Muslims living in Western nations are increasingly facing overt hostility and even hate crimes, both in everyday life and in online interactions. This book examines the experience and effects of those hate crimes on the victims, their families, and their communities. Built on the first national study in the United Kingdom to examine the nature, extent, and determinants of hate crime against Muslims in the physical and virtual worlds, it highlights the relationship between online and offline attacks, especially in the globalized world. It prominently features the voices of victims themselves, which lend nuance to the accounts and make the reality of these attacks and their consequences palpable.
Islamophobic hate crimes have increased significantly following the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and 7/7. More recently, the rhetoric surrounding Trump's election and presidency, Brexit, the rise of far-right groups and ISIS-inspired terrorist attacks worldwide have promoted a climate where Islamophobia and anti-Muslim sentiments have become 'legitimised'. The Routledge International Handbook of Islamophobia provides a comprehensive single-volume collection of key readings in Islamophobia. Consisting of 32 chapters accessibly written by scholars, policy makers and practitioners, it seeks to examine the nature, extent, implications of, and responses to Islamophobic hate crime both nationally and internationally. This volume will appeal to undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as postdoctoral researchers interested in fields such as Criminology, Victimology, Sociology, Social Policy, Religious Studies, Law and related Social Sciences subjects. It will also appeal to scholars, policy makers and practitioners working in and around the areas of Islamophobic hate crimes.
This book investigates the contested phenomena of Islamophobia, exploring the dichotomous relationship that exists between Islamophobia as a political concept and Islamophobia as a ‘real’ and tangible discriminatory phenomenon. In doing so, this book improves understanding about Islamophobia through arguing how this dichotomous contestation serves a number of functions. To do so, Allen radically reframes and reconfigures existing notions and understandings of Islamophobia. It does so in two ways. First, through presenting empirical data gathered from more than 100 victims of Islamophobic hate crime to categorically evidence that Islamophobia is indeed real and tangible. Second, through unrivalled ‘insider’ experience gained as an independent adviser on Islamophobia and associated issues to various political, community and third sector stakeholders. Challenging existing scholarly conceptions of Islamophobia, this book also challenges politicians and policymakers to do more.
Over the past two decades, the fields of linguistic anthropology and sociolinguistics have complicated traditional understandings of the relationship between language and identity. But while research traditions that explore the linguistic complexities of gender and sexuality have long been established, the study of race as a linguistic issue has only emerged recently. The Oxford Handbook of Language and Race positions issues of race as central to language-based scholarship. In twenty-one chapters divided into four sections-Foundations and Formations; Coloniality and Migration; Embodiment and Intersectionality; and Racism and Representations-authors at the forefront of this rapidly expanding field present state-of-the-art research and establish future directions of research. Covering a range of sites from around the world, the handbook offers theoretical, reflexive takes on language and race, the larger histories and systems that influence these concepts, the bodies that enact and experience them, and the expressions and outcomes that emerge as a result. As the study of language and race continues to take on a growing importance across anthropology, communication studies, cultural studies, education, linguistics, literature, psychology, ethnic studies, sociology, and the academy as a whole, this volume represents a timely, much-needed effort to focus these fields on both the central role that language plays in racialization and on the enduring relevance of race and racism.
On Forbes list of "10 Books To Help You Foster A More Diverse And Inclusive Workplace" How law, policy, and official state rhetoric have fueled the resurgence of Islamophobia—with a call to action on how to combat it. “I remember the four words that repeatedly scrolled across my mind after the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City. ‘Please don’t be Muslims, please don’t be Muslims.’ The four words I whispered to myself on 9/11 reverberated through the mind of every Muslim American that day and every day after.… Our fear, and the collective breath or brace for the hateful backlash that ensued, symbolize the existential tightrope that defines Muslim American identity today.” The term “Islamophobia” may be fairly new, but irrational fear and hatred of Islam and Muslims is anything but. Though many speak of Islamophobia’s roots in racism, have we considered how anti-Muslim rhetoric is rooted in our legal system? Using his unique lens as a critical race theorist and law professor, Khaled A. Beydoun captures the many ways in which law, policy, and official state rhetoric have fueled the frightening resurgence of Islamophobia in the United States. Beydoun charts its long and terrible history, from the plight of enslaved African Muslims in the antebellum South and the laws prohibiting Muslim immigrants from becoming citizens to the ways the war on terror assigns blame for any terrorist act to Islam and the myriad trials Muslim Americans face in the Trump era. He passionately argues that by failing to frame Islamophobia as a system of bigotry endorsed and emboldened by law and carried out by government actors, U.S. society ignores the injury it inflicts on both Muslims and non-Muslims. Through the stories of Muslim Americans who have experienced Islamophobia across various racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic lines, Beydoun shares how U.S. laws shatter lives, whether directly or inadvertently. And with an eye toward benefiting society as a whole, he recommends ways for Muslim Americans and their allies to build coalitions with other groups. Like no book before it, American Islamophobia offers a robust and genuine portrait of Muslim America then and now.
Misogyny as Hate Crime explores the background, nature and consequences of misogyny as well as the legal framework and UK policy responses associated with misogyny as a form of hate crime. Taking an intersectional approach, the book looks at how experiences of misogyny may intersect with other forms of hate crime such as disablism, Islamophobia, antisemitism and transphobia. From the sexist and derogatory comments about women by former US President Donald Trump, to legislative changes in Chile and Peru making street harassment illegal, misogyny presents a challenge to scholars, practitioners, policy makers, and women globally. The increasing importance of the internet has seen misogyny move into these digital spaces but has also provided a platform for movements such as #MeToo and #TimesUp, highlighting the scale of sexual harassment and abuse. In 2016, Nottinghamshire Police in partnership with Nottingham Women’s Centre became the first force in England and Wales to record misogyny as a hate crime. Since then other police forces have introduced similar schemes to tackle misogyny. More recently, the Law Commission of England and Wales has undertaken a review of the legislation on hate crime and in their consultation paper of proposals for reform have suggested ‘adding sex or gender to the protected characteristics’. In March 2021, the Government announced that police forces in England and Wales will be required to record crimes motivated by hostility based on sex or gender from this autumn. The murder of Sarah Everard has been a ‘watershed moment’ in the Government’s response to violence against women. Sarah Everard’s kidnap and murder who went missing while walking home from a friend’s flat in South London on 3 March 2021, ignited a national conversation about violence against women. Against this background, the book speaks both to the proposed reforms of the hate crime legislation around misogyny, and the broader issues around experiences of and legal responses to misogyny. It showcases the work of leading scholars in this area alongside that of activists and practitioners, whose work has been invaluable in opening up public discussion on misogynistic hate crime and encouraging wider social change. In recognising the intersections of different forms of prejudice, the book provides an innovative contribution to these ‘hate debates’, highlighting the complexities of creating separate strands of hate crime. Providing a comprehensive understanding of the debates around inclusion of misogyny as a form of hate crime, this ground-breaking book will be of great interest to students, scholars and activists interested in gender, hate crime, feminism, criminology, law, policing and sociology.
Since the 1970s, there have been three challenges to traditional, homogeneous "national" identities across the Western world: political and socioeconomic inequality; neoliberal globalization; and more diverse, multicultural societies. As in the US and elsewhere in Western Europe, the decline of an old, masculinized national identity has now begun to open a new, dark era for Britain. Ever since the "war on terror" was added to the mix, "others" in Britain have been brutally demonized. Muslims, routinely presented as the source of society's ills, are subjected to both symbolic and actual violence. Deep-seated and structurally racialized norms amplify the isolation and alienation impeding Muslim integration. Both these "left-behind" Muslims and white-British groups who perceive themselves as the true nation are under pressure from ongoing geopolitical concerns in the Muslim world, as well as widening divisions at home. Tahir Abbas argues that, in this context, the symbiotic intersections between Islamophobia and radicalization intensify and expand. His book is a warning of the world that results: a rise in hate crime, the institutionalization of Islamophobia, and the normalization of war and conflict.
This book examines the experiences of veiled Muslim women as victims of Islamophobia, and the impact of this victimisation upon women, their families and wider Muslim communities. It proposes a more effective approach to engaging with these victims; one which recognises their multiple vulnerabilities and their distinct cultural and religious needs.
This book takes a sober, evidenced-based look at the contemporary phenomenon of Islamophobia in both ‘old-world’ Europe, and the ‘new-world’ of America and Australia, and Southeast Asia. It includes theoretical and conceptual discussions about what Islamophobia is, how it manifests, and how it can be addressed, together with historical analysis, applied research and case-study chapters, considering the reality that manifests as a fear of Muslims. Anxiety about the world’s second largest religion manifests as prejudice, discrimination and vilification and, in extreme cases, violence and murder. The real and perceived problems of the relationship between Islam and the West contribute to the phenomenon of Islamophobia. This is a unique, multi-disciplinary work, with authors approaching the topic from a number of academic disciplines and from different religious and national backgrounds, providing for a greater appreciation of the complexity and diversity of Islamophobia. This multicultural and multi-religious approach undergirds the valuable insights the volume provides. This book will be of interest to all concerned with the phenomenon of Islamophobia, and especially researchers and students in the social sciences, as well as scholars with a specific interest in Muslims living as minorities in the West. Also, those working in political science, international relations, sociology, religious studies and other fields will all find it of value.
