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Copyright of Adab Al-Kufa is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

O’Donnell analyses the confluence of Islamophobia and anti-government conspiracy theory in the works of the far-right think tank, the Center for Security Policy (CSP). He argues that, rather than only being a contemporary form of the religious and racialized demonologies that code ‘Islam’ as being the constitutive outside of ‘the ‘West—irrational, religious and authoritarian versus rational, secular and democratic—Islamophobic conspiracism should also be examined in the context of anxieties over the erosion of personal and state sovereignty under neoliberalization. Mobilizing an Islamophobic demonology that constructs ‘Muslims’ as inassimilable to ‘American’ subjectivity, the CSP's Islamophobic conspiracism projects this construction of absolute alterity on to American social and state systems. In doing so, O’Donnell contends, Islamophobic conspiracism takes neoliberalization's estrangement of the state and its citizens to its logical conclusion, transfiguring the societal processes that impact on the freedom of the individual—notably the state and civil society—into something inassimilable to that individual's claims to self-ownership and self-mastery. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Arab Australian communities and social science academics have argued that the racial descriptor 'of Middle Eastern appearance' increases anti-Arab racism in Australia. These stakeholders argue this descriptor is heavily racialised, gendered, criminalised and inaccurately racially profiles Arabs as Muslims with a range of phenotypical characteristics. Identifying the flawed nature of this racial profiling descriptor, this article argues that this inaccuracy enables a range of discourses attempting to legitimise and undermine anti-Arab racism. The Cronulla pogrom of 2005 is examined as a case study that details these discourses. Ultimately, this article points out how this descriptor produces a number of paradoxes, limitations and unanswered questions common in attempts to racially profile Arab Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anti-Islamic sentiments have become central to right-wing populist mobilization in Western societies, which often results in negative portrayals of Muslims in political campaigns. Although these portrayals may have detrimental effects on minority members' identity formation and attitudes toward majority members, little is known about their effects on members of the depicted group. A lab experiment with 145 young Muslims reveals that right-wing populist ad exposure increases perceived discrimination, which in turn decreases individuals' self-esteem and national identification, and encourages hostility toward majority members. Religious identification, in contrast, is not affected by ad exposure. Implications of these findings for intergroup relations and democratic processes are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aims at exploring and analysing the contemporary Islamophobia and its historical perspective tracing down through to the eleventh century Crusades. It illustrates that Islamophobia or "fear of Islam" is not a new phenomenon: the prejudice and negative construction ot Islam as an existential threat developed in the eleventh century in context of the Crusades.Islam/Muslims were diabolised in the popular consciousness, a propaganda pursued and deployed with great zeal by the ruling elite and clergy at particular moments. In this background, the paper discusses among other things the Western Europeans' anti-Islam discourse formation, its influence on the contemporary Western policies and attitudes towards the Muslim world. However, unfortunately this legacy of bitterness is overlooked by most Europeans. Many Muslims see "Islamophobia". "war on terror", "colonialism", "imperialism" and other Western policies and hegemony over the Muslim world as neo-Crusades. This paper argues that today Islamophobia serves the US and its allies politically, economically in the same way as the Crusades served the medieval Christian Europe against the Muslim world. Diabolising Muslims and Islam is central to the discourse. The paper advocates the intellectuals and academics to critically investigate and demystify the Western misconceptions and negative image of Islam/Muslims because Islamophobia is not only a threat to Muslims but also to the rule of law and democratic values the world over. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Islamophobia describes the racism, exploitation, and violence experienced by Arabs, individuals of Arab descent, and Muslims. Although social workers are meant to challenge social injustice, social work codes of ethics and the literature are without guidance for unlearning Islamophobia. Arguing that one’s ability to interrupt Islamophobia is strengthened by an understanding of the historical record and theoretical tenets of Orientalism, we offer social workers explicit linkages between Orientalism and Islamophobia and engage with the idea of Islamo-racism. In this article, we attend to the ways in which Orientalism is used to “other” individuals while strengthening white hegemony, and we link those processes with Islamophobia and Islamo-racism. We conclude with some strategies derived from postcolonial theory to disrupt Islamophobia. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article describes how divisive groups have taken advantage of Myanmar's new political and media freedoms to pursue an agenda that will limit the civil and political rights of the country's Muslim population. The article argues that enforcement of the four Protection of Race and Religion Laws will disadvantage Myanmar's already politically marginalized Muslim residents by creating a de facto religious test for full Myanmar citizenship rights. The article examines both the positive and negative aspects of Myanmar's liberalizations, the nature of the ‘Protection of Race and Religion' legislative package and how this will interact with Myanmar's citizenship laws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To what extent are perceptions of discrimination associated with religious affirmation among Muslim minorities in the Netherlands? Drawing on recent nationally representative surveys among self-identified Muslims from five ethnic groups in the Netherlands, we test boundary conditions of reactive religiosity. Our findings indicate that for Muslims from established immigrant groups, perceptions of discrimination are associated with more frequent religious attendance, but that this is not the case for Muslims from smaller, less established ethnic communities. Findings are interpreted using a boundary framework. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using Lilie Chouliarki's questions regarding the ethical responsibilities of spectators towards visual suffering in our mediatized age as a start-off point, wherein she states, 'the mediation between spectator and sufferer is a crucial political space because the relationship between the two of them maps on to distinct geopolitical territories that reflect the global distribution of power', this article looks at a recently staged operatic performance in NYC about the story of Mukhtar Mai's rape called Thumbprint, as well as the performative memoir I am Malala (2013) by Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb. This article raises the following questions: is Thumbprint a 'spectacular performance'? Does it reproduce the image of the 'third-world woman as monolith' - or did it allow for the figure of Mukhtaran (as she is sometimes called) to speak to the audience assembled at Baruch Performing Arts Center in ways that brought forth the historical context of Pakistani and US politics? Does Malala's self-representation in her memoir, her staging of herself as the 'voice' of a Pakistani young woman, similarly exemplify the competing motives animating the spectacle of being placed in the center of a supposedly 'universalist' human rights discursive framework? How far do these two women's performances of Self/Voicing (as presented in the theatre of the West) - force us to ask anew, 'Can the Subaltern Speak?'. To what extent do these two performative instances of 'voicing the other' call attention to the West's ongoing obsession with 'the cultural politics of recognition', which, based on an 'identity-based politics of visibility', has dominated western liberal feminism since the end of the twentieth century, and been responsible for directing 'public attention away from the regressive politics and growth of global capitalism'- and which in turn is implacably intertwined with the politics of US Empire in the twenty-first century? How do these two performances of individual women refusing victimhood feed, paradoxically, into a neo-liberal politics of redemption? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Campaigns against the halal certification of food in Muslim-minority societies reveal the shift in the representation of Muslims from a visible, alien presence to a hidden, covert threat. This paper uses one such campaign in Australia as a point of entry for analysing the ramifications for Muslim identity of this 'stealth jihad' discourse. Muslims living in the west are increasingly targeted not for 'standing out' as misfits, but for blending in as the invisible enemy. The scare campaign against halal certification closely parallels previous campaigns against kosher certification, highlighting the increasing resemblance between contemporary Islamophobia and historical anti-Semitism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper traces the meanings and impacts of the increased and transformed visibility of Muslim communities in Canada, as evidenced through their experiences of surveillance and violence. It explores the contours of this visibility as well as the consequences. Relationships between Muslims and non-Muslims are shaped in and through hostility, harassment and violence which is directed toward increasingly visible Muslim communities. Guiding the analysis of the connections between visibility and hate crime is a frame that draws upon Brighenti's ideal types of visibility: media-type, control-type and social-type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the latter months of 2014, following events in faraway Iraq and Syria, Australia responded forcefully at home. The manufactured fear of a terrorist attack resulted in police raids, increased counter-terrorism legislation and scare campaigns to alert the public to 'threat'. Although Islamophobia rose in Australia after 2001 it has been latent in recent years. It is on the rise again with collateral damage from government measures including verbal and physical attacks on Australian Muslims. Vitriol is also directed at asylum seekers and refugees. Media, government and community discourses converge to promote Islam as dangerous and deviant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the prevailing post-9/11 climate, veiled Muslim women are commonly portrayed as oppressed, 'culturally dangerous' and 'threatening' to the western way of life and to notions of public safety and security by virtue of being fully covered in the public sphere. It is in such a context that manifestations of Islamophobia often emerge as a means of responding to these 'threats'. Drawing from qualitative data elicited through a UK-based study, this article reflects upon the lived experiences of veiled Muslim women as actual and potential victims of Islamophobia and examines the impacts of Islamophobic attacks upon victims, their families and wider Muslim communities. Among the central themes we explore are impacts upon their sense of vulnerability, the visibility of their Muslim identity, and the management of their safety in public. The individual and collective harms associated with this form of victimisation are considered through notions of a worldwide, transnational Muslim community, the ummah, which connects Muslims from all over world. We conclude by noting that the effects of this victimisation are not exclusively restricted to the global ummah; rather, the harm extends to society as a whole by exacerbating the polarisation which already exists between 'us' and 'them'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For over a decade, British Muslims have been at the forefront of political, media and societal concerns in regards to terrorism, radicalisation, women's rights, segregation and, most recently, the sexual exploitation and abuse of young women. Demonised, marginalised and criminalised due to inflammatory political rhetoric, inaccurate, irresponsible and sensationalist media reporting, discriminatory counter terrorism policies and legislation and state surveillance, British Muslims have emerged as a perceived racialised threat. This has continued apace with the onset of the Rochdale and Rotherham 'grooming' child sexual abuse scandals which in popular discourse have been dominated by representations focusing on race, ethnicity and the dangerous masculinities of Muslim men. This disproportionate and racist narrative served to both frame and limit the debate relating to the sexual exploitation and violence experienced by young female victims at a pivotal moment when the issue had been brought to national attention. This article compares and contrasts the representations and discourse of racialised and non-racialised reporting of child sexual abuse and situates the 'grooming' scandals in the context of anti-Muslim racism. It argues that the development of the British Muslim as a racialised threat is a current and on-going legacy of colonialism in which this group experiences discriminatory 'othering' processes resulting in their marginalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK Government has recently announced a new Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 to facilitate tackling the threat of violent extremism. In light of this and previous initiatives, this paper provides a critical assessment of UK counterterrorism policy. This policy has created a notion of 'suspect communities' such that it has alienated young Muslims at the community engagement level, conceivably and empirically, potentially further exacerbating concerns government and communities have over questions of radicalisation, extremism, and the associated political and criminal violence. This paper argues that such policies can lead to the institutionalisation of Islamophobia, acting as an echo chamber for far right extremism to flourish. Significant gaps in government policy in this area can only be addressed by fostering effective relations between communities and policy makers, with enablers such as police officers, youth workers, activists and faith leaders empowered to formulate nuanced approaches in various local area settings. Given the social, cultural and political situation regarding British Muslim youth, including those presently thought to be fighting in parts of Iraq and Syria, as well as ongoing threats on UK soil presented as imminent and dangerous by UK government, there remain acute challenges with limited opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article heavily references the 2015 French fictional book "Soumission/Submission," by Michel Houellebecq to discuss French politics, the relationship between politics and Islam and Islamophobia in France. An overview of Houellebecq's perspective on Muslims in France, including the relationship between French political elites and French Muslims, is provided. An overview of the French Socialist Party member and French President François Hollande's political future, including in regard to the 2017 French presidential election, is also provided.

The article discusses the origins and development of the Muslim community of Cuba, with a focus on the conversion of Cubans to Islam since the 1990s. Topics addressed include the status of religions in Cuba under the rule of socialism, the changes in religious practices after the 1992 constitution amendment, and the role of the Islamic associations Liga Islámica de Cuba (LIC) and Unión Arabe de Cuba (UAC) on the organization of the community, as well as the promotion of Arab culture.Other themes mentioned include Muslim students in Cuba, prejudices and stereotypes against Muslims in the country, and the presence of Islam in Cuba since colonial times.

This study uses discourse analysis to examine the arc of cable news media coverage of the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque”, a proposed Islamic community center in lower Manhattan that sparked widespread controversy. This article analyzes both the nature and duration of mainstream cable news coverage of the controversy and the major arguments put forth by those both supporting and opposing the center in the politically charged post-September 11 media environment. Google Trends data were employed to examine the duration of the controversy both in terms of broader media coverage and search volume for the term “Ground Zero Mosque” online. This study found several consistent trends in terms of the sources present in cable coverage opposing the center, as well as a very narrow set of talking points that underline the presence of what other researchers have identified as an Islamophobic network of individuals and organizations present in American mass media discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Canada is often characterized as a multicultural country with two official languages associated with two official population groups: the national majority of white, anglophone Canadians and the national minority of white, francophone Quebecers. Racialized minorities, including immigrants, are situated as the third node in the construction of Canada as a multicultural society. While there is often discussion of the minority/ majority relationship between the national majority and the national minority, or the national majority and racialized minorities, there is much less attention given to the relationship between Quebec and racialized minorities in the province. This paper examines the construction of difference in this relationship through the experiences of Pakistani Muslims living in Montreal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article operates on the distinction between Islamism and Islam and asks questions about how this is handled in Western studies. Islam is a religion and a civilization that deserves respect, while Islamism is a political ideology to be subjected to critical inquiry. The article is based on the enlightened Muslim thought that dissociates Islamic faith from its use as a legitimation in politics. The article shares also the dismissal of orientalism and Islamophobia, but it is critical of the instrumental use of both to silence criticism, as well as their reversal into the other extreme of an orientalism in reverse (Islamophilia). I argue that the prevailing analysis in Western scholarship on Islam not only ignores the distinction between Islam ism and Islam but also falls into the trap of this reversal. The article discusses Islamism and Islamist movements that succeeded in hijacking the Arab Spring in the pursuit of a sharia state. The prevailing narrative not only fails to understand the Islamist sharia'tization of Islam, but also that Islamist shari'a is neither Qur'anic shari'a, nor classical sharia. I conclude with the presentation of Islamology and enlightened Muslim thought as alternative approaches for the study of Islamism, pleading for freedom of speech in this field of study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I use data from the 2004 General Social Survey (N=719) and multivariate analyses to: explore the effects of race on attitudes toward Muslims; evaluate the extent to which the racial differences were mediated by psychological and religious factors; and assess whether the race effects differed significantly by gender. The findings show that blacks report significantly more favourable feelings toward Muslims than whites. Those respondents who are female, more educated and Catholic also hold significantly higher scores on the 100-point scale assessing feelings toward Muslims. After controlling for religious and psychological factors, I find that the racial difference in feelings toward Muslims is increased, indicating that the race effect is suppressed by these factors. Moderation analysis reveals that white men hold the highest level of negative feelings toward Muslims, compared to women and black men. The findings suggest challenging the misconstrued perceptions of Muslims through education and endorsement of positive images. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the term "Islamophobia." Topics mentioned include the emergence of the concept in the late 1990s, its definition, and the increase of Islamophobia in the Western world. The author also focuses on the lack of data regarding this issue, the ways to measure it, and the different researches published by sociologists.