Introduction: Understanding Islamophobia across the global North and South in the context of the War on Terror

This introductory chapter focuses on outlining fundamental understandings and theoretical frameworks, as well as historicising Islamophobia. This unpacking of Islamophobia helps to construct an understanding of the emergence of a globalised Islamophobia and how it manifests in the War on Terror. Furthermore, the chapter explores the co-dependent relationships between interpersonal and institutional forms of Islamophobia that have materialised to embolden the growth of nativism, Islamophobic protest movements, and Islamophobic political rhetoric globally. The Introduction discusses how the synergistic relationship between interpersonal and institutional forms of Islamophobia helps to construct categorisations of Islamophobia across the global North and South which represent similar and differing manifestations that are textured by local histories, colonialism, imperialism, and notions of racial supremacy. The introduction also provides a brief outline of the edited volume and explains which specific sites of Islamophobia from the global North and South are included in the book.