Contesting Islamophobia: 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.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations List of Contributors Acknowledgements Foreword: The Roots of Modern Islamophobia John L. Esposito Introduction: Contesting Islamophobia in Theory and Practice Peter Morey Section One: 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 Section Two: 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 Section Three: 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

About the Author :
Peter Morey is Professor and Chair in 20th Century English Literature at the Department of English, University of Birmingham. Previously he was Professor in Postcolonial Studies at the School of Arts and Digital Industries at the University of East London. His recent publication include the monographs Fictions of India: Narrative and Power; Rohinton Mistry; and Alternative Indias: Writing, Nation and Communalism and the co-authored book Framing Muslims: Stereotyping and Representation after 9/11. Amina Yaqin is Senior Lecturer in Urdu and Postcolonial Studies and Chair of the Centre for the Study of Pakistan at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). She is co-author of Framing Muslims: Stereotyping and Representation after 9/11 and co-editor of Culture, Diaspora and Modernity in Muslim Writing. Her articles have appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as Interventions; Comparative Critical Studies; Fashion Theory and Journal of Women’s History. Alaya Forte is based at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, where she is researching for a PhD on the political representation of Muslim women in British local and national politics. She has an MA in Gender Studies from SOAS, a BA in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of Exeter and a degree in Politics from the University of Nice.

Review :
Both a primer for those new to the topic and a source of sophisticated conceptual advances for those already immersed, the range of topics covered by authors at the top of their game will provide insights for all. From literary fiction to Donald Trump, from superhero comics to real life military cultures, and from classroom toolkits to fantasy in the Game of Thrones, this collection informs and inspires challenges to the poisonous pervasiveness of contemporary Islamophobia. I am convinced that readers would appreciate the volume because it offers interested insights into the concept of Islamophobia in various fields of study, ranging from politics (mainly in the USA and in the UK) to youth to cultural issues. Contesting Islamophobia is a very rich and distinctive collection that will be of interest to a broad international audience. A must read for students and scholars alike.