About the Book
In response to the events of 9/11, the Bush administration launched a "war on terror," ushering in an era of anti-Muslim racism, or Islamophobia. However, 9/11 did not create the image of the "Muslim enemy." This book examines the historic relationship between anti-Muslim racism and the agenda of empire building.
Beginning in the eleventh century and the context of the Crusades, Deepa Kumar offers a sweeping historical analysis of the changing views of Islam and Muslims in the West, examining the ways that ruling elites throughout history have used the specter of a "Muslim enemy" to justify their imperial projects.
The language of Islamophobia that was developed in the context of the European colonization of the Middle East continues to thrive today in the United States. Kumar expertly exposes and debunks various myths about Muslims and Islam that have become widely accepted in the US.
She goes on to analyze the US's checkered attitude towards the parties of political Islam, outlining how it has treated Islamists as both allies and enemies. By examining local conditions that have allowed for the growth of Islamists, Kumar shows that these parties are not inevitable in Muslim-majority countries but are rather a contemporary phenomenon similar to the rise of Christian, Jewish, and Hindu fundamentalisms.
The final section of the book sheds light on how the use of Islamophobia in justifying foreign policy necessitates and facilitates political repression at home. Attacks on Muslim Americans have spread to attacks on dissent in general. Kumar concludes by making a powerful case for a grassroots movement that challenges anti-Muslim racism and the projects of empire.
Deepa Kumar is an associate professor of media studies and Middle East studies at Rutgers University and the author of Outside the Box: Corporate Media, Globalization and the UPS Strike. Kumar has contributed to numerous outlets including the BBC, USA Today, and the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Table of Contents:
Section 1: History and Context
1.The Historic Encounter between the East and the West
This chapter begins with the birth of Islam and the consequent encounters with Europe. It traces the key moments of this history from Andalusian Spain to the crusades, as well as the reconquest etc. The key point of this chapter is to show that this encounter has not always been hostile—rather it has been both hostile and congenial depending on particular contexts.
2.European Colonialism and Orientalism
This chapter lays out modern colonialism in the post-Enlightenment period, and the need therefore for a racist ideology to justify conquest. Looks at the key thinkers of Orientalism, institutional centers, colonizing missions—particularly Napolean’s invasion of Egypt in 1798, as well as British colonialism (Kipling etc.). It highlights the key ideas central to Orientalist modes of thought. The main argument is that Orientalism is a racist ideology used to manufacture domestic consent for the colonization of Muslim majority lands.
3.American Orientalism
This chapter examines the entry of Orientalism into the American context. While there have been US authors of racist anti-Muslim ideas (sadly Mark Twain’s Innocents Abroad is one of them) the relative lack of contact with the “Muslim world” means that the US also inherits an entire set of ideas from Europe. In the Post WW2 era it inherits Orientalist thinkers as well, such as Bernard Lewis who takes a position at Princeton University. The chapter will trace the history of American Orientalism but also examine its contradictory attitude towards Islam and Islamism. The contradictions stem from the Cold War policy of supporting Islamist organizations as a bulwark against secular nationalism, thus the birth of the “good Muslim, bad Muslim” strategy (Afghanistan vs. Iran). The collapse of the Soviet Union leads to the search for new enemies—it is in this context that the “Islamic terrorist” becomes one many options. Also, this is the period when there are two versions of US imperialism in the post-Cold War era on offer: unilateralist (arrogant) and multilateralist (humanitarian). The latter holds the day during the 1990s.
Section 2: Islamophobia after 9/11
4.Bush and the “Clash of Civilizations”
The unilateralist cabal, organized in the Project for a New American Century, are now in power and 9/11 offers them an opportunity to enact their vision of pax Americana. They opt for a virulent form of Orientalism/Islamophobia informed by the Huntington-Lewis civilizational theory of conflict. This is not surprising given that Lewis was on various commissions and secret meetings at the White House to plan the US’s response to 9/11. The chapter will then flesh out the key ways in which Muslims were talked about post 9/11 as way to justify the “war on terror”
5.Liberal Imperialism and Liberal Islamophobia
The failure of Bush era policies and the domestic and global backlash prompted a more liberal defense of imperialism and a shift from the arrogant unilateralism of the Bush era to multilateralism and “soft” power and “smart” power options. Various think tanks (CSIS, sections of CFR etc.) were a part of this shift. And academic liberals joined in as well. Liberal Islamophobia comes out of this paradigm and is differently articulated compared to the hard right wing “clash” ideologues.
6.The Danish Cartoon controversy (reprint my two pieces on this issue)
Concrete example of liberal Islamophobia.
Section 3: Islamophobia in the Obama Era
7.Obama and Enlightened Islamophobia
This chapter will begin with Obama’s Cairo speech and the shift in rhetoric that it inaugurated
8.Green Scare: The Making of the New Muslim Enemy
Obama’s Islamophobia and his failure to stand up against attacks that “accused” him of being a secret Muslim, opened the door for the conspiracy that there are “Greens menaces” in our midst plotting to take over the country (earlier conspiracy theories get more of a hearing thanks to Tea Party and other right wing groups). Will include sections on how the mainstream media were party to this process of fomenting fear and suspicion of Muslim Americans.
9.The “Ground Zero Mosque” Controversy and the Far Right
Section 4: Fighting Islamophobia
10.Fighting Islamophobia
Review how the “war on terror” relies on Islamophobia, and review how the Right uses it for political gain. The way to fight it then is to fight the “war on terror” and the entire right wing as well as liberal imperialist agenda. I will also lay out a polemic against various “native informants” like Imam Rauf, Hirsi Ali etc. who have aided the war on terror and debunk the notion that being a “good Muslim” and cooperating with the state is what is needed to overturn Islamophobia (Dabahsi’s book “Brown Skin, White Masks” is quite useful here). I will instead point to the increase in Muslim activism after the Cordoba house controversy particularly in mosque defenses and participation in the anti-war movement.
About the Author :
Deepa Kumar is an Associate Professor of Media Studies and Middle East Studies at Rutgers University. She is the author of Outside the Box: Corporate Media, Globalization and the UPS Strike. She has offered her analysis on Islamophobia to numerous outlets around the world including the BBC, USA Today, Philadelphia Inquirer, Mexico's Proseco, China International radio, and Gulf News from Dubai.
Review :
This is a timely and crucial book. From historical roots to ideological causes, Islamophobia is studied in a holistic, profound and serious way. The reader will understand why we need to stop being both naive and blind. There will be no peaceful and just future in our democratic societies if we do not fight this new type of dangerous racism Tariq Ramadan, Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies, Oxford University
Deepa Kumar's Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire could not be more timely. In this deftly argued book, Kumar unearthes a genealogy of colonial construction that goes back to the earliest contacts between Muslims and Europeans. But the real power of her argument is when she grabs the politics of ideological domination by the throat and, with an astonishing moral and intellectual force, sets the record straight as to who and what the players are in turning a pathological fear of Muslims into a cornerstone of imperial hegemony. This is a must read on both sides of the Atlantic, where from mass murderers in Europe to military professors at the US military academies are in the business of manufacturing fictive enemies out of their fanciful delusions. Deepa Kumar has performed a vital public service Hamid Dabashi, Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature, Columbia University
This important book sets out to debunk Orientalist myths in particular that historical encounters between Islam and the West can be understood through a clash of civilisations framework. The author explores the specific historical and political contexts of this relationship from the Crusades to Obama providing a nuanced and extensive analysis. Kumar presents these arguments with a force and passion that is supported by a wealth of evidence. A must for scholars of Islam, social and political science and international relations Elizabeth Poole, author of Reporting Islam : Media Representations of British Muslims
In this remarkable primer Deepa Kumar expertly shows how racism is central to contemporary US imperial politics in ways similar to previous imperial wars, including the one that constituted the United States over the dead bodies of indigenous redskins.” An antiracist and antiwar activist, as well as a model scholar-teacher, Kumar has written a comprehensive and most readable guide to exposing and opposing the hatred of Islam Gilbert Achcar, Professor of Development Studies & International Relations, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London
Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire will be indispensable to anyone wanting to understand one of the most persistent forms of racism in the US and Europe. Kumar demonstrates that Islamophobic myths did not arise spontaneously after the end of the Cold War but are rooted in centuries of conquest and colonialism, from the Crusades to the 'War on Terror'. Arguing with precision and clarity, she shows how these myths have been systematically circulated by liberals as much as conservatives, and usefully lays bare the complex ways in which the US foreign policy establishment has, in different contexts, instrumentalized Islamic political movements and exploited anti-Muslim racism. Kumar's text will be a crucial corrective to those who fail to see that the origins of the 'Islam problem' lie in empire not sharia Arun Kundnani, author of The End of Tolerance : Racism in 21st century Britain
Deepa Kumar’s Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire is a comprehensive study of the system’s most recent choice of political scapegoat for its failings; the world’s one billion Muslims. Taking her cue from the red scare’ persecution of the American left in the aftermath of World War One, she labels this latest phase of capitalist paranoia, the green scare.’Sean Ledwith, Counterfire
This is a timely and crucial book. From historical roots to ideological causes, Islamophobia is studied in a holistic, profound and serious way. The reader will understand why we need to stop being both naive and blind. There will be no peaceful and just future in our democratic societies if we do not fight this new type of dangerous racism–– Tariq Ramadan, Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies, Oxford University
Deepa Kumar's Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire could not be more timely. In this deftly argued book, Kumar unearthes a genealogy of colonial construction that goes back to the earliest contacts between Muslims and Europeans. But the real power of her argument is when she grabs the politics of ideological domination by the throat and, with an astonishing moral and intellectual force, sets the record straight as to who and what the players are in turning a pathological fear of Muslims into a cornerstone of imperial hegemony. This is a must read on both sides of the Atlantic, where from mass murderers in Europe to military professors at the US military academies are in the business of manufacturing fictive enemies out of their fanciful delusions. Deepa Kumar has performed a vital public service–– Hamid Dabashi, Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature, Columbia University
This important book sets out to debunk Orientalist myths in particular that historical encounters between Islam and the West can be understood through a clash of civilisations framework. The author explores the specific historical and political contexts of this relationship from the Crusades to Obama providing a nuanced and extensive analysis. Kumar presents these arguments with a force and passion that is supported by a wealth of evidence. A must for scholars of Islam, social and political science and international relations–– Elizabeth Poole, author of Reporting Islam : Media Representations of British Muslims
In this remarkable primer Deepa Kumar expertly shows how racism is central to contemporary US imperial politics in ways similar to previous imperial wars, including the one that constituted the United States over the dead bodies of indigenous “redskins.” An antiracist and antiwar activist, as well as a model scholar-teacher, Kumar has written a comprehensive and most readable guide to exposing and opposing the hatred of Islam–– Gilbert Achcar, Professor of Development Studies & International Relations, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London
Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire will be indispensable to anyone wanting to understand one of the most persistent forms of racism in the US and Europe. Kumar demonstrates that Islamophobic myths did not arise spontaneously after the end of the Cold War but are rooted in centuries of conquest and colonialism, from the Crusades to the 'War on Terror'. Arguing with precision and clarity, she shows how these myths have been systematically circulated by liberals as much as conservatives, and usefully lays bare the complex ways in which the US foreign policy establishment has, in different contexts, instrumentalized Islamic political movements and exploited anti-Muslim racism. Kumar's text will be a crucial corrective to those who fail to see that the origins of the 'Islam problem' lie in empire not sharia–– Arun Kundnani, author of The End of Tolerance : Racism in 21st century Britain
Deepa Kumar’s Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire is a comprehensive study of the system’s most recent choice of political scapegoat for its failings; the world’s one billion Muslims. Taking her cue from the ‘red scare’ persecution of the American left in the aftermath of World War One, she labels this latest phase of capitalist paranoia, ‘the green scare.’—Sean Ledwith, Counterfire
