Mehd Semati Islamophobia

It is widely realized that colonial and imperialistic language that divided people after scientific model of four simplistic and racist categories of the white, the black, the red and the yellow is no longer politically correct. Nevertheless, we may be surprised that new word “brown” for racial category has entered the discourse in the western hemisphere. Also, we may be dismayed by existence of this kind of neo-racism of the 21-century and ask a question: how is this possible in the globalized and interconnected world?

Since the Cold War era based on ideology of communism versus capitalism ended with the collapse of Berlin Wall in 1990, the new World Order has been devised and exercised by leadership of the United States of America and its western European allies along cultural and religious lines. The new enemy, “the Muslim Other” followed by the concept of Islamophobia permeated instantly a political realm after the horrific events on September 11, 2001. The new post-Cold War order was conceived and as a result notion of “cultural racism” became new weapon of hegemonic domination by the West over the rest of the world.

Then, he asserts that the 9/11 events exacerbated an antipathy towards ‘Arab-Middle Eastern-Muslim’ Other and created a new form of racism due to cultural differences in the post-Cold War reality. He strongly advocates that this newly promoted idea of “cultural racism” is nothing more than new political suasion to hold to inherent power and dominance by the empire over the Muslim Other (Semati, p. 257). This essay will describe and discuss the following premise: How can we understand political undertone in the concept of cultural racism and specifically how it relates to Islamophobia and the idea of “brown” as a racial