American Islamophobia

“Deftly pairing his deep legal expertise with a searching moral dialogue, Khaled A. Beydoun breaks down U.S. Islamophobia as the full-fledged system that it is—one with a very specific history, but tightly linked to other forms of white supremacy. This book meets the moment, but it is also packed with staying power. A crucial contribution to building the powerful, broad-based, and diverse movement that is our only hope.”—Naomi Klein, author of No Is Not Enough and This Changes Everything
 

“This compelling book is an exquisite testament to what it means to subvert Islamophobia. Beydoun stands out as a brilliant scholar and advocate who gives voice and attention to the neglected stories of Black Muslims along with the poor, working class, and undocumented.”—Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, Professor of Law, Columbia Law School and UCLA School of Law
 

“In this political climate, Beydoun is a much-needed and critical voice, analyst, commentator, and researcher. Unapologetically Muslim and Arab American, he speaks and writes truth to power, steering us away from comfort and forcing us to confront racism through our own relationships with it. Brilliant and witty, he tells it like it is.”—Linda Sarsour, cochair of the 2017 Women’s March 


“At a time when casual hate-mongering emanates from the highest level of the U.S. government, American Islamophobia provides precisely what is necessary to understand the dark days we are living through. Beydoun brilliantly dissects the tropes that are central to the deliberate construction of Islam as the ultimate hostile other. He draws on his legal training and his experience in national security policing and civil liberties advocacy to draw a stark portrait of this ugly time of carefully curated xenophobia and mass hatred that Muslims, Hispanics, and many others are enduring. I can think of no book that could be more timely.”—Rashid Khalidi, author of Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East


“A triumphant act of moral restitution. Written with bravura flair, academic authority, and panoramic scholarly panache, American Islamophobia declares the birth of an American Muslim intellectual who wholly claims the land and envisions a bold future for it. This is no simple diagnosis of a racist pathology in a nation. It announces the brave surfacing of a subterranean voice rooted in the moral imaginary of a liberated America.”—Hamid Dabashi, author of Iran Without Borders: Towards a Critique of the Postcolonial Nation

 
“This is an urgent book for anyone seeking a comprehensive understanding of Islamophobia today.”—Evelyn Alsultany, author of Arabs and Muslims in the Media: Race and Representation after 9/11

 
“This is a highly readable, deeply personal, and fiercely intellectual analysis of endemic social and structural Islamophobia throughout American history. This book is required reading for any thinking human being.”—Khaled Abou El Fadl, Omar and Azmeralda Alfi Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law

 
“Political commentary, intellectual history, legal exegesis, and autobiography, this book is a powerful and moving articulation of how Islamophobia has shaped and been shaped by U.S. democracy.”—Devon W. Carbado, coauthor of Acting White? Rethinking Race in “Post-Racial” America and Harry Pregerson Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law