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Islamophobia is the fear and hatred of Muslims or Islamic culture in general. Given the strong association between Arabs and the religion of Islam, Islamophobia often expresses itself as a form of anti-Arab racism, though not all Arabs are Muslim and the majority of Muslims are not in fact Arab.

The term itself is of recent coinage, and reflects the influence of such 1990s movements as multi-culturalism and identity politics. It most often appears in discourse on the condition of immigrant Muslims living as minorities in the West.

Islamophobia is driven by several factors. One is the increasing presence of Muslims in Western countries. Another is the rise abroad of anti-Western Islamist movements, which have either come to power outright in some countries (Iran, Sudan, Taliban-era Afghanistan), or else exerted a strong influence on government policy in others (Saudi Arabia, Pakistan).

Perhaps the most important factor shaping Islamophobia, though, is the increasing frequency and destructiveness of Islamist-inspired terrorism, culminating in the September 11 Terrorist Attacks. As a result, Islamophobia is characterized by the belief that Muslims are religious fanatics, have violent tendencies towards non-Muslims, and reject as directly opposed to Islam such concepts as equality, tolerance, and democracy.

Though such characteristics do in fact apply to most Islamist movements, many people mistakenly believe that most Muslims are Islamist, when in fact the Islamist movement is only a minority position. How big of a minority, though, is a matter of intense controversy. The American scholar Daniel Pipes, for example, has been branded an Islamophobe and bigot by the Council on American-Islamic Relations for suggesting that as many as 10% of Muslims have Islamist sympathies.

Recently there have been several efforts by non-Muslims to combat Islamophobia. In the wake of September 11, for example, a few non-Muslim women practiced hijab in a show of solidarity with their Muslim counterparts, who it was feared would be particularly vulnerable for reprisal given their distinctive dress. Non-Muslims also helped form community watches to protect mosques from attack.

In Israel, there are many organizations working to end anti-Muslim bias among Jews, as well as to end hatred of Jews among Arabs. See the entry on projects working for peace among Israelis and Arabs.

Examples of Islamophobia

• Ann Coulter: "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity."
• a news wire photo from the time of the September 11 attacks showed the words "kill arabs" written in the dust of one of the collapsed World Trade Center towers

See also: anti-Islamism, dhimmi, persecution of Muslims, persecution of Christians, Islam and anti-Semitism

External Links

• example uses of the term by Muslim writer Faisal Bodi:
  • The Guardian: Call this monster by its name
  • The Guardian: Old hatred, new style
• The Guardian: To say that jihadis are a threat is not Islamophobic