Enlightenment reason is used as a stick against Muslims in multicultural states

Evidence

The Enlightenment saw the birth of scholarship on Islam that was both realistic and sympathetic. For instance, in contrast to the vicious medieval demonization of Muhammad, several philosophers published tracts arguing that Muhammad was not an impostor. Voltaire defended Muhammad as a great thinker and founder of a rational religion even as he (and other Enlightenment critics of organized religion) condemned Islam quite acerbically. Daniel explains Voltaire’s contradictory stances: “We must say that Voltaire first thought an attack on Islam useful for an attack on religion generally; and later saw the advantage of treating the facts less passionately, in order to recommend natural religion at the expense of Christian belief.” — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 91 (#expands, via linked claim)

“Acting Muslim” today in the United States invites suspicion from the state and maximizes the prospect of backlash from hatemongers. For Muslim Americans who confirm their religious identity by wearing headscarves or Islamic dress, fasting on Ramadan and regularly attending the mosque, merely practicing their First Amendment rights is perilous. Muslim Americans like Nora, driven by fear to conform, cover, or conceal their Muslim identity, may diminish the prospect of suspicion from the state or backlash from bigots, but in doing so they are complicit in supporting the very mission Islamophobia aims to advance—eroding and eliminating every manifestation of Islam, until it is gone from America altogether. — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 540 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

The clash of civilizations explanation reduced the conflict between radical Muslim terrorism and the West to something inherent within Islam (and thus something that can only be fixed within Islam). On this understanding, the irrational anger and hatred of Muslims toward the West leads some Muslims to use the teachings of Islam to justify their terrorist activities against innocent people. Neither the Bush administration nor the larger political establishment devoted much effort to reflecting critically on the history of Western involvement in the Muslim world, nor did they seriously consider whether the particular economic and political grievances toward the West articulated by many Muslims, not just the small minority of terrorists, might require a significant rethinking of foreign policy to minimize the chance of future attacks. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 266 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Perceived Muslim rejection of secularism eroded European faith in multiculturalism — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 359; Questioning multiculturalism opened a path from policy critique to blaming Muslims — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 360; Enlightenment reason politics drove attacks on Christianity as irrational — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 158 (+5 more)

Related

• Enlightenment thinkers produced contradictory, instrumentally motivated views of Islam (similarity 0.85)
• Questioning multiculturalism opened a path from policy critique to blaming Muslims (similarity 0.83)
• Locke’s toleration simultaneously depicted Muslims as both dangerous and tolerable (similarity 0.82)
• Enlightenment reason politics drove attacks on Christianity as irrational (similarity 0.82)
• Muslims are positioned as an external threat against America’s internal enemies. (similarity 0.81)
• Leibniz’s Islam oscillated between theological foe, barbarian, and natural philosopher (similarity 0.81)
• Enlightenment rationalists framed Muslims as intellectually incapable due to their religion. (similarity 0.81)
• Perceived Muslim rejection of secularism eroded European faith in multiculturalism (similarity 0.81)
• Western hostility to Islam shifted from theological to political rationales across the centuries (similarity 0.81)
• Islamophobia stems from nationalism’s ambiguities rather than fear of Islam (similarity 0.80)
• The West’s question should be why it fears Muslims, not why they hate us (similarity 0.80)
• Western claims that Islam blocks democracy mask Islamophobic motives (similarity 0.80)
• Enlightenment thought held contradictory views of Muhammad (similarity 0.80)
• Orientalism supplied the pre-existing tropes that the War on Terror redeployed against Muslims (similarity 0.80)
• Anti-Muslim rhetoric still targets Islam as a religion, not just its adherents. (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Enlightenment thinkers produced contradictory, instrumentally motivated views of Islam #expands (0.60) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 91
• Visible Muslim religious practice invites state suspicion and hate-motivated backlash #exemplifies (0.55) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 540
• Clash of civilizations framing located terrorism’s cause within Islam itself #expands (0.50) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 266