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.
Evidence
What Is Islamophobia? (Georgetown University Bridge Initiative)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: American Orientalism is the living root system that drives Islamophobia. — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 168; Orientalist narratives depicting Islam as alien, violent, and inferior have deep historical roots and directly fuel the irrational fear, stereotypes, and dehumanization driving Islamophobia. — How Orientalism Fuels Islamophobia?; Edward Said’s Orientalism is considered one of the foundational texts for the study of Islamophobia, describing how Western imperial projects crafted a dehumanizing representation of ‘the Arab’. — Islamophobia in the United States: A Reading Resource Pack (+17 more)
Broader Connections
- Anti-Muslim rhetoric was founded in the Middle Ages and persists into today
#expands(0.90) - Islam has been framed by passion, prejudice, and political interests since the Middle Ages
#corroborates(0.80) — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 699 - Contemporary anti-Western sentiment and Western Islamophobia both stem from the colonial legacy
#expands(0.75) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 182 - Islamophobia began as colonial administrators’ anti-Muslim views across French west Africa
#qualifies(0.75) — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 484 - Elites mobilized Islamophobia to advance their political agendas across centuries
#expands(0.75) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 98 - Islamophobia functions as a screen hiding Western geopolitical responsibility
#expands(0.75) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 513 - Western hostility to Islam shifted from theological to political rationales across the centuries
#expands(0.70) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 106