Responses to terror attacks helping to fuel Islamophobia

The recent string of terrorist attacks across Europe has led to a spike in Islamophobic acts, from daily harassment to the horrific event this week in Finsbury Park. Yet while extreme acts of Islamophobia are generally denounced by political actors and the media, a new study suggests that more insidious forms of Islamophobia, couched in liberal terms, are helping normalise such forms of racism in society. Published in the journal Ethnic and Racial Studies , the study by Dr Aurelien Mondon at the University's Department of Politics, Languages & International Studies and Dr Aaron Winter at the University of East London, explores the relationship between liberal and illiberal articulations of Islamophobia which it suggests is fundamental to understanding the roots and prevalence of this particular type of racism and its full impact. Definitions of Islamophobia. Comparing the situation in France with the USA, their paper argues that Illiberal Islamophobia is akin to traditional racism and far-right hate and typically denounced by liberal norms as unacceptable, 'alien in to our post-racial societies'. 'Liberal Islamophobia', by contrast, has developed as a perceived defence of liberal values - democracy, freedom of speech, gender, sexuality and equality. The authors suggest there are links between the two, with more extreme groups borrowing the arguments put forward in defence of liberty and equality on gender or sexuality to legitimate their standpoint.