Islamophobia is the irrational fear of, hostility towards, or hatred against the religion of Islam or Muslims in general. Islamophobia is primarily a form of religious or cultural bigotry; and people who harbour such sentiments often stereotype Muslims as a geopolitical threat or a source of terrorism. Muslims, with diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds, are often inaccurately portrayed by Islamophobes as a single homogenous racial group.
Islam is the third-largest religion in the United States (1.34%) after Christianity (67%) and Judaism (2.4%). The 2020 United States Religion Census estimates that there are about 4,453,908 Muslim Americans of all ages living in the United States in 2020, making up 1.34% of the total U.S. population. In 2017, twenty states, mostly in the South and Midwest, reported Islam to be the largest non-Christian religion.
The Runnymede Trust is a British race equality and civil rights think tank. It was founded by Jim Rose and Anthony Lester as an independent source for generating intelligence for a multi-ethnic Britain through research, network building, leading debate and policy engagement.
The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) is an umbrella body of Muslim organisations in the United Kingdom, with over 500 affiliated mosques and organisations. It was formed in 1994 in response to British government's expressed wish for a single representative body of Muslims it could talk to. It has been called the best known and most powerful of the Muslim organisations founded since 1990.
Jihad Watch is an American far-right Islamophobic blog operated by Robert Spencer. A project of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, Jihad Watch is the most popular blog within the counter-jihad movement.
The post-9/11 period is the time after the September 11 attacks, characterized by heightened suspicion of non-Americans in the United States, increased government efforts to address terrorism, and a more aggressive American foreign policy.
Louay M. Safi is a Syrian-American, a scholar of Islam and the Middle East, and an advocate of Arab and Muslim American rights. He published on such issues as social and political development, modernization, democracy, human rights, and Islam and Modernity. He is the author of 11 books and numerous papers, and speaker on questions of leadership, democracy, Islam, and the Middle East. He is also a spokesperson for the Syrian National Coalition, a league of Syrian opposition groups fighting Syrian President Assad, which was formed in November 2012 in Doha, Qatar.
Ghayasuddin Siddiqui is an academic and political activist. He was born in 1939 in Delhi, India, migrated to Pakistan in late 1947 and moved to the UK in 1964.
The Forum Against Islamophobia and Racism (FAIR) was a London-based Muslim advocacy and lobbying group which campaigns against discrimination in the form of Islamophobia and racism. It was established in 2001 as an independent charitable organization with the aim of monitoring media coverage of Islam and Muslims, and challenging examples of Islamophobia through dialogue with media organizations. It produced numerous publications relating to Islamophobia in the United Kingdom. Formed in 2000, Navid Akhtar and Samar Mashadi have been directors of FAIR.
Dalia Mogahed, is an American researcher and consultant of Egyptian origin. She is the director of research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU) in Washington, D.C. She is also President and CEO of Mogahed Consulting, a Washington, D.C.–based executive coaching and consulting firm specializing in Muslim societies and the Middle East. Mogahed is former executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, a non-partisan research center that provided data and analysis to reflect the views of Muslims all over the world. She was selected as an advisor by U.S. President Barack Obama on the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
Islamic extremism in the United States comprises all forms of Islamic extremism occurring within the United States. Islamic extremism is an adherence to fundamentalist interpretations of Islam, potentially including the promotion of violence to achieve political goals. In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, Islamic extremism became a prioritized national security concern of the U.S. government and a focus of many subsidiary security and law enforcement entities. Initially, the focus of concern was on foreign Islamic terrorist organizations, particularly al-Qaeda, but in the course of the years since the September 11 terror attacks, the focus has shifted more towards Islamic extremist radicalized individuals and jihadist networks within the United States.
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) is a non-profit neoconservative think tank and a registered lobbying organization based in Washington, D.C., United States. It has also been described as a pro-Israel, anti-Iran lobby group due to its focus on Iran and opposition to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.
Nina Rosenwald is an American political activist and philanthropist. An heiress to the Sears Roebuck fortune, Rosenwald is vice president of the William Rosenwald Family Fund and co-chair of the board of American Securities Management. She is the founder and president of Gatestone Institute, a New York-based right-wing anti-Muslim think tank.
American Muslims often face Islamophobia and racialization due to stereotypes and generalizations ascribed to them. Due to this, Islamophobia is both a product of and a contributor to the United States' racial ideology, which is founded on socially constructed categories of profiled features, or how people seem.
Islamophobia in Australia is distrust and hostility towards Muslims, Islam, and those perceived as following the religion. This social aversion and bias is often facilitated and perpetuated in the media through the stereotyping of Muslims as violent and uncivilised. Various Australian politicians and political commentators have capitalised on these negative stereotypes and this has contributed to the marginalisation, discrimination and exclusion of the Muslim community.
Islamophobia in the media refers to negative coverage of Islam-related topics, Muslims, or Arabs by media outlets in a way that is hostile, untrue, and/or misleading. Islamophobia is defined as "Intense dislike or fear of Islam, especially as a political force; hostility or prejudice towards Muslims", and the study of how and to what extent the media furthers Islamophobia has been the subject of much academic and political discussion.
Islamophobia in Canada refers to a set of discourses, behaviours and structures which express feelings of anxiety, fear, hostility and rejection towards Islam or Muslims in Canada.
The European Foundation for Democracy (EFD) is a policy centre and a registered EU lobbyist organization based in Brussels, Belgium. Its activities focus on counter-radicalisation, security and the promotion of the European values of democracy and individual freedoms. Its experts produce analyses and publications concerning the various threats coming from extremist ideologies, recommending measures and policies to counter these phenomena.
Pillars Fund is a grant-making organization and Muslim community foundation named in reference to the five pillars of Islam, the third of which is Zakat.
Rania Awaad is an Egyptian-American Islamic scholar, psychiatrist, and professor. Awaad is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Stanford Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science. Awaad is known for her work on Islam and psychology and the mental health of Muslim Americans.
