In the first decades of the twenty-first century, Islamophobia has emerged as the dominant mode of prejudice in contemporary Western societies. In North America and across the nations of Europe, concerns about “the Muslim problem” are central to political debates and policies. As part of the response to international conflicts, acts of terrorism, and state violence in the West itself, the figure of “the Muslim” has come under increased scrutiny. Muslims and Islam have emerged as the focal point of anxieties about citizenship, loyalty, and liberal values. They have been the object of heightened levels of criticism, intolerance, and abuse—their cultures homogenized and vilified and their religion depicted as backward and warlike. The same vitriol has passed into mainstream currency, finding outlets in journalism, film, and television dramas, in political statements, and in the outlaw spaces of the Internet.

Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, loc. 15