Islamophobia functions as an alibi for contemporary race-making

Evidence

This is not to deny the historical and contemporary specificities and contours of Islamophobic discourse, nor to deny the impact of Islamophobic rhetoric, policy and practice on the lives of British Muslims: quite the opposite. It is, however, to caution against what Meer (2015b) refers to as ‘making a fetish out of words’ and to consider the dangers of focusing too much on the borders of what Islamophobia is rather than what it does – as a form of, and alibi for, contemporary ‘race-making’ (Meer 2015b). Racism has always proven itself to be a multifaceted and malleable force of discrimination, as a form both of categorization and of persecution – what John Solomos and Les Back have termed a ‘scavenger ideology’ (1996). Contemporary Islamophobia builds on, feeds off, transforms and adds to a store of racial, ethnic and religious stereotypes – a ragbag of racist ideas, policies and practices selected according to convenience and wielded against a particularly (if not uniquely) visible and vulnerable community. — Runnymede Trust (ed. Farah Elahi & Omar Khan), Islamophobia, 173

Categorization

• XREF: Meer’s ‘fetish out of words’ is a direct rebuke to Bleich’s definitional project — the reader’s central debate. This passage is where this text stakes its position against concept-formation approaches. — connects to: Islamophobia is increasingly theorized as a form of racism rather than mere religious prejudice; Islamophobia and racial prejudice are entangled in distinct ways across Western contexts — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 64; Islamophobia is best understood as an ideology akin to racism — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 910 (+15 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: ‘Scavenger ideology’ — racism as a ragbag assembled by convenience — is a dense, paradigm-level claim about how racisms recycle and recombine rather than evolve linearly.
• SEED: Article angle: ‘The fetish of definition’ — how formal definitions of a prejudice can serve to obscure its function, and what a functional (what-it-does) account buys that a lexical one cannot.

Related

• Islamophobia is best understood by what it does rather than by defining its boundaries (similarity 0.89)
• Islamophobia fixates a reified Muslim type despite race’s dynamic nature. (similarity 0.87)
• Islamophobia operates as a racial formation, not merely religious prejudice (similarity 0.87)
• Islamophobia is rarely analyzed through the lens of race and racism. (similarity 0.86)
• Islamophobia is an ideology sustaining negative meaning about Muslims. (similarity 0.85)
• Islamophobia is best understood and countered as a form of anti-Muslim racism. (similarity 0.85)
• Islamophobia is best understood as an ideology akin to racism (similarity 0.85)
• Separating Islamophobia as ideology from racism undermines anti-racist struggle (similarity 0.84)
• Islamophobia operates through shared cultural meaning-making structures that predate any current event (similarity 0.84)
• Islamophobia centers on recognition of Muslim-ness and its ideological meaning (similarity 0.84)
• Islamophobia as a term originally means unfounded hostility toward Islam, not structural racism. (similarity 0.84)
• Islamophobia predates its neologism as a racism tied to the history of race (similarity 0.83)
• Four conceptual moves permit the de-racialization of Islamophobia (similarity 0.83)
• Islamophobia is best understood as context-dependent plural phenomena (similarity 0.83)
• Islamophobia is an ideology, not a set of actions or practices (similarity 0.83)

Broader Connections

• Islamophobia is defined as anti-Muslim racism, not merely fear or dislike #expands (0.85) — Runnymede Trust (ed. Farah Elahi & Omar Khan), Islamophobia, 48
• Islamophobia is increasingly theorized as a form of racism rather than mere religious prejudice #expands (0.80)
• Islamophobia is best understood as an ideology akin to racism #expands (0.80) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 910
• Anti-Blackness and Islamophobia assign deviance through parallel racializing logics #expands (0.80) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1119
• Islamophobia operates through shared cultural meaning-making structures that predate any current event #expands (0.78) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 900
• Islamophobia and racial prejudice are entangled in distinct ways across Western contexts #expands (0.75) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 64
• Structural Islamophobia and structural racism share embedded institutional stereotypes #expands (0.75) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 130
• Islamophobia operates as ambient background noise masking concrete injustices #expands (0.72)
• Islamophobia has material and political causes beyond ignorance or xenophobia #qualifies (0.72) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 706
• Islamophobia centers on recognition of Muslim-ness and its ideological meaning #expands (0.70) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 574