The modern Muslim caricature is a centuries-old phantasm, not a recent development.

Evidence

Political Islamophobia, as represented by the image of veiled ( niqabi) women disrupting the pristine, white, Christian Swiss countryside, is a recent phenomenon. In contrast, the characters documented in this study contribute to the construction of Muslims as uncivilized, hyper-violent permanent foreigners who, despite their global geographic distribution, ethnic and cultural diversity, and large numbers, are reduced and essentialized to a caricature of ridiculous proportions. Edward Said described this character as the “camel-riding, terroristic, hook-nosed, venal lecher.” Although human, he shares the banality and evil of Muslim monsters from the past. Muslims are the monsters of the present, phantasms that result from an imaginary Islam that has been shaped over many centuries. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 23

Categorization

• QUESTION: The claim that Muslims ‘are the monsters of the present’ as phantasms — worth chasing how far back this imaginaire can be traced.
• XREF: Directly serves the reader’s guiding question 2 (image preceding contact) and question 1 (figure of the monster).
• SEED: Angle: the continuity of the ‘camel-riding lecher’ caricature from medieval tales to modern political cartoons.