The Racialization of Muslims: Empirical Studies of Islamophobia

Abstract

Racialization is a concept that is theoretically underdeveloped. Although there has been an increased interest in Islamophobia since 9/11, it is very rarely discussed as racial in its nature. In this special issue on Islamophobia and the Racialization of Muslims scholars connect racism to Islamophobia. This issue situates racialization as a way to explain and understand Islamophobia, as racism towards a Muslim population. Through empirical studies, this issue uncovers the processes of racialization of Muslims and the rise of Islamophobia in both Europe and the USA. Case studies include the experiences of middle-class US Muslims; of white British converts to Islam; of young working-class British-Pakistani men; policing practices in Ireland; and the construction of Muslim identities through online comments about a reality television show. As well as identifying some issues specific to the nation, each case study also reveals the intersection of the racialization process with class and gender experiences.

Interrogating representations of “militants” and “terrorists” in the United States’ Militant Imagery Project and the Counterterrorism Calendar

“…(Garner and Selod 2015, 14) This is especially the case in the post-11 September 2001 ("9/11") period where Arabs and Muslims in the West have been homogenised and represented in stereotypical ways, while also being linked with violence. 8 These post-9/11 practices range from targeted surveillance (American Civil Liberties Union n.d.), to Hollywood and media depictions of Arabs and Muslims as dangerous others (Alsultany 2012;Shaheen 2008Shaheen , 2014, to other examples of anti-Muslim experiences and Islamophobia (Carr and Haynes 2015;Clay 2011;Garner and Selod 2015;Gottschalk and Greenberg 2008;Kaplan 2006;Moosavi 2015;Semati 2010). The political and media discourse in the United States after the 13 November 2015 Paris attacks reflects and builds upon this Islamophobia.…”

“…In a more general sense, we can take racialisation to mean a process by which people are represented as being of a certain group (and this group's boundaries are shifting in nature), and power is exercised against that group. Garner and Selod (2015) argue that racialisation can actually be a mode of resistance as well, as groups can racialise themselves "as a political strategy for organising around an identity" (14). They explain racialisation and its relationship with visualisation thus:…”

Analyzing ethnoracial mobilization

“…Scholars have also examined the state-promoted racialization of the Muslim community post 9/11 (Garner & Selod, 2014;Jamal, 2008;Yazdiha, 2014) and their resultant political mobilization (Bakalian & Bozorgmehr, 2005Jamal, 2005). Yazdiha (2014) examines the islamophobia movement in the United States, which she defines as group of highly funded misinformed "experts" who use the law as a strategy to marginalize Muslims.…”

Luchando contra la subalternidad: las reivindicaciones de la población musulmana en Madrid

“…En esta década, han proliferado los trabajos centrados en desentrañar la función sistémica de la islamofobia (Allen, 2010;Sheehi, 2011;Kumar, 2012;Ramírez, 2014;Hajjat & Mohammed, 2016;Kundnani, 2016;Massoumi, Mills & Miller, 2017), pero menos estudios se han ocupado de indagar cómo la afrontan las propias comunidades (Maira, 2014;de Koning, 2016). De hecho, la utilización del concepto de "racialización" para explicar los procedimientos por los que la islamofobia naturaliza procesos de dominación, es bastante reciente (Garner & Selod, 2015).…”