An Insightful Remark about What Causes Islamophobia

“In conclusion, a significant factor in understanding Islamophobia is the seemingly unusual capacity of Muslims/Islam to resist—in terms of culture, moral values, and religiosity—Western universalistic aspirations; Islam appears to challenge prevailing intellectual trends of relativism and pluralism. The rapid changes brought about by globalization, including increasing pluralization and shifts in the international political order, contribute to a feeling of insecurity. For Britain in particular, the end of empire, the nation’s gradual diminution as a world power, its involvement in Europe, migration, and regional devolution have all added to the sense of uncertainty. 56 At such times, the creation of “folk devils” onto which one can project one’s own “shadow side” (unwanted or unacknowledged traits) is especially appealing. The representation of Muslims as barbaric, cruel, irrational, backward, repressive of women, irredeemably alien, and other goes hand in hand with a view of the self—whether it be the West, Europe, or Britain—which is modern, progressive, rational, civilized, humane, and liberal. The shadow side may also include the past self. Referring to Western civilization’s prolonged struggle to overturn the domination of the church, Werbner observes that, in facing Islam, Europe in some sense faces its own past: “Islam evokes the specter of puritanical Christianity, a moral crusade, an attack on permissive society.” 57 Reactions to the hijab bring this out particularly clearly: the subjugation of women, the covering of women’s bodies, and the restrictions on sexuality or maybe just old-fashioned “family values,” whereby the wife takes care of home and husband, all conjure up a past that for some people is still a living memory. The “threat” of Islam is perhaps all the greater because it conjures up such a recent past. 58”

- Dr. Katherine Zebiri, “Orientalist Themes in Contemporary British Islamophobia,” In: Islamophobia: The Challenge of Pluralism in the 21st Century, p. 187