Islamophobia includes a latent assumption of Muslim cultural inferiority to the secular West.

Evidence

However, it is surely ironic in a novel such as The Unknown Terrorist, centrally concerned with the importance of having control over your own story, that the Muslim viewpoint is kept out of the picture entirely. Discomfort with the kind of story the Muslim subject might want to tell, if allowed to do so, appears deeply ingrained in the three thrillers we have looked at. It might even be possible to consider their prevarications an instance of latent Islamophobia: that unconscious prejudice against the kind of unpredictable personal coordinates the observant Muslim character might display. … In the end, the liberal thriller seems to have a strange, evasive relationship to confronting Islamophobia, dodging any engagement with the real racial-cultural coordinates of resurgent majoritarian nationalisms. Although scrupulously not claiming to speak on behalf of suffering Muslim victims in the war on terror, the liberal thriller writers I have examined here nonetheless reaffirm a culturalist bias in choosing not to imaginatively enter the space of the real victims of Islamophobia. — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 379 (#expands, via linked claim)

If we persist in portraying Islamophobia as an irrational force of misperception—the bad citizen’s response to the bad Muslim—we will render ourselves oblivious to Islamophobia’s ultimate causes, which are not simply ignorance or xenophobia. Pastor Terry Jones is rightly criticized for both, but he has never invaded and occupied an independent (Muslim-majority) nation-state, authorized the torture of (Muslim) alien combatants held in secret prisons, killed hundreds of innocent (Muslim) people in unmanned drone attacks, propped up (Muslim) dictators against the will of their (Muslim) subjects, and given orders to detain, deport, and assassinate (Muslim) terror suspects without trial. — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 706 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Nineteenth-century Orientalism portrayed Islam as a monolithic, fixed, inferior essence. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 194; Refusing to narrate Muslim experience can itself constitute latent Islamophobia — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 379; Islamophobia is increasingly theorized as a form of racism rather than mere religious prejudice (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Refusing to narrate Muslim experience can itself constitute latent Islamophobia #expands (0.60) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 379
• Cultural racism targets Muslims’ beliefs and traditions as if they were inherited essence. #corroborates (0.60)
• Islamophobia has material and political causes beyond ignorance or xenophobia #complicates (0.50) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 706
• Islamophobia is increasingly theorized as a form of racism rather than mere religious prejudice #expands (0.40)
• Islamophobia denotes fear, hatred, and hostility toward Muslims and Islam. #expands (0.40) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 31