Islamophobia is a new ideological formation that has taken full expression since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Islamophobia does not originate in one particular administration, thinker, media outlet, special interest group or even economic sector or industry though indeed, these actors are collectively responsible for the virulent dissemination of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab stereotypes and beliefs, circulated in order to naturalize and justify US global, economic and political hegemony.
…
To streamline the massive, multifaceted ideological edifice of Islamophobia, two similar but competing paradigms of Islamophobia by Bernard Lewis and Fareed Zakaria will be mapped out. As bears repeating, these two are certainly not progenitors of the Islamophobic narratives deployed post 9/11, but arguably their work condenses Islamophobic narratives that have previously circulated and accumulated over the preceding decade. Lewis and Zakaria distilled many Islamophobic tenets into two separate but intersecting discourses that explicitly intend to legitimize the deployment of US political power in the Middle East and the control of its own domestic populations. The talking points within these two versions of Islamophobia are continually repeated throughout the mainstream media, in policy circles, and by native informants (persons of Muslim or Arab descent who are purportedly best placed to lay bare an inside view or critique of Arab/Islamic culture), but more importantly, echo in the speeches of Bush and Obama.
…