Two decades after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, a scholarly consensus has emerged: the discrimination, bigotry, and systematic social exclusion popularly known as “Islamophobia” is an outgrowth of white supremacist racism. This conclusion has been built by scholarship across several decades—including pathfinding work starting in the mid-1900s (often dismissed by contemporaries in the mainstream)—from literary critics, historians, sociologists, and scholars in ethnic and area studies. Key findings in this extensive literature include descriptions of how, since at least the 1970s, so-called counterterrorism policies and practices disproportionately affected a host of American communities defined by diverse (and disparate) racial, ethnic, and religious identities, including Arabs (Christian, Jewish, Muslim), Muslims (black Americans and immigrants from Africa and Asia), and South Asians (Hindu, Sikh). The complexity and diversity of the histories among these many groups—linked in part by their shared experiences with institutional white supremacy—has proved to be a challenge for scholars. Nazita Lajevardi’s extensive research makes several important contributions to the rapidly growing literature in this area.

Lajevardi’s Outsiders at Home