Performative Islamophobia serves career motives rather than conviction

Evidence

Flanagan’s bleak irony is fully employed here: even Cody shocks himself with his tirade, realizing that he doesn’t really believe what he has just said but simply wishes to employ “grand” words to impress the assembled power brokers at Katie Moretti’s party. Nevertheless, the forces working behind the scenes in this novel are deadly serious about such things. — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 372

Categorization

• XREF: The performative-vs-sincere distinction is a reading tool: check whether Hamid’s and Naqvi’s antagonists believe their own rhetoric — a way to test contesting vs. reinforcing. — connects to: Ex-Muslim status with anti-Islam messaging is a profitable career strategy; Ex-Muslim identity functions as a profitable career asset in the Islamophobia industry. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 702