Abstract
The term “Islamophobia” is one that has been widely used to describe the Muslim experience, particularly in the years since 9/11. But the term itself has been critiqued by scholars and activists alike. The main argument against the term is that it describes a fear of Islam, which vilifies those who have real phobias and at the same time downplays how this phenomenon is about racism and bigotry, not fears and anxieties. Islamophobia and Racism in America, by Erik Love, provides a thorough and comprehensive response to this debate. In Love’s timely and important book, he shows unequivocally that Islamophobia is a form of racism and must be understood this way for civil rights organizations to advocate for Arab, Sikh, South Asian, and Muslim people against increasing civil rights abuses and racism.
In the first half of Islamophobia and Racism, Love provides an impressive historical account of the experiences of Arabs, South Asians, Sikhs, and Muslims with racism. He traces Islamophobia to Orientalist tropes that dominated European understandings of the Middle East. These characterizations of’Arabs as antiquated, barbaric, and misogynistic carried on into nineteenth- and twentieth-century understandings of those perceived to be from this region of the world. Love illuminates how, in the United States, Sikh, Arab, South Asian, and Muslim experiences sometimes converged and at other times diverged on issues like attempting to become naturalized citizens and access whiteness.
This thoroughly documented history reveals that Islamophobia is not a new phenomenon, but one that has a long and complicated history, dating back to colonialist projects. Love details the ways in which Islamophobia can currently be understood as a racial project that is structured into American society. He identifies how Islamophobia prior to 2001 was deeply rooted in anti-Arab sentiments that construed Arabs as “oil sheikhs” and as “dangerous” as a result of American investments in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict as well as in response to the Iran Hostage crises in the late 1970s. Many Arabs at this time were subjected to surveillance by the American government because of their national identities and political views.
This history sets the stage for how policies and practices in the post-9/11 era were possible that specifically targeted Muslims. Love’chronicles how the government targeted various Muslim communities through surveillance programs, like the compilation of “watch lists” as well as a registry program called the National Security Entry-Exit Registration program that required non-citizen men from Muslim-majority countries to register with the federal government. He also describes the spike in hate crimes that affected anyone who appeared to be Muslim, including Sikhs. Islamophobia and Racism provides a thorough and convincing argument that Islamophobia is a form of racism by uncovering its history and examining how it has shifted over time by examining it contextually.
One of Love’s main arguments is that South Asians and Arabs are all being understood and lumped together as Middle Eastern because of the conflation of Muslims, Arabs, and brown skin. “There can no longer be any doubt that Islamophobia flows from the collective racialization of Arabs, Muslims, Sikhs, and South Asians into a Middle Eastern racial category” (p. 114). This claim is one that will spark conversations among those studying the racialization of South Asians, Arabs, and/or Muslims.
This assertion inspired many questions, such as, can this categorization of Middle Eastern be applied to all Muslims, even those who are African American or white converts? Love accurately highlights how the marker of Islam signifies Arab to many individuals; however, the question that scholars moving forward may want to ask is about how South Asians who are Muslims or Sikhs see themselves. Do they feel they are also lumped into a “Middle Eastern” category, or is this an externally created racial category? Love’s argument is one that will force scholars who study race to think critically about how the current form of Islamophobia rearticulates existing racial categories.
The second part of Islamophobia and Racism examines how civil rights organizations have responded to Islamophobia. Love demonstrates how Arab, Muslim, and South Asian civil rights organizations employ a colorblind ideology to combat some of the issues the Muslim population increasingly faces as Islamophobia continues to rise. Through interviews with organizational leaders and a content analysis of organizational materials, Love shows that South Asian, Arab, and Muslim civil rights organizations, like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), and the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF), have failed at forming transformational coalitions to counter the growing racism their constituents have increasingly faced in an Islamophobic society.
Some organizations, like CAIR, employ a colorblind approach in their advocacy work because they feel a focus on race and racism would create more divisions rather than bringing them together with mainstream society. ADC, on the other hand, had tried to align itself with the black community in the 1980s through joining Jessie Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and organizing events. But these collaborations caused rifts in the Arab community: many did not want to align with African Americans but were more invested in a closer association with whiteness. Similarly, members of SALDEF were torn between those who wanted to work with other organizations to fight Islamophobia and those who wanted to distance themselves from a Muslim identity.
These findings are important to understanding how an American racial hierarchy persists today. Anti-blackness and the desire to move closer to whiteness explains why Muslim, Arab, and South Asian civil rights organizations have not succeeded in forming a cohesive civil rights movement for Muslims in America. Their desire to move toward whiteness is exemplified in how they refuse to make race a central issue because they do not want to acknowledge their racialized identity as Muslim or be targeted as Muslims. In some cases, they want to remain racially invisible, perhaps making themselves feel closer to whiteness. An examination of these organizations and their approach to civil rights brings to light how groups that fall into the middle of the hierarchy have often not been awakened to their racialization and, consequently, participate in maintaining the racial hierarchy. Love convincingly argues that until South Asian and Arab civil rights organizations begin to understand Islamophobia as a form of racism and abandon a colorblind approach, they will not be effective in dismantling Islamophobia.
Islamophobia and Racism in America is a must-read for those who are interested in understanding organizational responses to institutional racism. Love does an excellent job highlighting how Islamophobia is a form of racism and how civil rights organizations need to come together to employ race-based strategies to dismantle it.