Islamophobia is the irrational fear and/or hatred of Islam, Muslims or Islamic culture . Islamophobia encompasses the belief that all or most Muslims are religious fanatics, have violent tendencies towards non-Muslims, support Islamist terrorism and reject concepts such as equality, tolerance, democracy and human rights as contrary to Islam. It is viewed as a new form of racism whereby Muslims, an ethno-religious group, not a race, are nevertheless constructed as a race. A set of negative assumptions are made of the entire group to the detriment of members of that group.

During the 1990s some sociologists and cultural analysts hypothesized that there was a shift in forms of prejudice from ones based on skin colour to ones based on notions of cultural superiority and otherness ^{Religion as a fig leaf for racism, Jeremy Seabrook , The Guardian, 2004-07-23, retrieved 2005-01-29 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/race/story/0,11374,1267567,00.html}

1. ^{^  Discrimination and Legislation - Response of Dr. Anya Rudiger from Discrimination and Legislation session of Muslims in Europe post 9/11 conference, 2003-04-26, St Antony's College, Oxford retrieved 2005-01-29 from http://www.sant.ox.ac.uk/princeton/pap_rudiger.shtml}
2. ^{^  Islam and Muslims in Europe, Tariq Ramadan, Equal Voices issue 10, published by European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) verified 2005-01-29 from http://eumc.eu.int/eumc/index.php?fuseaction=content.dsp_cat_content&catid=3e3e6e32a2316&contentid=3e3e8c602f879}
3. ^{^  Discrimination and Legislation from Muslims in Europe post 9/11 conference, 2003-04-26, St Antony's College, Oxford retrieved 2005-01-29 from http://www.sant.ox.ac.uk/princeton/pap_malik.shtml}
4. ^{^  Trapped in the ruins, William Dalrymple, The Guardian, 2004-03-20, verified 2005-01-29 from http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1172782,00.html}
5. ^{^  Orientalism, Edward W. Said , ISBN 0614216303 (1996 edition, Kazi Pubns Inc), quote given is taken from Page 74 of the "2003 Edition", publisher unknown.}
6. ^{^  Legislative Update, Siskind's Immigration Bulletin February 7, 2003, Visalaw.com, verified 2005/01/22 from http://www.visalaw.com/03feb1/17feb103.html}
7. ^{^  This Is War - We should invade their countries., Ann Coulter (Contributing Editor), National Review Online, 2001-09-13, verified 2005/01/22 from http://www.nationalreview.com/coulter/coulter091301.shtml, according to proislam.com the National Review later ceased employing Ms Coulter.}
8. ^{^  The Tories must confront Islam instead of kowtowing to it, Will Cummins, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/07/18 verified 2005/01/22 from http://www.sport.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2004/07/18/do1802.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2004/07/18/ixopinion.html}
9. ^{^  When speech is too free, Ahmed J Versi (Editor and publisher of The Muslim News ), BBC News 2004/01/19, retrieved 2005/01/22 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3409123.stm}
10. ^{^  Le Pen ultimate, Adar Primor, Haaretz International, verified 2005/01/22 from http://news.haaretz.co.il/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=153419}
11. ^{^  Vines calls founder of Islam a 'demon-possessed pedophile', Biblical Recorder 2002-06-14, verified 2005/01/22 from http://www.biblicalrecorder.org/content/news/2002/6_14_2002/ne140602vines.shtml}
12. ^{^  There Is No Palestine, by Rabbi Meir Kahane 1974, verified 2005/01/22 from http://kahanetzadak.com/palestine.html N.B. probable extremist site, declared as terrorist by the U.S. State Department.}
13. ^{^  Last chance to speak out, Polly Toynbee, The Guardian 2001/10/05, verified 2005/01/22 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/waronterror/story/0,1361,563619,00.html}
14. ^{^  The Annual Islamophobia Awards, Islamic Human Rights Commission, 2003/05/31, verified 2005/01/22 from http://www.inminds.co.uk/islamophobia-awards-2003.html}

^{External Links}

^{Anti Islamophobia websites and articles}

• ^{Kofi Annan and Seyyed Hussein Nasr on Islamophobia}
• ^{The American Islamic Congress offers its own guide on recognizing hatespeech towards adherents of Islam. Responding to Hate Speech: A Citizen's Guide}
• ^{Forum Against Islamophobia and Racism, a charity that promotes inter faith understanding and defines Islamophobia as a form of racism.}
• ^{Oxford & Princeton Universities: Muslims in Europe Post 9/11.}
• ^{European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia}
• ^{ADL Responds to Violence and Harassment against Arab Americans and Muslim Americans}

^{Examples of Use}

^{Examples of use by the writer Faisal Bodi:}

• ^{The Guardian: Call this monster by its name}
• ^{The Guardian: Old hatred, new style}
• ^{The Guardian: To say that jihadis are a threat is not Islamophobic}