Islamophobia: Radically Reconfigured, Radically Rethought

Abstract

As stated at the outset, this book aims to radically rethink and reconfigure Islamophobia. In doing so, it considers the process of conceiving and defining Islamophobia in the public, political and scholarly spaces, evidences real and tangible manifestations of Islamophobia that are experienced by Muslim women, men and communities and reflects on how successive British governments have failed to acknowledge and duly respond to Islamophobia. Central to this are the new data and findings that comprise Part II. At times shocking, these chapters alone make three necessary and important contributions. First, they contribute towards a better understanding of the experience of Islamophobia as also its impact on individual victims, their families, friends, networks and communities. Second, they contribute much-needed new knowledge about Islamophobia as experienced by Muslim men as also the experience of Islamophobia that targets physical structures associated with Muslims and Islam. To date, both have been relatively overlooked in the existing literature. Finally, they categorically refute those unfounded and typically unsubstantiated claims that question Islamophobia’s legitimacy or, in the most extreme cases, that it is a mere ‘fiction’.