Digital Mind 🧠

đŸȘ” The Threshold

Conservative and liberal approaches to Islamic extremism share a cultural-racist frame

Properties2
tagsja-picks, define, xref, causal_relationships, singleton, category/definitional-content
aliases@kumar_islamophobia_2012, loc. 429

3 min read

Conservative and liberal approaches to Islamic extremism share a cultural-racist frame

Evidence

Positioning Muslims/Islam as a chosen/assumed identity seemingly ascribes an element of volition, of choice, which seemingly removes them from the status of victim. Similarly, the recourse to ‘Muslim culture’ places the focus on beliefs and practices as distinct from Muslims themselves; it is here that what Sayeeda Warsi terms the acceptability of liberal ‘dinner-table’ Islamophobia (BBC News 2011) finds its alibi. At the same time, and paradoxically, ‘culture’ assumes a collective foundation, which works to homogenize all Muslims, erasing differences in ethnicity, nationality, migrant history, legal status, socioeconomic positioning, religious practice or belief, location, gender, sexuality and so on. ‘Culture’ is lifted outside of its historical and social context, and assumed to be unchanging, anachronistic and, most usually, antagonistic to the ‘modern’ west. — Runnymede Trust (ed. Farah Elahi & Omar Khan), Islamophobia, 167 (#expands, via linked claim)

The Obama era therefore came to be characterized by a shift to liberal imperialism and liberal Islamophobia. The key characteristics of liberal Islamophobia are the rejection of the “clash of civilizations” thesis, the recognition that there are “good Muslims” with whom diplomatic relations can be forged, and a concomitant willingness to work with moderate Islamists. Liberal Islamophobia may be rhetorically gentler than conservative Islamophobia and (as we will see in chapter 10) the language of the “Islamophobic warriors,” but it is nonetheless racist and imperialist in that it takes for granted the “white man’s burden.” It doesn’t occur to the likes of Nye, Albright, and Haass that it is for ordinary people in the Middle East to make decisions about their societies. Self-determination does not enter their framework—and “benevolent supremacy” remains unquestioned. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 430 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

  • XREF: connects to: Cultural racism explains Muslim violence through religion rather than lived circumstances — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of
, 621; War on Terror racism treats Muslim culture as an immutable natural cause of violence — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of
, 542; Framing Islamism as European-rooted ideology shields liberals from racism charges — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of
, 709 (+9 more)

Broader Connections

✉

Backlinks