Counter-Islamophobia: History, Theory, and Praxis

The begrudging recognition that Islamophobia exists has not translated into action to combat it. In many parts of the world, international conferences are held, reports are commissioned, data is collected, and well-intentioned declarations are made—all seemingly to little avail. The incidence and intensity of global Islamophobia continue to increase, from misrepresentations and microaggressions to apartheid and genocide. There is an urgent need to shift the focus of Islamophobia Studies from recognition of the phenomenon to the forging of remedies. The move from recognition to remedy, however, is undermined by persistent presentism.

Presentism (i.e. the evacuation of history) can take two forms: it either portrays Islamophobia as a perennial phenomenon, tracing its origins to Iblis or Abu Lahab, or as something that emerged only with the global war on terror. In both cases, historical context is erased. This erasure hinders the development of effective counter-Islamophobia strategies by severing the connection to a rich archive of anti-discriminatory practices forged through anti-colonial and antiracist struggles.

Reductive understandings of research and scholarship-both inside and outside the academy-continue to shape views of the relationship between theory and action in countering Islamophobia. Within the academy, a suspicion often rooted in Orientalism persists: that any form of social or political commitment compromises the scholarly objectivity required for academic endeavour. Outside the academy, liberalism’s persistent strain of anti-intellectualism fosters the belief that only action, unencumbered by theory, can generate meaningful results. Both positions serve to undermine efforts to counter Islamophobia.

The fifth International Islamophobia Studies Research Association conference will be held in Kuala Lumpur. As with its previous iterations, this fifth conference seeks to imagine counter-Islamophobia by expanding the range of emancipatory struggles through a creative interplay of history, theory, and practice, which is made possible by decentring Western epistemologies, and temporalities.

Malaysia and the wider region - given their distinct Islamicate histories, their contributions to thinking through Islamicate alternative epistemologies, and their own experiences of both Islamophobia and counter-Islamophobia are fitting sites for reflecting on the conference themes.