TY - THES ID - 138546385 TI - Is Islamophobia (always) racism? A conceptual investigation AU - Lauwers, Sophie AU - Braeckman, Antoon. AU - KU Leuven. Hoger Instituut voor Wijsbegeerte. Opleiding Research Master of Philosophy (Abridged Programme) (Leuven) PY - 2017 PB - Leuven KU Leuven. Hoger Instituut voor Wijsbegeerte DB - UniCat UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:138546385 AB - Recent scholarship increasingly defines Islamophobia as a form of racism. This article claims that such scholarship mistakenly overlooks the categories of religious and cultural bigotry as part of Islamophobia. Although anti-Islam bigotry is intertwined with anti-Muslim racism, it is conceptually distinct. It is important to distinguish between racist and non-racist forms of Islamophobia in order to evaluate contemporary Islamophobic discourses in an accurate way. If we simply conflate Islamophobia with anti-Muslim racism, we either fail to identify certain instances of Islamophobia as problematic, or are compelled to apply the charge of racism too broadly. This article therefore conceptually explores the similarities and differences between anti-Muslim racism and anti-Islam bigotry in Europe today. It finds that although anti-Islam bigotry implies a prejudicial rejection of an essentialized idea of Islam, it allows for the possibility that Muslims convert or assimilate. As such, it differs from anti-Muslim racism, which implies the assumption that the negative characteristics associated with Islam are innate and unchangeably linked to Muslims. ER -