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Please read Deepa Kumar’s book, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire. It includes Discussion Questions to help you navigate through the book.
Submit a 2-3 page single-space BOOK REVIEW, covering the key points raised in the book and Discussion Questions.
– Try to engage with the way that Kumar blends a Marxist, anti-racist perspective. Her theory of Islamophobia also draws on a current of IR Theory called “Constructivism”, which focuses on the IDEAS of international relations — in this case, on the Islamophobia of US foreign policy. She argues that US imperial interests and practices in the Middle East (her Marxist perspective) have to be sold and legitimated in the realm of IDEAS. In other words, consent for imperialism has to be “constructed” through cultural and ideological tools, in this case, through Islamophobia. Islamophobia, in her view, helps rationalize the US military project and ‘war on terrorism’ in the Middle East.
In making this argument, she blends a Marxist understanding of material interests (economic power, control of oil) with a Constructivist understanding of how ideas are necessary for social legitimation of imperial practices. In particular, she shows how racism in the form of Islamophobia is an integral element of US imperialism in the Middle East.
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