Denying Islamophobia as ideas-criticism enables anti-Muslim feeling disconnected from real Muslims.

Evidence

An increasingly common argument is that Islam is a set of ideas and so there is no more a concept of Islamophobia than there is a concept of ‘Communismphobia’ or ‘Christophobia’. Proponents of this view typically argue they are being rebuked for criticism of ideas, and many further argue that the term ‘Islamophobia’ itself is dishonestly used to shut down debate. The consequence of this line of reasoning, as Claire Alexander outlines in Chapter 2, is that it has become possible to hate and fear Islam without any reference to actual Muslims. — A. Hussain, N. Meer, Framing Muslim Integration, 139

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: whether ‘hating the idea of Islam without reference to actual Muslims’ is coherent or collapses once Islam is socially embedded — this bears on the whole definitional contest.
• XREF: This is the textbook move of Bleich’s rival camp — the ‘ideas vs. people’ framing — here given a causal consequence the social-scientific definition misses. — connects to: Anti-Muslim bias is denied legitimacy by framing Muslimness as voluntarily chosen. — Nasar Meer, Tariq Modood, Refutations of Racism in the ‘Muslim…, 8; The term ‘Islamophobia’ conflates criticism of Islam with hatred of Muslims — A. Hussain, N. Meer, Framing Muslim Integration, 651; Defining Islamophobia as ‘unfounded’ makes its denial subjectively defensible — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 657 (+10 more)

Related

• Islamophobia need not rest on false beliefs about Islam or Muslims. (similarity 0.88)
• The term ‘Islamophobia’ conflates criticism of Islam with hatred of Muslims (similarity 0.87)
• Efforts to define Islam are what define understanding of Islamophobia (similarity 0.87)
• Normalization of anti-Muslim ideas produces a morally self-justifying rationalism (similarity 0.86)
• A valid Islamophobia concept must avoid essentialising Muslims or Islam. (similarity 0.86)
• Islamophobia is an ideology sustaining negative meaning about Muslims. (similarity 0.86)
• Islamophobia is best understood as an ideology akin to racism (similarity 0.86)
• Islamophobia is best understood and countered as a form of anti-Muslim racism. (similarity 0.86)
• Contested definitions of Islamophobia deepen the rift over its existence (similarity 0.86)
• Anti-Islamophobia must not become the sole analytical frame for studying Western Muslims (similarity 0.86)
• Islamophobia is best understood by what it does rather than by defining its boundaries (similarity 0.85)
• Retaining the term Islamophobia centers hostility on Islam itself. (similarity 0.85)
• Scholarship on Islamophobia must justify its own normative commitments, not merely critique others’ (similarity 0.85)
• Islamophobia should be analyzed as power-relations rather than as error about Islam. (similarity 0.85)
• Scholarly definitions of Islamophobia cannot capture its lived, irrational experience (similarity 0.85)

Broader Connections

• Defining Islamophobia as ‘unfounded’ makes its denial subjectively defensible #responds-to (0.82) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 657
• Contested definitions of Islamophobia deepen the rift over its existence #expands (0.78) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 37
• Refusing to narrate Muslim experience can itself constitute latent Islamophobia #expands (0.75) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 379
• The term Islamophobia demands a better-grounded, contestable definition #responds-to (0.75) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 102
• Normalization of anti-Muslim ideas produces a morally self-justifying rationalism #responds-to (0.72) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 457