Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire. Deepa Kumar
Praise for Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire
“This is a timely and crucial book. From historical roots to ideological causes, Islamophobia is studied in a holistic, profound and serious way. The reader will understand why we need to stop being both naive and blind. There will be no peaceful and just future in our democratic societies if we do not fight this new type of dangerous racism.”
—Tariq Ramadan, Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies, Oxford University
“Deepa Kumar’s Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire could not be more timely. In this deftly argued book, Kumar unearthes a genealogy of colonial construction that goes back to the earliest contacts between Muslims and Europeans. But the real power of her argument is when she grabs the politics of ideological domination by the throat and, with an astonishing moral and intellectual force, sets the record straight as to who and what the players are in turning a pathological fear of Muslims into a cornerstone of imperial hegemony. This is a must-read on both sides of the Atlantic, where mass murderers in Europe and military professors at the US military academies are in the business of manufacturing fictive enemies out of their fanciful delusions. Deepa Kumar has performed a vital public service.”
—Hamid Dabashi, Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature, Columbia University
“This important book sets out to debunk Orientalist myths: in particular, that historical encounters between Islam and the West can be understood through a “clash of civilizations” framework. The author explores the specific historical and political contexts of this relationship from the Crusades to Obama, providing a nuanced and extensive analysis. Kumar presents these arguments with a force and passion that is supported by a wealth of evidence. A must for scholars of Islam, social and political science, and international relations.”
—Elizabeth Poole, author of Reporting Islam: Media Representations of British Muslims
“In this remarkable primer Deepa Kumar expertly shows how racism is central to contemporary US imperial politics in ways similar to previous imperial wars, including the one that constituted the United States over the dead bodies of indigenous ‘redskins.’ An antiracist and antiwar activist as well as a model scholar-teacher, Kumar has written a comprehensive and most readable guide to exposing and opposing hatred of Islam.”
—Gilbert Achcar, Professor of Development Studies & International Relations, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London
“In this compact but incredibly comprehensive book, Deepa Kumar successfully debunks all of the major myths about Islam that continue to distort regular life, too often dangerously so, for Muslims in the United States and abroad. More important, she reveals how today’s ‘Green Scare’ forges intimate connections between quashing dissent at home and exporting a disastrous foreign policy abroad, while reminding us that the future belongs not to the racists and imperialists but to ordinary people everywhere struggling heroically for their human rights.”
—Moustafa Bayoumi, author of How Does It Feel to Be a Problem: Being Young and Arab in America
“Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire will be indispensable to anyone wanting to understand one of the most persistent forms of racism in the US and Europe. Kumar demonstrates that Islamophobic myths did not arise spontaneously after the end of the Cold War but are rooted in centuries of conquest and colonialism, from the Crusades to the ‘War on Terror.’ Arguing with precision and clarity, she shows how these myths have been systematically circulated by liberals as much as conservatives and usefully lays bare the complex ways in which the US foreign policy establishment has, in different contexts, instrumentalized Islamic political movements and exploited anti-Muslim racism. Kumar’s text will be a crucial corrective to those who fail to see that the origins of the ‘Islam problem’ lie in empire, not Sharia.”
—Arun Kundnani, author of The End of Tolerance: Racism in 21st Century Britain
“Against the historical backdrop of the rise of pax Americana in a unipolar world, Deepa Kumar’s Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire stands out as a powerful and comprehensive overview of Islamophobia, forcefully underscoring its role as a keystone to maintaining US political and economic power abroad while simultaneously managing American politics and critical dissent at home. Prof. Kumar meticulously maps historical developments within the formation of American Islamophobia and names the players, institutions, and strategies central to the phenomenon, insightfully marking its permutations within right-wing civilizational discourses and the ‘soft power’ and humanitarian discourses of American liberals.”
—Stephen Sheehi, author of Islamophobia: The Ideological Campaign against Muslims
Islamophobia
and the Politics of Empire
© 2012 Deepa Kumar
Published in 2012 by Haymarket Books
PO Box 180165
Chicago, IL 60618
www.haymarketbooks.org
773-583-7884
ISBN: 978-1-60846-212-4
Trade distribution:
In the US, Consortium Book Sales and Distribution, www.cbsd.com
In Canada, Publishers Group Canada, www.pgcbooks.ca
In the UK, Turnaround Publisher Services, www.turnaround-uk.com
In Australia, Palgrave Macmillan, www.palgravemacmillan.com.au
All other countries, Publishers Group Worldwide, www.pgw.com
Cover design by Josh On. Cover image of a US Army Apache helicopter over the minaret of the 14th of Ramadan mosque in downtown Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, November 16, 2005. AP Photo. © Mohammed Hato.
Published with the generous support of Lannan Foundation and the Wallace Global Fund.
Library of Congress cataloging-in-publication data is available.
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Section 1
History and Context
Introduction
On September 11, 2001, I watched the televised spectacle of the Twin Towers crashing down with a sense of horror. I was deeply sorry for the innocent people who were being made to pay the price for the ravages of empire, and I was worried about whether any of my friends or relatives were in the towers. But almost immediately, I started to feel a sense of dread over what was to come: what would the United States do in response? I wondered, with a deep sense of apprehension, how many more innocent people would be killed around the world in the years to follow.
When I went to school that day, one of the first people I encountered was a colleague who jeered, “Are you happy?” Momentarily stunned, I could only stammer that I was not, and that I had just learned that some people I knew might have been in the Twin Towers at the time of the crash. Later that day, I stopped by the local Winn-Dixie grocery store, where the checkout clerk could barely conceal his contempt toward me. Eventually he flat-out asked me to apologize for what had happened that day. Again, I was taken aback. I didn’t know how to reply. As a normally outspoken activist, I wasn’t used to this sense of muteness; I just stood there and looked at him, temporarily dumbfounded.The only thing I knew beyond a shadow of doubt at that moment was that my response, when it did come out of my mouth, would not reveal that I was neither Muslim nor Arab. When I regained my composure, I asked him if he had heard of Timothy McVeigh and the other Christian fundamentalists who had similarly murdered innocent people. I asked him if he thought all Christians were responsible for these acts. He didn’t reply.
I heard shortly afterward that a young Arab student at a neighboring university had been beaten up and that the campus police had simply looked the other way. Notices were posted in our apartment complex asking people to report “suspicious” behavior and people. A Sikh Indian man wearing a turban was killed in Arizona. In the months that followed, tens of thousands of Muslims were