AbstractsPhilosophy & Theology

The ‘Islam’ in ‘Islamophobia’: examining perceptions of Islam as a faith in online British discourse

by Afroze Fatima Zaidi-Jivraj




Institution: University of Birmingham
Department: School of Philosophy, Theology and Religion, Department of Theology and Religion
Year: 2015
Keywords: BL Religion; BP Islam. Bahaism. Theosophy, etc; HT Communities. Classes. Races
Record ID: 1400598
Full text PDF: http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/5638/


Abstract

While several volumes have been published on the subject of Islamophobia, less attention has been given specifically to non-Muslim views on Islam as a faith, and how these views relate to the phenomenon of Islamophobia as a whole. Studies on Islamophobia tend to use the terms ‘Islam’ and ‘Muslims’ interchangeably, but making a distinction between attitudes towards the faith versus attitudes towards its adherents is relevant particularly in the British context, where religious hatred legislation (the 2006 Racial and Religious Hatred Act) explicitly protects “expressions of antipathy, dislike, ridicule, insult or abuse of particular religions” from legal penalty. So where insult and abuse directed towards Muslims may be illegal or even frowned upon, similar expressions towards Islam as a faith, strictly speaking, are not. This thesis shares a study which aims to isolate views on Islam expressed online by non-Muslims in response to representations of Islam on mainstream British television. Can hatred or contempt towards Islam be considered Islamophobic? And if Islam is ‘not a race’, how does Islamophobia relate to racism? These are some of the questions this paper aims to address. Furthermore, it discusses the implications of the findings in the context of a secular, ‘postracial’ society.