Islamophobia isn’t just about individual prejudice — it’s driven by a global network of groups and people who profit from spreading anti-Muslim hatred.
That’s the central theme in Professor Peter Hopkins’ new book Everyday Islamophobia.
The book challenges the notion that everyday discrimination is minor or isolated. Instead, Peter Hopkins links it to bigger political agendas, media messages, and long-standing stereotypes.
He explains how this system shapes how Muslims are treated in everyday life, reinforces harmful ideas, and deepens social inequalities.
The book also looks at the significant toll everyday Islamophobia takes on individuals, communities, and society at large, while pointing to ways it can be challenged.
Here, Professor Hopkins tells Islam Channel bit more about his work and new book.
Can you give an overview of your book? What is the central argument you are making and what motivated you to write this book?
The book focuses on everyday Islamophobia, what this is, how is operates, and what can be done to challenge it. My central argument is that there is a global Islamophobia Industrial Complex – that is a network of organisations and individuals who financially benefit from promoting Islamophobia and earn a lot of money in the process. I argue that this is one of the key drivers of everyday Islamophobia and plays a powerful role in shaping everyday experiences on the ground.
You argue that everyday Islamophobia is often wrongly regarded as low-level or trivial. What does this look like and what harm does it inflict on individuals and communities?
Everyday Islamophobia is often talked about as if it is low-level, trivial, insignificant and not nearly as important as forms of Islamophobia that are global or national in their reach. I argue in this book that these diverse forms of Islamophobia are part and parcel of what everyday Islamophobia is all about and this is why it inflicts such harm on individuals and communities. Added to this, significant harm can also be caused by the frequency and regularly of incidents of everyday Islamophobia, which means it is far from trivial but plays a significant role in the lives of its victims.
The “Islamophobia Industrial Complex” — what exactly do you mean by this concept, and who are the key individuals, groups, or agencies that constitute this complex?
The Islamophobia Industrial Complex is a complex web of groups, agencies, and individuals who are financially and ideologically benefitting from promoting Islamophobia. An ‘industrial complex’ develops when money and finance become enmeshed within specific political, social, and cultural systems, so the Islamophobia industrial complex is the complex layers of resources, funding, and systems in place to promote, sustain, and enhance the spread of everyday Islamophobia. The state is the key actor in this complex but it also includes think tanks, far-right activities, the media, public intellectuals, politicians, and right-wing religious groups who work – often in concert with each other – to promote Islamophobia.
How does the Islamophobia Industrial Complex, which often operates on a transnational or global scale, directly influence or fuel the “everyday” experiences of Muslims?
The reach and influence of the global Islamophobia Industrial Complex is such that its impacts are felt far and wide and shape the everyday experiences of many people. Also, seeing the global and the everyday as more closely interrelated and interconnected means it is easier to see how these apparently ‘remote’ global issues are experienced and felt on the ground in the everyday. People see the operation of the Islamophobia Industrial Complex through the narratives of politicians, through their engagements with mainstream and social media, the words and actions of far-right activists, and in their daily encounters with others.
From your perspective, what do you see as the primary motivation for the systemic Islamophobia you describe? For example, is it fundamentally rooted in traditional racism, is it a perceived clash of ideologies (i.e., Western values vs. Islamic), is it primarily a political strategy used by the powerful to maintain wealth and the status quo by distracting the masses on a marginalised ‘bogeyman etc.?
It is a combination of all of these with some being stronger at certain times and in specific places compared to others (and vice versa). I think the ways that specific people or groups benefit financially is a key motivation here given that some can earn significant salaries working to share Islamophobia. In some cases, it may appear to be explicit racism or a moral panic surrounding a specific issue or community but behind this, there may be specific beneficiaries receiving significant sums in the process.
Considering the systemic and complex nature of the Islamophobia Industrial Complex and its pervasive “everyday” effects, what is the single most effective action that policymakers/institutions could take, and what is the single most effective action that individuals could take, based on your research?
The single most effective action that policymakers could make (and which institutions would then need to follow through on) would be to abolish the problematic counter-terror systems that have been put in place in the name of the global ‘war on terror’. Abolishing such systems – including the thinking behind them – would remove one of the most significant ways that the state operates to promote Islamophobia and would limit the ways in which Muslims can be put under surveillance and subject to racial profiling.
What was the most surprising or unexpected insight you gained about Islamophobia while researching this book or what particular finding left you the most taken aback?
The issue that left me most taken aback was when I learnt about the amounts of money that people are able to earn in promoting Islamophobia. Especially in the US, there are people who can take home six figure salaries after spending a day or two writing Islamophobic blog posts that are shared globally across different media platforms.
