Erik Love, an associate professor of sociology, argued in a lecture that Islamophobia in America has visibly worsened through political rhetoric and government practices due to a “racial paradox” in which Arab-Americans are subject to racist treatment yet are unable to categorize the discrimination as racism.

Love presented his research on Islamophobia and its root causes and implications based on research from his book, Islamophobia and Racism in America, which was published in May.

After joking that his book was the “feel-good book of the year,” Love continued to explain that although using pre-established tools to tackle racism is the only solution to fight Islamophobia, advocates for Arab-Americans have been forced to “side-step talking about racism”.

He explained that many advocates follow “the colorblindness ideology [and] pretend that race is not part of the problem” policy questions if you avoid that always-controversial issue of race”.

Love said that although “Americans want to live in a society where racism… and discrimination are a thing of the past”, the experience of Arab-Americans disproves this notion. “If that were really true”, he explained, “the work of advocates would be very easy”.

Love stated that U.S. government agencies such as the FBI have continued Islamophobic practices and that the agency uses sting operations that have been criticized by human rights organizations. Love said that, “bigoted belief motivates the program,” which he says is based on the belief that “Muslims are more likely to be terrorists, which is false.”

“It’s not only Donald Trump… who has embraced Islamophobia… Hillary Clinton also used Islamophobia rhetoric… it’s built into the institutions of the U.S.” he said.

Although Love stated that most advocacy groups have failed to categorize Islamophobia as racism, “especially since 2010, there is a growing contagion of Middle Eastern America, Arab and Muslim, South Asian Americans that are talking about race explicitly.” Love explained that these advocates link the struggle that their communities face to that of African American and Latinx communities, saying that the struggle for civil rights is, necessarily, a struggle against racism. Love explained that they have created an opportunity to “link together with other communities and have a broader coalition.” Love presented his research to students and faculty members at a “Facultea” and during a Common Hour Conversation. The “Facultea”, which was organized by the Waidner-Spahr library, was held on Wednesday, Oct. 11 in the Biblio Café and Thursday, Oct. 19 for the Common Hour conversation.

Sherwood McGinnis, who previously served as a Foreign Service Officer and now serves on the faculty of Dickinson College and the U.S. Army War College, said that Love, “raised an extremely important issue which we have seen manifested in the 2016 election but continues and is something that has led to even a further divide in our society.”

Students felt as though the lecture provided strong insight into the various perspectives on racism and Islamophobia. “Whenever we talk about the Middle East, we often talk about [it] in terms of politics, war and diplomacy… in a way that is very detached from Middle Easterners themselves. This was the first talk that I think humanizes the experiences he was talking about,” Carolyn Fadalla ’18 said. Mark Frenzel-Sulyok ‘20 said that Love’s presentation was relevant to current events but did not  extensively cover how we can combat racism and Islamophobia. “But I also think that’s part of the problem. No one knows how you can solve it. So it’s pretty interesting just to think about,” he said.

Middle East Studies Major Katherine Flynn ’18 said it was “interesting to hear a slightly different perspective on Islamophobia and talking about it in terms of race instead of in terms of a religious aspect”.