Rowman.com: 9780742552869 - Islamophobia: Making Muslims the Enemy

Books & eBooks for

Professors

Students

International Customers

Special Sales

Textbooks

Desk Copy Request

Special Exam Copy Request

Journals

Author Resources

Publicity / Convention Schedule

Rights & Permissions

Affiliated Companies

	Sundance

	Newbridge

	National Book Network

	NBN Fusion

	NBN International

	Government

Islamophobia Making Muslims the Enemy

978-0-7425-5286-9 • Hardback
July 2007 • $24.95 • (£15.95)

Add to Cart

Pages: 192

Size: 6 x 9

By Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg

Political Science | Civil Rights

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Description

Author(s)

TOC

Reviews

In the minds of many Americans, Islam is synonymous with the Middle East, Muslim men with violence, and Muslim women with oppression. In the post-9/11 world, a clash of civilizations appears to be increasingly manifest and the War on Terror seems a struggle against Islam. These are symptoms of Islamophobia.

The term "Islamophobia" accurately reflects the largely unexamined and deeply ingrained anxiety many Americans experience when considering Islam and Muslim cultures. Historically, Americans have seldom given voice to these anxieties since they have had, until the last half-century, few connections to Muslim cultures and a small domestic Muslim minority. However, in times of crisis, such as the Iranian hostage situation or, most recently, the September 11th attacks, the long-simmering resentments, suspicions, and fears inherited along with a Christian European heritage manifest themselves most directly in conditions that appear to affirm Americans' darkest concerns. Like a vicious cyclone feeding off of its own energy, Islamophobia takes uncommon events as evidence fitting its worst expectations and turns these into proof that perpetuates those ill-informed expectations.

Islamophobia explores the presence of these anxieties through the political cartoon—the print medium with the most immediate impact. This book shows graphically how political cartoons dramatically reveal Americans' casual demonizing and demeaning of Muslims and Islam. And the villainizing is shown to be as common among liberals as conservatives. Islamophobia also discusses the misunderstanding of the Muslim world more generally, such as the assumption that Islam is primarily a Middle Eastern religion, where as the majority of Muslims live in South and Southeast Asia, and the misperception that a significant portion of Muslims are militant fundamentalists, where as only a small proportion are.

This ground-breaking book should be read and reread-readers will become acutely aware how cartoonists have repeatedly disparaged all things Muslim and Arab. The book teaches us to see beyond damaging stereotypes. It is a remarkable achievement, illustrating that although there exists a fine line between satire and racism.
— Jack G. Shaheen, author of Reel Bad Arabs

If 9/ll jolted Americans into a new awareness of Islam, it has produced less insight and understanding than caricature and fear. Part of the knowledge gap is due to Muslims themselves, but the larger problem derives from deliberate distortions projected via the media (radio, TV, print and the Internet) in concert with scurrilous scholarship and Christian right Islamophobes. This deftly constructed and amply illustrated volume by Gottschalk and Greenberg will expose Islamophobic distortions while also providing a much needed antidote to their public venom.
— Bruce Lawrence, Duke University

As Islamophobia threatens to become the new anti-Semitism, Islamophobia: Making Islam the Enemy becomes 'must' reading. Gottschalk and Greenberg perceptively and graphically demonstrate the extent to which prejudice and discrimination against Islam and Muslims have become inherent in American mainstream culture.
— John L. Esposito, Georgetown University, author of What Everyone Needs to Know about Islam

Islamophobia is an important contribution to the understanding of prejudice as a common factor in American culture, particularly the media. The analysis of political cartoons convincingly shows how pervasively anti-Arab and anti-Muslim attitudes have become accepted, even by people who probably consider themselves fair-minded. This study needs to be read by everyone concerned with the problems of religious and racial bias in America today.
— Carl W. Ernst, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

A must read for anyone interested in understanding the underlying challenges that Muslims face in America. Provides an important insight into the stereotyping of Muslims that daily projects them as the different 'other.'
— Yvonne Haddad, Georgetown University

Islamophobia. Making Islam the Enemy is a very well-written, timely and incisive book about a topic that is finally starting to win the attention of the American public. The authors take the reader through a journey of Western suspicion and prejudicial depiction of the religion of Islam, from the Crusades to more recent political encounters with Muslim powers. They present a fascinating review of American media presentations of Islam and Muslims, including film, television and political cartoons. Islamophobia is a fairly presented, sharply critical exposé of the roots and manifestations of western fear and suspicion of this important world religion. It should be required of every high school and college student of history, political science and American social studies.
— Jane Smith, Hartford Theological Seminary

Gottschalk, a professor of religion at Wesleyan University, and his former student Greenberg analyze what Islamophobia is and how it is manifested through political cartoons, many of which are included with revealing results...With its incendiary cover art and on the heels of the Danish cartoon controversy, this book should attract well-deserved attention.
— Publishers Weekly

Contains a thoughtful discussion and is bound to stimulate interest among readers.
— Middle East Journal, Winter 2008

This slim volume by Gottschalk and Greenberg is a splendid teaching tool for classroom use, not only because it provides a readily accessible narrative about American stereotyping of Islam and Muslims, but also due to its focus on the political cartoon. This would be a beneficial text for undergraduate courses on Islam or the Middle East, since it is both accessible and tackles a popular art form that has almost universal appeal.
— Daniel Martin Varisco, Hofstra University; author of Islam Obscured: The Rhetoric of Anthropological Representation; Contemporary Islam, December 3, 2008

Also of Interest

Top Secret

Failure of Intelligence

Other Imprints

Managing Diversity

Countries at the Crossroads 2006

Freedom in the World 2006

Black Elected Officials

Breaking the Ice

The New American Social Compact

	Facebook
	Twitter
	eNewsLetter
	Blog