Islamophobia functions as a screen hiding Western geopolitical responsibility

Evidence

I would contend that the fixation with Islam offered by Islamophobia provides a useful cover, a means of evading the numerous specific local, regional, and global issues that cause diverse and otherwise antagonistic solidarities to emerge under the rallying banner of Islam. Thus, although Islamophobia fetishizes Islam as the cause and explanation of violence, the phenomenon of anti-Muslim prejudice serves a useful purpose for Islamophobes in screening out the tortuous results of decades of geopolitical meddling by the West across large swathes of the world where Muslims are in the majority. — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 513

I would contend that the fixation with Islam offered by Islamophobia provides a useful cover, a means of evading the numerous specific local, regional, and global issues that cause diverse and otherwise antagonistic solidarities to emerge under the rallying banner of Islam. Thus, although Islamophobia fetishizes Islam as the cause and explanation of violence, the phenomenon of anti-Muslim prejudice serves a useful purpose for Islamophobes in screening out the tortuous results of decades of geopolitical meddling by the West across large swathes of the world where Muslims are in the majority. It should be no surprise that with the population movements engendered as globalization has gathered pace, some of the tremors caused by its inequitable effects should begin to be felt in the countries of the West itself. — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 513

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the book’s central mechanism: Islamophobia as displacement/cover for other issues.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s task — this supplies the mechanism by which fear-texts naturalize Muslim threat while screening out Western agency, useful for reading Hamid and Naqvi. — connects to: Native informants frame Western freedoms as universally liberating versus Islam’s oppressions — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 478; Western claims that Islam blocks democracy mask Islamophobic motives — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 299; The West’s question should be why it fears Muslims, not why they hate us (+19 more)
• corroborated: 4 independent passages support this claim — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 513

Broader Connections

• Islamophobia has material and political causes beyond ignorance or xenophobia #expands (0.70) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 706
• Islamophobia is produced by state action, not only cultural bias #corroborates (0.70)
• Islamophobia operates as ambient background noise masking concrete injustices #corroborates (0.65)
• Interrogating Western-ness is required to expunge Islamophobia #expands (0.60)
• Islamophobia is driven by state violence rather than mere ignorance #corroborates (0.60)
• Islamophobia is political rather than religious and must be fought politically #expands (0.55) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 576