Racial Characteristics Of Islamophobia

racial characteristics.Racialization, in this light, is a process by which American Muslims are identified and labelled through racial differentiation, such as genetics or skin color, and also through perceived cultural features such as religious symbols, like a beard or head covering. While Muslims are not a “race,” they are examined through a racial process that is demarcated by physical features and racial underpinnings. In terms of “war on terror” discourses, this can be seen “in the dichotomy between the benevolent, deviant masculinity of the ‘brown man’” (Khalid 2011, p. 20). This gendered Orientalist representation relies on binaries, but also employs racialized hierarchies (Khalid 2011, p. 20). Through this racialization, racism surfaces

The 1997 Runnymede report defined Islamophobia as the unfounded and close-minded fear and/or hatred of Islam, Muslims or Islamic/Muslim culture. The definition identifies eight components as characteristic of Islamophobia in this sense. First, Islam is seen as a monolithic bloc, static and unresponsive to change. Second, Islam is seen as separate and Other. It does not have values in common with other cultures, is not affected by them, and does not influence them. Third, Islam is seen as inferior to the West. It is barbaric, irrational, primitive, and sexist. Fourth, Islam is seen as violent, aggressive, threatening, supportive of terrorism, and engaged in a clash of civilizations (original emphasis). Fourth, Islam is seen as a political ideology and is used to acquire political or military advantage. Sixth, criticism of the West by Muslims is rejected out of hand. The hostility towards Muslims may be caused by indirect or direct discrimination that the media portrays to the masses. The media encourages the people by feeding them lies or “half-truths” against the Islam community. Often than that, the hostility towards Muslims becomes mainstream and common and is used to justify the discrimination that is ongoing. And lastly, anti-Muslim hostility is seen

There is a struggle among Muslims for who can claim the right to speak for Islam - and to refuse this is to deny reality. Take these two statements: "Not all Muslims are terrorists, but nearly all terrorists are Muslims." "Muslims can't be terrorists because Islam is a religion of peace." These statements portray what is wrong with the media's spotlight on Muslims. The people swing between those who claim that Islam is inherently violent and inevitably results in the rise of militancy and terrorism, and those apologists who, ignoring terrorists' own statements claiming the mantle of jihad, insist that Islam has nothing to do with terrorism and that there is no such thing as a Muslim terrorist. Called theologocentrism by Maxime Rodinson; for lazy or even malevolent minds "almost all observable phenomena can be explained by reference to Islam." Even in the hallowed world of academia, there is a misperception that Muslims are more qualitatively religious than anyone else - despite the fact, as Fethi Mansouri has demonstrated in his research that levels of religiosity among Australian Muslims is comparative with Australian Christians. The more subtle form of anti-Islam and anti-Muslim stereotyping, is when an author neatly elides Islam and Islamism (defined as all that is wrong with Muslims) while casually throwing in