Islamophobia is an ideological construct with real consequences, not mere discourse

Evidence

Is Islamophobia on the rise, and if so, is this a long-term trend, or a passing scapegoating focus on a particular religious minority community in the United States? Are there broader global connections—Islamophobes certainly have them—between developments in the United States, in Europe, and elsewhere, as suggested in much of the literature on Islamophobia? If it is a passing trend, should scholars and activists just wait for the wave to pass and for hatemongers to move on? The answer is clearly no, regardless of how short or long lived the current trends might be. Islamophobia is much more than a discourse, a set of ideas circulated on the Internet and in print. It is an ideological construct that has real impact on real peoples’ lives, and thus, cannot and should not be ignored. — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 582

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines Islamophobia as ideological construct with material impact, distinguishing it from mere circulated ideas—a key definitional anchor for the reader’s framework.
• XREF: Narrows the book’s central ‘anatomy’ thesis: intolerance is located in structures and impacts, not just rhetoric. — connects to: Islamophobia is an ideology justifying racism, not a Hegelian dialectic. — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 46; Islamophobia names a real social reality despite being imprecise and polemical. — Erik Bleich, What Is Islamophobia and How Much Is…, 21; Islamophobia is a graded category with degrees, not an all-or-nothing attribute — Erik Bleich, What Is Islamophobia and How Much Is…, 36 (+1 more)