Islamophobia Research Articles

Transnational Feminist Approaches to Anti-Muslim Racism

Transnational Feminist Approaches to Anti-Muslim Racism

The Islamophobia Index: Exploring the Challenges in Establishing Reliability for a Content Analysis Instrument Evaluating Islamophobia in Media Texts

In a wide variety of studies over the past two decades, the media has consistently been identified as a significant social institution implicated in normalizing and disseminating anti-Muslim prejudice. Identifying and combating Islamophobic discourses has been a challenging proposition, however, due to difficulties in systematically identifying and evaluating “Islamophobia” within texts. Islamophobia is a complex and contested phenomenon that defies easy classification within the boundaries of terminology which would normally be employed to describe hostility or prejudice based on, for example, race or religion. This article outlines some of the challenges involved in defining and categorizing Islamophobic discourses through an exploration of the process of constructing, evaluating, and applying a unique content analysis instrument, the “Islamophobia Index,” to media texts, using data sets drawn from the Australian news media. We critically reflect upon the methodological limitations of systematic quantitative studies, the importance of qualitative and interpretive approaches that take into account researcher subjectivities, and ultimately reposition and repurpose this project as a mixed-method study. In conclusion, potential applications for the Index, including non-media textual analysis, are considered.

Protecting Autonomy of Rohingya Women in Sexual and Reproductive Health Interventions

Protecting Autonomy of Rohingya Women in Sexual and Reproductive Health Interventions

Racialized hauntings: examining Afghan Americans' hyper(in)visibility amidst anti-Muslim ethnoracism

ABSTRACT This article argues for a conceptual reframing of anti-Muslim racism to anti-Muslim ethnoracism to account for the specificity of Muslims' ethnonationalities, migration, and religion within racializing processes. Drawing on 45 semi-structured interviews with Afghan American refugees, I argue that ethnonational, diasporic, and refugee identities contribute to the racializing of Muslim Americans and shape how different Muslims may respond to and resist their racialization. Specifically, I describe the racialized hauntings, a combination of visible stereotypes and invisible effects of imperialism and refugee backgrounds, that shape Afghan Muslims’ racialization experiences with regards to hyper(in)visibility, self-surveillance, and cultural survivance.

The Racist ‘Not Racism’ Nature of Islamophobia within the Reclaim Australia Movement

This article tracks the Islamophobia within the Reclaim Australia movement. The movement organized several anti-Muslim rallies in regional and urban areas across Australia. The formation of this movement in 2015 was entirely based on anti-Muslim racism, as the movement’s pioneers gained traction through their interactions with white supremacist groups. The nature of the movement’s Islamophobia had illustrated how Reclaim Australia’s proponents saw their racism as indistinguishable from celebrating Australian patriotism. This article uncovers how an explicitly racist movement commonly argued that their anti-Muslim positions were ‘not racism’, revealing how denial is at the heart of contemporary Islamophobia. Within these ‘not racism’ narratives, Reclaim Australia enthusiasts utilized strategies that both mobilize notions of race and then denied such mobilization.

Historical Origins of European Islamophobia

This article is a rethinking of the modern trend in the Islamophobia scholarship, which frames European Islamophobia as a post-9/11 phenomenon. Though Islamist terrorism had a notoriety of raising anti-Islam and anti-Muslim sentiments, the bigotry towards Islam, hatred against Muslims and prejudices about their cultural inferiority lurk deep in the history of European colonialism and the Holy Wars. This article suggests an assumption, that is, why Western scholars strive to coin 9/11 as the ‘starting point’ of Islamophobia. It also explains how demonization of Muslims during the Holy Wars and their dehumanization in the colonial period provided for the emergence of this phenomenon.

Good jews/bad jews: thingified semites?

ABSTRACT This review of Alana Lentin’s Why Race Still Matters chimes in on the context of Germany and questions how our contemporary understanding of “race” works in relation to the “new anti-Semitism.” My commentary focuses on the chapter Good Jew/ Bad Jew. At first, I will reconstruct Lentin’s argument, then move on to illustrate Lentin’s theoretical analysis with examples from Germany. In a final step, I elaborate on a few questions revolving around the material dialectics of race and Whiteness in relation to race, anti-Semitism, and anti-Muslim racism.

Young Canadian Muslims: Islamophobia and Higher Education

This study examined Islamophobia in Canadian higher education through the accounts of eight Muslim students in Canadian universities. Qualitative semi-structured interviewing was utilized to investigate how Muslim students report being perceived by faculty, non-Muslim peers, and student service providers. Analysis of interview data yielded six major themes: (1) difficulty in requesting religious accommodations, (2) soft bigotry through low expectations, (3) misrepresentations of Islam in mass media, (4) defensive posturing to combat anti-Muslim sentiment, (5) public emboldening of overt Islamophobia, and (6) resisting and challenging Islamophobic sentiments. The findings of this research indicate that Muslim students experience feelings of marginalization and alienation within higher educational institutions. The respondents articulated the burden of responsibility to take an active role in combatting Islamophobia.

On the edge of diversity: Anti-Muslim racism and discrimination in white diversity spaces

This article traces the development over the last decades in France of anti-Muslim racism and discrimination within professional and organisational fields. It shows how, in the wake of 2004 law banning religious symbols in schools, new demands for religious neutrality have spread far beyond educational grounds, to permeate a variety of institutions, including those purportedly designed to fight against discrimination and achieve equality. Drawing on a longitudinal, qualitative analysis of workplace diversity policies, I show the eviction of faith diversity from corporate diversity procedures through the implementation of ‘white diversity’ concepts, based on two tenets: first, patterns of Muslim racialisation, as faith options are turned into ‘personality styles’ and ‘identity problems’; second, the perceived legitimacy and widespread social acceptance of this ‘respectable racism’, woven into claims upon meritocracy, and disguised as ‘corporate culture’.

Anti-Muslim behaviour in everyday interaction: evidence from a field experiment in Paris

ABSTRACT No other form of group antagonism affects the fate of so many people in France as anti-Muslim racism. While negative attitudes toward Muslims and Muslims’ experience of discrimination are well documented, studies of anti-Muslim behaviour are rare, especially in the context of everyday interpersonal encounters. To fill this void, we conducted a field experiment on platforms of the Paris metro (n = 270) in which a bearded confederate asked for help to randomly selected passengers giving additional indirect cues of being Muslim in the experimental condition. The outcomes under investigation were the probability of helping the confederate and various behaviours indicative of interpersonal warmth or involvement. Interactions were videotaped, the outcomes objectively measured, and the data analysed using Generalized Linear Models estimated with Bayesian inference. Passengers were found to offer help less often and to show lower interpersonal warmth in the experimental condition. Also, when considered in isolation the young turn out to discriminate but not the middle-aged. Given that these negative effects were observed despite the use of a minimal stimulus, the results probably underestimate the actual level of anti-Muslim discrimination that Muslim men face in their everyday dealings with non Muslims.

Guest Editors’ Introduction to the Special Issue

As the twentieth anniversary of 9/11 approaches, we contemplate and reflect on the current social/political imagination of terror(ism) and U.S./Canadian patriotism. For educators seeking to unpack 9/11 and its reverberations, it is important to highlight Islamophobic and anti-Muslim racism, discrimination, prejudice, and violence, as well as to consider Muslim students’ lived experiences. (Re)thinking about whose voices are included (or not) within the nexus of sociopolitical power is an important step toward justice and then rapprochement within and beyond the classroom. We consider this assemblage of articles to be a distinctly communal effort that responds to and attempts to disrupt the (perpetual) echoes of terror(ism) which became amplified by/through the events of 9/11.

RETHINKING LIMITS OF ANTI-MUSLIM HATRED AND DISCRIMINATION IN CONTEMPORARY GREECE

There has been a growing academic literature about Islam in the West since 9/11 while Islam per se is actually an old phenomenon in the continent of Europe. Even if Muslims enjoy a variety of religious rights, Islamophobia is on rise all over Europe. Regardless of states’ respect and inclusiveness towards Muslims, their sacred places such as mosques or cemeteries cannot escape from getting targeted by hate-motivated physical-discursive attacks and harassments. Generally speaking, any kind of anti-Muslim action is usually vehemently condemned by governmental officials. Nevertheless, many of those perpetrators of Islamophobic actions remain unidentified and are seldom persecuted effectively, which will assist in discouraging anti-Muslim bigotry and behavior in societies of Europe. In this respect, this study takes Greece as a case study and analyzes to what extent Islam has been incorporated in Greece. While doing so, it dwells both on historical and new Muslim groups so as to find answers to two primary questions. First, to what extent does Greece respect rights of Muslims residing in different parts of the country? Second, what does Islamophobia mean in the context of Greece? Doing so, this study argues that Greece has never allowed enjoyment of Muslims’ freedoms in full terms since its establishment as of this day. Rather, it has chosen to penetrate in their internal affairs via different ways, limit their religious liberties and finally have the ultimate control over fundamental issues of Islam and Muslims living across the country. Moreover, Greece has never applied for an establishment of an effective mechanism aiming to fight against anti-Muslim behavior depicted overtly or covertly by those belonging to different segments of the Greek society. Henceforth, it is predicted that a variety of issues centering around Islam and anti-Muslim practices in Greece will continue to be one of the hottest topics of discussion throughout the third decade of the new millennium in respect to the integration of Muslims with the predominantly Orthodox-Christian majority.

Australian Converts to Islam: Findings from a National Survey of Muslim Australians

While conversion to Islam in non-Muslim societies has a long and diverse history, the socio-political contexts of the post-9/11 period have led to Western converts being viewed with sharpened curiosity, suspicion and even hostility. Yet despite the rise of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim sentiment during this period, it has been suggested that significant numbers of Westerners have converted to Islam. While there has been considerable growth in academic scholarship on Western converts over the past two decades, research on this phenomenon in the Australian context remains limited. This article seeks to address this gap by outlining key findings from the 2019 Islam in Australia Survey, which represents the first in-depth, quantitative research on Australian converts to Islam. These findings provide insight into converts' backgrounds, conversion motivations, religious identities and social connections.

The Impact of 9/11 and the War on Terror on Arab and Muslim Children and Families.

There is a growing body of work that documents the impact of 9/11 and the war on terror on Arab and Muslim children and families. This review is designed to provide a brief overview and suggest new ways to better understand this understudied population. Several studies show anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiments at its highest levels since 9/11. There is strong evidence that Arab and Muslim children and families experience some of the highest levels of discrimination, and as a result, they report higher levels of mental health symptoms. Given the limited data, we need future studies (a) to focus on populations outside of the USA and Europe; (b) to use longitudinal designs; (c) to pay attention to within group variations by race, gender, social class, and immigration status; and (d) to use culturally validated instruments.

Suspect Communities: Anti-Muslim Racism and the Domestic War on Terror

Suspect Communities: Anti-Muslim Racism and the Domestic War on Terror

The electoral consequences of anti-Muslim prejudice

A growing body of research has documented the development of pervasive anti-Muslim sentiment among White Americans. We build on this research to demonstrate that anti-Muslim attitudes and negative stereotypes of Muslim people have become an enduring and consistent component of White Americans' presidential vote choice beyond any one specific candidate or election. We argue that the racialization of Muslim Americas has increased their salience and significance in both the minds of White Americans and in national political discourse, making attitudes toward Muslims a consistent predictor of Whites’ presidential candidate evaluations in every election since at least 2004. We support this account with empirical evidence from the 2004–2020 American National Election Studies, using measures of group affect and negative stereotypes of Muslim people.

Islamophobia as Cultural Racism: The Case of Islamic Attire in Turkey

Grasping the various aspects of Islamophobia in Muslim societies requires much finer methods in order to decipher the intentions of the actors in distinctive life situations varying from the media to education. This article engages in a debate as to whether Islamophobia is a new type of racism, i.e., cultural, geographical, phenotypical, or Xeno-racism, and the relatively recent type that has emerged in neo-liberal states: anti-Muslim racism. In a Muslim-majority society, the ‘culture’ of members is fairly homogenous, so Islamophobia takes another cue, focusing on external markers, like the headscarf or beard. While anti-Muslim racism is sometimes exercised along more subtle lines of cultural difference in Muslim societies, it prevails through old-fashioned, phenotypical racism. The representation or rather misrepresentation of Islam and/or Muslims in the media can be understood as the prevailing source of antagonism between the secular and the traditionalist segments of Turkish society; indeed, Turkish media representation produces and reproduces a racialization of the majority, predominately by rendering Islam invisible, or by depicting Muslims in ways that denigrate their clothing, manners, style, and way of living across various mass media forms.

ATTITUDE REALIZATION IN NEWS REPORTS: AN INTERPRETATION THROUGH AN APPRAISAL ANALYSIS

For the maintenance of the authorial voice, newspapers use rhetorical markers as an external supporting voice to win their readership. The current five year studies show that news writers maintain engagement with their readers by their stances towards their point of views. This study aimed to find the attitudinal stances of two Pakistani Online newspapers i.e. 'Dawn' (alternative newspaper) and 'The News' (mainstream newspaper). The newspaper's inclination was identified through its language. To discover the newspapers' stances, Martin and White (2005) 'Appraisal Analysis' framework was employed on '2' news reports comprising of '5013' words on Prime Minister Imran Khan's Speech at 74th United Nations' session along with Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) by Norman Fairclough (1995). It was found that both newspapers indirectly invoked attitudes by laying evaluative ground which was explicitly explained in the quoted text. The prime minister of Pakistan Imran Khan was found the 'Appraiser' in both news reports and served as a main social actor in highlighting Pakistan's current issues. The issues expected to be solved urgently for peace and prosperity in the region by the involvement of world leaders and United Nations on Kashmir conflict between Pakistan and India, climate change and elimination of Islam phobia.

Muslims and Islamophobia in ‘Raceless’ Societies: Critical insights from Denmark and Quebec

Muslims and Islamophobia in ‘Raceless’ Societies: Critical insights from Denmark and Quebec

The racialization of American Muslim converts by the presence of religious markers

Recent scholarship has employed racialization theory to make sense of the Muslim experience in the West. Research shows that if Muslims don religious markers—such as a hijab—they are racialized as ‘Muslim’ and associated with negative stereotypes concerning Islam. This (ethno)racialization has also been found to extend to white Muslim converts who wear these markers—sometimes subjecting them to anti-Muslim prejudice. The current study picks up this thread, comparing the experiences of converts who are white with those of people of color. In-depth interviews with 39 American converts to Islam reveal that their experiences of anti-Muslim prejudice differ sharply by race and by presentation of self. Findings suggest that white converts are only subjected to prejudice if they wear Muslim religious markers, not simply for having converted. Black converts who wear these markers are met with both positive and negative appraisals. I discuss my findings in light of what they tell us about the power of religious markers to (ethno)racialize their wearers, and the disruption these markers cause to the racial hierarchy—specifically that wearing Muslim religious markers is met with prejudice because it signals a challenge to the normativity of whiteness.