Race and the Imagined Community
This opening section of the book explores a set of overarching themes relating to matters of ethnicity, politics and religion that impact on discussions relating to the nature of the relationship between the concepts of Islamophobia and radicalization. It provides personal history by way of an introduction to the author and includes a summary of the key perspectives from which the issues at hand are considered in the book, which includes history, politics, sociology, culture, security studies and international relations. The overall argument made here suggests that Islamophobia is an identifiable form of racism and hostility to an actual and perceived ‘other’. This Islamophobia has the effect of radicalizing young Muslims in the Global North, which leads to further instances of Islamophobia, creating a perpetual cycle.