Secularism, Race, and the Politics of Islamophobia

Dominant scholarship identifies Islamophobia as a form of racism where race and religion have become conflated in social structures. These important analyses form a complex ideological, social, political, and historical construction. However, the authors in this volume argue that current scholarship does not account for the relationship between secularism and race in social structures in theorizing Islamophobia. Advocating for a decolonial approach to better theorize the phenomenon, Secularism, Race, and the Politics of Islamophobia intervenes in this area of scholarship to call attention to the ways secularism is embedded in and drives the disciplinary institutions of the State-such as law, political groups, government entities, and bureaucracies-to authorize racism and the racialization of Muslims and Islam. Highlighting the extent and nature of contemporary scholarly debates as well as public efforts to counter Islamophobia, the contributors to this collection address and deepen awareness of its present-day formations in secular neoliberal societies. Scholars and students from anthropology, sociology, law, political science, and beyond will benefit from this interdisciplinary study.

Contributors: Khaled Al-Qazzaz, Jinan Bastaki, Dustin J. Byrd, Zeinab Diab, Alain Gabon, Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, Fatimah Jackson-Best, Roshan Arah Jahangeer, Areesha Khan, Sharmin Sadequee, Saul J. Takahashi, Nakita Valerio. Foreword by Jasmin Zine.
Secularism, Race, and the Politics of Islamophobia shows the ways secularism produces and enables racism and normalizes the racial categorization of "Muslim."
Secularism, Race, and the Politics of Islamophobia shows the ways secularism produces and enables racism and normalizes the racial categorization of "Muslim." "In this work, the contributors explore how Islamophobia is institutionalized and manifested within supposedly secular states. By reviewing its complex interactions with migration, neo-liberalism, and histories of coloniality, readers will gain a deeper and more nuanced understanding of Islamophobia." Naved Bakali, University of Windsor
"Secularism, Race, and the Politics of Islamophobia brings together diverse disciplinary and regional perspectives on the pressing issue of Islamophobia. Focusing on topics like secularism and post-secularism, anti-terror laws, anti-Semitism, mental health, women's experiences, and activism against Islamophobia, it gathers important issues into a cohesive volume." Tahir Abbas, Leiden University



• Acknowledgements


• Introduction: Secularism, Race, and the Politics of Islamophobia / Sharmin Sadequee


• Part I: Post-Secularity, Ethnosphere, and Neoliberalism


• Chapter One: Freeing Religion / Elizabeth Shakman Hurd


• Chapter Two: The Limits of the Translation Proviso: The Inherent Alien within the Willed-Community / Dustin J. Byrd


• Chapter Three: New French Islamophobia in a post-Secular France / Alain Gabon


• Chapter Four: The Best Muslims are the Ones Who Leave: Neoliberalism and the Limits of Accommodation / Jinan Bastaki


• Part II: Law, Gender, and Secular Translations


• Chapter Five: Religiosity as a Threat: Muslims in Japan and Denmark / Saul J. Takahashi


• Chapter Six: Muslim Women, Trials, and Terror under UAPA in India / Areesha Khan


• Chapter Seven: Québec and Law 21, a Conceptual Ecosystem of Otherness:


• Between Omnipresence and Absence(s) / Zeinab Diab


• Chapter Eight: Good Islam, Bad Islam? Secularism, Separatism, and Islamophobia in France / Roshan Arah Jahangeer


• Part III: Combating Compounding Islamophobia


• Chapter Nine: Compounded Islamophobia: The Impact of Anti-Black Racism and Gender-Based Discrimination on Muslim Mental Health in Canada / Fatimah Jackson-Best


• Chapter Ten: Combating Canadian Islamophobia: Interventions and Gaps / Khaled Al Qazzaz and Nakita Valerio


• Contributor