Islamophobia as a Form of Violent Radicalisation

Abstract

This book is divided into four parts: Key concepts (part I); Contemporary political discourses on Islamophobia (part II); Media practices (part III); and Responding to Islamophobia, extremism and radicalisation (part IV). In this introductory chapter, we discuss the scope and shattered boundaries of Islamophobia as both a concept and a sociopolitical reality. We then attempt a definition of Islamophobia's theoretical and pragmatic dimensions. This conceptual chapter brings together an anthropologist and a communication scholar to consider whether and to what extent Islamophobia is a form of violent radicalisation. This will serve as a background against which we will present the fifteen chapters of this collective book, which relate interdisciplinary research, media content analyses, media discourse analysis, ethnographic research, intersectoral advocacy work and action research conducted

The Political and Intellectual Discourse on Islam and Muslims in Flanders

“…Radicalised Islam has been a hot topic since 2004, when the term was introduced in scientific studies (Fadil, 2017). The totalitarian nature of this Islam, and its implications for Muslims (their freedom of action, their attitude to geopolitical violence), are apparent in crimes committed in the name of Islam, like the Charlie Hebdo and Bataclan terrorist attacks in France, and in crimes committed by far-right terrorists like Anders Breivik in Norway (Mekki-Berrada, 2019). The books we analysed look at the link between Islam, radicalisation and violence.…”