causal layered Analysis of the spread of the phenomenon of Islamophobia in the West

Khalife, Akram; Ghaffari Hashjin, Zahed; Nikunahad, Ayob

doi:10.22034/fasiw.2025.458502.1351

causal layered Analysis of the spread of the phenomenon of Islamophobia in the West

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

akram khalife ¹

Zahed Ghaffari Hashjin ²

Ayob nikunahad ³

¹ PhD Candidate in Islamic Revolution Political Studies, Faculty of Governance, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran

² Professor of Political Science, Faculty of Governance, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran

³ , Assistant Professor and Faculty Member, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Khatam Al-Anbia Air Defense University, Tehran, Iran

10.22034/fasiw.2025.458502.1351

Abstract

The ever-increasing expansion of the soft and cultural power of Islam and the growing trend towards Islam, especially in European and American societies, against the material logic of Western civilization, has caused a kind of desperation, passivity and helplessness among far-right politicians and Western racists and has forced them to All historical and civilizational capacities have been used in various layers of social causes (political, social, cultural, historical, security, etc.), the causes of discourse - worldview and the causes of conflicting metaphors - myths between the two civilizations of the West and Islam, making Islam the first class enemy of identity, western civilization and values and create a wave of Islamophobia and anti-Islamism in western societies. Especially after the September 11 incident, due to bad media propaganda, public opinion has been affected and insulting Muslims and Islamic holy things has been placed at the top of racist movements and has created a new type of racism under the concept of Islamophobia. "Islamophobia" is a combination of Islam and phobia, and phobia means an irrational and unreasonable aversion or fear of something. The question that arises from the combination of these two words is that what is the reason for this unreasonable fear or dislike of Islam in the western society and in the minds of western people? Can superficial social, political, cultural and economic reasons alone have a convincing answer for the cause of this problem? Or what is happening in the upper layers of Western societies, both European and American, is rooted in the lower layers of the mind and history of man and Western society? Finding the causes of Islamophobia and anti-Islamism is so important and necessary that day by day we witness the intensification of such thoughts and behaviors not only in the minds of experts but also in the social context and among ordinary people of Western societies in the face of Islam and millions of Muslims.According to this, the main goal of the research is the causal layered analysis of Islamophobia in the West, and in this regard, its secondary goals are to explain the objective/litany layers and to identify and analyze the layers of causal systems, discourse-worldview and myth-metaphor of the phenomenon of Islamophobia in the West. For this purpose, the main research question isThe roots and causes of the spread of Islamophobia in the West based on the method of causal layered Analysis include what causes and factors?
And the sub-questions are
1- How can the objective signs of the spread of Islamophobia in the West be analyzed in recent decades?
2- What are the roots of the spread of Islamophobia in the West at the level of causal systems (economic, social, political, cultural, security, etc.)?
3- What are the roots of the spread of Islamophobia in the West at the level of the worldview-discourse system?
4- What are the roots of the spread of Islamophobia in the West at the level of the myth-metaphor system?
This research seeks to collect and analyze data by using the method of causal layered analysis as a suitable method to analyze cultural-social events in future studies, and also by two methods of environmental survey of texts and interviews with experts, and to the research questions to answer.
Based on the investigations carried out during the current research, among the causes of Islamophobia in different layers and levels, we can include such things as the increase in the Muslim population in the West and the depiction of this issue as a cultural-security threat, the false belief and understanding of Islam by Westerners and the confrontation with it, the growth of takfiri movements in the Islamic world and the occurrence of terrorist incidents in the West Media deception in order to justify the interventionism of the West in the Islamic world, the rise of extreme right-wing parties in the West, the growth of political Islam in the Islamic world and the international system, the fundamental fear of the possibility of Islamists gaining power in the political arena, the financial crisis of the West due to the presence of Muslim immigrants, the growth of political Islam and the endangerment of the economic interests of the West in the energy center of the world (Persian Gulf), made of Islam and the East as the West (otherization), cultural and historical conflict between Islam and the West, defensive reaction of Muslims against Western modernity, culture of xenophobia in the West, cultural decline and crisis of spirituality in Western civilization, discourse weakness of The West against Islamic logic, belief in the apocalyptic battle (war of civilizations), belief in the centrality and superiority of the West and the Western race, belief in the system of liberal democracy as an unrivaled intellectual system in the world, etc.
The findings of the research show that the roots and causes of Islamophobia in the West include a range of issues from objective layers and political, social causal systems, etc. to discourse-worldview and myth-metaphor layers. The theorization and social expansion of Islamophobia in the West is not an action but a passive and desperate reaction against the growing wave of Islamism that has challenged the foundations of the West (in its historical, cultural and discursive sense) and The future of this process will expand more and more and will turn from Islamophobia to anti-Islamism.

Keywords

Islamophobia

West

causal layered analysis

Islamic world

Subjects

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