Islamophobia/Islamophilia: Beyond the Politics of Enemy and Friend

by Andrew Shryock (Editor)

Overview

"Islamophobia" is a term that has been widely applied to anti-Muslim ideas and actions, especially since 9/11. The contributors to this provocative volume explore and critique the usefulness of the concept for understanding contexts ranging from the Middle Ages to the modern day. Moving beyond familiar explanations such as good Muslim/bad Muslim stereotypes or the "clash of civilizations," they describe Islamophobia's counterpart, Islamophilia, which deploys similar oppositions in the interest of fostering public acceptance of Islam. Contributors address topics such as conflicts over Islam outside and within Muslim communities in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia; the cultural politics of literature, humor, and urban renewal; and religious conversion to Islam.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253221995
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	06/30/2010
Series:	Middle East Studies
Pages:	260
Sales rank:	225,483
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Andrew Shryock is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan. He is author of Nationalism and the Genealogical Imagination and co-author of Arab Detroit and Citizenship and Crisis: Arab Detroit after 9/11.

Read an Excerpt

What is most problematic about Islamophobia is its essentializing and universalizing quality, which casts Islam itself and all Muslims as real or potential enemies . . . . What is harder to assess is the challenge of countering Islamophobic impulses in ways that do not simply invert or reinforce them by cultivating their opposite: the image of the Muslim as "friend," as a figure identified with the Self, characterized as familiar, and with whom legitimate conflict is not possible. . . . When 'friendship' is subordinated to the demands of sameness . . . it can be just as coercive, just as prone to misrecognition, as the sentiments of hostility it is meant to correct.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction: Islam as an Object of Fear and Affection Andrew Shryock 1

Part 1 Continuities and Transformations

1 Western Hostility toward Muslims: A History of the Present Tomaz Mastnak 29

2 The Khalil Gibran International Academy: Diasporic Confrontations with an Emerging Islamophobia Naamah Paley 53

Part 2 Modern (Self) Criticism

3 The God That Failed: The Neo-Orientalism of Today's Muslim Commentators Moustafa Bayoumi 79

4 Gendering Islamophobia and Islamophilia: The Case of Shi'i Muslim Women in Lebanon Lara Deeb 94

5 Bridging Traditions: Madrasas and Their Internal Critics Muhammad Qasim Zaman 111

Part 3 Violence and Conversion in Europe

6 The Fantasy and Violence of Religious Imagination: Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism in France and North Africa Paul A. Silverstein 141

7 German Converts to Islam and Their Ambivalent Relations with Immigrant Muslims Esra Özyürek 172

Part 4 Attraction and Repulsion in Shared Space

8 Muslim Ethnic Comedy: Inversions of Islamophobia Mucahit Bilici 195

9 Competing for Muslims: New Strategies for Urban Renewal in Detroit Sally Howell 209

List of Contributors 237

Index 239

What People are Saying About This

Duke University - Engseng Ho

Islamophobia/Islamophilia is a spirited volume that takes aim at the confining but dominant debate on Islam, 'for or against.' Its eye-opening cases demonstrate just how much opposed sides share, and reveal surprising alignments and crossovers that happen beyond the binary. Politically astute, analytically acute, and pervasively humanistic, this is a rare contribution that brings clarity to an ideologically charged and muddied field.

Rice University - Ussama Makdisi

Very timely. An excellent contribution to humanistic scholarship by a number of leading scholars. The disciplinary range and nuance of the individual essays in this volume do a great job to illustrate and analyze how ahistorical, demeaning, or apologetic views of Muslims and Islam function and circulate.

Editorial Reviews

"'Islamophobia' is an often used term in debates relating to Muslim minorities in Europe and the US post 9/11. The aim of this edited volume by Andrew Shryock is . . . to investigate the background of the term and reach a more thorough understanding of what it could entail and how it could be used and applied.38.3 2011"—British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies

"Overall, the volume is an impressive collection of serious discursive analyses that heighten our sensitivities to the forms arguments about Islam take; while always indexes of power, it is clear that the shared terms of global debates about Islamic reform do not always correspond to shared meanings."—American Ethnologist

"In all, this work is a rich and varied fare. What is welcome is the book's developed insight that Islamophilia can also be an act of wishful thinking and fantasy as much as Islamophobia. Morever, the latter can be propagated by Muslims. In all, this is a plea for a grown up engagement with Muslims who are as diverse as Christians and Jews. 31:4, 2011"—The Muslim World Book Review

". . . a collection at once serious and sensible in its scope, ambitions and outcome."—Bruce B. Lawrence, Religion Dispatches

"Islamophobia/Islamophilia is a spirited volume that takes aim at the confining but dominant debate on Islam, 'for or against.' Its eye-opening cases demonstrate just how much opposed sides share, and reveal surprising alignments and crossovers that happen beyond the binary. Politically astute, analytically acute, and pervasively humanistic, this is a rare contribution that brings clarity to an ideologically charged and muddied field."—Engseng Ho, Duke University

"Very timely. An excellent contribution to humanistic scholarship by a number of leading scholars. The disciplinary range and nuance of the individual essays in this volume do a great job to illustrate and analyze how ahistorical, demeaning, or apologetic views of Muslims and Islam function and circulate."—Ussama Makdisi, Rice University

From the Publisher

. . . a collection at once serious and sensible in its scope, ambitions and outcome.

Religion Dispatches - Bruce B. Lawrence

In all, this work is a rich and varied fare. What is welcome is the book's developed insight that Islamophilia can also be an act of wishful thinking and fantasy as much as Islamophobia. Morever, the latter can be propagated by Muslims. In all, this is a plea for a grown up engagement with Muslims who are as diverse as Christians and Jews. 31:4, 2011

The Muslim World Book Review

'Islamophobia' is an often used term in debates relating to Muslim minorities in Europe and the US post 9/11. The aim of this edited volume by Andrew Shryock is . . . to investigate the background of the term and reach a more thorough understanding of what it could entail and how it could be used and applied.38.3 2011

British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies

Overall, the volume is an impressive collection of serious discursive analyses that heighten our sensitivities to the forms arguments about Islam take; while always indexes of power, it is clear that the shared terms of global debates about Islamic reform do not always correspond to shared meanings.

American Ethnologist

"Islamophobia/Islamophilia is a spirited volume that takes aim at the confining but dominant debate on Islam, 'for or against.' Its eye-opening cases demonstrate just how much opposed sides share, and reveal surprising alignments and crossovers that happen beyond the binary. Politically astute, analytically acute, and pervasively humanistic, this is a rare contribution that brings clarity to an ideologically charged and muddied field." —Engseng Ho, Duke University

Engseng Ho

"Very timely. An excellent contribution to humanistic scholarship by a number of leading scholars. The disciplinary range and nuance of the individual essays in this volume do a great job to illustrate and analyze how ahistorical, demeaning, or apologetic views of Muslims and Islam function and circulate." —Ussama Makdisi, Rice University

Ussama Makdisi

"... a collection at once serious and sensible in its scope, ambitions and outcome." —Bruce B. Lawrence, Religion Dispatches

— Bruce B. Lawrence

Religion Dispatches