Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire: 20 years after 9/11

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

In this incisive account, leading scholar of Islamophobia Deepa Kumar traces the history of anti-Muslim racism from the early modern era to the War on Terror. Importantly, Kumar contends that Islamophobia is best understood as racism rather than as religious intolerance. An innovative analysis of anti-Muslim racism and empire, Islamophobia argues that empire creates the conditions for anti-Muslim racism, which in turn sustains empire. This book, now updated to include the end of the Trumps presidency, offers a clear and succinct explanation of how Islamophobia functions in the United States both as a set of coercive policies and as a body of ideas that take various forms: liberal, conservative, and rightwing. The matrix of anti-Muslim racism charts how various institutionsthe media, think tanks, the foreign policy establishment, the university, the national security apparatus, and the legal sphereproduce and circulate this particular form of bigotry. Anti-Muslim racism not only has horrific consequences for people in Muslim-majority countries who become the targets of an endless War on Terror, but for Muslims and those who look Muslim in the West as well.

Reviews

In this deftly argued book, Kumar unearths 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 * Columbia University, and author of The Arab Spring *
In this remarkable primer Deepa Kumar expertly shows how racism is central to contemporary US imperial politics. 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 * University of London and author, The Arabs and the Holocaust *
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 * Oxford University *
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'. 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 Kudnani * author of The Muslims Are coming! *
[Kumar's] innovative understanding of Islamophobia raises important and wide-ranging questions about empire, the 'war on terror' and its inherent contradictions. -- Mariana Vieira * International Affairs *

Author Bio

Deepa Kumar is an award-winning scholar and activist, and Professor of Media Studies at Rutgers University. Her writing has been featured in numerous media outlets, including the BBC, the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, the New York Times, NPR, and Al Jazeera.