Rethinking gendered anti-Muslim racism in a relational matrix of race and gender

Abstract

Gendered ideas of Muslims and Islam are one of the central organising principles of anti-Muslim racism. However, discussions around gendered anti-Muslim racism often ignore ‘Muslim men’ as a gendered category despite ideas about ‘Muslim women’ being constructed in direct relation to (often implicitly assumed presence of) their male counterparts. As problematised by Alimahomed-Wilson (2020), historical anti-Muslim racist representations of Muslim men as violent and oppressive have not been often considered in these gendered perspectives, but instead treated as a ‘gender-neutral’ facet of anti-Muslim racism. Developing on previous works, our research findings highlight that anti-Muslim racism is inherently gendered, not only because women are disproportionately targeted in Islamophobic attacks but because of its gendered essence. Informed by feminist scholars, our understanding of gender is a relational matrix between men and women upon which we elaborate this gendered foundation of anti-Muslim racism. Anti-Muslim racist ideologies are premised on myths and stereotypical ideas which claim that: 1) Islam is an inherently misogynistic religion; 2) ‘Muslim men’ are therefore inherently violent and oppressive, primarily towards Muslim women, but also backwards and unable to govern themselves or their communities and, as such, are in need of correction or control (Abu-Lughod, 2013; Farris, 2017; Kumar, 2012; inter alia). In this article, building on the previous analyses of the gendered aspect of anti-Muslim racism and our research findings based on fieldwork with Muslim communities in Ireland (n = 193), we argue that anti-Muslim racism is gendered not only because it affects women more, but also because: 1) its underlying gendered racial ideology constructs Muslim women as the passive Other of assumed ‘violent Muslim masculinity’; 2) ‘Western liberal’ anti-Muslim discourses, claiming to be vying for the liberation of all women, assume it as their ‘duty’ to save ‘Muslim women’; 3) with ‘white feminism’ often providing the moral ground for this saviour image, ignoring Muslim women's emancipatory agency and politics.