SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Islamophobia is one of the most prevalent forms of prejudice in the world today. The rhetoric of populist politicians declares Islam a menace to Western culture, surveillance by state agencies increases exponentially and rhetoric about immigration hardens, legitimising the harassment and violent attacks that Muslim communities often suffer. This book reveals the way in which Islamophobia’s pervasive power is everywhere being met with responses which challenge it and the worldview on which it rests. The volume moves beyond others by outlining the characteristics of contemporary Islamophobia across a range of public discourses in both Europe and the United States. Chapters examine issues such as how anti-Muslim prejudice facilitates the questionable foreign and domestic policies of Western governments; the operation of anti-Muslim bias in media and the arts; attempts to challenge Islamophobia in education; and forms of Muslim self-fashioning in popular culture and new media to oppose stereotypes. Based on contributions from experts in history, sociology, literature and the humanities, the book brings together perspectives from culture and the arts as well as political and policy reflections. Contributors argue for the power of spaces of cultural and media expression to create counter-discourses and counterselves through which Muslims can answer back to misrepresentation and institutionalised Islamophobia.