Abstract:

This article explores European perception of Islam from a postcolonial perspective. In this article the concept of postcolonial is used to analyze the subject in terms of both defining periodization and theoretical approach. In the first sense, European perception of Islam can be divided into three main periods: pre-colonial, colonial, and postcolonial. This article examines postcolonial European perception of Islam. The article argues that the postcolonial theoretical approach is an appropriate method to reveal the differences in perception between the periods. In this regard, postcolonial theory contends that the current perception of Islam in Europe is inseparable from those of early periods, and that new forms of perceptions have been constructed on new grounds and with changing factors. In this context, while European perception of Islam in colonial period was fueled by European colonialism and European orientalism, the postcolonial perception of Islam in Europe has been shaped by some events at global scales in which Muslims and Islam have been drawn to the center. Hence, European perception of Islam can be explained by focusing on Islamophobic discourses and practices that emerged in the postcolonial period. Islamophobia in Europe, thus, could be considered as a side product of both local and global factors. Locally, the failure of the integration policies towards Muslims in Europe has not been fully successful, which has laid a ground for the emergence of anti-Islamic perceptions. At the global scale, the actions of the armed groups that targeted the neo-colonial order in the Middle East with Islamic discourses have provided a second ground for the rise of Islamophobic perceptions in Europe.  

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