European concern about Muslim women long exceeded any actual stake in them

Evidence

Some posters became political and moral actors by means of relaying the suffering they have witnessed on television and the outrage they experienced while witnessing this distant suffering. Those who respond in the way intended by the show not only become political actors, they also become agents in the co-optation of feminism and the promotion of post-race racism. They express concern for oppressed women, but this supposed concern then becomes the root of an argument for intervention and war. They express concern for Muslim women, especially their treatment in the grip of brutal Islam, but then use that concern to support racist policies and practices against Muslims as a whole. This configuration of feeling is central to post-9/11 representations of Arabs and Muslims; the politics of pity makes it possible to deny or minimize racism directed at Arabs and Muslims during the War on Terror and also absolves the United States from its role in aiding numerous wars, the rise of fundamentalism, and the hardening of oppressive conditions for women. — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 817 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

It is almost inconceivable that at the turn of the twenty first century both the term and concept of Islamophobia had little discursive resonance or value across most of europe. Today however, the same could be no further from the truth. — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 541 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Europe’s concern about Muslim women’s violence is highly selective and self-serving; Europeans before 1099 had almost no direct contact with Muslims — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in…, 190; Genuine concern for Muslim women was repurposed to justify war and racism — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media: Race…, 817 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Europe’s concern about Muslim women’s violence is highly selective and self-serving #corroborates (0.95)
• Genuine concern for Muslim women was repurposed to justify war and racism #corroborates (0.92) — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 817
• Islamophobia gained massive discursive resonance in Europe within about a decade #expands (0.75) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 541
• Europeans before 1099 had almost no direct contact with Muslims #expands (0.72) — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 190