Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 168
•
Trim: 6 x 9
978-1-5381-1009-6 • Hardback • December 2018 • $34.00 • (£26.00)
978-1-5381-1010-2 • eBook • December 2018 • $32.00 • (£25.00)
Nazia Kazi is associate professor of anthropology at Stockton University. She has lectured widely on Islamophobia, including her TEDx talk “Islamophobia and Islamophilia," and has published articles such as “Teaching Against Islamophobia in the Age of Terror” in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Preface
Acknowledgments
1 Introduction: Troubling Islamophobia
2 The Visual Politics of Racism and Islamophobia
3 Muslim Beauty Queens and the Master Narrative
4 Neoliberalism and the Good Muslim Archetype
5 Culture Talk as Islamodiversion
6 US Empire’s Muslim Cheerleaders
7 Beyond Trump
8 Conclusion: Critical Thinking as Terrorism Prevention
Notes
Bibliography
Index
In this fascinating little volume, Kazi (anthropology, Stockton Univ.) successfully demonstrates that Islamophobia is not just a response to 9/11 or other violence in the name of Islam, but rather a complicated set of attitudes and behaviors accompanying aggressive Western government actions in the Islamic world and endemic racism in the US and elsewhere. Attempts to refute the underlying assumptions of Islamophobia by "educating" non-Muslims about fundamental Islamic beliefs—e.g., pointing out that those beliefs do not include harming innocents and that a very small number of adherents engage in violence—seem to have been to no avail. Non-Muslim leaders, including US presidents, have appealed to the broad population by extolling the many positive contributions made to society by Muslim citizens, but such appeals have not alleviated the situation. After all, Muslim society is fractured along the same lines one sees in the US and elsewhere: class, wealth, education, ethnicity, piety, and so on. Kazi argues that white supremacy is at the heart of the problem, and that confronting it is important for overcoming the essential racism of Islamophobia. Though this seems overly simplistic, given the author's sweeping analysis readers will certainly want to ponder the issues so cogently raised here.— CHOICE
Nazia Kazi’s Islamophobia, Race, and Global Politics is a brilliant and powerful meditation on the intersection and interaction of Islamophobia, racism, and U.S. imperial state power. This book seeks to reorient our understanding of Islamophobia from a phenomenon centered on individual attitudes and perceptions of hate, to one which is indelibly entrenched to the structural logics of modern state sovereignty, and to the long-running history of racism in the U.S. Another distinctive feature of this book lies in its sustained and nuanced analysis of liberal Islamophobia in varied social and political domains, that tethers the promise of being categorized as “good Muslim” to the endorsement and celebration of American exceptionalism. Combining methods and perspectives from anthropology, visual studies, race studies, and political studies, this thoroughly interdisciplinary book is also eminently accessible and written beautifully, rendering it particularly suitable for courses on modern Islam, Race and Religion, Islam in America, among many other topics.— New Books Network
. . . a powerful introduction to the scope of Islamophobia in the US . . . using Islamophobia as a unique case study, Kazi asks readers to consider how war and empire-building relate to racism.— Islamic Horizons
Kazi’s book [is] necessary reading for any American invested in real transformation of this country . . . This is a book to read, to study, to share, and to take to heart in our current moment and the months to come—months sure to be dominated by a flurry of placating and distracting rhetoric, from all points of the political spectrum, promising to topple certain megaphones and change certain tones of public discourse. Kazi reminds us to think historically, situating the current moment within a deeper trajectory and always keeping in mind how today’s taken for granted categories and inequalities came to be produced.— Rain Taxi Review Of Books
Nazia Kazi’s Islamophobia, Race, and Global Politics is a devastating critique of the prevailing ways that Americans talk about Muslims, especially liberals who apparently mean well. Kazi makes her case elegantly and persuasively; her frustration is palpable and engaging. Anyone who thinks they have something worthwhile to say about Islamophobia in the United States should read this book first.— Arun Kundnani, New York University
With Islamophobia, Race, and Global Politics, Nazia Kazi has written a beautifully indignant takedown of why thinking about anti-Muslim bigotry merely as individual prejudice is both wrongheaded and dangerous. Instead, Kazi draws the necessary connections between contemporary Islamophobia and the corrosive effects of American power, at home and abroad. Perhaps most importantly, she demands that we do the same.— Moustafa Bayoumi, Brooklyn College
Nazia Hasan Kazi’s book is a masterful treatment of how anti-Muslim racism functions in the United States. Kazi shows how Trump-era Islamophobia is not an aberration but the outgrowth of the politics of previous decades and US policy at home and abroad. She further explores how not to fight Islamophobia. Muslim Americans are not a monolith but are fractured along lines of race, class, and immigration status. Given this state of affairs, Kazi adopts a critical stance not only towards Muslims who function as cheerleaders for empire but also towards the Islamophilia of mainstream Muslim American organizations. By privileging the ideal upper class and professional Muslim, this form of Islamophilia creates ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ Muslims, she argues. You will learn something from it whether you are new to the topic or a veteran scholar. A passionate, scholarly and well-written book, it is a must-read for all who wish to combat anti-Muslim racism.— Deepa Kumar, Rutgers University