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This book is concerned with the ideology of Islamophobia as a cultural racism, and argues that in order to understand its prevalence we must focus not only on what Islamophobia is, but also why diversely situated individuals and groups choose to employ its narratives and tropes. Since 2001, Muslims in Britain have been constructed as the nation's significant 'other' - an internal and external enemy that threatened both social cohesion and national security.
Through a consideration of a number of pertinent contemporary issues, including no-mosque campaigns, the rise of anti-Islamist social movements and the problematisation of Muslim culture, this book offers a new understanding of Islamophobia as a form of Eurocentric spatial dominance, in which those identified as Western receive a better social, economic and political 'racial contract', and seek to defend these privileges against real and imagined Muslim demands.
List of contents
Chapter 1: Introduction: Islamophobia and Racism.- Chapter 2: Good and Bad Muslims in Britain: Community Cohesion and Counterterrorism Discourse.- Chapter 3: - Islamophobia at the Local Level: The Case of Dudley Mosque.- Chapter 4: Denials of Racism and the English Defence League.- Chapter 5: Islamophobia and National Identity in Europe.- Chapter 6: Eurocentric Islamophobia.- Chapter 7: Conclusions: The Waste of Islamophobia.
About the author
Leonie B. Jackson is Lecturer in International Politics at the University of Huddersfield, UK.
Summary
Considers Islamophobia in the context of urban spatial identity politics
Addresses not only how Islamophobia is articulated but also why individuals and groups view Islam as so threatening
Argues that Islamophobia in the present period serves the purpose of maintaining Eurocentric dominance
