The same is true of Islamophobic discourses. There are Muslims who advocate and practice violence, oppress women, hate Jews, would like to see the universal establishment of shari`ah law, and so on. Counting them and calling them out is not as important, or as dangerous, as the categorical stigmatization that occurs when phobic portrayals of Muslims come to dominate a political field, thus setting the terms on which Islam is deemed pre/modern, un/ safe, and un/acceptable.

DEFINE: Clarifies the distinction between identifying individual Muslims who hold problematic views versus the systemic 'categorical stigmatization' that shapes discourse around all Muslims.

Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ Th…, loc. 704