What Is Islamophobia?

Islamophobia has been present in Western discourse since the Middle Ages, when negative stereotypes about Muslims helped build popular support for the Crusades. Descriptions of Muslims as uncivilized and violent also helped rationalize European colonial domination of most of the Muslim majority world.  American scholar Edward Said (d. 2003) used the term “orientalism” to describe the pattern of negatively stereotyping Muslims and other colonized peoples. The term “Islamophobia” was popularized in a 1997 report by the Runnymede Trust, a British think tank that deals with racism and ethnic prejudice.

Like anti-Semitism, anti-Black racism, homophobia, and other prejudices, Islamophobia is often used to promote discriminatory policies that serve the interests of political actors.

Islamophobia manifests itself in public and  private spaces where Muslims are viewed as suspect and unwelcome;  in workplace discrimination where Muslim practices such as wearing a scarf and praying are prohibited; in traditional and social media and political discourse where Muslims are portrayed as violent, misogynist, and untrustworthy. It is evident at local, state, and national levels when alleged Islamic violence is used to justify intrusive surveillance of domestic Muslim communities, and at the international level when alleged Islamic antipathy toward the West is used to justify acts of war.

Islamophobia does not include the rational criticism of Islam. However, it is Islamophobic for criticism of Islam to be generated for the sole purpose of advocating social and political measures that discriminate against and violate the rights of Muslims.

Islamophobia is propagated through  well-funded networks of ideologues, media voices, think-tanks, and social and political organizations.

Islamophobia affects Muslims and those perceived as Muslims. It disproportionately impacts those visibly identifiable as Muslims, such as women who wear scarves and people who are often mistaken for Muslims, such as Sikh men who wear turbans.