkça yer aldığı belirlenmiştir.

Illiberalism and Islam

This chapter analyzes the role of anti-Islam and anti-Muslim discourse in North American and European ‘illiberal’ parties, movements, and ideologies. Its first aim is to situate those deployments in a longer history. Occidental engagements with Islam and Muslims, including anti-Islamic tropes, long predate the emergence of liberalism, let along illiberalism. It should not be a surprise that liberalism as it emerged in the nineteenth century partook of such ideas. Contra some theorists, however, I argue that there is no strong evidence that anti-Islam was constitutive of liberal theory or early practice. Rather, it was in the second half of the twentieth century, as mass migration from Africa and Asia to Europe and North America came to be viewed through a fraught geopolitical lens, that various conflicts emerged over ‘assimilation’ and ‘integration.’ These precipitated today’s perceived (if not actual) juxtapositions between Islam and liberalism. It is out of these disjunctions that the current anti-Islamic discourse of illiberal political formations emerges. Such illiberal deployment of Islam hence reflect an extension and modification of liberal political discourse. Ironically, at the extreme, they are transformed into justifications of mass murder and violent ethnic cleansing. The history of anti-Islamic conceptions in illiberalism hence illuminates the unintended and paradoxical trajectory of political ideas.

Bir Irkçılık Söylemi: Hâcerizm

Târih boyunca her toplum için hem önder hem de rehber kabul edilen peygamberler gönderilmiştir. İslâm, Yahudilik ve Hıristiyanlık dinlerinin ortak isimlerinden biri olan İbrâhim, hem Kur’ân-ı Kerîm’de hem de İncil ve Tevrat gibi diğer kutsal kitaplarda hakkında en fazla malumât bulunan peygamberdir. İslâm dininin ulu’l-azm olarak kabul ettiği İbrâhim’in yaşadığı coğrafya ve aile hayatı üç dini de yakından ilgilendirmesi yönüyle pek çok araştırmacının ve din bilimcinin ilgi alanına girmiştir. Bu bağlamda İbrâhim ile beraber Hâcer, Sâre, İsmâil ve İshâk ön plana çıkan diğer isimler olmuştur. İlâhi dinlerin menşei noktasında önemli rol oynayan bu isimlerden Hâcer ve ona nispetle ortaya atılan bir söylem olan Hâcerizm (Hagarism) Batı’da özellikle 1977 yılından itibaren popüler olmaya başlamış ve manipülatif bir yöntem ile İslâm aleyhine kullanılmıştır. Özellikle dini araştırmalar yapanların ilgisini çeken ve üzerinde pek çok yazı kaleme alınan Hacerizm’in ülkemizde pek fazla bilinmemesini dikkate alarak bu çalışmada Hâcerizm’in nasıl ve neden doğduğu ile tarihi gelişimi ele alınmıştır.

Strategies of resistance to anti-Islamic representations among Australian Muslim women: an intersectional approach

ABSTRACTContemporary anti-Islamic discourses in Australia construct Islam as an uncivilised belief system and its Muslim followers as homogenous unassimilable Others. Within these discourses, the diversity among Muslim women has been overshadowed, and they are constructed as a monolithic ‘veiled’ woman. Drawing on 20 conversational interviews with veiled and unveiled Australian Muslim women from various cultural backgrounds, this paper explores the diverse ways in which Muslim women resist and challenge anti-Islamic discourses on Islam, Muslims and Muslim women. Guided by intersectional theories on identity and resistance, our analysis show that the women drew on discursive and performative strategies to contest anti-Islamic representations that homogenise and vilify Muslims and construct Muslim women as veiled and oppressed. The findings also show that the ways in which women contested hegemonic anti-Islamic representations were diverse and informed by intersecting power and social locations, including race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality. Implications for research on resistance and identity negotiations of minority groups are discussed.

THE CHARLES STRONG LECTURE 2015 Two Disconnected Discourses of Disconnection: Anti-West and Anti-Islamic Discourses

Narratives like paradigms offer explanations of some aspect of life which are largely self-contained, self-sustaining, self-validating and impervious to disconfirming evidence. Anti-Islam discourses in the West and Anti-Western discourses among Muslims are two such discourses. That such discourses can legitimate violence is clearly evident in the rhetoric, actions and rationales given for violence among such groups as the Islamic State, Boko Haram, The Lord’s Liberation Army, The Spanish Inquisition, and Anti-Islamic movements in Europe and other parts of the West. Narratives of difference, of negative disconnection from some ‘other’ exist for centuries with minor variation as there is no real contact between those maintaining them. Real encounters would lead to disconfirmation while violent acts by some members of the ‘other’ group are taken as proof that the stereotypes held about them are true. In each age it must be asked, ‘Who Benefits?’

The Muslim Question in Australia: Islamophobia and Muslim Alienation

Islamophobia has become a significant problem across the Western world. Australia is no exception. The emergence of far right groups and a political environment that allows anti-Islamic discourse has created an increasingly unwelcome environment for Muslims, even though multiculturalism has long been a fundamental marker of Australian daily life. The rise of Islamophobia has been damaging to Australia. This paper explores the rise of anti-Islamic sentiments in Australia and the increasing marginalization of Muslim youth, showing that Islamophobia not only breaks the bond between Muslim youth and Australian society, it also polarizes relations within Australian Muslim communities.

The headscarf controversy: secularism and freedom of religion

I. Point of Departure Part 1: Turkey II. Nature of the Headscarf Controversy in Turkey: Popular Discourse III. Understanding a Complex History IV. The Role of the European Court of Human Rights Part 2: Europe and the United States V. Anti-Islamic Discourses in the West VI. France VII Germany VIII. The United States IX. Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

The Soviet Discourse on the Origin and Class Character of Islam, 1923-1933

AbstractThe article examines the growing radicalization of the Marxist anti-Islamic discourse in the USSR as a case-study of "Soviet Orientalism". To which of Marx's five socio-economic formations should Muslim society be assigned? During the relatively pluralistic period of the New Economic Policy (1921-1927) Marxist scholars offered various answers. Many argued that Islam emerged from the trading community of Mecca and was trade-capitalist by nature (M. Reisner, E. Beliaev, L. Klimovich). Others held that Islam reflected the interests of the agriculturalists of Medina (M. Tomara), or of the Bedouin nomads (V. Ditiakin, S. Asfendiarov); and some even detected communist elements in Islam (Z. and D. Navshirvanov). All authors found support in the Qur'ān and works of Western Orientalists. By the late 1920s Marx' and Engels' scattered statements on Islam became central in the discourse, and in 1930 Liutsian Klimovich rejected the Qur'ān altogether by arguing that the book, as well as Muhammad himself, were mere inventions of later times. By the end of the Cultural Revolution (1929-1931) it was finally "established" that Islam was "feudal" in character, and critical studies of Islam became impossible for decades. The "feudal" interpretation legitimized the Soviet attack on Islam and Muslim societies at that time; but also many of the Marxist writers on Islam perished in Stalin's Terror. We suggest that the harsh polemics the authors directed against each other in the discourse contributed to their later repression. By lending itself to the interests of the totalitarian state, Soviet Marxist Islamology committed suicide—the ultimate form of "Orientalism".