Islamfeindlichkeit und Islamophobie

Islamophobia and anti-Muslim prejudice have become part of a semantic to denote negative attitudes towards Muslims and Islam. In this chapter, these terms are viewed critically and checked for their usefulness. In addition, new approaches to researching Islamophobia are presented. Empirical findings on the extent of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim attitudes and studies looking for possible predictors (explanations) for such attitudes are discussed. Various studies have also shown that “Islam” and “Muslims” are portrayed in the “Western” media not only stereotypically, but also as threatening. There is also empirical evidence on the conspicuous framing of “Islam” and “Muslims” in digital and social media (Internet in general, Facebook, Twitter etc.). Finally, a change of perspective is proposed to observe not only the “negative” sides, the divergences between non-Muslims and Muslims (e.g., the prejudices, discrimination, and possible acts of violence), but also to include possible cultural, political, economic individual convergences (e.g., the acculturation successes, the mutual cultural stimuli) in the scientific and everyday observation.