This private dimension of Islamophobia dominates popular and even scholarly understandings of the term and is the form that monopolizes mainstream media framing and coverage of Islamophobia. However, if we confine our understanding of Islamophobia to the irrational actions of hatemongers like Craig Hicks or Frank Roque, or the economic or political agendas of institutions like Fox News or the Gatestone Institute, how do we account for the laws and policies that similarly cast Muslims as unassimilable, suspicious, and potential terrorists? Are these policies part and parcel of the broader system of Islamophobia, or are they distinct and exempt from condemnation?

QUESTION: The author leaves open whether policies that cast Muslims as suspicious form part of the same Islamophobic system or deserve separate condemnation.

Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Unde…, loc. 122