Islamophobia and ethno-nationalist populism

In episode 17 of Unpacking Islamophobia, Bridge Associate Director speaks with Dr. Saher Selod, an Associate Professor and previous Chair of the Department of Sociology at Simmons University in Boston, MA. They discuss Islamophobia and ethno-nationalist populism in the United States, specifically talking about Professor Selod’s chapter in the newly-released book, Global Islamophobia and Rise of Populism. In the chapter, she highlights various events that took place in the last two decades that contributed to the election of the populist president, Donald Trump. The two also discuss Professor Selod’s book, A Global Racial Enemy: Muslims and Twenty-First Century Racism, which analyzed how Islamophobia and the “Muslim problem” has manifested in several countries around the globe. Lastly, they touched on a new report from the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU), which looks at Muslim American voters in swing states and the policy issues they are concerned about ahead of the presidential elections. 

Click here for ISPU’s report on Muslim-American voters in swing states.
To purchase Global Islamophobia and the Rise of Populism, click here. 

To purchase A Global Racial Enemy: Muslims and Twenty-First Century Racism, click here. 

Featuring

Saher Selod is an Associate Professor and previous Chair of the Department of Sociology at Simmons University in Boston, MA. Her research expertise centers on the experiences of Muslims with surveillance. In her first book Forever Suspect: Racialized Surveillance of Muslim Americans in the War on Terror (Rutgers University Press 2018) examines how Muslim men and Muslim women experience gendered forms of racialization through their hyper surveillance because of the War on Terror. Her co-authored second book, A Global Racial Enemy: Muslims and Twenty-First Century Racism (Polity Press 2024) examines how the Global War on Terror has justified the detention, imprisonment, and hyper surveillance of Muslims in the United States, the United Kingdom, India, and China.

Mobashra Tazamal is the Associate Director of The Bridge Initiative. Her work focuses on the impact of the War on Terror discourse and state-sponsored Islamophobia around the globe. Given her expertise, she serves as a resource for educators and journalists, and her analysis has been cited in global media outlets such as the New York Times, NBC, Salon, Washington Post, and Al Jazeera. In addition to publishing articles and reports for Bridge, her analysis has also been featured in The Independent, Al Jazeera, Middle East Eye, Truthout, The New Arab, and Byline times. She holds a Master’s degree from SOAS, University of London.