Competing scholarly definitions of Islamophobia disagree over whether fear, rejection, or both are central.

Evidence

In sum, for Lee et al. and for Abbas, Islamophobia is exclusively about fear (or dread), directed at either Islam or Muslims. For Zúquete and Semati, it involves either more than fear or perhaps excludes fear, and is directed uniquely at Islam and not at Muslims. For Stolz, it is rejection of either Islam or Muslims that extends beyond thought-processes to include concrete actions. — Erik Bleich, Defining and Researching Islamophobia, 27

Categorization

• DEFINE: Lays out the main rival operationalizations of a contested term, useful for anyone building a coding scheme.
• XREF: Connects to broader debates in social science about essential contested concepts like racism, antisemitism, and populism.