While the themes of radicalization and Islamophobia have been broadly addressed by academia, to date there has been little investigation of the crosspollination between the two. Is Islamophobia a significant catalyst or influence on radicalization and recruitment? How do radicalization and Islamophobia interact, operate, feed one another, and ultimately pull societies toward polar extremes in domestic and foreign policy? The wide-ranging and global contributions collected here explore these questions through perspectives grounded in sociology, political theory, psychology, and religion. The volume provides an urgently needed and timely examination of the root causes of both radicalization and Islamophobia; the cultural construction and consumption of radical and Islamophobic discourses; the local and global contexts that fertilize these extreme stances; and, finally, the everyday Muslim in the shadow of these opposing but equally vociferous forces.

Since the 1970s, there have been three challenges to traditional, homogeneous "national" identities across the Western world: political and socioeconomic inequality; neoliberal globalization; and more diverse, multicultural societies. As in the US and elsewhere in Western Europe, the decline of an old, masculinized national identity has now begun to open a new, dark era for Britain. Ever since the "war on terror" was added to the mix, "others" in Britain have been brutally demonized. Muslims, routinely presented as the source of society's ills, are subjected to both symbolic and actual violence. Deep-seated and structurally racialized norms amplify the isolation and alienation impeding Muslim integration. Both these "left-behind" Muslims and white-British groups who perceive themselves as the true nation are under pressure from ongoing geopolitical concerns in the Muslim world, as well as widening divisions at home. Tahir Abbas argues that, in this context, the symbiotic intersections between Islamophobia and radicalization intensify and expand. His book is a warning of the world that results: a rise in hate crime, the institutionalization of Islamophobia, and the normalization of war and conflict.

Since the 1970s, there have been three challenges to traditional, homogeneous "national" identities across the Western world: political and socioeconomic inequality; neoliberal globalization; and more diverse, multicultural societies. As in the US and elsewhere in Western Europe, the declineof an old, masculinized national identity has now begun to open a new, dark era for Britain. Ever since the "war on terror" was added to the mix, "others" in Britain have been brutally demonized. Muslims, routinely presented as the source of society's ills, are subjected to both symbolic and actualviolence. Deep-seated and structurally racialized norms amplify the isolation and alienation impeding Muslim integration. Both these "left-behind" Muslims and white-British groups who perceive themselves as the true nation are under pressure from ongoing geopolitical concerns in the Muslim world, aswell as widening divisions at home. Tahir Abbas argues that, in this context, the symbiotic intersections between Islamophobia and radicalization intensify and expand. His book is a warning of the world that results: a rise in hate crime, the institutionalization of Islamophobia, and thenormalization of war and conflict.

Europe sees itself as embodying the ideals of modernity, especially in relation to democracy and the respect for human rights. Faced on the one hand with the need for public recognition of a new population of Muslim identity, and the threat of violent radicalization on the other, Europe is falling prey to the politics of fear and is tempted to compromise on its professed ideals. Reflecting on the manifestations and causes of the contemporary fear of Islam gaining ground in contemporary Europe, as well as on the factors contributing to the radicalization of some Muslims, (Il)liberal Europe: Islamophobia, Modernity and Radicalization offers a diversity of perspectives on both the challenges to social cohesion, and the danger of Islamophobia encouraging a spiral of co-radicalization. Combining empirical studies of several European countries with a comparative account of India and Europe, the book analyzes vital issues such as secularity, domophilia, de-politicization, neo-nationalism, the European unification project and more. Spanning a variety of disciplinary approaches, the volume offers novel insights into the complex landscape of identity politics in contemporary Europe to widen the scope of intellectual inquiry. This book was originally published as a special issue of Politics, Religion & Ideology.

What changes have the terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001 and the subsequent attacks in Europe brought to Western societies? In what ways have these events and their aftermath impacted on the relationships between Muslim communities and Western societies? This book explores the remaking of the relationship between Islam and Islamism, on the one hand, and security and securitization, on the other hand, by arguing that 9/11 and its aftermath have led to the opening of a new phase in Western and European history and have remade the relationship between Islam and governmental and societal approaches to security. The authors utilize case studies across the Western world to understand this relationship.

In the wake of the Paris, Beirut, and San Bernardino terrorist attacks, fears over “homegrown terrorism” have surfaced to a degree not seen since September 11, 2001—especially following the news that all of the perpetrators in Paris were European citizens. A sought-after commentator in France and a widely respected international scholar of radical Islam, Farhad Khosrokhavar has spent years studying the path towards radicalization, focusing particularly on the key role of prisons—based on interviews with dozens of Islamic radicals—as incubators of a particular brand of outrage that has yielded so many attacks over the past decade. Khosrokhavar argues that the root problem of radicalization is not a particular ideology but rather a set of steps that young men and women follow, steps he distills clearly in this deeply researched account, one that spans both Europe and the United States. With insights that apply equally to far-right terrorists and Islamic radicals, Khosrokhavar argues that our security-focused solutions are pruning the branches rather than attacking the roots—which lie in the breakdown of social institutions, the expansion of prisons, and the rise of joblessness, which create disaffected communities with a sharp sense of grievance against the mainstream.

Islamophobia as a Form of Radicalisation discusses the scope and fragmented boundaries of Islamophobia as a concept and a sociopolitical reality. The fifteen chapters of this collection cover and connect interdisciplinary research, media content analysis, media discourse analysis, ethnographic research, intersectoral advocacy work, and action research conducted in Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Poland, Portugal, and Spain. Confronted with an Islamophobia that is growing as a symptom of broader societal malaise in the West, a resistance against it is also arising. It is now a question of better understanding the foundations and mechanisms of this metasolidarity and resistance. Islamophobia as a Form of Radicalisation offers recommendations for urgent consideration by Muslim citizens of Canada and Europe, media professionals, civil society and academic stakeholders, policymakers at the municipal, provincial and federal levels.