“Islamophobia has a much longer history in Europe than in the U.S., but there is now ample evidence that Islamophobia is a flourishing industry in this country.”

By Liza Burr  WorldwideWAMM.org  November 2012

What is Islamophobia? Fifteen years ago, in 1997, the Runnymede Trust, a British think tank, identified eight components of Islamophobia. By this definition, Islamophobia is an attitude toward Islam that views it as “a monolithic bloc, static and unresponsive to change”; as separate from other cultures and espousing values not shared by them; as “inferior to the West…barbaric, irrational, primitive, and sexist”; as “violent, aggressive, threatening, supportive of terrorism, and engaged in a ‘clash of civilizations’” with the West; and as a “political ideology” in the form of “political Islam,” sometimes with a military edge.

Furthermore, from an Islamophobic perspective, any Islamic critique of the West need not be taken seriously, the discriminatory and exclusivist treatment…