Anti-Muslim prejudice is contingent and changeable, not fixed in Western character.

Evidence

The past provides a reserve of reference and symbol for the present, it does not explain it. The Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683 or the crusades do not explain current politics, they are used by them. A modernist interpretation, with regard to this prejudice as with regard to others, also offers more hope, the possibility of change: if far from its being embedded in the collective psyche or national character of Western society, negative attitudes to Muslims are more contingent, then it is more likely something can be done. — Fred Halliday, ‘Islamophobia’ Reconsidered, 33

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes a ‘modernist’ interpretation of prejudice (contingent, changeable) from an essentialist or ‘fixed psyche’ account.
• XREF: connects to: Actual travel to the Orient did not alter pre-formed Western prejudices.; Western attitudes to Islam have shifted across history rather than forming a constant clash.; Anti-Muslim signification is culturally constructed rather than biologically grounded. — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 822 (+3 more)

Related

• Because anti-Muslim racism is historically contingent, it can be ended. (similarity 0.86)
• Western attitudes to Islam have shifted across history rather than forming a constant clash. (similarity 0.84)
• Western hostility to Islam shifted from theological to political rationales across the centuries (similarity 0.82)
• Anti-Islamic and anti-Muslim attitudes are distinct but overlapping targets of prejudice (similarity 0.82)
• Western anti-Muslim hostility has been episodic and elite-driven, not a perpetual clash (similarity 0.82)
• Islamophobia has been present in Western discourse since the Middle Ages, when negative stereotypes about Muslims helped build support for the Crusades and rationalized European colonial domination. (similarity 0.82)
• Contemporary Islamophobia extends Orientalist blame onto all Muslims, not just Arabs (similarity 0.81)
• Islamophobia and racial prejudice are entangled in distinct ways across Western contexts (similarity 0.81)
• Islamophobia has become the dominant prejudice in Western societies (similarity 0.81)
• Islamophobia remains more socially acceptable than other Western prejudices (similarity 0.81)
• Many historians trace the structural distortions of Islam represented by modern Islamophobia to medieval Europe, and aversive portrayals emerged nearly as early as Islam itself. (similarity 0.81)
• Islamophobia descends directly from Orientalism’s civilizational divide between Islam and the West (similarity 0.81)
• The West defined itself as the mirror opposite of the Muslim world. (similarity 0.80)
• Islamophobia is increasingly theorized as a form of racism rather than mere religious prejudice (similarity 0.80)
• The Western view of Islam was fixed by 1350 and persists today (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Western attitudes to Islam have shifted across history rather than forming a constant clash. #corroborates (0.95)
• Orientalist discourse was a juncture rather than a continuous line of anti-Islam thought #corroborates (0.85) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 189
• Anti-Muslim signification is culturally constructed rather than biologically grounded. #expands (0.75) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 822
• Anti-Muslim sentiment persists regardless of local political ideology. #complicates (0.75) — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 119