Islamophobia/Islamophilia

This is an important work which seeks to move arguments about Muslims in the USA and Western Europe beyond the ‘good Muslim/bad Muslim’ binary. The monograph includes an excellent introduction by the editor and is structured around four themes: continuities and transformations; modern (self) criticism; violence and conversion in Europe and attraction and repulsion in shared space.

The individual essays are mainly by historians and anthropologists with one sociologist and one professor of English, most of whom teach in the USA or have lectured there. There is an illuminating chapter by a Slovenian scholar – Tomaz Mastnak – which provides an interesting historical overview of western hostility towards Muslims. Then there are country case-studies which vary from Shi‘ite women in Lebanon seeking to subvert Islamophobic stereotypes, converts and their ambivalent attitudes to immigrant Turkish Muslims in Germany, to an exploration of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in France and North Africa.