Islamophobia frames Muslims as inherently unable to separate religion from state

Evidence

Islam may or may not be the ultimate factor behind all of this, but certainly plays a role, for it represents a religious force, as the story continues, that does not, and might inherently not be able to, respect the separation between religion and the state which is taken to be a central feature of Western civilization. This premodern world, moreover, in sharp contrast to Western civilization, is considered to hold an innate sense of violence that, at best, is barely contained, and lurks in Muslim subjectivities, waiting to be activated through processes of radicalization, extremism, Islamism, and ultimately terrorism. — Sarah Bracke and Luis Manuel Hernández Aguilar, “They Love Death as We Love Life”, 35

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes Said’s Orientalism and the ‘premodern’ framing critiqued in postcolonial theory.
• DEFINE: Lays out the core claims of the ‘Muslim question’ discourse being analyzed.