Islamophobia: What Christians Should Know (and Do) about Anti-Muslim Discrimination

The past two decades have been marked with rising anti-Muslim bigotry across the United States, Europe, and beyond. The world has witnessed surging hate crimes against Muslim communities, from vandalism and destruction of mosques to mass shootings of Muslims as they prayed. It has also taken form in political scapegoating by politicians who employ anti-Muslim racism to win electoral points. This drastically increased in recent years, namely under the Trump administration when the government pushed forth discriminatory anti-Muslim policies.

While many denounced such bigoted measures, many Christians supported them. In her new book, writer and Catholic scholar of Muslim-Christian relations, Jordan Denari Duffner, examines how Christians have contributed to anti-Muslim prejudice and discrimination, and how the community, using tools rooted in faith, can work to dismantle it. Viewing Islamophobia as both a social justice and a religious freedom issue, Duffner makes the case that Christian faith calls us to combat religious discrimination even when it is not directed toward our own faith community.