Hatem Bazian Announces Release of 2022 Islamophobia Studies Journal

Dr. Hatem Bazian of University of California Berkeley founded the Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project at the Center for Race and Gender at UC Berkeley. He also serves as an Editorial Board Member for the Islamophobia Studies Journal (ISJ). The ISJ is a bi-annual publication that focuses on the critical analysis of Islamophobia and its multiple manifestations in our contemporary moment. ISJ is an interdisciplinary and multi-lingual academic journal that encourages submissions that theorize the historical, political, economic, and cultural phenomenon of Islamophobia in relation to the construction, representation, and articulation of “otherness.” The ISJ is an open scholarly exchange, exploring new approaches, methodologies, and contemporary issues. 

According to their publication, “The ISJ encourages submissions that closely interrogate the ideological, discursive, and epistemological frameworks frameworks employed in the process of “Otherness” – the complex social, political, economic, gender, sexual, and religious forces that are intimately linked in the historical production of the modern world from the dominance of the colonial/imperial north to the post-colonial south. At the heart of ISJ is an intellectual and collaborative project between scholars, researchers, and community agencies to recast the production of knowledge about Islamophobia away from a dehumanizing and subordinating framework to an emancipatory and liberatory one for all peoples in this far-reaching and unfolding domestic and global process.”

Volume 7 of the Islamophobia Studies Journal was released in Fall 2022. It feature an editorial introduction by Jasmin Zine and a number of research articles, including Radical Secularism as Settler Colonial Sovereignty in Quebec by Leila Benhadjoudja, White Supremacist Mythologies in Canadian Educational Curricula: How Islamophobia  Manifests and is Perpetrated in Canadian Schools by Naved Bakali, and Memorializing Aqsa Parvez: Public Feelings and Secular Multiculturalism by Eve Haque.

One journal article, titled Resisting Islamophobia through Digital Artifacts of Mourning by Yasmin Jiwani covers the ways in which collective mourning and grieving utilize art as a form of communication. The paper examines a particular genre of artistic works which symbolically contest Islamophobia through reinterpreting and humanizing the victims of Islamophobia. Professor Yasmin Jiwani is a Professor in communication Studies at Concordia. Her research interests focus on the intersecting influences of race and gender within the context of media representations of radicalized groups and violence against marginalized women. She states, “I interrogate the discursive way in which racism-sexism is conceptualized and ideologically utilized in popular discourse. My current research focuses on tracing race, gender, and belonging in digital memorials hosted on different virtual graveyards.” 

Dr. Hatem Bazian shared the open source link to the journal publication on his Twitter to his 21,000 Twitter followers encouraging them to access the research articles published in the Fall 2022 edition. Hatem Bazian himself had recently published a research article titled A Discourse on the Colonized Muslim Subject. The academics featured in these publications show a level of depth and scale in their research, all covering topics related to Islamophobia. Islamophobia is defined as “dislike or prejudice against Islam or Muslims, especially as a political force.” Also defined as anti-Muslim hate, Islamophobia is pervasive as a structural issue across the world. In the US, many have dedicated academic, advocacy, and other resources to identify and fight against Islamophobic policies. 

One of the articles titled Racial Secularism as Settler Colonial Sovereignty in Quebec by Leila Benhadjaoudja depicts how explicitly Quebec’s Islamophobic policies have prevented the practice of Islam by its followers there. The writer describes herself as “an anti-racist Muslim feminist scholar who immigrated to Quebec from Algeria more than two decades ago. Like many people from societies that have been colonized by the French empire, I have a sense of deja vu when I witness a colonial state unveiling Muslim women in the name of civic values. It is therefore essential to analyze the role of secularism in Quebec, a province that insists on its French heritage, to see how it serves to reinforce the colonial sovereignty of the Quebec state.

Another article titled Canadian Muslim Youth and the Complex Dynamics of State-Driven “Radicalization Narratives” by authors Baljit Nagra and Paula Maurutto. This research article begins with a review of the critical race literature to illustrate how the “radicalization” model emerged to justify the “War on Terror.” The authors then divide their research findings into two sections; the first exploring how mainstream perceptions and “radicalization” narratives impact Muslim youth and their communities. Second, they examine Muslim communities’ complex response to “radicalization” narratives.

All articles tackle the issue of Islamophobia with a depth of expertise, knowledge, and research to identify and address their issues. The academic work behind addressing islamophobia sets the foundation for advocacy, social, and other work to educate the American public on the effects of this biased and racist ideology, and equip our communities to protect ourselves from its pervasive and damaging impact.