Islamophobia and Racism in America

Choice Top Book of 2017 Confronting and combating Islamophobia in America.Islamophobia has long been a part of the problem of racism in the United States, and it has only gotten worse in the wake of shocking terror attacks, the ongoing refugee crisis, and calls from public figures like Donald Trump for drastic action. As a result, the number of hate crimes committed against Middle Eastern Americans of all origins and religions have increased, and civil rights advocates struggle to confront this striking reality. In Islamophobia and Racism in America, Erik Love draws on in-depth interviews with Middle Eastern American advocates. He shows that, rather than using a well-worn civil rights strategy to advance reforms to protect a community affected by racism, many advocates are choosing to bolster universal civil liberties in the United States more generally, believing that these universal protections are reliable and strong enough to deal with social prejudice. In reality, Love reveals, civil rights protections are surprisingly weak, and do not offer enough avenues for justice, change, and community reassurance in the wake of hate crimes, discrimination, and social exclusion. A unique and timely study, Islamophobia and Racism in America wrestles with the disturbing implications of these findings for the persistence of racism—including Islamophobia—in the twenty-first century. As America becomes a “majority-minority” nation, this strategic shift in American civil rights advocacy signifies challenges in the decades ahead, making Love’s findings essential for anyone interested in the future of universal civil rights in the United States.

Islamophobia and Racism offers a necessarily startling and chilling view of the pervasiveness ofIslamophobia and the effectiveness of the state in co-opting and fettering the language of advocacy in the United States...Love's work is effective, insightful, and pulsing with urgency and compassion., Poses crucial questions about the future of race and activism in America . . . Through extensive historical and sociological research, Love sets out to map the ecosystem of organizations claiming to speak for Middle Eastern Americans, and interrogates their use (or lack thereof) of race based language, organizing, and advocacy strategies., Islamophobia and Racism in America makes contributions to the sociology of race, immigration, and advocacy movements. It also provides a valuable perspective to an important and timely topic by viewing Middle Eastern American rights through the lens of racial struggles in American history. The in-depth interviews of civil rights advocates in the six major organizations offer valuable inside views of the lessons of the advocacy movement. It is an accessible book for graduate and undergraduate students, as the text is easy to follow., As scholars and students grapple with how to understand the role of race in the situation of Muslim Americans, the book provides a dynamic historical account and a forceful argument about race and advocacy that will nourish productive and thoughtful debate among scholars and in the classroom., Love's book successfully highlights the co-constitution of race and religion in relation to Islamophobia and the radicalization of Muslims ... both because its specificity to the phenomenon of Islamophobia and its generalizability to racism in America, Love's research is both timely and timeless, significant for sociologist and others alike.

Erik Love is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania.