ABSTRACT
Islamophobia is a global phenomenon that can be observed in various national contexts, especially in the general stigmatization of Islam and Muslims emanating from their misrepresentation in the media and politics after significant international events. September 11 (9/11) and many subsequent terrorist attacks perpetrated in the name of Islam have fuelled anti-Muslim sentiment around the world, leading to more open racism against Muslims or people identified as such. Islamophobia is globalized in the sense that it spares no continent or macroregion, but nevertheless remains important to study in Western democracies that are supposed to uphold important liberal values of freedom and equality. In the West, national Islamophobia mainly questions the compatibility of Islam with Western values, and some laws attempt to reinforce the idea that there is no place for visible signs of Islam. The political spaces of anti-Muslim sentiments and crimes differ between countries that define differing policies and laws on religious diversity and secularism. For instance, a cross-national quantitative comparison between France and the United Kingdom (in connection with the SAMA (Spaces of Anti-Muslim Acts) project) shows two different Islamophobias, notably contrasting the French Republican model with the British multicultural political model.
