Elite-driven Islamophobia faces countervailing mass movements that can redirect public opinion.
Evidence
Thus, the imperial matrix contains its own contradictions. If anti-Muslim racism is produced and sustained within the infrastructure of empire, it can also be resisted. The matrix is a heuristic device that can help us understand how the balance of forces at any moment shapes anti-Muslim racism. It is open ended and context dependent so that an input at one end from one of the boxes at the top of the matrix does not guarantee a predetermined outcome in the media and in public opinion. While power is held by elites, this power is not absolute. The box I call the “Public” consists of people who are pulled both by progressive and conservative politics. A majority in this box are members of the working class, who have been ravaged in the neoliberal era and have sought explanations both on the Left and Right. In the context of mass struggles against neoliberal priorities, from the anti-globalization/global justice movements of the 2000s to Occupy Wall Street, the public can be won to a platform of progressive and even structural change. Indeed, at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests in June 2020, as much as 67 percent of the US public articulated support. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 762
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
- XREF: Directly engages the reader’s claim that Islamophobia is structured imperial policy — Kumar here argues the structure is contested, an important qualification to Rana and Aziz’s more fixed framing.
- SEED: The 67-percent BLM support figure plus Kumar’s matrix framework could anchor a piece on when elite propaganda loses the ‘public’ box.
Related
- The public can be won to progressive politics despite imperial power structures. (similarity 0.85)
- Mass protest can move US majorities toward anti-racist structural politics. (similarity 0.82)
- Countering Islamophobia demands structural change, not just education and protest. (similarity 0.82)
- Anti-Muslim racism is produced across intersecting institutional spheres, not by any single source (similarity 0.82)
- Elite power over anti-Muslim discourse is open to contestation by mass movements (similarity 0.81)
- Progressive media also contain liberal Islamophobia despite hosting dissenting voices (similarity 0.81)
- Elites mobilized Islamophobia to advance their political agendas across centuries (similarity 0.80)
- Anti-Muslim racism remains entrenched despite Muslim inclusion in imperial systems (similarity 0.80)
- Islamophobia spans the political spectrum and is embedded in empire’s infrastructure (similarity 0.80)
- Islamophobia is increasingly theorized as a form of racism rather than mere religious prejudice (similarity 0.79)
- Islamophobia is political rather than religious and must be fought politically (similarity 0.79)
- Liberal Islamophobia is racist and imperialist despite its gentler rhetoric (similarity 0.79)
- Islamophobia responds to political organizing, not just interfaith education. (similarity 0.79)
Broader Connections
- Elite power over anti-Muslim discourse is open to contestation by mass movements
#corroborates(0.95) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 774 - Contests over Islamophobia unfold through movements across alien spaces.
#complicates(0.70)