Digital Mind 🧠

🪵 The Threshold

Unsolicited public statements can directly measure Islamophobia's prevalence and nature.

Properties2
tagsja-picks, definitional_content, singleton, xref, category/factual-claims
aliases@bleich_what_2011, loc. 51

4 min read

Unsolicited public statements can directly measure Islamophobia’s prevalence and nature.

Evidence

Is it possible to measure Islamophobia? It is. But it is not a straightforward task. Analysts and observers frequently disagree over how to capture levels of racism, economic health, public well-being, or democracy. This is a standard challenge for social scientists, and it is one that also applies to Islamophobia. The best way to measure Islamophobia is to seek out the most direct indicators of “indiscriminate negative — Erik Bleich, What Is Islamophobia and How Much Is…, 56 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Two insights can help determine the degree to which a statement or a person can be classified as Islamophobic. In their discussion of anti-Americanism, Katzenstein and Keohane (2007b) identify the intensity of an individual’s adherence to a particular position. They assign changeable opinions less weight than more durable predispositions, such as distrust or bias (pp. 19-24). This distinction is related to Sniderman et al.’s (2000) reliance on measures of attitudinal consistency to determine levels of prejudice. For Sniderman et al., the more frequently an individual offers a negative evaluation (or withholds a positive one) of a group or its members, the more prejudiced he or she is (pp. 23-25). Following these insights, a one-off negative opinion about Islam or Muslims constitutes low-level Islamophobia, especially if that opinion can be altered based on new information. At the other extreme, expressions of unshakable hostility are high-level examples of Islamophobia. The more consistently an individual expresses a greater number of such intensely held biases, the more Islamophobic he or she is. The greater the prevalence, consistency, and intensity of Islamophobic expressions and individuals, the greater the Islamophobia in a given social group or society. — Erik Bleich, What Is Islamophobia and How Much Is…, 37 (#expands, via linked claim)

Some behavioral effects of Islamophobia, like hate crimes and discrimination against Muslims, are typically tightly connected to underlying attitudes and emotions. Others, like a low percentage of Muslims in public office or significant socioeconomic disparities between Muslims and non-Muslims, are much less direct indicators of Islamophobia, as they may be fully or largely explained by other causes. There are numerous sites to examine for evidence of Islamophobia, such as disparaging portrayals of Islam or Muslims in textbooks or in popular culture (TV, movies, cartoons, video games, novels, or music), sparse or conflict-prone social relations between Muslims and non-Muslims, oppressive public policies toward Islam and Muslims, and Muslims’ own perceptions of high levels of prejudice or suspicion. Each of these may be a revealing indicator, but each has to be examined carefully and critically to understand the degree to which it reflects underlying Islamophobia as opposed to other factors. — Erik Bleich, What Is Islamophobia and How Much Is…, 54 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

  • XREF: connects to: Islamophobia is measurable but requires seeking direct indicators — Erik Bleich, What Is Islamophobia and How Much Is…, 56; Islamophobia is measured by prejudice’s prevalence, consistency, and intensity — Erik Bleich, What Is Islamophobia and How Much Is…, 37; Indicators of Islamophobia vary widely in how directly they reflect underlying attitudes — Erik Bleich, What Is Islamophobia and How Much Is…, 54 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

✉️

Backlinks