gsa
Well-Known Member
We hear many references to "Islamophobia" online, in the news and in popular discourse generally. Some people claim that films like "American Sniper" are Islamophopbic:
Speaking about the rise of anti-Arab sentiment in the US since the controversy surrounding the Ground Zero mosque in 2010, Mr Ayoub called the release of American Sniper “the turning point”.
“It may not be directly linked to the film, but the overall way that Islamophobia and anti-Arab sentiment are moving in this country is portrayed in the words of those who watched American Sniper.
“The film gave us a look into how these individuals were feeling and for the first time we were getting raw, real messages – and they were frightening.”
Yet the particular complaints about American Sniper seem to have less to do with Islam than depictions of the Iraqi people as a crazed, undifferentiated mass of savages.
So is the complaint about criticism of Islam? Or stereotypes of Muslims? Or what?
The history of the word is interesting as well. The first apparent usage referred to French colonial administrative treatment of Muslim subjects, apparently, although theorist Edward Said, best known for his controversial thesis in the work Orientalism, also ran with it in the 1980s:
Some chart the popularization of the term 'Islamophobia" back to a series of studies in the 1990s by the Runnymede Trust, a left-leaning British think tank. A 1997 reported entitled “Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All” documented “closed” views of Islam in the U.K., including perceptions of the religion as a single bloc that is barbaric, sexist, and engaged in terrorist activities.
But Robin Richardson, who edited the Runnymede report and currently works for the educational consultancy Insted, maintains that the think tank simply borrowed the term from previous usage. In a recent paper, he traces the phrase to Alain Quellien's use of the French word islamophobie in 1910 to criticize French colonial administrators for their treatment of Muslim subjects.
Richardson claims that post-colonial theorist Edward Said was the first to use the word in English, when he wrote in 1985 about “‘the connection … between Islamophobia and antisemitism’ and criticized writers who do not recognize that ‘hostility to Islam in the modern Christian West has historically gone hand in hand’ with antisemitism and ‘has stemmed from the same source and been nourished at the same stream.’”
Clearly, however, anti-Semitism cannot be reduced to "hostility to Judaism," since anti-Semitism is traditionally a form of "people hatred," as opposed to criticism, even hostility, to the Jewish religion. Similarly, "Islamophobia" is broadly construed to encompass anti-Arab animus, presumably because such animus is attributable to the perception that all Arabs, or at least the vast majority, are Muslim.
But plenty of other people are deemed "Islamophobic," including Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins and other critics of Islam. The broad label has even been applied to ex-Muslims, including ex-Muslims who have joined the community of secular freethinkers and are fighting for reform in the Muslim world.
So what is Islamophobia? And is it a meaningful word?
Speaking about the rise of anti-Arab sentiment in the US since the controversy surrounding the Ground Zero mosque in 2010, Mr Ayoub called the release of American Sniper “the turning point”.
“It may not be directly linked to the film, but the overall way that Islamophobia and anti-Arab sentiment are moving in this country is portrayed in the words of those who watched American Sniper.
“The film gave us a look into how these individuals were feeling and for the first time we were getting raw, real messages – and they were frightening.”
Yet the particular complaints about American Sniper seem to have less to do with Islam than depictions of the Iraqi people as a crazed, undifferentiated mass of savages.
So is the complaint about criticism of Islam? Or stereotypes of Muslims? Or what?
The history of the word is interesting as well. The first apparent usage referred to French colonial administrative treatment of Muslim subjects, apparently, although theorist Edward Said, best known for his controversial thesis in the work Orientalism, also ran with it in the 1980s:
Some chart the popularization of the term 'Islamophobia" back to a series of studies in the 1990s by the Runnymede Trust, a left-leaning British think tank. A 1997 reported entitled “Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All” documented “closed” views of Islam in the U.K., including perceptions of the religion as a single bloc that is barbaric, sexist, and engaged in terrorist activities.
But Robin Richardson, who edited the Runnymede report and currently works for the educational consultancy Insted, maintains that the think tank simply borrowed the term from previous usage. In a recent paper, he traces the phrase to Alain Quellien's use of the French word islamophobie in 1910 to criticize French colonial administrators for their treatment of Muslim subjects.
Richardson claims that post-colonial theorist Edward Said was the first to use the word in English, when he wrote in 1985 about “‘the connection … between Islamophobia and antisemitism’ and criticized writers who do not recognize that ‘hostility to Islam in the modern Christian West has historically gone hand in hand’ with antisemitism and ‘has stemmed from the same source and been nourished at the same stream.’”
Clearly, however, anti-Semitism cannot be reduced to "hostility to Judaism," since anti-Semitism is traditionally a form of "people hatred," as opposed to criticism, even hostility, to the Jewish religion. Similarly, "Islamophobia" is broadly construed to encompass anti-Arab animus, presumably because such animus is attributable to the perception that all Arabs, or at least the vast majority, are Muslim.
But plenty of other people are deemed "Islamophobic," including Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins and other critics of Islam. The broad label has even been applied to ex-Muslims, including ex-Muslims who have joined the community of secular freethinkers and are fighting for reform in the Muslim world.
So what is Islamophobia? And is it a meaningful word?
