ABSTRACT
This chapter will outline our concepts of liberal and illiberal Islamophobia. We argue that much research and analysis has attempted to define and theorise Islamophobia through dominant, singular and contextually specific forms, often stuck between determining whether it is religious prejudice and racism, mainstream or extreme, state or non-state, ignoring diverse and changing articulations which both co-exist and, in some cases, shift from one to the other. We propose the concepts of liberal and illiberal to capture such articulations. In this chapter, we will map the debates about defining Islamophobia, define and explain these two articulations and explain where they emerge, where they intersect and how they can be applied. Examples from Britain, France and the US will be used.
