From Orientalism to Islamophobia: Reflections, Confirmations, and Reservations

Abstract

While European Orientalism looks back on a long history, the rise of Islamophobia is generally found to have taken place since the 1990s. Both phenomena rely on recurrent and shifting ideas, tropes and narratives that are used when imagining and describing the Other, and tend to be based on variations of “Muslim,” “Jew,” and “Orient.” This introduction raises several aspects that are important in order to understand the two phenomena, as well as to appreciate the similarities and differences between them. While it is obvious that some typically orientalist tropes have made their way into contemporary Islamophobia, the contributions in this special issue of ReOrient also demonstrate that Orientalism can be understood as a multi-layered construct that conflated negative with positive sentiments, and thereby also occasionally romanticized the “Orient.” In contrast, Islamophobia is based on the unidimensional conception of an essentialized Islam and a racialized Muslim. Fueled by negative prejudices and stereotypes, it results in attitudes asserting undesirability, distrust, and hostility.

Negative Sentiment Toward Recent Migrants in a Post-Colonial City: A Case Study in Hong Kong

“…This argument is similar to studies of Islamophobia in Europe, which have suggested that being anti-Muslim is not simply the prejudice directed at a minority immigrant group, but can also be understood from a post-colonial perspective (Hafez 2018; Meer, 2014; Skenderovic & Späti, 2019). The basic argument acknowledges that prejudice against and mistrust of Muslims in Europe is deeply rooted in the “colonial horizon of modernity” (Hafez 2018), and is based on essentializing Islam (Skenderovic & Späti, 2019).…”

Until Law Do Us Part: An Explorative Study of Attitudes to Polygamy in Italy

“…As a consequence, Westerners often associate Islam with misogyny. In this context, asserting one's Muslim faith can lead to violent responses (Skenderovic-Späti 2019). What is troubling is that this myopic reading does not do justice to the heterogeneity of voices -glossing over, for instance, the long legacy of female intellectuals who have openly condemned gender oppression and skewed interpretations of Quranic verses.…”

The ‘participationnist state’ and the ‘apathetic citizen’: Educationalizing the ‘problem of non–voting’ in postwar Switzerland (1940s–1970s)

“…64 But the new movements also questioned dominant understandings of 'doing politics', centred around party membership and voting, by engaging in their own modes of actionfrom sit-ins to protests -without party intervention. 65 These new ideas also affected traditional youth movements, as activists across the country now called for the transformation of the youth houses founded in the spiritual defence era into autonomous, selfgoverned spaces. Zurich activists even proclaimed an ephemeral 'autonomous republic' in one of them in 1970.…”