Colonial Capitalist/Patriarchal World-System" (2006)

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Sociology & Anthropology Faculty Publications Sociology & Anthropology Department

12-2006

The Long-Durée Entanglement Between Islamophobia and Racism in the Modern/ Colonial Capitalist/Patriarchal World- System

Eric Mielants Fairfield University, [email protected]

Ramon Grosfuguel

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Repository Citation Mielants, Eric and Grosfuguel, Ramon, "The Long-Durée Entanglement Between Islamophobia and Racism in the Modern/ Colonial Capitalist/Patriarchal World-System" (2006). Sociology & Anthropology Faculty Publications. 39. https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/sociologyandanthropology-facultypubs/39 Published Citation Mielants, Eric; Grosfuguel, Ramon. “The Long-Durée Entanglement Between Islamophobia and Racism in the Modern/ Colonial Capitalist/Patriarchal World-System” in Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self- Knowledge, December 2006, Vol. 5 (1), p. 1-12.

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HUMAN ARCHITECTURE: JOURNAL OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE A Publication of OKCIR: The Omar Khayyam Center for Integrative Research in Utopia, Mysticism, and Science (Utopystics)

The Long-Durée Entanglement Between Islamophobia and Racism in the Modern/Colonial Capitalist/Patriarchal World-System An Introduction

Ramón Grosfoguel and Eric Mielants University of California at Berkeley • Fairﬁeld University Special Issue Guest Co-Editors –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– [email protected] • [email protected]ﬁeld.edu

Abstract: The first part of this essay discusses Islamophobia as a form of racism in a world-historical perspective. The second part is a discussion of Islamophobia as a form of cultural racism. The third part is on Islamophobia as Orientalism. The fourth part is Islamophobia as epistemic racism, while the final part is an example of this using the case of European Islamic Philosopher and Theologian, Tariq Ramadan. It is argued that Islamophobia as a form of racism against Mus- lim people is not only manifested in the labor market, education, public sphere, global war against terrorism, or the global economy, but also in the epistemological battleground about the definition of the priorities in the world today. The essay then briefly introduces the contributions of each scholar gathered in this issue of Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowl- edge (Walter D. Mignolo, Farish A. Noor, Thomas E. Reifer, Abdulkader Tayob, Manuela Boatcã, and Madina Tlostanova) and elaborates on how they have attempted in different ways to address some of the issues raised above. The volume, of which this is an introduction, is the result of an international conference on “The Post-September 11 New Ethnic/Racial Configura- tions in Europe and the United States: The Case of Islamophobia” that was organized by the authors at the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (MSH) in Paris on June 2-3, 2006.

Any discussion of Islamophobia today stand the “modern world-system” as a glo- has to depart from a discussion about the bal inter-state system organized solely in cartography of power of the “world-sys- terms of an international division of labor, tem” for the past 500 years. If we under- Islamophobia would then be an epiphenom-

Ramón Grosfoguel is Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Senior Research Associate of the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme in Paris. He has published on the political economy of the world-system and on Caribbean migrations to Western Europe and the United States. His most recent book is Colonial Subjects: Puerto Ricans in a Global Perspective (University of California Press, 2003). Most recently he was co-editor, with Eric Mielants, of a special issue of the International Journal of Comparative Sociology (Vol. 47, Aug. 2006) on Minor- ities, Racism and Cultures of Scholarship. Eric Mielants is Assistant Professor in Sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences at Fairﬁeld University. He has written articles and essays on racism, social theory and contemporary migra- tion issues. His book, The Origins of Capitalism and the ‘Rise of the West’, is forthcoming from Temple University Press. From the authors: The present volume is the result of an international conference on “The Post-September 11 New Ethnic/Racial Conﬁgurations in Europe and the United States: The Case of Islamophobia” that we organized at the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (MSH) in Paris on June 2-3, 2006. We would like to acknowledge our gratitude to the past and present Director of the MSH: Prof. Maurice Aymard and Prof. Alain d'Iribarne. Both have been crucial to the success of the conference. We are grateful for their generous support.

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2RAMÓN GROSFOGUEL AND ERIC MIELANTS

enon of the political-economy of the world- discussion of Islamophobia as a form of cul- system and, in particular, of the ceaseless ac- tural racism. The third part is on Islamopho- cumulation of capital on a world-scale. bia as Orientalism. The fourth part is Isla- However, if we shift the geopolitics and mophobia as epistemic racism, while the fi- body-politics of knowledge from a North nal part is an example of this using the case oriented gaze of the world-system towards a of European Islamic Philosopher and Theo- South oriented view, we get a different pic- logian, Tariq Ramadan. ture of the global cartography of power. From a Southern perspective, the world-sys- ISLAMOPHOBIA AS A FORM OF tem is organized not only as a global inter- RACISM IN WORLD-HISTORICAL state system centered around an international division of labor, but includes, not as PERSPECTIVE additive elements but as constitutive of the capitalist accumulation on a world-scale, a The challenge for our topic is to answer global racial/ethnic hierarchy (Europeans/ how it was possible that a religious differ- Euro-Americans vs. non-European peo- ence in the pre-modern/colonial world ples), a global patriarchal hierarchy (global turned into a racial/ethnic difference in the gender system and a global sexual system), modern/colonial world. In the heterarchical a global religious hierarchy, a global linguis- conceptualization of the world-system used tic hierarchy, a global epistemic hierarchy, here, Islamophobia would be the subal- etc. (see Grosfoguel 2006). The “package” of ternization and inferiorization of Islam pro- entangled power hierarchies of the world- duced by the Christian-centric religious hi- system is broader and more complex than erarchy of the world-system since the end of what is frequently theorized in world-sys- the 15th century. The year 1492 is a crucial tem analysis. For the sake of economizing foundational year for the understanding of space, when we use the term “world-sys- the present system. In this year, the Chris- tem” in this essay, we refer to the “modern/ tian Spanish monarchy re-conquered Islam- colonial European/Euro-American Chris- ic Spain expelling Jews and Arabs from the tian-centric capitalist/patriarchal world- Spanish peninsula while simultaneously system.” At the risk of sounding ridiculous, “discovering” the Americas and colonizing we prefer a long phrase like this to charac- indigenous peoples. These “internal” and terize the present heterarchical structure “external” conquests of territories and peo- (multiple power hierarchies entangled with ple not only created an international divi- one another in complex historical ways) of sion of labor of core and periphery, but also the world-system, than the limited charac- constituted the internal and external imag- terization of a single hierarchy called “capi- ined boundaries of Europe related to the talist world-system” with capital accumula- global racial/ethnic hierarchy of the world- tion as the single logic of the system (Ibid). system, privileging populations of Europe- The latter can lead to an economic reduc- an origin over the rest. Jews and Arabs be- tionist understanding of the world-system, came the subaltern internal “Others” within while the former leads to a more complex, Europe, while indigenous people became non-reductive structural-historical analysis. the external “Others” of Europe (Mignolo Islamophobia as a form of racism against 2000). Muslim people is not an epiphenomenon, The first marker of “otherness” in the but constitutive of the international division “European/Euro-American Christian-Cen- of labor. tric Capitalist/Patriarchal World-System” The first part of this essay discusses Isla- was around religious identity. Jews and Ar- mophobia as a form of racism in a world- abs were characterized as “people with the historical perspective. The second part is a wrong religion” while indigenous people

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THE LONG-DURÉE ENTANGLEMENT BETWEEN ISLAMOPHOBIA AND RACISM 3 were constructed as “people without reli- Americas into the ﬁrst racialized subject of gion” (Maldonado-Torres 2006). In the glo- the modern/colonial world inaugurated in bal racial/ethnic hierarchy produced by the 1492 (Dussel 1994). This racist imaginary two major events of 1492, the “people with- was extended to new “people without God” out religion,” that is “people without God,” such as sub-Saharan Africans transferred were at the bottom of the hierarchy, while massively to the Americas as part of the Eu- “people with the wrong religion,” that is, ropean slave trade after the infamous debate “people with the wrong God,” occupied a between Sepulveda and Las Casas in the different position in this hierarchy. How did School of Salamanca in the 1550s. Sepulveda “people with the wrong religion” turn into argued that indigenous people had no soul “people below the human,” that is, racially and therefore were not humans and could inferior people? be enslaved without representing a sin in The struggle of Christian Spain against the eyes of God (Wallerstein 2006). While Islam formed part of a long imperial strug- Las Casas argued that they were savages gle in the Mediterranean Sea that goes back with a soul, that is culturally inferior, child- to the crusades. The Christian vs. Islam like but ultimately humans to be Christian- struggle articulated what Walter Mignolo ized rather than enslaved. Both represent (2000) characterizes as the “imperial differ- the initial formal articulation of the two ence,” while the post-1492 Spanish vs. In- forms of racism that continued for the next digenous struggle in the Americas articulat- ﬁve centuries. Sepulveda represented a bio- ed the “colonial difference.” The “imperial logical racist discourse while Las Casas a difference” after 1492 is the result of imperi- cultural racist discourse. al relations between European empires ver- Las Casas argued that “Indians” should sus Non-European Empires and we will be incorporated in the encomienda (a form characterize it here as the result of the “im- of semi-feudal coerced labor) and called for perial relation.” The “colonial difference” is Africans to replace them as slaves in the the result of colonial relations between Eu- plantations. After all, Africans were charac- ropean and non-European peoples and we terized by Las Casas not only as “people will characterize it here as a result of the “co- without religion” but also as “people with- lonial relation.” Historically, the expulsion out soul.” The argument here is that the rac- of Arabs and Jews from Christian Spain in ist imaginary that was built against the in- the name of “purity of blood” was a proto- digenous people of the new world was then racist process (not yet fully racist, although gradually extended to all non-European the consequences were not that different). peoples starting with the African slave trade “Purity of blood” was not used as a racial in the mid-16th century. term but as a technology of power to trace The important issue for our topic is how the religious ancestry of the population. this racist imaginary was extended even to However, “purity of blood” did not become people that were characterized as “people a fully racist perspective until much later with the wrong God” in the late 15 century. and only after the application of the notion As the European Empires’ relations with the of the “purity of blood” to indigenous peo- Islamic Empires turned from an “imperial ples in the Americas. relation” into a “colonial relation” (the Indigenous peoples characterized in the Dutch colonization of Indonesia in the 17th late 15th and early 16th century as “people century, the British colonization of India in without God” in the Christian Spanish the 18th century, the British colonization of imaginary became inferior sub-human or the Middle East in the 19th century, and the non-human beings. It is this inferiorization demise and subsequent division of the Otto- below the “human,” to the level of animals, man Empire among several European em- which turned indigenous peoples in the pires at the end of the First World War), the

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4RAMÓN GROSFOGUEL AND ERIC MIELANTS

notion of “people with the wrong God” in ues of a group of people. It is close to biolog- the Theological Christian imaginary of the ical racism in the sense that cultural racism 16th and 17th centuries was secularized into naturalizes/essentializes the culture of the a “scientiﬁc evolutionary hierarchical civili- racialized/inferiorized people. The latter zation” imaginary that turned the late 15th are often represented as ﬁxed in a timeless century “people with the wrong religion” space. (imperial difference) into the inferior “sav- In the new cultural racist discourses, re- ages and primitives” of “people without civ- ligion has a dominant role. The contempo- ilization” (colonial difference) in the 19th rary tropes about “uncivilized,” “barbari- century. The latter represented a crucial trans- an,” “savage,” “primitive,” “underdevel- formation from the inferiorization of non-Chris- oped,” “authoritarian,” and “terrorist” tian religions (such as Islam, Judaism, etc.) to the inferior people are today concentrated in the inferiorization of the human beings practicing “other’s” religious practices and beliefs. By those religions (such as Muslims and Jews). This focusing on the “other’s” religion, the Euro- discursive mutation was central to the entangle- peans, Euro-Americans and Euro-Israelis ment between the inferiorization of religion and manage to escape being accused of racism. the racism against non-European human beings However, when we carefully examine the practicing those religions. The Christian-centric hegemonic rhetoric in place, the tropes are a global religious hierarchy and the Eurocentric repetition of old biological racist discourses global racial/ethnic hierarchy were increasingly and the people who are the target of Islamo- entangled and the distinction between practicing phobic discourses are the traditional colo- a non-Christian religion and being racialized as nial subjects of the Western Empires, that is, an inferior human became increasingly erased. the “usual suspects.” Only within the outlined long durée of ISLAMOPHOBIA AS A FORM OF historical continuities together with the recent hegemony of cultural racism can we CULTURAL RACISM understand the relationship between Isla- mophobia and racism today. It is absolutely In the last 60 years there has been a his- impossible to de-link the hate or fear against torical transformation in racist discourses. Muslims from racism against non-European While biological racist discourses declined, people. Islamophobia and cultural racism cultural racism became the hegemonic form are entangled and overlapping discourses. of racism in the late world-system (Gros- The association of Muslims with the colonial foguel 2003). The defeat of Nazi Germany, subjects of Western empires in the minds of the anti-colonial struggles and the civil white populations is simply a given in the rights movements of colonial minorities in- core of the “modern/colonial capitalist/pa- side the Western empires created the histor- triarchal world-system.” This links Islamo- ical and political conditions for the transi- phobia to an old colonial racism that is still tion from biological racism to cultural rac- alive in the world today, especially in the ism. The white elites of the world-system metropolitan centers. did not give up on their racism. They simply In Great Britain, Muslims are associated shifted the meanings and discourses of with Egyptians, Pakistanis and Bang- “race” in response to the challenges from the ladeshis (subjects from old British colonies); struggles of colonized people. thus Islamophobia in Britain is associated Cultural racism is a form of racism that with anti-Black, anti-Arab and anti-South does not even mention the word “race.” It is Asian racism. In France, Muslims are mostly focused on the cultural inferiority of a group North Africans (from old colonies such as of people. Usually it is framed in terms of Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal, etc.). In the inferior habits, beliefs, behaviors, or val- The Netherlands, Muslims are mostly ‘guest

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THE LONG-DURÉE ENTANGLEMENT BETWEEN ISLAMOPHOBIA AND RACISM 5 workers’ and colonial migrants coming problem of racial discrimination, racism be- from Turkey, Morocco, Indonesia and Suri- comes a corrosive process that ends up de- name so Islamophobia in The Netherlands is stroying the abstract ideals of each model. In associated with racism against guest worker the case of the Anglo-American world, mul- migrants and old colonial subjects. In Bel- ticulturalism and diversity operate to con- gium, 90% of the Belgian population uses ceal white supremacy. The racial minorities the term ‘vreemdelingen’ or ‘étrangers’ are allowed to celebrate their history, tradi- (‘foreigners’) to refer specifically to Moroc- tions and identity as long as they leave in- can, Turkish or Arab immigrants, i.e., cultur- tact the white supremacy’s racial/ethnic hi- al others that can be defined as Muslims erarchy of the status quo. The dominant sys- (Billiet & Carton & Huys 1990:432). In Ger- tem in the United Kingdom, Canada and the many, Islamophobia is associated with anti- United States is an institutionalized and Turk racism, and in Spain with anti-Moor concealed “white affirmative action” that racism. Thus Islamophobia as a fear or ha- benefits whites on a daily basis and at all tred of Muslims is associated with anti-Ar- levels of social existence. It is so powerful ab, anti-Asian, and anti-Black racism. that it has become normalized to the point of Similarly, in the United States, Islam is not being stated as such. associated with African-Americans—most In the French Republican model, the for- notably the Nation of Islam—and Arabs of mal system of equality operates with an in- all ethnicities. Puerto Ricans as colonial sub- stitutionalized and normalized “communa- jects of the U.S. empire are suspicious sub- utarisme masculin blanc.” If racial/gender/ jects in the Islamophobic hysteria1 and the sexual minorities protest discrimination, fact that Latinos are one of the largest grow- they are accused by the “communautaristes ing populations of converts to Islam in the masculin blanc” in power to be acting as U.S. is also an issue. After 9/11, many con- “communautaristes” as if the elites in power servative politicians and American media were racial and gender blind/neutral, be- outlets, such as commentator Lou Dobbs on having towards everybody with a “univer- CNN, associated illegal immigrants with sal principle of equality.” White supremacy terrorism and national security problems, in France operates within the myth of a “ra- encouraging, if not leading to, the increased cially blind society.” “Racially-blind racism” militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border. is institutionalized and normalized in The latter will likely only lead to more eco- France to the point that makes discriminato- nomic refugees dying in the desert. ry “communautarisme masculin blanc” in- It does not matter if the Western domes- visible. tic political system is the British multicultur- Islamophobia is a case in point. The so- al model or the French Republican model— called neutrality of the West is contradicted neither is working. Unable to overcome the when Muslims affirm their practices and identities in the public sphere and when 1 See the case of Jose Padilla, a Puerto Rican they make claims of discrimination in edu- from Chicago, who has spent more than three cation or the labor market as citizens with years in an isolated military prison without any equal rights within Western states. The veil charges. Even though Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, the neo-fascist law of the U.S. Patriot Act law in France against Muslim women’s use allows the unlimited incarceration of U.S. citi- of the veil in public institutions or the incar- zens without legal charges and procedures in a ceration without due procedure and torture civil court. The initial public accusation against Padilla made by U.S. authorities at the time of of thousands of Muslims in the United his arrest was that he supposedly had a docu- States are just recent instances in a long list ment to build a domestic atomic bomb in his of grievances. apartment in Chicago. The accusation is so ridiculous that they kept him incarcerated without a At a world level, Islamophobia has been due procedure in the courts for several years. the dominant discourse used in the post-civ-

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il rights and post-independence era of dom- not accidental that Anti-Arab racism ac- inant cultural racist discourses against Ar- counts for most Islamophobia in the West. abs. The events of 9/11 escalated anti-Arab Even Muslims from South Asia and African racism through an Islamophobic hysteria all origin living in the West get part of the heat over the world, specifically among the dom- of the anti-Arab racism, especially in the inant elites of the United States and Israel. United States (Salaita 2006). The latter is not surprising given U.S. and Is- raeli representation of Palestinians, Arabs ISLAMOPHOBIA AS ORIENTALISM and Islamic people in general as terrorists decades before 9/11 (Said 1979, 1981). The One of the cultural racist arguments responsibility of U.S. foreign policy is never used against Islamic people today is their linked to the tragic events of 9/11. The U.S. “patriarchal and sexist abuses of women.” Cold War against the “Evil Empire” in Af- As part of the construction of Islamic people ghanistan during the 1980s financed, sup- as inferior in relation to the West, an impor- ported and created a global network of Is- tant argument to sustain their “uncivilized” lamic fundamentalist terrorist groups, then and “violent” values/behavior is the op- known as “Freedom Fighters,” that came pression of women at the hands of men. back to haunt them on 9/11 (Johnson 2006). It is ironic to hear Western patriarchal The U.S. was complicit in Osama Bin-Lad- and Christian conservative fundamentalist en’s and Al Qaeda’s operations as part of the figures talk as if they were the defenders of CIA’s global/imperial designs and opera- feminism when they talk about Islam. tions against the Soviet Union back in the George W. Bush’s main argument to invade 1980s. However, it is easier to blame Arab Afghanistan was the need to liberate brown people and use racist Islamophobic argu- women from the atrocities of brown men. ments rather than to critically examine U.S. The hypocrisy of the argument is clear when foreign policy over the past 50 years. The the Bush Administration has been actively same applies to Saddam Hussein, who was defending Christian patriarchal fundamen- a loyal U.S. ally and fought dirty wars, sup- talism, opposing abortion and women’s civ- ported by the CIA, against Iran following il/social rights during the past years in the U.S. imperial/global designs during the United States, while using a women’s rights 1980s. Yet he was later declared a U.S. ene- argument against the Taliban’s to invade Af- my and falsely accused by the U.S. elites to ghanistan. have links to Al Qaeda in order to justify a The rhetoric of “white men as saviors of long-planned war against Iraq (Risen 2006). women of color from colored men’s patriar- It is symptomatic that in most Western chal abuses” actually goes back to colonial countries, Arabs are still perceived as if they times. It has historically served to conceal were “the majority of Muslims in the world” the real reasons behind the colonization of even though they are only 1/5 of the world’s the non-West. We now know that one of the total Muslim population. This is related to real reasons behind the Bush Administra- Western global/imperial designs for domi- tion’s invasion of Afghanistan was its geo- nation and exploitation of oil in the Middle political strategic location and importance East and Arabs’ resistance against it (Harvey in terms of proximity to oil and gas in South 2003). The long term exaggerated image of Asia and not the desire to liberate the wom- Arabs as terrorists and violent in Western en of the region from the barbaric practices media (newspapers, movies, radio, televi- of the Taliban. Otherwise, why didn’t the sion, etc.) has been fundamental to the new U.S. do anything earlier? Immediately after wave of anti-Arab racism linked to an Isla- the invasion, occupied Afghanistan provid- mophobic discourse through cultural rac- ed legal permission to gas and oil transna- ism before and after 9/11 (Said 1981). It is

HUMAN ARCHITECTURE: JOURNAL OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE, V, 1, FALL 2006 THE LONG-DURÉE ENTANGLEMENT BETWEEN ISLAMOPHOBIA AND RACISM 7 tional companies to built pipelines over its gument is incoherent, inconsistent and false. territory (Rashid 2001). In addition, the sym- It only serves Western global/imperial de- bolic value of a speedy military victory ac- signs. complished by superior Western firepower Thus, what we have in the world today against Muslim fundamentalists in Afghan- is not a clash of civilizations but a clash of istan (2001), right on the Iranian border, fundamentalisms (Ali 2002) and a clash of should also not be underestimated. In the patriarchies. The Bush administration has Western media, Islamophobic representa- defended Christian fundamentalist argu- tions of Muslim people as savages in need of ments to characterize the “Islamic enemy” Western civilizing missions is the main nar- as a part of the old crusade wars, while Is- rative used to cover-up or ignore global/im- lamic fundamentalists use a similar lan- perial military and economic designs. guage (Ibid). The former, in the name of civ- The impact of patriarchy on a funda- ilization and progress, defends a Western mentalist interpretation of religious texts is form of patriarchy with the monogamist not unique to Islam. We can see similar family at its center, while the latter defends abuses against women held among funda- a non-Western form of patriarchy with po- mentalist Christian (Catholic and Protes- lygamy authorized as central to the family tants) or Jewish men. You can find as many structure. However, as Islamic feminist have patriarchal and sexist arguments in the Bible sustained, patriarchal versions of Islam are as in the Koran. However, the sexist and pa- not inherently Islamic but represent the col- triarchal characterization of Islam is what is onization of Islam by patriarchy (Mernisi represented in the press while there is prac- 1987). The interpretation of the original sa- tically silence about the patriarchal oppres- cred scriptures where hijacked by men sion of women sustained and practiced by throughout the history of Islam. Judaism and Christianity in the West. It is The same thing could be said of the Jew- important to note that Islam was the first re- ish and Christian sacred texts. Interpreta- ligion in the world to grant women the right tions were controlled by patriarchal inter- to divorce more than one thousand years pretations of the scriptures as the dominant ago. The Christian world only granted perspective in these world religions. There- women the right to divorce in the late 20th fore, there is no “patriarchy” as a single sys- century and the Catholic Church and some tem in the world-system today, but “patriar- countries still do not recognize it. This is not chies” in the sense of several systems of gen- to justify patriarchal abuses of some Muslim der domination of men over women. The men over women, but to question the stereo- patriarchal system that was globalized in typical racial representation that only repre- the present world-system is to a certain de- sents Muslim men as those who abuse wom- gree the Western Christian form of patriar- en around the world.2 This Islamophobic ar- chy. Non-Western forms of patriarchy have co-existed with the West in the peripheral regions of the world-system and in many 2 Given the fact that most poverty world- epochs of colonial history the West was wide is female poverty, and that most diseases complicit with them in their colonial/impe- such as HIV/AIDS are carried by women in the periphery, one can raise questions of the degree rial projects. To talk as if patriarchy, as a sys- to which current economic policies and structur- tem of gender domination, is external to the al adjustment programs designed by Western West and located in Islam is a historical Ori- males in Western institutions such as the World Bank, IMF, etc., cause more actual suffering for entalist distortion that goes back to Western women than local patriarchies do. It is not our representations of Islam in the 18th century. attempt to quantify this, but merely to point out European colonial expansion has exported that the latter is currently on display by the Western media while the former is not, which is not only capital and militarism but also pa- anything but a coincidence. triarchy around the world, and often used as

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well as reinforced local patriarchies in the myth of a point of view that assumes itself to periphery in the service of its imperial strat- be beyond a point of view. This myth al- egy. lowed Western men to claim their knowl- It is important to keep in mind that Ori- edge to be universal, neutral, value-free and entalist views are characterized by racist, ex- objective. Contemporary authors like Sam- otic and inferior essentialist representations uel Huntington (1996) reproduce a combina- of Islam as frozen in time (Said 1979). These tion of old Occidentalism with Orientalism. Orientalist representations of Islam after the The superiority of the West is taken for 18th century were preceded by three hun- granted and the epistemic privilege of West- dred years of Occidentalism (the belief in su- ern identity politics from which to produce periority of the West over the rest) from the judgments of the “Other” and global/impe- late 15th century until the emergence of Ori- rial designs around the world is an unques- entalism in the 18th century (Mignolo 2000). tioned presupposition. Moreover, in a male The historical and political conditions for dominated academic culture such as Har- the emergence of Orientalism are located vard, a scholar and national defense apolo- within Occidentalism. gist such as Huntington (2004) speciﬁcally links geopolitical concerns and security ISLAMOPHOBIA AS EPISTEMIC threats to ‘internal’ American identity issues, most notably coming from those im- RACISM poverished immigrants who may have the audacity to challenge Western male privi- Occidentalism created the epistemic lege, socioeconomically, politically and ulti- privilege and hegemonic identity politics of mately epistemologically (Etzioni 2005). the West from which to judge and produce What is the relevance of this epistemic knowledge about the “Others.” The ego- discussion to Islamophobia? It is from West- politics of knowledge of Rene Descartes in ern hegemonic identity politics and th the 17 century where Western men replace epistemic privilege that the ‘rest’ of the epis- God as the foundation of knowledge is the temologies and cosmologies in the world are foundational basis of modern Western phi- subalternized as myth, religion and folklore, losophy. However as Enrique Dussel (1994), and that the downgrading of any form of Latin American philosopher of liberation, non-Western knowledge occurs. The former reminds us, Descartes’ ego-cogito (“I think, leads to epistemic racism, that is, the inferi- therefore I am”) was preceded by 150 years orization and subalternization of non-West- of the ego-conquirus (“I conquer, therefore I ern knowledge, while the latter leads to Ori- am”). The God-eye view defended by Des- entalism. It is also from this hegemonic cartes transferred the attributes of the Chris- epistemic location that Western thinkers tian God to Western men (the gender here is produce Orientalism about Islam. The sub- not accidental). But this was only possible alternization and inferiorization of Islam from an Imperial Being, that is, from the were not merely a downgrading of Islam as panoptic gaze of someone who is at the cen- spirituality, but also as an epistemology. ter of the world because he has conquered it. Islamic critical thinkers are considered The myth about Western males’ capaci- inferior to the Western/Christian thinkers. ty to produce a knowledge that is universal The superiority of Western epistemology al- beyond time and space was fundamental to lows the West to construct with authority imperial/global designs. The Cartesian ego- the Islamic “Other” as an inferior people or politics of knowledge inaugurated what Co- culture frozen in time, and leads Western lombian philosopher Santiago Castro-Go- scholars to write entire books about what mez called the “point zero” perspective. The went wrong with Islam (e.g. Lewis 2002), as “point zero” perspective is the Western if problems in the Middle East or poverty in

HUMAN ARCHITECTURE: JOURNAL OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE, V, 1, FALL 2006 THE LONG-DURÉE ENTANGLEMENT BETWEEN ISLAMOPHOBIA AND RACISM 9 regions inhabited by Muslims can somehow Epistemic racism as the most invisible form be understood by exclusively scrutinizing of racism, contributes to legitimate an artil- their religion or their region, effectively lery of experts, advisers, specialists, officials, turning the ‘Islamic World’ into its own unit academics and theologians that keep talking of analysis.3 Epistemic racism leads to the with authority about Islam and Muslim peo- Orientalization of Islam. This is crucial be- ple despite their absolute ignorance of the cause Islamophobia as a form of racism is topic and their Islamophobic prejudices. not exclusively a social phenomenon but This artillery of intellectuals producing Ori- also an epistemic question. Epistemic racism entalist knowledge about the inferiority of allows the West to not have to listen to the Islam and its people has been going on since critical thinking produced by Islamic think- the 18th century (Said 1979) and they con- ers on Western global/imperial designs. The tribute to the Western arrogant dismissal of thinking coming from non-Western loca- Islamic thinkers. tions is not considered worthy of attention except to represent it as “uncivilized,” THE CASE OF TARIQ RAMADAN “primitive,” “barbarian,” and “backward.” Epistemic racism allows the West to unilat- It is interesting to analyze the Western erally decide what is best for Muslim people reaction to a critical European Islamic think- today and obstruct any possibility for a seri- er such as Tariq Ramadan. Ramadan, who ous inter-cultural dialogue. Islamophobia as identifies himself as a European Muslim, a form of racism against Muslim people is has been the victim of a Western campaign not only manifested in the labor market, ed- to distort his image and thought in the eyes ucation, public sphere, global war against of Western audiences. In France, he is not al- terrorism, or the global economy, but also in lowed to talk in the universities and in the the epistemological battleground about the United States he has been prevented from definition of the priorities of the world to- entering the country. The Western media day. campaign against his thought characterizes Recent events such as the September 11 him as some kind of Islamic fundamentalist attacks on American soil, the riots in Pari- extremist despite the fact that he is a moder- sian “banlieues,” anti-immigrant xenopho- ate Islamic reformer. Even Western universi- bia, the demonstrations against Danish car- ties such as Notre Dame University (where toons of the Prophet, the bombing of Lon- he was to become the Henry R. Luce Profes- don metro stations, the triumph of Hamas in sor of Religion, Conflict and Peace Building the Palestinian elections, the resistance of before being denied entry to the country) Hezbollah to the Israeli invasion of Leba- and Oxford University in England (where non, the bombing of Spanish suburban he is a visiting scholar today) acknowledge trains (3/11), and the nuclear energy conflict the contributions of Ramadan to a moderate with Iran, have been all encoded in Islamo- Islamic reform. The question is why a mod- phobic language in the Western public erate reformist European Islamic thinker sphere. Western politicians (with some ex- (critical of Islamic fundamentalism, suicide ceptions such as Rodriguez Zapatero in bombers, lapidation against women, terror- Spain) and the mainstream media have been ism, etc.) is attacked and misrepresented as complicit if not active participants of Isla- some kind of Islamic extremist. Hani Ra- mophobic reactions to the outlined events. madan, the brother of Tariq, is a declared Is- lamic fundamentalist and despite his many 3 Lewis basically ignores European coloni- books and influence, has never been the tar- zation of the Middle East and dismisses its im- get of a huge Western negative campaign pact by stating it was “comparatively brief and such as Tariq. ended half a century ago” (2002:153).

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In our view, it is more difficult for the 2007), hence the Islamophobic campaign West to swallow a moderate Islamic thinker against his thinking. critical of both Eurocentric fundamentalism Ever since he was banned from France and Islamic fundamentalism than a de- in the mid-1990s, the French newspaper Le clared Islamic fundamentalist thinker. The Monde has been actively attacking Ra- latter confirms all of the Orientalist Islamo- madan as an Islamic fundamentalist that phobic prejudices that the West constructs uses a “double discourse.” Later, when the against Islam, while the former challenges ban was lifted, Le Monde’s campaign those representations. This is why both the against Ramadan’s “double language” nev- New York Times and Le Monde have dedi- ertheless continued. What is interesting is cated front pages of their daily newspaper to the double standard and epistemic racism the “Tariq Ramadan affair.”4 behind this accusation. Those who promote All over Western Europe, Tariq Ra- it apply different rules of judgment when madan is very popular among Muslim Eu- dealing with a European intellectual think- ropean youngsters. His message to Muslim ing from Western tradition, than a European youth is that you can be European and Mus- intellectual thinking from the Islamic tradi- lim at the same time. This challenges one of tion. An intellectual that is attacked as a pro- the most sacred myths of European identity moter of a “double discourse,” that is, ac- politics, which is that in order to be Europe- cused that “what he/she says and writes is an you have to be Christian or secular (iden- not really what he/she believes,” has no tified with Western thought and Christian way to defend himself/herself. cosmology/values even if you are not a be- The rule of judgment about the work of liever). Moreover, he calls Muslim youth to any intellectual is based on what he/she exercise their citizenship rights as Muslim says and writes. But if the accusation is that Europeans and intervene in the public what she/he says and writes are false be- sphere making claims for equality and con- cause he/she has a “double discourse,” then tributions to the society. This has been too there is no self-defense against this accusa- subversive both for Islamic fundamentalists tion. Whatever the accused intellectual ar- and for mainstream Eurocentric Europeans gues, it becomes tautological. No matter to accept (e.g. Fourest 2004; cf. Bruckner how many times Tariq Ramadan has public- ly denounced the oppression of women, terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism, his 4 Among the many articles published by Le brother’s fundamentalist views on Islam, Monde on Tariq Ramadan, see the front page ar- Saudi Arabia and Taliban fundamentalist ticle “Tariq Ramadan, sa famille, ses réseaux, son idéologie” (23 Décembre 2003) and the re- views on Islam, suicide bombers and so on, cent article “Tariq Ramadan consultant de Tony Le Monde keeps attacking Tariq as a believ- Blair” (25 Février 2006). When a newspaper ded- er in these things without any evidence nor icates the main title of the front page of one of its issues to investigate Tariq Ramadan’s suspi- serious reading of his work and public cious “double discourse,” you know there is speeches because the claim is that he has a something out of proportion and exaggerated “double discourse.” These standards of going on. The New York Times has a less active judgment are never applied to Western in- propaganda (maybe because Ramadan is less known and influential among the USA’s Muslim tellectuals. The rare occasions that Muslims youth) and more balanced accounts compared (and by extension Muslim intellectuals) are to Le Monde, but still with lots of insinuations not presented in extremely ambiguous and suspicious comments. Among many articles from the New York Times see the front page ar- terms, is when they happen to be ‘natives’ ticle “Mystery of the Islamic Scholar Who Was converted to Islam such as Ayyub Axel Koe- Barred by the U.S.” (October 6, 2004) and hler, president of the Central Committee of “World Briefing: Europe: Switzerland: Barred Is- lamic Scholar Gives Up U.S. Teaching Post” (De- Muslims in Germany, or Muslims such as cember 15, 2004). Ayaan Hirsi Ali (2007) who have abandoned

HUMAN ARCHITECTURE: JOURNAL OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE, V, 1, FALL 2006 THE LONG-DURÉE ENTANGLEMENT BETWEEN ISLAMOPHOBIA AND RACISM 11 or who consistently criticize Islam. The dou- ism has become a further extension of ble standard shows that Islamophobia American political, military, and ideological forms part of Western epistemic racism. hegemony in the world. In sum, Islamophobia as a form of rac- Thomas Ehrlich Reifer, in his “Militari- ism against Muslim people is not only man- zation, Globalization and Islamist Social ifested in the labor market, education, pub- Movements” looks at the increase of con- lic sphere, global war against terrorism or temporary Muslim fundamentalisms as a the global economy, but also in the episte- multitude of reactions against specific West- mological battleground about the definition ern (Israeli and American) foreign policies. of the priorities in the world today. He also addresses the need to understand these social movements in the context of re- In the following contributions, each cent geopolitical developments within the scholar has attempted in different ways to capitalist modern world system itself. address some of the issues raised above. Abdulkader Tayob’s contribution pro- Walter Mignolo, in his essay ‘Islamo- vides us with a case-study of one Western phobia/ Hispanophobia’ links the two intel- country and how the Western majority at- lectual currents and draws our attention to tempts to ‘deal with’ the presence of Mus- remarkable similarities between the two. He lims on its soil. In his essay, Tayob scrutiniz- also challenges mainstream Eurocentrism. es the debate he saw unfolding, while living Fittingly, whereas a scholar such as Bernard in the Netherlands, over the value and Lewis (2002) time and again creates an arti- meaning of Islam for Dutch society and pol- ficial dichotomy between curious Europe- itics in the aftermath of 9/11, and most nota- ans who wanted to accumulate more knowl- bly how a global event such as 9/11 acceler- edge about Arabic, Islam, and the Orient in ated the call for ‘integration’ of Muslims. contrast to self-complacent Muslims who In ‘No Race to the Swift’, Manuela did not bother to interest themselves in the Boatcã presents us with an analysis of how non-Muslim world, Mignolo forces the 19th century Orientalist discourse shaped reader to take into account Western intoler- the content of present conceptualizations of ance and colonialism towards ‘infidels’ as Western and Eastern Europe in terms of Ori- well as ‘Muslim Others’, an intellectual pro- entalism’s effects on national self-defini- cess intrinsically intertwined with a political tions. In addition, she scrutinizes discourses process, the latter being the expansion of the on Europeanization in the context of the on- capitalist world-system ever since the si- going expansion of the European Union, es- multaneous destruction of Granada and the pecially in relation to southeastern Europe, ‘discovery’ of the ‘New World’ in 1492. with its large Muslim populations, and the In “How Washington’s ‘War on Terror’ Turkish candidacy. Became Everyone’s Islamophobia,” Farish Finally, in ‘Life in Samarkand’ Madina Noor claims that Washington’s unilateral Tlostanova provides us with insight into a declaration of the global ‘War on Terror’ had potential way out of present dilemmas. Her immediate and serious repercussions on do- study of cultural and ethnic hybrids in both mestic political developments in various Central Asia and the Caucasus, and the con- parts of the world. In Southeast Asia in par- current significance of Sufism in the region, ticular, he argues the ‘war on terror’ has had in opposition to the binary logics imposed a number of negative consequences, such as by both the Russian/Soviet Empire on the allowing the region’s governments to justify one hand and the capitalist world-system on the use of arms, detention without trial, and the other hand, could very well be an alter- the suspension of many civil liberties in the native epistemology ignored for too long. name of anti-terrorism. His central thesis is that America’s obsession with anti-terror-

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