Islam functions as an internal exteriority within Europe’s self-definition

Evidence

Huntington said it himself: “To define themselves, people need an other.” And he authored the script for the War on Terror, which found that ideal, ominous other in the entire religion of Islam. — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 231 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Then, to this carrier civilization is attributed an essence: an ingrained hostility to all non-Muslims. That attribution constitutes Islam as Europe’s primary alter. This alleged antagonism to Christians then becomes crucial to the formation of European identity. In this, as in other historical narratives of Europe, this oppositional role gives “Islam” a quasi-civilizational identity. One aspect of the identity of Islamic civilization is that it represents an early attempt to destroy Europe’s civilization from outside; another is that it signifies the corrupting moral environment that Europe must continuously struggle to overcome from within. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 820 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Islam functions as a full race in American and European hierarchies — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 527; Europe’s self-construction against an Other drew mainly on its own internal realities; Europe’s self-identity depends on constructing Islam as its hostile other — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular:…, 820 (+11 more)

Broader Connections

• Islam served as Europe’s constitutive outsider against which its civilization defined itself #expands (0.94)
• Western self-definition required Islam as a constructed other #corroborates (0.93) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 231
• Europe’s self-identity depends on constructing Islam as its hostile other #expands (0.92) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 820