Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project

Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project

Background image: Tile background with words Islamophobia

The Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project (IRDP), an initiative of the Center for Race & Gender, focuses on a systematic and empirical approach to the study of Islamophobia and its impact on the American Muslim community.

Led by Dr. Hatem Bazian, the IRDP highlights research and projects that explore the maintenance and extension of existing power paradigms by bringing together academics, thinkers, practitioners and researchers from around the globe who engage, question and challenge the existing disparities in economic, political, social and cultural relations.

Tile background with words Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project

About IRDP

The Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project (IRDP), an initiative of the Center for Race & Gender, focuses on a systematic and empirical approach to the study of Islamophobia and its impact on the American Muslim community. Led byDr. Hatem Bazian, the IRDP highlights research and projects that explore the maintenance and extension of existing power paradigms by bringing together academics, thinkers, practitioners and researchers from around the globe who engage, question and challenge the existing disparities in economic, political, social and cultural relations.

Today, Muslims in the U.S., parts of Europe, and around the world have been transformed into a demonized and feared global “other,” subjected to legal, social, and political discrimination. Newspaper articles, tv shows, books, popular movies, political debates, and cultural conflicts over immigration and security produce ample evidence of the stigmatization of Islam within dominant culture. The challenge for understanding the current cultural and political period centers on providing a more workable and encompassing definition for the Islamophobia phenomenon, a theoretical framework to anchor present and future research, and a centralized mechanism to document and analyze diverse data sets from around the U.S. and in comparison with other areas around the world.


Defining Islamophobia

The term “Islamophobia” was first introduced as a concept in a 1991 Runnymede Trust Report and defined as “unfounded hostility towards Muslims, and therefore fear or dislike of all or most Muslims.” The term was coined in the context of Muslims in the UK in particular and Europe in general and formulated based on the more common “xenophobia” framework.

The report pointed to prevailing attitudes that incorporate the following beliefs:

  • Islam is monolithic and cannot adapt to new realities
  • Islam does not share common values with other major faiths
  • Islam as a religion is inferior to the West.
    It is archaic, barbaric, and irrational.
  • Islam is a religion of violence and supports terrorism.
  • Islam is a violent political ideology.

For the purposes of anchoring the current research and documentation project, we provide the following working definition:

Islamophobia is a contrived fear or prejudice fomented by the existing Eurocentric and Orientalist global power structure. It is directed at a perceived or real Muslim threat through the maintenance and extension of existing disparities in economic, political, social and cultural relations, while rationalizing the necessity to deploy violence as a tool to achieve “civilizational rehab” of the target communities (Muslim or otherwise). Islamophobia reintroduces and reaffirms a global racial structure through which resource distribution disparities are maintained and extended.


People of IRDP

Hatem with glasses against grey background

Hatem Bazian

Chair and Founder, Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project

Hatem Bazian is a co-founder and Professor of Islamic Law and Theology at Zaytuna College, the 1st Accredited Muslim Liberal Arts College in the United States. In addition, Prof. Bazian is a lecturer in the Departments of Near Eastern and Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Bazian between 2002-2007, also served as an adjunct professor of law at Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He teaches courses on Islamic Law and Society, Islam in America: Communities and Institutions, De-Constructing Islamophobia and Othering of Islam, Religious Studies, and Middle Eastern Studies. In addition to Berkeley, Prof. Bazian served as a visiting Professor in Religious Studies at Saint Mary’s College of California 2001-2007 and adviser to the Religion, Politics and Globalization Center at UC Berkeley.

In Spring 2009, Prof. Bazian founded at Berkeley the Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project at the Center for Race and Gender, a research unit dedicated to the systematic study of Othering Islam and Muslims. Prof. Bazian in Spring 2012 launched the Islamophobia Studies Journal, which is published bi-annually through a collaborative effort between the Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project of the Center for Race and Gender at the University of California at Berkeley, the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Initiative for the School of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University; the Center for Islamic Studies at the Graduate Theological Union, the International Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding at the University of South Australia, and Zaytuna College. In addition to academic work, Dr, Bazian is a weekly columnist for the Turkish Daily Sabah Newspaper and Turkey Agenda online magazine. Dr. Bazian is founder and national Chair of American Muslims for Palestine, board member of the Islamic Scholarship Fund, Muslim Legal Fund of America, President of Dollar for Deen Charity, and Chair of Northern California Islamic Council.


IRDP Publications

Title Author Year Publication type
Islamophobia Studies Journal, Volume 8, Issue 1 (Spring 2023) 2023 Journal, 2023
Islamophobia Studies Journal, Volume 7, Issue 2 (Fall 2022) 2022 Journal, 2022
The Canadian Islamophobia Industry: Mapping Islamophobia’s Ecosystem in the Great White North Jasmin Zine 2022 Research Report, 2022
Islamophobia Studies Journal, Volume 7, Issue 1 (Spring 2022) 2022 Journal, 2022
Islamophobia Studies Journal, Volume 6, Issue 2 (Fall 2021) 2021 Journal, 2021
Islamophobia Studies Journal, Volume 6, Issue 1 (Spring 2021) 2021 Journal, 2021
Islamophobia Studies Journal, Volume 5, Issue 2 (Fall 2020) 2020 Journal, 2020
Islamophobia Studies Journal, Volume 5, Issue 1 (Fall 2019) 2019 Journal, 2019
Islamophobia Studies Journal, Volume 4, Issue 2 (Spring 2018) 2018 Journal, 2018
Islamophobia Studies Journal, Volume 4, Issue 1 (Fall 2017) 2017 Journal, 2017
Islamophobia Studies Journal, Volume 3, Issue 2 (Spring 2016) 2016 Journal, 2016
Islamophobia Studies Journal, Volume 3, Issue 1 (Fall 2015) 2015 Journal, 2015
Islamophobia Studies Journal, Volume 2, Issue 2 (Fall 2014) 2014 Journal, 2014
Islamophobia Studies Journal, Volume 2, Issue 1 (Spring 2014) 2014 Journal, 2014
Islamophobia Studies Journal, Volume 1, Issue 1 (Spring 2012) 2012 Journal, 2012
Same Hate, New Target: Islamophobia and its Impact in the United States (January 2009 - December 2010) Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR); CRG's Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project 2011 Research Report, 2011

IRDP Events

Flyer for 2023 International Islamophobia Conference

2023 International Islamophobia Conference

05.05 - 04.2023  |  Maude Fife Room, 3rd Floor, Wheeler Hall, UC Berkeley

2023 International Islamophobia Conference

AGENDA
Friday, May 5, 2023
9:30 - 10:30 am:  Opening and Welcome
10:45 am - 12:25 pm:  Panel One -- Islamophobia in the Great White North
12:15 - 3:00 pm:  Lunch Break and Friday Prayers
3 - 4:45 pm:  Panel Two -- Disrupting Narratives of Islamophobia?: The Qatar 2022 World Cup
4:30 - 5 pm:  Coffee Break
5 - 6:30 pm:  Roundtable on Reporting Islamophobia
6:30 pm:  Reception-Dinner

Saturday, May 6, 2023
9:00 - 10:30 am:   Panel Three -- Literary and Cultural Production
10:45 am - 12:15 pm:  Panel Four -- Crescent Horizons
12:15 - 2:00 pm:  Lunch Break
2 - 3 pm:  Panel Five -- Transnational Perspective on Gendered Islamophobia
3:45 - 5:15 pm:  Panel Six -- France/ Quebec and Secular States Governing Islam
5:30 - 6:45 pm:  Panel Seven -- Internalized Islamophobia: Destroying American Muslim Communities from Within

Sunday, May 7, 2023
9:00 - 10:30am:  Panel Eight -- Media, Schooling & Campus Life10:45 – 12:15 Panel Nine-European Horizons: Racialization of Space and Practice
12:15 - 2:00 pm:  Lunch Break
2:00 - 3:30 pm:  Panel Ten -- Securitization
3:45 - 5:15 pm:  Panel Eleven -- Islamophobia and Political Horizons: Structural Unbelonging of Muslims
5:30 - 6:30 pm:  AGM and Closing Plenary

Learn more.

Hosted byInternational Islamophobia Studies Research Association (IISRA), and sponsored by CRG's Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project (IRDP), Center for Islamic Studies at Graduate Theological Union,  Graduate Theological Union, Centre for Ethnicity and Racism Studies - University of Leeds, Northern California Islamic Council, Islamophobia Studies Journal, ReOrient Journal, Islamophobia Studies Center at UC Berkeley, Othering and Belonging Institute, Asian American Research Center, and UMR.

Flyer for 11-14-2019 IRDP Event

Rethinking The Boundaries Of Sunni Islam In Indonesia & Malaysia

11.14.2019| 6:00 - 7:30 PM |  Northgate 105

Mohamed Nawab Bin Mohamed Osman, Fulbright Visiting Fellow, Center for Race & Gender

This lecture seeks to examine the contemporary Sunni Muslim identity in Malaysia and Indonesia. It seeks to de-construct previously held typologies of Sunni Islam in both countries such as the tradtionalist-reformist divide and the Middle Eastern-Localised Islam divide. Instead the seminar seeks to show that, throughout the past four decades, Sunni Muslim identity in Malaysia and Indonesia underwent severe transformative processes. As a result of the relatively independent influence of cultural dynamics and of national, regional and international structural factors, new Sunni Muslim identities have emerged. WIth a comparative focus on Salafism, Sufism and Traditionalists, the paper explores the processes of emergence and transformation of Sunni identity in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Mohamed Nawab Osman is a Fulbright Visiting Fellow at the Center for Race & Gender. He is also Assistant Professor at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Nawab is the author of Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia: Identity, Ideology and Religo-Political Mobilization (Oxfon: Routledge, 2018) and the editors of Contesting Muslim Identities: The Political of Islam in South and Southeast Asia (Edinburgh: Edinburg University Press, 20202) (forthcoming), Malaysia’s 14th General Election and UMNO’s Fall: Intra-Elite Feuding in the Pursuit of Power (Oxbridge: Routledge, 2019) (with Edmund Terence Gomez), and Pathways to Contemporary Islam (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019). His research interests include Islam and Political in South and Southeast Asia, Islamophobia in Asia and Religion in the International Relations of Asia. At UC Berkeley, he is working on a book manuscript examining the confluence between Islamophobia and that Nation-Building process in Myanmar, Malaysia and India.

Event hosted by CRG's Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project (IRDP).



Flyer for 2019 IRDP Symposium

Virtual Internment: Islamophobia, Social Technologies Of Surveillance And Unequal Citizenship -- The 10th Annual International Islamophobia Conference

04.15 - 21.2019| Berkeley School of Law, UC Berkeley

Virtual Internment: Islamophobia, Social Technologies Of Surveillance And Unequal Citizenship -- The 10th Annual International Islamophobia Conference

The Ethnic Studies Library is hosting a month-long Islamophobia exhibit that include published books in the field, journals, special reports and posters marking the occasion of the 10th Annual Conference.

Program
MONDAY, APRIL 15, 2019 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM
Munir Jiwa, Founding Director, Center for Islamic Studies, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, USA
“A Decade On: Revisiting the Five “Media Pillars” of Islam.””


TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2019 | 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Hatem Bazian, Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project, UC Berkeley
“Virtual Internment Islamophobia, Social Technologies of Surveillance and Unequal Citizenship.”

Ramon Grosfoguel, University of California, Berkeley, USA
“Epistemic Surveillance and Academic Walls.”

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 2019 | 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM
Mattias Gardell, Nathan Söderblom Professor in Comparative Religion, and Director of Research at the Centre for the Multidisciplinary Studies of Racism at Uppsala University, Sweden
“Torture, Terror and Truth.” 


THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2019 | 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Debbie Almontaser, Founder and CEO, Bridging Cultures Group Inc., New York, USA
“Leading While Muslim: The Experiences of American Muslim Principals after 9/11.”

Jasmin Zine, Wilfrid Laurier University, Toronto, Canada
“Islamophobia and the Security-Industrial Complex”

Salman Sayyid, Director of the Centre for Ethnicity and Racism Studies, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
“The Geopolitics of Islamophobia”


FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 2019
8:30 am – 8:45 AM:  City of Berkeley Proclamation
Presented by Councilwoman Cheryl Davila

8:45 - 9:00 AM:  Hatem Bazian, Director, IRDP, UC Berkeley

9:00 am – 10:30 AM:  Panel 1  - Islamophobia Through History, Counterinsurgency and Façade of National Security
Chair: Munir Jiwa, Founding Director, Center for Islamic Studies, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, USA

Nader Salass, Columbia University, New York, USA
“Pathogenic Invisibility: A Historical Pattern of Unequal Protection in African American and Muslim Discriminatory Surveillance Cases Against the NYPD.”

Ibrahim Bechrouri, French Institute of Geopolitics , Paris 8 University and Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines University, Paris, France
“Islamophobia and the Virtual Counterinsurgency at Home.”

Elsadig Elsheikh, Director of the Global Justice Program, Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, Berkeley, USA
Basima Sisemore, Global Justice Program, Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, Berkeley, USA
“The Facade of National Security: Islamophobia and Xenophobia in the United States.”

10:45 AM - 12:15 PM:  Panel 2 - Big Brother, Muslim Existential Threat, Fear and Surveillance
Chair: Victoria E. Robinson, Director of American Cultures Program and Comparative Ethnic Studies, UC Berkeley

Azeezah Kanji, Legal Academic and writer, Toronto, Canada
“Wanted: Big Brother’s Little Sisters – The Female Gaze in the National Security Panopticon.”

Reem Bahdi, Faculty of Law, University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Ayesha Mian Akram, University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada
“Virtual Internment and The Muslim Existential Threat in Canada.”

Steven Fink, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Wisconsin, USA
“Fear and Surveillance: Fox News and Fox Reality Crime Shows’ Contribution to the Virtual Internment of Muslims in America.”

12:15 - 2:15PM:  Lunch Break and Friday Prayers Break

2:15 - 3:45 PM:  Panel 3 - The Muslim Ban, Building Walls and Shaping Public Opinion
Chair: Norah Arafeh, Berkeley Law School, Berkeley, USA

Zainab Ramahi, Berkeley Law, University of California, Berkeley, USA
“The Muslim Ban Cases: A lost opportunity for the Court and a lesson for the future.”

Abbas Barzegar, National Director of Research and Advocacy, CAIR National, D.C., USA
Zainab Arain is the Research and Advocacy Manager at CAIR, D.C., USA
“The Anti-Muslim Mainstream: American Philanthropy and the Islamophobia Network.”

 Seyda Karaoglu, George Washington University, Virginia, USA
“The Role of Public Opinion and Media on the European Union’s Policy Toward the Refugee Crisis.”

4:00 - 5:30 PM:  Panel 4 - The Epistemic of Institutionalized Islamophobia
Chair: Marianne Farina, CSC, Dominican School of Philosophy and the Theology

Nawroos Shibli, Senior Research Fellow at the Canadian Arab Institute and Balsillie School of International Affairs (BSIA), University of Waterloo, Canada
“Institutionalizing Is[law]mophobia: Freedom of Religion, Minority Rights Regimes and the European Court of Human Rights.”

Robert K. Beshara, Integrated Studies, Northern New Mexico College, New Mexico
“The Epistemic and Ontic Resistance of US Muslims to Islamophobia/Islamophilia.”

 Ali Çaksu, Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey
“Islamophobia, The Chinese Style: Internment Camps for Uyghur Muslims.”

5:30 - 7:00 PM:  ASWAT Ensemble
Countering Islamophobia Through Cultural Performance and the Arts


SATURDAY APRIL 20, 2019

9:00 - 10:30 AM:  Panel 5 - Racialized Emotions, Religious Identity and Muslims as Outlaws
Chair: Kristin George, Sociology Department, UC Berkeley.

Arij Elmi, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Ontario, Canada
Nadiya Ali, York University, Canada
Dahab Ibrahim, Ryerson University, Canada
“Islamophobia as an Affective Field: Racialized Emotions, Surfaces and Boundaries.”

Marwa Abdalla, Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, USA
“The Negotiation and Communication of Religious Identity Among Muslim Minority Populations: A Theoretical Model.”

Cyrus McGoldrick, Alliance of Civilizations Institute, Ibn Khaldun University, Istanbul, Turkey
“The Sacred Man: Muslims as Outlaws in the American Political Imagination.”

10:45 AM – 12:15 PM:  Panel 6 - Islamophobia, Comparative Geographies, and Reform Discourses
Chair: Khalid Kadir, International & Area Studies, UC Berkeley

Randa Abdel-Fattah, Macquarie University Sydney, Australia
“Islamophobia and Racial Australianization.”

Rhonda Itaoui, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia
“Gendered Geographies of Islamophobia in the San Francisco Bay Area.”

M. Bilal Nasir, Department of Anthropology, Northwestern University, Chicago, USA
“Policing Becoming: Moral Conversion, Racialization, and Liberal Reform in Los Angeles.”

12:15 - 1:30 PM:  Lunch Break

1:45 - 3:15 PM:  Panel 7 - Hindutva, Geopolitics of Moderate Islam and Muslims in the Indian Press
Chair: Munir Jiwa, Founding Director, Center for Islamic Studies, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, USA

Mohamed Nawab Mohamed Osman, Malaysia Program, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
“Islamophobia and the Glocalisation of Hindutva in Bali.”

Prashant Waikar, Malaysia Programme, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
“The Geopolitics of Moderate Islam in Malaysia and Indonesia.”

 Azhar Ul Hassan Sumra, Islamic University Islamabad. Currently, and Virtual University of Pakistan, Lahore
“Muslims and Islam in Indian English Press: Exploring the Islamophobia Discourse.” 

3:30 - 5:00 PM:  Panel 8 – Islamophobia Industry Muslims Versus Muslims Lived Experiences
Chair: Somayeh Nikooei, Director, Our Three Winners Foundation

Richard Silverstein, Independent Journalist and Contributor to Tikun Olam, Seattle, USA
“Israel: Exporting the Surveillance State”

Paula Thompson, IRDP and Center for Islamic Studies, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, USA
“Getting Played: Gamification, Islamophobia and the Video Game Industry.”

Omar Salha, SOAS, University of London, London, UK
“The Beautiful Game: Muslim Footballers as Ambassadors of Faith”


SUNDAY APRIL 21, 2019 
9:15 - 10:45 Am:  Panel 9 - From the Cold War to the Coldness of Institutionalized Islamophobia
Chair: Hatem Bazian, IRDP, Berkeley,USA

Sofia A. Ragozina
, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia
“Afghan War, Cold War and Collapse of USSR: Roots of Islamophobia in Russian Public Discourse”

Baptiste Brodard, Swiss  Centre for  Islam  and Society, University  of  Fribourg, Switzerland.
“Institutional Islamophobia in Switzerland: From Statutory Agencies’ Observations to a Personal Case of ‘Virtual Internment’”

Moazzam Begg, Outreach Director for CAGE, London, UK
“Torturing Islam: A Modern American Affair”

11:00 AM - 12:30 PM:  Panel 10 - France’s Islamophobia: From the Colonial Past to the Liberal Present
Chair: Munir Jiwa, Director, Center for Islamic Studies, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA

Hamza Esmili, EHESS/ENS, Paris, France and Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley
“Fighting Against ‘Radicalization’, Establishing Sovereignty”

 Flora Hergon, School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS), Paris, France
“House Searches and State of Emergency in France (2015-2017): (Post)colonial Counter-Terrorism and Security Islamophobia”

Adam Mohamed Aziz, Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA
“French Islamophobia: No-Go Zones, Sexuality Politics, and the Figure of the Terrorist Indigène.” 

12:30 - 2:00 PM:  Lunch Break

2:15 - 3:45 PM:  Panel 11 - Islamophobia, Education and Community Diversity
Chair: Hatem Bazian, IRDP, Berkeley,USA

Hassina Alizai, Queen University, Ontario, Canada
“Impact of Islamophobia on Post-Secondary Muslim Students Attending Ontario Universities.”

R. David Coolidge, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, USA
“American Muslims, Human Diversity, and “The Labor of Thought.””

Muhammad Taimoor Bin Tanveer, Sabahittin Zaim University, Istanbul, Turkey
“Emergence of Islamophobia Bourgeoisie in Pakistan-A State Owned Policy of Virtual Internment.”

4:00 - 5:30 PM:  Panel 12 - China’s Rising Islamophobia and Comparative Narratives
Chair: Elsadig Elsheikh, Global Justice Program, Haas Institute for Fair and Inclusive Society

Yasmeen Azam, California State University, Long Beach, USA
“China’s War of Terror: How Islamophobic Discourse Fuels Occupation.”

Ibrahima Diagne, Northern New Mexico College, USA
“A French Athlete’s Experience and Reflections on Islamophobia: France and US.”

5:30 PM:  Closing Remarks: Hatem Bazian, IRDP, Berkeley, USA

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Presented by UC Berkeley Center for Race and Gender’s Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project (IRDP) and Islamophobia Studies Center. 
Co-Sponsored by the Centre for Ethnicity and Racism Studies, University of Leeds, UK, Haas Institute for Fair and Inclusive Society, Islamophobia Studies Journal & Re-Orient Journal Center for Islamic Studies at GTU, Northern California Islamic Council, Council on American Islamic Relations, Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies, Near Eastern Studies Department, Ethnic Studies Department at UC Berkeley, American Cultures Program at UC Berkeley, and the Our Three Winners Foundation.



3-19-2019 IRDP Event

Islamophobia Series: “Islamophobia & Bullying In K-12”

03.19.2019 | 4:00 - 5:30 PM  | 691 Barrows Hall

Amna Salameh has a background in education, she serves on both the Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports (PBIS) committee and the Office of Educational Equity (OEE) committee at the Elk Grove Unified School District. She completed her Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from Louisiana State University, and finished her Master of Arts in Education, with a concentration in Curriculum and Instruction, from California State University of Sacramento. Her master’s project was titled, “Professional Development on Islamophobia: A Multicultural Framework For Secondary Public School Educators.” Amna is a frequent presenter and lecturer on topics surrounding Islam and islamophobia in the College of Education at California State University of Sacramento, where she is a part-time professor in the Humanities and Religious Studies Department.

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This talk is produced by the Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project, an initiative of the Center for Race & Gender, focuses on a systematic and empirical approach to the study of Islamophobia and its impact on the American Muslim community. Co-Sponsored by the Islamophobia Studies Center.



2-19-2019 IRDP Talk Flyer

Islamophobia Series: “Adverse Effects of Anti-Radicalization Movements in France”

02.19.2019 | 4:00 - 6:00 PM  | 691 Barrows Hall

Aicha BounagaVisiting Researcher, CRG’s Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project

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This talk is produced by the Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project, an initiative of the Center for Race & Gender, focuses on a systematic and empirical approach to the study of Islamophobia and its impact on the American Muslim community. Co-Sponsored by the Islamophobia Studies Center.



Event flyer for 4-27--29-2018_IRDP Conference

The Road Traveled -- The 9th Annual International Islamophobia Conference

04.27.2018 | 8:30 AM – 6:30 PM |  Maude Fife Room, 315 Wheeler Hall

04.28.2018 | 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM |  370 Dwinelle Hall 

04.29.2018 | 9:30 AM – 5:00 PM |  370 Dwinelle Hall 

The UC Berkeley Center for Race and Gender Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project (IRDP);  Centre for Ethnicity and Racism Studies, University of Leeds, UK; Islamophobia Studies Journal & Re-Orient Journal;  Islamophobia Studies Center, Center for Islamic Studies at GTU; and Zaytuna College present: 

The Road Traveled -- The 9th Annual International Islamophobia Conference

PROGRAM:

FRIDAY, APRIL 27

8:30am – 8:45am: City of Berkeley Proclamation

Presented by Councilwoman Cheryl Davila

8:45-9:10am:  Welcome & Conference Opening

Hatem Bazian, Director, IRDP, UC Berkeley and Zaytuna College

9:15am – 9:45am: Conference Theme – Keynote: The Road Travelled: Looking at the Field 20 Years After the Runnymede Trust Report

Salman Sayyid, Director of the Centre for Ethnicity and Racism Studies, University of Leeds

10:15am – 11:45am: Panel 1 - From “Race Matters” to Racializing Muslims and Shari’a

Mark Fathi Massoud, UC Santa Barbara
Kathleen M. Moore, UC Santa BarbaraShari’a Matters: Race, Law, and Religion Among American Muslims

Marwa Abdalla, Department of Communication at San Diego State University
The Rhetorical Functions of Hijab in Discourses on Islam, Muslims, and Islamophobia

Chair:  Victoria E. Robinson, Director of American Cultures Program and Comparative Ethnic Studies, UC Berkeley

12:00 noon – 2:30pm Lunch Break 

For those observing Friday prayers, Juma’ Prayers are held on campus at 1:15PM at Hearst Gymnasium, a short walking distance from Boalt Hall School of Law and volunteers can provide direction.

2:30pm – 4:15pm: Panel 2 - Securing the “Nation” and Surveilling the Muslim Subject

Saul Takahashi, Japan Representative of the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre and Waseda University
Blanket police surveillance of Muslims in Japan: Muslims as a ‘security risk’

Paula Thompson, Center for Islamic Studies at the Graduate Theological Union
Cyber (in)Security: Islamophobia, Networks and Cyberspace

Hagar Elsayed, University of Windsor Law School in Canada
On the Path of Radicalization: Policing of Muslim Americans Post 9/11

Baptiste Brodard, Swiss Centre for Islam and Society, University of Fribourg in Switzerland
Institutional Islamophobia in Switzerland: the case of the prison system and statutory social services

Chair:  Stephen Small, UC Berkeley, Department of African American Studies

4:30pm – 5:15pm: Book Release 

Khaled Beydoun, University of Detroit Mercy School of Law and IRDP Affiliated Faculty
American Islamophobia: Understanding the Roots and Rise of Fear

Chair: Hatem Bazian, Director, IRDP, UC Berkeley and Zaytuna College

5:15pm – 6:30pm: Documentary-Special Screening  

SATURDAY 28TH, 2018

9:00am – 10:45am: Panel 3 - Media Discourses: The Muslim Elephant that Never Leaves the Screen

Nawroos Shibli, Balsillie School of International Affairs at the University of Waterloo
“They hate us for our freedom:” [Mis]Representations of Islam in American Media, A Discourse Analysis”

Mariusz Bogacki, Tilburg University, Netherlands
Defining Islamophobia and its socio-political applications in the light of Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris.

Diba Ataie, Department of International & Multicultural Education, Human Rights Education Program, University of San Francisco
Reconciling Hyphenated Identities: Muslim American Youth Reflection on College Life in the Midst of Islamophobia

Chair: Kristin George, Sociology Department, UC Berkeley.

10:45AM – 11:15AM: Second Keynote on the Conference Theme –What’s in a Name? Islamophobia, Anti- Muslim Racism, and the Weaponizing of Free Speech

Jasmin Zine, Wilfrid Laurier University

11:30am – 1:00pm: Panel 4 - Understanding Islamophobia in the Asian Context

Prashant Waikar, S. Rajarantnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU)
The Genealogy of Anti-Malay/Muslim Racism in Singapore: Studying Racism Through Racist Language

Junaid Ahmad, Director for the Center for Global Dialogue at the University of Management of Technology, Lahore, Pakistan
Native Islamophobia in Contemporary Pakistan

Mohamed Nawab Mohamed Osman, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, A Graduate School of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Islamophobia in the Discourse of Indonesian Right Wing Christian Movements

Chair:  Maxwell Leung, CA College of the Arts

1:00pm – 2:30 pm Lunch Break 

2:30pm – 4:00pm: Panel 5 - Re-Visiting and Re-Producing the Orientalist Subject

Mattias Gardell, Director of Research at the Centre for the Multidisciplinary Studies on Racism at Uppsala University, Sweden.
Islamophobia and the Origins of Race and Racism

Maryyum Mehmood, Department of War Studies, King’s College London
Islamophobia, Anti-Semitism & Racism: Understanding Racialization of Muslim & Jewish Identities

Omar Salha, Centre for Islamic Studies and Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at SOAS University of London
Power, Empire and Colonial Rule: Re-Orientalism of the Muslim Object

Chair: Marianne Farina, CSC, Dominican School of Philosophy and the Theology

4:15pm – 6:00pm: Panel 6 - Learning and Unlearning Islamophobia

May Kosba, Center for Islamic Studies at the Graduate Theological Union
Hermeneutics of Civilizing Islam

Amna Salameh, Sacramento State University and IRDP
Naved Bakali, Tabah’s Futures Initiative, UAE
Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project Report on Countering Islamophobia in Public Schools

Robert Beshara, University of West Georgia
Towards Critical Islamophobia Studies

Ayse Kok, Graduate of Oxford University
Technology or Ideology? The (Mis-) Assumption of Neutrality of Technology

Chair: Khalid Kadir, International & Area Studies, UC Berkeley

SUNDAY APRIL 29TH, 2018

9:30am – 11:00am: Panel 7 - Islamophobia and the Re-Rise of the Far Right in Europe!

Enes Bayraklı, Türk Alman Üniversitesi, Türkisch-Deutsche Universitaet, Turkish German University
Farid Hafez, Salzburg University, Department of Sociology and Political Science, Senior Research Fellow, Georgetown University, The Bridge Initiative and IRDP Affiliated Scholar
Islamophobia in the European Context: 27 Country Assessment

Kawtar Najib, School of Geography, Sociology and Politics, Newcastle University
The Fear of Islamophobia and Terrorism: Impact on the Mobility and Behaviours of French and British Muslims

Seyda Karaoglu, Department of Religion at the George Washington University in Washington
Islamophobia à la Française: A Typology in Étienne Dinet’s Hajj Travelogue

Chair: Elsadig Elsheikh, Global Justice Program, Haas Institute for Fair and Inclusive Society

11:15am – 1:00pm: Panel 8 - Modes of Islamophobia: From Polite Islamophobia to Trump

Hinasahar Muneeruddin, Religious Studies and Islamic Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The Hate and Fear of “Trump” Politics: Navigation of Affective Politics by Muslim-Americans in a Post-9/11 Era

Jaideep Singh, Held the Ranjit Singh Sabharwal Chair in Sikh and Punjabi Studies at CSU East Bay, and co-founded the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF)
The Rising Specter of Contemporary Christian Supremacy

Reem Bahdi, The University of Windsor, Canada
Globalized Islamophobia at The Supreme Court of Canada

Shelina Kassam, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto
Cloaking Whiteness: The Acceptable Muslim and Racialized Boundaries of Inclusion

Chair: Munir Jiwa, Director, Center for Islamic Studies, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA

1:00pm – 2:30pm Lunch Break

2:30pm – 4:00pm: Panel 9 - Foreign Policy, Israel and Islamophobia, a Strategic Orientation

Paul Larudee, Ph.D. Applied Linguistics, Georgetown University
The Israeli government role in promoting Islamophobia internationally

Richard Silverstein, Independent Journalist and Contributor to Tikun Olam
Global Islamophobia: the Israel Connection

Hatem Bazian, Director, IRDP, UC Berkeley and Zaytuna College
Islamophobia as Foreign Policy: The Domestic/Foreign Nature of the Islamophobia Industry

Chair: Salman Sayyid, Director of the Centre for Ethnicity and Racism Studies, University of Leeds

4:00pm – 4:30pm: Third Keynote: Liberal Proselytizing and Conversion, and the Politics of Self-Policing in Academia

Munir Jiwa, Director, Center for Islamic Studies at the Graduate Theological Union

Closing Remarks: Hatem Bazian, IRDP, UC Berkeley and Zaytuna College

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Conference co-sponsors: Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies, Ethnic Studies, Near Eastern Studies, Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diaspora Studies, SFSU School of Ethnic Studies, Council on American Islamic Relations, Centre for Ethnicity and Racism Studies, University of Leeds, UK, Islamophobia Studies Journal & Re-Orient Journal, Center for Islamic Studies at the Graduate Theological Union, Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, Islamic Scholarship Fund, Islamophobia Studies Center, Muslim Student Association, Northern California Islamic Council, and Zaytuna College.




Flyer for 4-17-2018 IRDP Event

Israel: A Democracy or A Colonial Project?

04.17.2018 | 6:30 PM  | 110 Boalt Hall

A Palestinian Prisoner Day Commemoration -- 
Israel:  A Democracy or A Colonial Project?
with Haneen Zoabi

Facilitated by Dr. Hatem Bazian

Presented by CRG's Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project.  Co-sponsored by the Arab Resource & Organizing Center, Al-Awda SF, American Friends Service Committee, American Muslims for Palestine, Answer-SF, Art Forces, Boalt Law School Students for Justice in Palestine, General Union of Palestinian Students, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, International Solidarity Movement, Islamophobia Studies Center, Jewish Voices for Peace Bay Area, Middle East Children’s Alliance, Muslim Student Association UC Berkeley, Norcal Sabeel, Palestine Action Network, Palestine Youth Movement, Palestinian American Coalition, Quit, Students for Justice in Palestine UC Berkeley.



Flyer for 8th Conference IRDP

Islamophobia and the End of Liberalism? -- The 8th Annual International Islamophobia Conference

04.21 - 23.2017 |  Booth Auditorium, Boalt Hall, UC Berkeley School of Law

Islamophobia and the End of Liberalism? -- The 8th Annual International Islamophobia Conference

Islamophobia is most commonly understood to be a problem that impacts adversely on Muslim minorities living in Western countries.   The growing literature on Islamophobia has contributed to this understanding by focusing on the role of media in spreading of negative views about Muslims and Islam, the implication being that the problem of Islamophobia could largely be resolved by fairer media treatment.  It is not clear, however, that Islamophobia is simply about how Muslims are portrayed.   As recent events demonstrate, Islamophobia is implicated in the broader crisis of post-Cold War liberal order.

The electoral triumph of Trump has been hailed as a clear sign that the post-Cold war liberal order is unravelling.  The crisis of post-Cold War liberal order has been read in myriad of ways, including the failure of neo-liberal globalization, the fall-out from the financial crisis of 2008, the advance of technology.  Throughout the Western plutocracies, politicians and parties who would until recently be considered beyond the pale of political respectability are making electoral gains and reshaping the national conversation.  One of the central themes of these challengers to post-Cold war settlement is the desire to ‘take back their country’.  Despite the variety of national and regional contexts in which these narratives of national recovery and restoration are situated, the Muslim presence looms large as an obstacle and a threat.

The Muslim threat enables assertions of national security, cultural integrity and social cohesion to trump demands for diversity, liberty and equality.  Islamophobia is not just  about the fate of Muslims but about the possibility of an inclusive and sustainable future for all.   Not only because the systems of surveillance and restriction deployed to discipline Muslims can be easily redeployed and redirected at other targets, but also because such interventions and controls threaten to reverse the gains in civil rights and multiculturalism that have to come characterize Western plutocracies in the last fifty years.

There is a need for an approach to the study of Islamophobia which explores the way in which it is being institutionalized by policies that promote and police a conception of Western societies that appears to be becoming increasingly exclusive and exclusionary.  This conference provides an inter-disciplinary platform to reflect and respond to the crisis of post-Cold war liberal order by exploring the relationship between Islamophobia and the reshaping of Western societies.

The conference addresses question of the relationship between liberalism (and neo-liberalism) and Islamophobia. We particularly welcome presentations that respond to the following themes:

*  What is the relation between the discourse of ‘take our country back’ and the post-Cold war liberal political order?

*  What intellectual and political resources and possibilities now exist for imagining the West in contravention of Islamophobia?

*  Is the presence of the non-white, culturally unassimilable, rights bearing subject a political problem for western liberalism?

*  What is the relationship between neo-liberal economic policies and rise of Islamophobia?

Presented by the Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project, University of California, Berkeley, Centre for Ethnicity and Racism Studies, University of Leeds, UK, & Islamophobia Studies Journal & ReOrient.