ABSTRACT
In the last decade, Islamophobia in Western societies, where Muslims constitute the minority, has been studied extensively. Muslim societies, however, have been nearly neglected as hotspots of Islamophobia. One of the reasons for this is the obvious fact that Muslims make up the majority in most of these countries. But can Islamophobia be exclusively explained based on a majority–minority relation? This chapter argues that power is a central feature for understanding Islamophobia. Islamophobia does not define the relation of majorities and minorities, but rather of the powerful versus the powerless. The authors suggest that we can understand Islamophobia in Muslim societies from different angles: world-system approach, post-colonial and decolonial perspective, racism and Orientalism, and especially self-Orientalization. While many Islamophobic figures in the West are – self-representing – Muslims themselves, these figures are respectively rejected by many Muslims. It is different in Muslim countries, where state institutions and governments are pushing certain legislations to discriminate against (politically opposing) Muslims, with large parts of the (dominant/powerful) society supporting these acts. In some cases, these policies are even legitimized with reference to an Islamic discourse, hence revealing the complexity of epistemic racism in an Islamicate context. We suggest that it is helpful to draw on concepts such as Jewish or Black self-hatred and to emphasize the colonial heritage and questions of Western notions of secularism that came with the colonization project in order to better understand Muslim Islamophobes. Here, we draw on Islamophobia as a way of regulating and disciplining Muslims, thus framing Islamophobia as political. The concept of Islamophobia as a form of racialized governmentality that aims at undermining a distinct Muslim identity is discussed in regard to the larger question of secularity in Muslim societies and the in/ability of a political identity in Islamicate contexts, along with the role Islamism plays as a political identity.
