Islamophobia’s felt experience resists capture in academic definitions

Evidence

The scholarly canon on Islamophobia is expanding, and thinking about it in line with empire reveals an even deeper, venerable trove of knowledge. However, the existential episodes that Muslims endure, and the feelings spawned by Islamophobia as it creeps in and toward us, is feeling and by its very nature often irrational. It cannot be reduced to neat technical terms or meticulously crafted definitions intended for scholarly citation. While academic discussion of Islamophobia is vital to our ability to understand it, and indeed to fighting it, it must be coupled with the voices of those on the ground who endure it. This is the liminal space seldom explored, which is why I, as a public scholar, chose to write this book, and it is where the coming pages will take you. — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 45

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Iftikhar’s taxonomy approach cited in reading purpose — Beydoun insists lived feeling must supplement scholarly definition. — connects to: the MOC “The Enemy-Making Machine: How Ourselves, the True, and Every Other Are Built from War”