Editing Islamophobia (section)

== Etymology and definitions ==
The word ''Islamophobia'' is a [[neologism]]<ref>{{cite web |author=Roland Imhoff & Julia Recker|title=Differentiating Islamophobia: Introducing a new scale to measure Islamoprejudice and Secular Islam Critique|url=https://uni-bonn.academia.edu/RolandImhoff/Papers/544018/Differentiating_Islamophobia_Introducing_a_new_scale_to_measure_Islamoprejudice_and_Secular_Islam_Critique|website=Academia |access-date=19 September 2013}}</ref> formed from ''Islam'' and ''-phobia'', a Greek [[suffix]] used in English to form "nouns with the sense 'fear {{nowrap| of – – '}}, 'aversion {{nowrap|to – – '."}}<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/142572?rskey=Glm8gY&result=2#eid |url-access=subscription|publisher=Oxford University Press|dictionary=Oxford English Dictionary |entry=-phobia, ''comb. form''|title=Home : Oxford English Dictionary }}</ref>

According to the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', the word means "Intense dislike or fear of Islam, esp. as a political force; hostility or prejudice towards Muslims". It is [[Attested language|attested]] in English as early as 1923<ref name=OED>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/248449? |url-access=subscription |publisher=Oxford University Press|dictionary=Oxford English Dictionary |entry=Islamophobia|title=Home : Oxford English Dictionary }}</ref> to quote the French word ''islamophobie'', found in a thesis published by Alain Quellien in 1910 to describe "a prejudice against Islam that is widespread among the peoples of Western and [[Christian civilization]]".<ref name=":1">{{cite web|author=Jean-Loïc Le Quellec |author-link=:fr:Jean-Loïc Le Quellec |date=2019-06-19|title=Histoire et mythe conspirationniste du mot " islamophobie "|url=https://tempspresents.com/2019/06/19/histoire-et-mythe-conspirationniste-du-mot-islamophobie/ |access-date=2019-08-31|website=Fragments sur les Temps Présents|language=fr-FR}}</ref> The expression did not immediately turn into the vocabulary of the English-speaking world though, which preferred the expression "feelings inimical to Islam", until its re-appearance in an article by Georges Chahati Anawati in 1976.<ref>"What makes the task difficult, perhaps impossible, for a non-Muslim is that he is compelled, under penalty of being accused of Islamophobia, to admire the Koran in its totality and to guard against implying the smallest criticism of the text's literary value" (Anawati 1976).</ref> The term did not exist in the Muslim world,{{Efn|Persian had the expression ''islām harāsī'' (اسلام هراسی), "hostility to Islam", similar to ''‛adā' al-islām'' (عَداء الإسلام) in Arabic.|group=lower-alpha}} and was later translated in the 1990s as ''ruhāb al-islām'' (رُهاب الإسلام) in Arabic, literally "phobia of Islam".<ref name=":1" />

The [[University of California at Berkeley]]'s [[Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project]] suggested this working definition: "Islamophobia is a contrived fear or prejudice fomented by the existing Eurocentric and Orientalist global power structure. It is directed at a perceived or real Muslim threat through the maintenance and extension of existing disparities in economic, political, social and cultural relations, while rationalizing the necessity to deploy violence as a tool to achieve 'civilizational rehab' of the target communities (Muslim or otherwise). Islamophobia reintroduces and reaffirms a global racial structure through which resource distribution disparities are maintained and extended."<ref>{{cite web |author=Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project |url=http://crg.berkeley.edu/content/islamophobia/defining-islamophobia |title=Defining "Islamophobia" |publisher=Center for Race & Gender, University of California at Berkeley |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170309201925/http://crg.berkeley.edu/content/islamophobia/defining-islamophobia |archive-date=9 March 2017 |access-date=15 May 2018}}</ref>

===Debate on the term and its limitations===
In 1996, the [[Runnymede Trust]] established the Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia (CBMI), chaired by [[Gordon Conway]], the [[vice-chancellor (education)|vice-chancellor]] of the [[University of Sussex]]. The Commission's report, ''Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All'', was published in November 1997 by the Home Secretary, [[Jack Straw]]. In the Runnymede report, Islamophobia was defined as "an outlook or world-view involving an unfounded dread and dislike of Muslims, which results in practices of exclusion and discrimination."<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last= Runnymede Trust |title=Islamophobia A Challenge For Us All - Report of the Runnymede Trust Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia |year=1997 |url= https://mcislamofobia.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Islamophobia-a-challenge-for-us-all-without-cartoons-1.pdf|publisher=[[ The Runnymede Trust]]|isbn= 0-902397-98-2}}</ref><ref name="EoRE215">Encyclopedia of Race and Ethics, p. 215</ref> The introduction of the term was justified by the report's assessment that "anti-Muslim prejudice has grown so considerably and so rapidly in recent years that a new item in the vocabulary is needed".<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Meer|first1=Nasar|last2=Modood|first2=Tariq|date=July 2009|title=Refutations of racism in the 'Muslim question'|journal=[[Patterns of Prejudice]]|volume=43|issue=3–4|pages=335–54|doi=10.1080/00313220903109250|s2cid=144359945}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last= Runnymede Trust |title=Islamophobia A Challenge For Us All - Report of the Runnymede Trust Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia |year=1997 |url= https://mcislamofobia.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Islamophobia-a-challenge-for-us-all-without-cartoons-1.pdf|publisher=[[ The Runnymede Trust]]|isbn= 0-902397-98-2}}</ref>

In 2008, a workshop on 'Thinking Through Islamophobia' proposed a definition of Islamophobia which rejected the idea of Islamophobia as being the product of closed and open views of Islam and focused on Islamophobia as performative which problematized Muslim agency and identity. The symposium was an early attempt to bring insights from [[critical race theory]], [[postcolonial]] and [[Decoloniality|decolonial]] thought to bear on the question of Islamophobia.<ref name=Sayyid&Vakil/>

At a 2009 symposium on "Islamophobia and Religious Discrimination", Robin Richardson, a former director of the Runnymede Trust<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.runnymedetrust.org/bgRanimed.html|title=Runnymede Trust – Ranimed, Runnymede and a Long Report|access-date=18 March 2015|archive-date=25 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150225130831/http://www.runnymedetrust.org/bgRanimed.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=September 2021|reason=dead link}} and the editor of ''Islamophobia: a challenge for us all'',<ref>{{cite web|date=2010|title=MCB Brings Experts and Parliamentarians Together to Discuss Islamophobia|url=http://www.mcb.org.uk/article_detail.php?article=announcement-862|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120306001003/http://www.mcb.org.uk/article_detail.php?article=announcement-862|archive-date=6 March 2012|website=[[Muslim Council of Britain]]}}</ref> said that "the disadvantages of the term Islamophobia are significant" on seven different grounds, including that it implies it is merely a "severe mental illness" affecting "only a tiny minority of people"; that use of the term makes those to whom it is applied "defensive and defiant" and absolves the user of "the responsibility of trying to understand them" or trying to change their views; that it implies that hostility to Muslims is divorced from factors such as skin color, immigrant status, fear of fundamentalism, or political or economic conflicts; that it conflates prejudice against Muslims in one's own country with dislike of Muslims in countries with which the West is in conflict; that it fails to distinguish between people who are against all religion from people who dislike Islam specifically; and that the actual issue being described is hostility to Muslims, "an ethno-religious identity within European countries", rather than hostility to Islam. Nonetheless, he argued that the term is here to stay, and that it is important to define it precisely.<ref name=Richardson2009>Richardson, Robin (December 2009). {{cite web|url= http://www.insted.co.uk/anti-muslim-racism.pdf |title=Islamophobia or anti-muslim racism&nbsp;– or what? }}&nbsp;{{small|(119&nbsp;KB)}}, Insted website. Accessed 30 December 2011.</ref>

The exact definition of Islamophobia continues to be discussed, with academics such as [[Chris Allen (academic)|Chris Allen]] saying that it lacks a clear definition.<ref name=termlimits>{{cite book|author=Allen, Chris|title=Islamophobia|url=https://archive.org/details/islamophobia00alle|url-access=limited|publisher=Ashgate|year=2010|isbn=978-0754651390|page=[https://archive.org/details/islamophobia00alle/page/n29 21]|author-link=Chris Allen (academic)}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Bleich, Erik|date=December 2011|title=What Is Islamophobia and How Much Is There? Theorizing and Measuring an Emerging Comparative Concept|journal=[[American Behavioral Scientist]]|volume=55|issue=12|pages=1581–1600|doi=10.1177/0002764211409387|s2cid=143679557}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Muslims in 21st Century Europe: Structural and Cultural Perspectives|editor=Anna Triandafyllidou|year=2010|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0415497091|page=28|author=Burak Erdenir}}</ref> According to Erik Bleich, in his article "Defining and Researching Islamophobia", even when definitions are more specific, there is still significant variation in the precise formulations of Islamophobia. As with parallel concepts like homophobia or xenophobia, Islamophobia connotes a broader set of negative attitudes or emotions directed at individuals of groups because of perceived membership in a defined category.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Bleich|first1=Erik|title=Defining and Researching Islamophobia|journal=Review of Middle East Studies|volume=46|issue=2|page=181}}</ref> [[Mattias Gardell]] defined Islamophobia as "socially reproduced prejudices and aversion to Islam and Muslims, as well as actions and practices that attack, exclude or discriminate against persons on the basis that they are or perceived to be Muslim and be associated with Islam".<ref name=levandedefinitioner/>{{Failed verification|date=August 2024}}

===Irrational fear===
[[File:IVČRN 14-03-2015 2.JPG|thumb|Speaker at a demonstration of the initiative [[We do not want Islam in the Czech Republic]] in 2015]]
As opposed to being a psychological or individualistic phobia, according to professors of religion Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, "Islamophobia" connotes a [[social anxiety]] about Islam and Muslims.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wesleyan.edu/newsletter/campus/2007/1107islambook.html |title=Faculty, Alumnus Discuss Concept of "Islamophobia" in Co-Authored Book |access-date=29 December 2007 |date=20 November 2007 |author=Corrina Balash Kerr |website=[[Wesleyan University]] Newsletter |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080820031422/http://www.wesleyan.edu/newsletter/campus/2007/1107islambook.html |archive-date=20 August 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|date=19 November 2007|title=Images of Muslims: Discussing Islamophobia with Peter Gottschalk|url=http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/6181/1/296/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071206034654/http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/6181/1/296/ <!-- Bot retrieved archive -->|archive-date=6 December 2007|access-date=29 December 2007|website=[[Political Affairs Magazine]]}}</ref> Some social scientists have adopted this definition and developed instruments to measure Islamophobia in form of fearful attitudes towards, and avoidance of, Muslims and Islam,<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Lee|first1=S. A.|last2=Gibbons|first2=J. A.|last3=Thompson|first3=J. M.|last4=Timani|first4=H. S.|year=2009|title=The islamophobia scale: Instrument development and initial validation|journal=[[International Journal for the Psychology of Religion]]|volume=19|issue=2|pages=92–105|doi=10.1080/10508610802711137|s2cid=146757435}}</ref><ref name="kunst2012b">{{cite journal|last1=Kunst|first1=J. R.|last2=Sam|first2=D. L.|last3=Ulleberg|first3=P.|year=2012|title=Perceived islamophobia: Scale development and validation|url=https://zenodo.org/record/812038|journal=[[International Journal of Intercultural Relations]]|volume=37|issue=2|pages=225–37|doi=10.1016/j.ijintrel.2012.11.001}}</ref> arguing that Islamophobia should "essentially be understood as an affective part of [[social stigma]] towards Islam and Muslims, namely fear".<ref name=kunst2012b/>{{rp|page=2}}

===Relation to racism===
{{See also|Cultural racism}}
{{Distinguish|Anti-Arab racism|Anti–Middle Eastern sentiment}}
Several scholars consider Islamophobia to be a form of [[racism]]. A 2007 article in ''Journal of Sociology'' defines Islamophobia as anti-Muslim racism and a continuation of anti-[[Asian people|Asian]], [[Anti-Turkism|anti-Turkic]] and [[Anti-Arabism|anti-Arab]] racism.<ref>[http://www.tariqmodood.com/uploads/1/2/3/9/12392325/multicultural_state_we_are_in.pdf "The Multicultural State We're In: Muslims,'Multiculture' and the 'Civic Re‐balancing' of British Multiculturalism"], ''Political Studies'': 2009 Vol 57, 473–97</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.surrey.ac.uk/cronem/files/Tariq-Modood-article.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921054654/https://www.surrey.ac.uk/cronem/files/Tariq-Modood-article.pdf |archive-date=2013-09-21 |title=Remaking multiculturalism after 7/7 |website=Centre for Research on the European Matrix |first=Tariq |last=Modood |date=29 September 2005 |quote=The most important such form of cultural racism today is anti-Muslim racism, sometimes called Islamophobia.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Islamophobia Industry: How the Right Manufactures Fear of Muslims|author=Nathan Lean|isbn=978-0745332543|year=2012|publisher=Pluto Press |quote=Biological racist discourses have now been replaced by what is called the 'new racism' or 'cultural racist' discourses}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Poynting | first1 = S. | last2 = Mason | first2 = V. | doi = 10.1177/1440783307073935 | title = The resistible rise of Islamophobia: Anti-Muslim racism in the UK and Australia before 11 September 2001 | journal = Journal of Sociology | volume = 43 | pages = 61–86 | year = 2007 | issue = 1 | s2cid = 145065236 }}</ref> In their books, [[Deepa Kumar]] and Junaid Rana have argued that formation of Islamophobic discourses has paralleled the development of other forms of racial bigotry.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Review: beyond "post 9/11" (''Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire'' by Deepa Kumar; ''Terrifying Muslims: Race and Labor in the South Asian Diaspora'' by Junaid Rana)|author=Erik Love|journal=Contexts| volume=12|number=1|year=2013|pages=70–72|jstor=41960426|quote=Taking these two works together, Kumar and Rana put forth a strong argument that while Islam is certainly a religion, and not a race, and Muslims (like all religious communities) are a highly diverse group in terms of ethnicity, nationality, and even racial backgrounds, Islamophobia is in fact a form of racism. Both books effectively provide historical accounts showing the parallel development of Islamophobic discourses alongside other forms of racial bigotry and discrimination.}}</ref> Similarly, [[John Denham (politician)|John Denham]] has drawn parallels between modern Islamophobia and the [[antisemitism]] of the 1930s,<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6832035.ece|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110510093750/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6832035.ece|archive-date=10 May 2011|title=Fascism fears: John Denham speaks out over clashes|date=12 September 2009|access-date=18 March 2015}}</ref> as have [[Maud Olofsson]]<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.svd.se/nyheter/inrikes/artikel_3674445.svd|title=Reinfeldt: Kärnan i partiets idé|author=Dan Nilsson|newspaper=Svenska Dagbladet|date=19 October 2009|access-date=18 March 2015}}</ref> and [[Jan Hjärpe]], among others.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.nasarmeer.com/uploads/7/7/4/6/7746984/meer_and_noorani_-_the_sociological_review.pdf |title=A sociological comparison of anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim sentiment in Britain |first1=Nasar |last1=Meer |first2=Tehseen |last2=Noorani |journal=[[The Sociological Review]] |volume=56 |issue=2 |pages=195–219 |date=May 2008 |quote=Across Europe activists and certain academics are struggling to get across an understanding in their governments and their countries at large that anti-Muslim racism/Islamophobia is now one of the most pernicious forms of contemporary racism and that steps should be taken to combat it.|doi=10.1111/j.1467-954X.2008.00784.x |s2cid=142754091 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|title=Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia – new enemies, old patterns|first1=Sabine|last1=Schiffer|first2=Constantin|last2=Wagner|date=1 January 2011|journal=Race & Class|volume=52|issue=3|pages=77–84|via=SAGE Journals|doi=10.1177/0306396810389927|s2cid=146753309}}</ref>

Others have questioned the relationship between Islamophobia and racism. Jocelyne Cesari writes that "academics are still debating the legitimacy of the term and questioning how it differs from other terms such as racism, anti-Islamism, anti-Muslimness, and anti-Semitism."<ref>Jocelyne Cesari [http://www.euro-islam.info/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/securitization_and_religious_divides_in_europe.pdf "Muslims In Western Europe After 9/11: Why the term Islamophobia is more a predicament than an explanation"] Submission to the Changing Landscape of Citizenship and Security: 6th PCRD of European Commission. 1 June 2006: p. 6</ref><ref name=cesariA>{{cite book|title=Islamophobia: The Challenge of Pluralism in the 21st Century|editor=[[John L. Esposito]]|year=2011|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=978-0199753642|page=[https://archive.org/details/islamop_xxx_2011_00_7922/page/21 21]|url=https://archive.org/details/islamop_xxx_2011_00_7922/page/21}}</ref> Erdenir finds that "there is no consensus on the scope and content of the term and its relationship with concepts such as racism ..."<ref name=Triandafyllidou>{{cite book|title=Muslims in 21st Century Europe: Structural and Cultural Perspectives|editor=Anna Triandafyllidou|year=2010|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0415497091|page=28}}</ref> and Shryock, reviewing the use of the term across national boundaries, comes to the same conclusion.<ref name=ShryockA>{{cite book|title=Islamophobia/Islamophilia: Beyond the Politics of Enemy and Friend|editor=Andrew Shryock|year=2010|pages=6–25|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0253221995}}</ref>

Some scholars view Islamophobia and racism as partially overlapping phenomena. Diane Frost defines Islamophobia as anti-Muslim feeling and violence based on "race" or religion.<ref name=DianeFrost>{{Cite journal | last1 = Frost | first1 = D. | title = Islamophobia: Examining causal links between the media and "race hate" from "below" | doi = 10.1108/01443330810915251 | journal = International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy | volume = 28 | issue = 11/12 | pages = 564–78 | year = 2008 }}</ref> Islamophobia may also target people who have Muslim names, or have a look that is associated with Muslims.<ref name=levandehistoria>[http://www.levandehistoria.se/files/islamofobi.pdf Islamofobi – en studie av begreppet, ungdomars attityder och unga muslimers utsatthet] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120119025153/http://www.levandehistoria.se/files/islamofobi.pdf |date=19 January 2012}}, published by {{ill|Forum för levande historia|sv}}
<br />[http://hdl.handle.net/1885/45034 The rise of anti-Muslim racism in Australia: who benefits?]
<br />{{cite journal | last1 = Poynting | last2 = Mason | year = 2006 | title = Tolerance, Freedom, Justice and Peace?: Britain, Australia and Anti-Muslim Racism since 11 September 2001 | journal = Journal of Intercultural Studies | volume = 27 | issue = 4| pages = 365–91 | doi = 10.1080/07256860600934973 | hdl = 2292/23817 | s2cid = 145787451 | hdl-access = free }}</ref> According to [[Alan Johnson]], Islamophobia sometimes can be nothing more than xenophobia or racism "wrapped in religious terms".<ref name=Johnson20110306>{{Cite journal |title=The Idea of 'Islamophobia'|author=Alan Johnson|date=6 March 2011|journal=[[World Affairs]]}}</ref> Sociologists Yasmin Hussain and Paul Bagguley stated that racism and Islamophobia are "analytically distinct", but "empirically inter-related".<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Hussain|first1=Yasmin|last2=Bagguley|first2=Paul|name-list-style=amp|title=Securitized Citizens: Islamophobia, Racism and the 7/7 London Bombings|journal=The Sociological Review|date=November 2012|volume=60|issue=4|pages=715–734|doi=10.1111/j.1467-954X.2012.02130.x|s2cid=143355490|url=http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/80516/2/securitsedcitizens4socrevrevfinal280512%5B1%5D.pdf}}</ref>

The [[European Commission against Racism and Intolerance]] (ECRI) defines Islamophobia as "the fear of or prejudiced viewpoint towards Islam, Muslims and matters pertaining to them", adding that whether "it takes the shape of daily forms of racism and discrimination or more violent forms, Islamophobia is a violation of human rights and a threat to social cohesion".<ref name=levandedefinitioner>{{cite web|url=http://www.levandehistoria.se/fakta-fordjupning/islamofobi/definitioner-och-uttryck|title=Islamofobi – definitioner och uttryck|website=Forum för levande historia|access-date=18 March 2015}}</ref>