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Islamophobia (Arabic: اِسْلَامُو فُوبَىا) is the irrational fear of, hostility towards, or hatred against the religion of Islam or Muslim people in general. Muslim women are more likely to experience Islamophobia in their lifetime compared to Muslim men, especially if they are wearing some kind of veil.
During the Bosnian War in the 1990s, Serbian Orthodox Christians committed a genocide against Bosniak Muslims, with a strong motive of Islamophobia.
In France, it has been illegal since 2013 for Muslim women to wear veils, particularly burqas and niqabs, covering their faces in public.
After the Charlie Hebdo shooting in January 2015, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls refused to use Islamophobia due to his perception that many were using it to silence criticism of Islamism.
In a December 2019 article in The Jewish Chronicle, British Jewish journalist Melanie Phillips criticized the concept by claiming that it was invented by the Islamist group Muslim Brotherhood to misrepresent the prejudice as equivalent to antisemitism and silence criticism of Islamic teachings.
In a November 2023 article, researcher Jonathan S. Tobin echoed the view of Melanie Phillips, expressing concern over the potential of the word minimizing the Jewish historical suffering.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
Published online: 04 Aug 2010
Original Paper | Open access | Published: 09 November 2021.
The secular republic debates how best to contain and suppress the Islamist movement