Islamophobia began as colonial administrators’ anti-Muslim views across French west Africa

Evidence

The French term “Islamophobie” first appeared in print in a 1910 book entitled La Politique Musalmane dans l’Afrique Occidentale Francoise. In that book, the author criticized the anti-Muslim views of France’s colonial administrators working in former Muslim-majority colonies such as Benin, The Gambia, and Senegal in western Africa. “Islamophobie” was also used in a biography on the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) that was completed in 1916 by another Frenchman named Alphonse Etienne Dinet. The author dedicated his book to the brave Muslim soldiers in the French army who died in battle during World War I. — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 484

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Beydoun’s New Crusades and Kumar, showing Islamophobia’s colonial-era roots rather than a post-9/11 invention. — connects to: The belief that Muslims had different needs enabled colonial indifference.; Fear of extremist propaganda drove colonial surveillance expansion in French West Africa; French colonial justice policy tried to stop Islam’s spread by grouping Africans by ethnicity (+13 more)
• DEFINE: Establishes the 1910 first-print origin of the term ‘Islamophobie’ with named sources.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 484

Related

• French Islamophobia is shaped by Islamic conquest history resting at the present’s doorstep. (similarity 0.90)
• French colonial justice policy tried to stop Islam’s spread by grouping Africans by ethnicity (similarity 0.89)
• French Muslim presence traces to Algeria’s 1830-1962 colonial conquest (similarity 0.86)
• Fear of extremist propaganda drove colonial surveillance expansion in French West Africa (similarity 0.84)
• Contemporary anti-Western sentiment and Western Islamophobia both stem from the colonial legacy (similarity 0.84)
• Islamophobia’s coinage predates 1991 and is contested (similarity 0.83)
• European colonial racial practice of differentiating Islam preceded and enabled modern Islamophobia (similarity 0.82)
• Islamophobia entered print via distinct British and American usages in 1991 (similarity 0.81)
• Islamophobia operates as a racial formation, not merely religious prejudice (similarity 0.81)
• French colonial rule of Algeria from 1830 to 1962 produced France’s present-day Islamophobia (similarity 0.80)
• Islamophobia has been present in Western discourse since the Middle Ages, when negative stereotypes about Muslims helped build support for the Crusades and rationalized European colonial domination. (similarity 0.80)
• Islamophobia is increasingly theorized as a form of racism rather than mere religious prejudice (similarity 0.80)
• Islamophobia is an ideology sustaining negative meaning about Muslims. (similarity 0.80)
• Islamophobia’s political origin explains gaps in empirical knowledge about it. (similarity 0.80)
• Islamophobia predates its neologism as a racism tied to the history of race (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Islamophobia is produced by state action, not only cultural bias #corroborates (0.70)
• Islamophobia and racial prejudice are entangled in distinct ways across Western contexts #expands (0.60) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 64
• Islamophobia has material and political causes beyond ignorance or xenophobia #expands (0.60) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 706
• Anti-Palestinian racism historically produced Islamophobia in the United States #complicates (0.55) — Evelyn Alsultany, Antisemitism and Islamophobia The…, 21
• Islamophobia stems from nationalism’s ambiguities rather than fear of Islam #complicates (0.40)