Exploring Islamophobic Tropes

• What are the historical roots of Islamophobic tropes?
• How have tropes helped Islamophobic ideas spread and persist throughout history? 
• How can being able to recognise Islamophobic tropes be an important part of challenging Islamophobia?

This lesson is designed to fit into one 50-min class period and includes the following student materials:

• 1 handout (intermediate and advanced versions)

• 1 classroom-ready PowerPoint

Islamophobic tropes are a form of misinformation that have been in circulation for almost a millennium, having been used to ostracise and attack Muslims across countries and time periods. Many have their roots in interreligious conflict that began during the Crusades, when the Christian Church sought to depict Muslims as a violent, barbaric and oppressive enemy in order to encourage Christians to take up arms against them. These tropes then persisted in the face of other cultural and social shifts, adapting to retain relevance and to reinforce political projects such as European colonialism. Their harm lies not only in the fact that they can lead to stereotyping, discrimination and violence, but also in how they can encourage conspiratorial thinking. Like all misinformation, if left to circulate unchallenged, Islamophobic tropes can cause serious damage: they have the capacity to yield significant and long-lasting influence over the world view of those who encounter them. 

The Islamophobic trope rooted in the idea that Muslims are a monolithic block underpins many of the other tropes and Islamophobic discourse in general as it creates situations in which a minority of Muslims are viewed as representative of all Muslims. 

As the academic Todd H. Green notes, 

Once Muslims are regarded as fundamentally sharing the same attitudes and commitments, it is not difficult to conclude that one violent Muslim, or one intolerant Muslim, makes all Muslims violent or intolerant. ¹

Other damaging Islamophobic tropes are related to cultural incompatibility, the oppression of women, terrorism and the ‘Islamisation’ of the West. The widespread traction of these narratives, both online and in print, as well as Islamophobic sentiments in general, leads to stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination against Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim. These tropes also shape how Muslims are treated, both in European countries and elsewhere, and impact the foreign policy of Western/European governments: these tropes have been used to justify invasions of Muslim majority countries.

Educating young people about Islamophobic tropes, their history and how they appear in the present day can challenge Islamophobia both by helping young people understand the destructive past and present of Islamophobic narratives, making them more likely to stand against such prejudice, and by preventing them from sharing Islamophobic content unsuspectingly.

• 1Todd H. Green, The Fear of Islam: An Introduction to Islamophobia in the West (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2015), p. 202.

There are two versions of the handout Islamophobic Tropes (Intermediate / Advanced) to allow you to choose the most appropriate version for your students. Additionally, the five texts used in the Jigsaw activity are not at the same level – some are longer than others, while others contain information that requires more advanced processing skills. It is important to think about this when you are deciding which groups students should work in. You may choose to ensure groups are made of mixed-ability students, or that some groups are given shorter excerpts or the texts that are easier to understand. Ideally, the groups would be divided in such a way as to ensure that they all finish reviewing their given text and the connection questions at the same time. If possible, print at least enough copies of each reading for sharing one between two.

In addition to the readings, you might also, time permitting, ask students to watch the accompanying video for each Islamophobic trope from the organisation Get the Trolls Out!, inviting students to note down how what they see in the video Connects, Extends, and Challenges what they learnt in the reading, or vice versa. Please note, the video on Terrorism is included in an extension activity in Lesson 3: Addressing Islamophobia in the Media, and the video on the Oppression of Women is used as part of a main activity in Lesson 4: Understanding Gendered Islamophobia.

Islamophobic tropes are a form of misinformation that can lead to stereotyping and discrimination, and can encourage conspiratorial thinking. Misinformation, if left to circulate unchallenged, can cause serious damage: it has the capacity to yield significant and long-lasting influence over the world views of those who encounter it. 

Beth Goldberg, Head of Research and Development at Jigsaw, notes,

One of the reasons misinformation is so pernicious is its ability to continue to influence thinking long after someone initially sees it. In fact, misinformation often persists even after someone has been shown a factual correction of the false claim. This is because misinformation can be “sticky,” meaning it can have what experts call a “continued influence effect” on someone’s memory and reasoning long after seeing it.

Debunking is especially difficult with conspiracy theories, which are often believed at an emotional, rather than rational, level. ¹

According to the Debunking Handbook 2020, which was collectively authored by academics from twenty universities around the world, one of the most effective ways to tackle misinformation is to ‘prevent it taking root in the first place’. ²  

Prevention strategies include ‘simply warning people that they might be misinformed’, ‘encouraging people to critically evaluate information as they read it’ and ‘helping people become more discerning in their sharing behavior’.  ³

There is also a process known as ‘psychological inoculation’. 

Beth Goldberg further explains,

Inoculation protects people against disinformation ⁴ by teaching them to spot and refute a misleading claim. Inoculation messages can build up people’s resistance or “mental antibodies” to encountering misinformation in the future, the way vaccines create antibodies that fight against future infection. ⁵

If people have already been exposed to misinformation, its misleading content can be countered by ‘debunking’ – though, as stated above, this process can be difficult. To be effective, the debunking process must be detailed and must involve giving people the facts, alongside warnings that the content they have encountered is a myth and explanations on how the myth has been used to mislead people.

• 1Beth Goldberg, ‘Can “Inoculation” Build Broad-Based Resistance to Misinformation?’, Jigsaw, 17 March 2021, accessed 26 September 2022.
• 2S. Lewandowsky, J. Cook et al. (2020), The Debunking Handbook 2020. DOI:10.17910/b7.1182, p. 7.
• 3Ibid.
• 4According to the Debunking Handbook 2020, misinformation ‘is false information that is spread either by mistake or with intent to mislead. When there is intent to mislead, it is called disinformation’, p. 4.
• 5Goldberg, ‘Can “Inoculation” Build Broad-Based Resistance to Misinformation?’, Jigsaw.

Several Islamophobic tropes have their origins in the discriminatory behaviour of the early Christian Church. When teaching the reality of this difficult history, it is important students understand that a range of organisations around the world are working on creating interfaith dialogue. In the UK, these organisations include the Christian Muslim Forum, The Inter Faith Network and The Centre for Muslim–Christian Studies.

Islamophobic tropes create stereotypes and simplified views of Muslims and Islam. To help students understand the dangers of stereotyping and understand the relationship between stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination, use the lesson Transcending Single Stories from our unit Standing Up for Democracy.

To help your students understand more about Islamophobic tropes, you might choose to share information from one or more of the following, adapting as necessary to suit the needs of your pupils: 

• The Bridge Initiative Team, Factsheet: Common Anti-Muslim Tropes, The Bridge Initiative: Georgetown University, 4 December 2018
• Mirna Alsharif, ‘9 tropes about Muslims that are a product of Islamophobia’, CNN, 11 September 2021
• Defining Islamophobia: A Contemporary Understanding of How Expressions of Muslimness are Targeted: 2.2 Islamophobic Tropes: Prevalence and Normalisation in the Media, Muslim Council of Britain, 2 March 2021, pp. 64–73

To help students understand more about the interfaith dialogue between Muslims and Christians, you might choose to share information from one or more of the following organisations/initiatives, adapting as necessary to suit the needs of your pupils: 

• Peter Walker, ‘Muslim and Christian groups working together to help homeless at Christmas’, The Independent, 22 December 2016
• ‘Press Release: Muslims and Christians Welcome Refugees’, Muslim Council of Britain, 25 June 2019
• ‘MSPs salute Christians and Muslims for working together for good of humanity’, The Church of Scotland, 25 June 2018
• Harry Brunius, ‘Moving beyond suspicion, Muslims and Evangelicals seek common ground’, The Christian Science Monitor (US based)
• NF Studio, ‘7 Ways to Love Your (Muslim) Neighbor’, Neighborly Faith (US based)