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Geographies of Islamophobia
Geographies of Islamophobia
Geographies of Islamophobia
To cite this article: Kawtar Najib & Carmen Teeple Hopkins (2020) Geographies of Islamophobia,
Social & Cultural Geography, 21:4, 449-457, DOI: 10.1080/14649365.2019.1705993
EDITORIAL
Geographies of Islamophobia
Kawtar Najib and Carmen Teeple Hopkins
School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, England, UK
Géographies de l’islamophobie
RÉSUMÉ
L’islamophobie désigne souvent le racisme systémique à
l’égard des musulmans et les expériences vécues de discrimi-
nation envers les personnes perçues comme telles. Ces formes
de racisme et de discrimination se sont intensifiées pendant
les deux dernières décennies et surtout depuis la «?guerre
contre le terrorisme?». La présente introduction soutient que
l’islamophobie est un processus spatialisé qui se produit à
différentes échelles dans les pays à minorité musulmane: glo-
bale, nationale, urbaine, riveraine, corporelle et émotionnelle.
Pour commencer, nous définissons une généalogie du mot:
islamophobie. Nous démontrons ensuite les manières dont
l’islamophobie survient à différentes échelles et est reliée
entre échelles. Finalement, nous présentons les articles de
l’édition spéciale pour mettre en évidence notre argumenta-
tion que l’islamophobie est multiscalaire. Nous démontrons
aussi la façon dont les contributions méthodologiques de la
recherche au sein des géographies de l’islamophobie peuvent
influencer l’élaboration des politiques et l’organisation poli-
tique contre l’islamophobie.
CONTACT Kawtar Najib kawtar.najib@ncl.ac.uk School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle
University, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 7RU, England, UK
© 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
450 EDITORIAL
Geografías de la islamofobia
RESUMEN
La islamofobia a menudo se refiere al racismo sistémico contra los
musulmanes y las experiencias vividas de discriminación contra las
personas que son percibidas como musulmanas. Estas formas de
racismo y discriminación se han intensificado en las últimas dos
décadas, especialmente desde la Guerra contra el Terror. Esta
introducción argumenta que la islamofobia es un proceso espaciali-
zado que ocurre a diferentes escalas en países de minorías musulma-
nas: globo, nación, espacio urbano, vecindario, cuerpo y emoción.
Primero, describimos una genealogía del término, islamofobia. En
segundo lugar, demostramos las formas en que ocurre la islamofobia
a través diferentes escalas y su conexión entre escalas. Finalmente,
presentamos los artículos en este número especial para resaltar nues-
tro argumento de que la islamofobia es multiescalar. También mos-
tramos cómo las contribuciones metodológicas de la investigación
dentro de las geografías de la islamofobia pueden afectar la
formulación de políticas y la organización política contra la
islamofobia.
2011; Modood, 1997; Scott, 2007). In geography, the term began to be used in the
late 2000s (Hopkins, 2019). Previously, the research on Muslim communities in social
and cultural geography focused on Muslim identities and urban exclusion in Muslim-
minority countries (Dwyer, 1999; Falah & Nagel, 2005; Hopkins, 2007; Hopkins & Gale,
2009; Koefoed & Simonsen, 2010; Kwan, 2008; Mansson McGinty, 2012; Naylor &
Ryan, 2002; Peach, 2006; Peach & Gale, 2005; Phillips, 2006). Earlier geographical
research on Muslims tended to focus on residential segregation (Gale, 2013; Phillips,
2006) as well as processes of racialization (Kobayashi & Peake, 2000). We then began
to see some geographers engaging with the term, Islamophobia, while not necessa-
rily defining it (Dwyer, Shah, & Sanghera, 2008; Mansson McGinty, Sziarto, &
Seymour-Jorn, 2012), and others who started to define its contours in research on
France, Sweden and Australia (Dunn, Klocker, & Salabay, 2007; Hancock, 2015; Itaoui,
2016; Listerborn, 2015; Najib, 2019; Teeple Hopkins, 2015).
Social and cultural geographers often refer to Islamophobia as a form of systemic
racism against Muslim populations and discrimination against people who are per-
ceived as Muslim. Islam is seen as a racialized religion: this process of racialization
occurs through violence and discrimination that are directed toward visible signs of
Islamic belonging (e.g. beard, veils, mosques) (Dunn et al., 2007; Hopkins, 2004).
Drawing on theories of intersectionality, this racialized dimension of Islamophobia is
also gendered. Anti-veiling laws have impacted young Muslim women who wear
a headscarf significantly more than young Sikh or Jewish men (who also wear
a turban or a kippa) and racist attacks and interpersonal aggressions in public spaces
tend to target visibly Muslim women (Gökariksel & Secor, 2015; Hancock, 2015;
Listerborn, 2015; Najib, 2017; Teeple Hopkins, 2015).
Building on this geographical tradition on the socio-spatial exclusion of Muslims,
this special issue advances the concept of Islamophobia by arguing that
Islamophobia is a spatialized process that occurs at different scales: globe, nation,
urban, neighbourhood, body and emotion. The articles in this special issue also
provide a methodological contribution to the geographies of Islamophobia: there
are innovative quantitative, mixed-methods, and mapping approaches that provide
a vantage point into the ways in which Muslim communities experience daily life and
negotiate Islamophobia.
Inherent in the spatialization of Islamophobia is an important relationship
between visibility and invisibility: on the one hand, signs of Muslim piety, such as
mosques, veils, and beards are often visible in public space in Muslim-minority
contexts (Göle et al., 2011; Hatziprokopiou & Evergeti, 2014). Islamophobic perpetra-
tors have attacked Muslim women and men or buildings associated with Islam based
on this visibility (Hopkins & Gale, 2009; Jonker & Amiraux, 2006; Teeple Hopkins,
2015). On the other hand, bans against religious dress (e.g. the 2004 headscarf ban in
public schools in France) and the construction of mosques (e.g. the 2009 ban in
Sweden and Switzerland on Minarets, the tower which provides a visual distinction
and is used for the Muslim call to prayer) attempt to reduce the visibility of Muslim
communities. The actors and institutions of Islamophobia may include municipal
planners, national law-makers, or interpersonal violence by both men and women.
452 EDITORIAL
employment and unemployment. The daily violence that many Muslim women and men
endure in public space significantly questions their ‘right to the city’. Geographers provide
a ‘spatial’ reading of how social distinctions and forms of discrimination are constituted,
constrained and mediated (Delanay, 2002; Sundstrum, 2003).
While geographies of exclusion and inequality have a longer history in urban and social
geographies, to what extent do geographies of Islamophobia reflect these broader forms
of socio-spatial exclusion? Put simply, does anti-Muslim discrimination occur in spaces of
poverty and degradation, in Muslim neighbourhoods, or in geographical spaces that are
not typically associated with Muslim neighbourhoods? For example, in Paris, anti-Muslim
acts tend to occur in privileged and central areas, but there are some spots emphasized in
degraded urban areas where Muslim populations may live in great majority, even if they
represent a small proportion (Najib, 2019). It is this daily violence in urban space that is felt
at both the scales of the body and emotion: the trauma from Islamophobic violence
cannot be undone. The never-ending potential threat of violence in public space com-
bines an embodied emotional and physical sense of fear (Listerborn, 2015) that is
particularly strong for those who are read as visibly Muslim. As a result, Muslim women
who wear a headscarf must reinvent new mobilities and behaviours to avert potential
situations of discrimination (Najib & Hopkins, 2019).
Acknowledgments
We would like to first thank the contributors to this special issue and the participants of the
‘Geographies of Islamophobia’ paper sessions at the AAG conference in Boston in April 2017 who
breathed life into this research. Thank you to Peter Hopkins and Anna Mansson McGinty for their
encouragement and constructive comments on this editorial introduction, and to Linda McDowell
for her support of this project. Finally, we wish to acknowledge the enthusiasm and work of the
Social and Cultural Geography editorial and publishing team – many thanks in particular to Avril
Maddrell, Mary Gilmartin and David Bissell.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Funding
This work was supported by the European Commission through a H2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie
Actions Individual Fellowship [Horizon 2020-MSCA-IF-2015-703328-SAMA (Spaces of Anti-Muslim
Acts)] and a Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Société et Culture fellowship [194023]; H2020 Marie
Skłodowska-Curie Actions; Fonds de Recherche du Québec-Société et Culture.
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