Over the last thirty years, the growing presence of Muslims in Western societies has sparked transnational movements of moral panic, driven mainly by the “war on terror” and fears of the collapse of “national cohesion.” Parallel public discussions about the degree to which their otherness can be accommodated in Western democracies, hostility and discrimination against Muslims have reached new peaks in societies where racism and religious intolerance are officially banned from discourses, policies, and laws. Anti-Muslim rhetoric, fostered by inflammatory discourse by major political figures, pundits, and public intellectuals, is on the verge of becoming acceptable in many multicultural societies. The role of secularism in the legitimization of hostility and, in some cases, prohibition of Islamic religious expressions in public life is also one of the parameters that shape the patterns of prejudice against Muslims. While the term is still contested, Islamophobia has thus become a major concern in Europe and, to a lesser extent, in North America.

This workshop will bring together scholars from different fields that have engaged with Islamophobia as a social phenomenon, from a theoretical or from an empirical perspective. Speakers will attempt to account for the tensions and the co-existence between the delegitimization of discrimination and the surge of Islamophobia in many Western multicultural societies.