Völkisch vs. catholic islamophobia in Spain: The conflict between racial and religious understandings of muslim identity

This article sets out to demonstrate that considering Islamophobia as a form of racism prevents us from fully grasping the complexity of this phenomenon. The author contends that there are different types of Islamophobia and while some are racist, others are not. To argue this point, he draws on a c...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Bravo López, Fernando
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2017
País:España
Institución:Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Repositorio:Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAM
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.uam.es:10486/678966
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10486/678966
https://dx.doi.org/10.15366/reim2017.22.007
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Islamophobia
Racism
Muslims
Extreme right
Religion
Estudios Islámicos
Descripción
Sumario:This article sets out to demonstrate that considering Islamophobia as a form of racism prevents us from fully grasping the complexity of this phenomenon. The author contends that there are different types of Islamophobia and while some are racist, others are not. To argue this point, he draws on a conflict that was sparked within a Spanish extreme right party revolving around two different conceptions of the human being and society, one rooted in the völkisch tradition and the other in the Catholic tradition. By analyzing the only book the leader of that party wrote, we see how these two conceptions engendered two different types of Islamophobia: one völkisch, the other Catholic. Both share the same vision of Islam as a vital "threat" to the "West", but they differ in their understanding of the foundations of the Muslim and European identities: racist versus religious perspectives