Norms of secular textual reading mark Muslims as deficient by unstated Western standards.

Evidence

It is a somewhat curious truism that the novel, that preeminent vehicle for the dissection of individual human experience, should, when it comes to texts by Muslim writers, be suddenly seen to take on the qualities of a collectively representative document. — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 510 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Since the events of 9/11, politicians and the media have not just promoted Islamophobia—they’ve turned the dial up to eleven. This rhetoric was not invented after September 2001; it has a long history, as we saw in the previous two chapters. This chapter will examine some images of Muslims that have persisted to the point of becoming “common sense”—ideas which are believed to be true and so obvious that they need no verification. In particular, we will look at five myths about Islam and Muslims. I use the term “myth” for both its meanings—as a traditional story of supposedly historic events that shed light on the worldview of a people, and as a false and questionable story. Myths about Islam in the twenty-first century are indeed historical, but they are based on a distorted or selective interpretation of the past. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 155 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Liberal reading habits themselves can fabricate Muslim difference; Western literary criticism’s perceived openness contrasts with a misread notion of a closed Quran.; Islamophobic myths rest on distorted readings that have become unquestioned common sense. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 155 (+1 more)

Related

• Islamophobic myths rest on distorted readings that have become unquestioned common sense. (similarity 0.90)
• Textual Islam became the catch-all explanation for every attributed lack in Muslim societies (similarity 0.83)
• Literature, drama, art, and cinema sustain a habitus about Islam built on Muslim monsters (similarity 0.82)
• Preconceptions about Muslims filter out information that contradicts them (similarity 0.82)
• Philological analysis of key texts established Muslims as static subspecies (similarity 0.82)
• The monolith myth underlies all other claims of Islam’s inherent traits. (similarity 0.82)
• Attributing every social characteristic to religious texts erases contextual factors (similarity 0.81)
• Orientalists claimed textual reading revealed the fixed essence of Muslims (similarity 0.81)
• Western literary criticism’s perceived openness contrasts with a misread notion of a closed Quran. (similarity 0.81)
• Muslim-authored novels are read as collective representative documents rather than individual explorations (similarity 0.80)
• Even distinguished literary novelists voice crude anti-Muslim prejudice (similarity 0.80)
• Non-Western literature gets read as anthropological data for Western readers. (similarity 0.80)
• The concept of Islam as a unified system supersedes actual Muslim experience (similarity 0.80)
• Homo islamicus named a fixed Muslim essence readable from texts alone (similarity 0.80)
• Islamophobic discourse falsely insists the Quran demands literalist reading while the Bible permits critique. (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Muslim-authored novels are read as collective representative documents rather than individual explorations #exemplifies (0.65) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 510
• Islamophobic myths rest on distorted readings that have become unquestioned common sense. #corroborates (0.60) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 155