Securing privileges, revitalizing national identity

Abstract

Islamophobia, anti-Muslim racism, and anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic hostilities – these concepts have been circulating in recent German discourse in an effort to name a phenomenon in which Muslims are discriminated against as Muslims. The terms are often used synonymously or their respective use is justified pragmatically by indicating, for example, that a certain term has already been introduced, is common in international discourse, or is compatible with other frequently used terms. These terms nevertheless refer back to different social theories, causing theory, research, and practice to diverge. Two explanatory approaches, each of which is supported by its own empirical studies, will be contrasted in this article: (1) the models of Islamophobia or anti-Islamic hostilities, which Heitmeyer et al. are researching in their longitudinal study on «group-focused enmity” (see Heitmeyer 2012); and (2) the theory of anti-Muslim racism, which is based on critical racism and postcolonial theory (see Attia 2009).