Contesting Islamophobia

Peter Morey, Amina Yaqin, Alaya Forte (editors)

Paperback, 296 paperback

9780755641215

Anti-Muslim Prejudice in Media, Culture and Politics

Islamophobia is one of the most prevalent forms of prejudice in the world today. This timely book reveals the way in which Islamophobia's pervasive power is being met with responses that challenge it and the worldview on which it rests.

The volume breaks new ground by outlining the characteristics of contemporary Islamophobia across a range of political, historic, and cultural public debates in Europe and the United States. Chapters examine issues such as: how anti-Muslim prejudice facilitates questionable foreign and domestic policies of Western governments; the tangible presence of anti-Muslim bias in media and the arts including a critique of the global blockbuster fantasy series Game of Thrones; youth activism in response to securitised Islamophobia in education; and activist forms of Muslim self-fashioning including Islamic feminism, visual art and comic strip superheroes in popular culture and new media. Drawing on contributions from experts in history, sociology, and literature, the book brings together interdisciplinary perspectives from culture and the arts as well as political and policy reflections. It argues for an inclusive cultural dialogue through which misrepresentation and institutionalised Islamophobia can be challenged.

Contents

Introduction: Contesting Islamophobia in Theory and Practice

Peter Morey 

I: Islamophobia, Politics and History

1. American Foreign Policy, Self-Fulfilling Prophecy and Muslims as Enemy Others

Nathan Lean

2. Donald Trump at the Intersection of Nativism, Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Sentiment: American Roots and Parallels

Peter Gottschalk

3. Islamophobia: The Muslim Problem? A Discussion Between Dibyesh Anand, Myriam Francois and Jim Wolfreys

Chaired by Peter Morey

II: Islamophobia and Representation

4. Islamophobia and the War of Representations: Martin Amis's 'The Last Days of Muhammad Atta'

Geoffrey Nash and Nath Aldalala'a 

5. 'A Sly and Stubborn People': Games of Thrones, Orientalism and Islamophobia

Roberta Garrett

6. Islamic Feminism in a Time of Islamophobia: The Muslim Heroines of Leila Aboulela's Minaret and Elif Shafak's Forty Rules of Love

Amina Yaqin

III: Youth Contesting Islamophobia

7. Countering Islamophobia in the Classroom

Sarah Soyei

8. Resisting Islamophobia: Muslim Youth Activism in the UK

Tania Saeed

9. Young Muslims in Germany and Their Use of New Media to Counter Islamophobia

Asmaa Soliman

Section Four: Art Beyond Islamophobia

10. Adjusting the 'Islamic' Focus: Exhibitions of Contemporary Pakistani Art in Britain in the Post-9/11 Decade

Madeline Clements

11. Super Moozlim Battles Islamophobia 

Leila Tarakji

12. Homegrown: The Story of a Controversy

Nadia Latif interviewed by Peter Morey and Amina Yaqin