What is Islamophobia?
This website will focus on the various ways Islamophobia is perpetuated by online communities. This will include various online news sites, blog sites, and online memes. The big question is, what is Islamophobia? You may have heard the term before, but still aren't exactly sure what it refers to. Islamophobia was first coined by the Runnymede Trust. Runnymede Trust is a race equality think tank founded in Britain. In their 1991 report they defined Islamophobia as, "unfounded hostility towards Muslims, and therefore fear or dislike of all or most Muslims" (UC Berkeley Center for Race and Gender). The prevalent discrimination of, and misconception of, Muslims is a result of Islamophobia.
Who produces Islamophobia?
The main producers of Islamophobia are organizations such as, Stop Islamization of America. These privately funded organizations utilize Islam extremists to condemn all Muslims in the interest of protecting the nation. However, in the age of incessant technology use, our generation consumes an overwhelming amount of media messages and we receive a lot of information using technology such as computers and televisions. This generation depends on sites such as CNN, Tumblr, Facebook, and other blogs, to communicate and share information. However, the danger of the internet is that folks are free to publish anything. Our website takes a look at some popular sites to see how they portray Islam and Muslims. Some Islamophobic writings are more explicit than others, so we look at what information is being publicized by both private organizations and national news sites, to uncover the more subtle ways Islamophobia is being produced and perpetuated.