I just read the Modern Language Association’s declaration against Islamophobia today:
The Executive Council approved the following statement in December 2015.
After the terrible shootings in Paris and San Bernardino, we have witnessed a sharp rise in Islamophobia, the intense hatred and fear of Islam and those identifying with the religion and its culture. This includes, but is not restricted to, targeting Arabs and Arab Americans. In the United States there has been an upsurge in attacks upon and censorship and harassment of those who, as part of their scholarly work, teach about Islam. The MLA condemns any and all violations of free speech and academic freedom, including those based on race, religious affiliation, and ethnicity. We especially deplore the firings and intimidation of those teachers who aid in our understanding of Islam.
Kudos to the MLA on taking a stand; I’m concerned, however, about this word “Islamophobia” which I’ve seen popping up more and more frequently of late. I’m concerned, because, like the word “homophobia,” “Islamophobia” suggests an irrational, personal, and non-political fear (phobia). But what we are dealing with here is more than just a phobia. “Homophobia,” and “Islamophobia” are misnomers, which work to cover up the historical, political, systemic and very purposeful targeting of a group of people for the purposes of discrediting, oppressing, demonizing, and othering them. We eventually coined the word “heterosexism” to expose the systemic and deliberate nature of the subjugating of queer people in the service of what Adrienne Rich called “compulsory heterosexuality.” Similarly, we need a word to accurately capture the systemic and deliberate nature of the subjugation and demonization of Muslims that we are witnessing across the “civilized” (read “Western”) world. We need a word to suggest the dogged refusal of many of us in the West to understand the complex and historical reasons behind the difficulties of our current engagement with Muslims, a word that would encourage us to dissect our own ignorance and complicity in our othering of Muslim people. That word is not “Islamophobia.” Christian chauvinism? Western chauvinism? That’s a beginning.
East South East: The African, Indigenous and Asian Century 