Late twentieth-century Islamophobia shifted from Orientalist exoticism toward politicised and militarised framing

Evidence

In the latter part of the twentieth century, that which was understood and made known about Islam and Muslims was more salient than that in circulation in earlier historical paradigmatic contexts, particularly those ideas that encapsulated the Orient as sensual, despotic, backward, promiscuous, aberrant, irrational and mysterious. In fact in many ways, even the term ‘the Orient’ had become somewhat redundant and misplaced. This is not to say that a complete break with the past had occurred. Some of the more historically resonant meanings and understandings about Islam and Muslims continued to persist, irregularly cropping up in some of the most unpredictable representations. Whilst Orientalism and its discourses therefore remain vitally important in the broader contextual landscapes, the latter half of the twentieth century’s modes of approaching, interacting, understanding and explaining Islam and Muslims were played out through arenas that were far more politicised and militarised and maybe less Orientalised. This transition has fed into and transformed many of the historical givens about Islam and Muslims, bringing about a greater sense of mistrust and doubt, and sometimes even outright hatred. — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 214

Categorization

• XREF: Connects directly to Said’s ‘Orientalism’ and the field’s central argument this text is participating in. — connects to: Islamophobic narratives shifted from vulgar cartoons to acceptable generalized suspicion — Runnymede Trust (ed. Farah Elahi & Omar Khan), Islamophobia: Still a Challenge for Us…, 81; Global events normalized Islamophobic discourse and made Muslims the ultimate Other — Runnymede Trust (ed. Farah Elahi & Omar Khan), Islamophobia: Still a Challenge for Us…, 255; Islamophobia is rooted in centuries of religion-politics-warfare conflict — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 164 (+6 more)

Related

• Islamophobia uniquely fuses nationality, religion, culture, and militarism in ways no other religion faces (similarity 0.86)
• The West-Orient binary found its first legitimised modern manifestation in Orientalism (similarity 0.86)
• Contemporary Islamophobia extends Orientalist blame onto all Muslims, not just Arabs (similarity 0.86)
• Orientalists reframed Islam as a political system rather than a religion. (similarity 0.85)
• Orientalist narratives depicting Islam as alien, violent, and inferior have deep historical roots and directly fuel the irrational fear, stereotypes, and dehumanization driving Islamophobia. (similarity 0.85)
• Western hostility to Islam shifted from theological to political rationales across the centuries (similarity 0.84)
• Islamophobia is rooted in imperialism and Orientalism; Western conceptions of Muslims as inferior beings arose when European nations were positioned to dominate once-powerful Muslim empires. (similarity 0.84)
• Islamophobia descends directly from Orientalism’s civilizational divide between Islam and the West (similarity 0.84)
• Western attitudes to Islam have shifted across history rather than forming a constant clash. (similarity 0.84)
• 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. (similarity 0.84)
• Contemporary Islamophobia extends Orientalism’s Sin to all Muslims, not only Arabs. (similarity 0.84)
• Even sympathetic Orientalists denied the Orient modernity by casting it as ancient and Semitic. (similarity 0.84)
• Orientalism imagined Muslims as a monolithic Arab or Middle Eastern racial bloc. (similarity 0.83)
• 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’. (similarity 0.83)
• Said’s Orientalism changed the meaning of ‘Orientalism’ from benevolent human interest in the East to an apparatus of knowledge and writing aligned with western imperial power. (similarity 0.83)

Broader Connections

• Islamophobia has material and political causes beyond ignorance or xenophobia #corroborates (0.85) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 706