Book: “Islamophobia in the West: Measuring and Explaining Individual Attitudes”

The book: “Islamophobia in the West: Measuring and Explaining Individual Attitudes” which is written by Marc Helbling bring a new transatlantic perspective to Islamophobia growing.

Since the late 1980s, growing migration from countries with a Muslim cultural background, and increasing Islamic fundamentalism related to terrorist attacks in Western Europe and the US, have created a new research field investigating the way states and ordinary citizens react to these new phenomena. However, whilst we already know much about how Islam finds its place in Western Europe and North America, and how states react to Muslim migration, we know surprisingly little about the attitudes of ordinary citizens towards Muslim migrants and Islam. Islamophobia has only recently started to be addressed by social scientists.

With contributions by leading researchers from many countries in Western Europe and North America, this book brings a new transatlantic perspective to this growing field and establishes an important basis for further research in the area. It addresses several essential questions about Islamophobia, including:

•what exactly is Islamophobia and how can we measure it?

•how is it related to similar social phenomena, such as xenophobia?

•how widespread are Islamophobic attitudes, and how can they be explained?

•how are Muslims different from other outgroups and what role does terrorism and 9/11 play?

Islamophobia in the West will be of interest to students and scholars of sociology, religious studies, social psychology, political science, ethnology, and legal science.

Table of Contents:

Part 1: How to measure Islamophobia

Prejudice against Muslims: Associations with personality traits and political attitudes

Part 2: The scope of Islamophobia: Public debates, attitudes and reactions

Assessing Islamophobia in Britain: where do Muslims really stand?

Attitudes toward Muslims in Norway

Islamophobia in Sweden: Politics. Representations, attitudes and experiences

Islamophobia in Spain? Political rhetoric rather than a social fact

Part 3: How to explain Islamophobia

An ecological analysis of the 2009 Swiss referendum on the building of minarets

Islamophobia and its explanation

The aftermath of 9/11: Tolerance toward Muslims, Islamophobia and Value orientations

Political tolerance for Muslim practices: An intergroup perspective

Revisiting Islamophobia in contemporary Britain, 2007-10

Part 4: Are Muslims different from other outgroups? Ethnocentrism and Terrorism

Are Muslims different from other outgroups? Ethnocentrism and terrorism

Islamophobia and the Band of others

Think ‘terrorist’, think ‘Muslim’?: Social-psychological mechanisms explaining anti-Islamic prejudice