On the one hand, some colonial governors thought — or felt — that Islam was a threat to French rule, and should be discouraged. On the other hand, other commissioners in the government believed that Islam was not a danger to the French bureaucracy, and in fact might even be in some cases helpful, as it provided an ordering principle or influence in society.
The Oxford English Dictionary explains that the word ‘islamophobia’ did not appear in the English language until 1920, and the adjective form ‘islamophobic appeared in 1980. The noun form ‘islamophobe’ appeared as early as 1877, but remained almost entirely unused for many decades. Even in the twenty-first century, it is little-used.
The vocabulary of islamophobia appeared earlier, and was more frequently used, in French. This seems natural, given the locations of French colonies. To be sure, the British also had colonies in areas populated by Muslims, but the French territory skewed more toward Islam than the British.
The etymology of ‘islamophobia’ remains controversial. It has been pointed out that it is sometimes — perhaps often — used inappropriately, because it strictly denotes fear, as opposed to dislike or aversion. By contrast, the word ‘islamophilia,’ while less frequently used, is also less debatable in regard to its meaning and etymology.
Bruckner reports that Andre Quellian, who authored a book in French about colonial politics, was among those who argued that Islam posed no threat to the French administration. Likewise, Bruckner notes:
During the same period, Maurice Delafosse, another colonial official residing in Dakar, wrote: “Whatever may be said by those for whom Islamophobia is a principle of governing natives, France has nothing more to fear from Muslims than from non-Muslims in West Africa [...]. Thus Islamophobia has not more raison d’etre in West Africa, where, on the other hand, Islamophilia (in the sense of a preference granted to Muslims) is said to create a feeling of distrust among non-Muslim peoples, who are the most numerous.”
Shortly after the beginning of the twentieth century, then, there were at least some writers who argued that Islam was not a threat to order in French colonies, and specifically the colonies in north and northwest Africa. Whether these writers represented a majority or a minority of the colonial administration, of the French home government, or of the French citizenry are three questions which will be left as an exercise for the reader.
Given that the use of these words was documented in French in the early twentieth century, and that there are a few known appearances of them in English in the late nineteenth century, it is a reasonable conjecture to assert that they probably existed in French prior to 1900. And Pascal Bruckner makes exactly that conjecture.
This group of words has been in circulation, hence, for around 150 years. But the meanings — both denotations and connotations — attached to these words have changed.
Originally, these words were used in the context of French colonialism, and perhaps also British colonialism, when Islam posed questions for the administrators of those territories.
So, who was right? Was Islam a danger to colonial administration? Or was it a neutral or even helpful factor in organizing the colonies?
The evidence is mixed: on the one hand, Islam did not seem to play an essential role in the uprisings and rebellions which ended the colonial rule in some places, or in the more peaceful negotiations which ended that rule in other places. But Islam did make itself significantly felt in the post-colonial chaos into which these territories descended in the wake of their independence.
When these words were first invented, those who thought that Islam posed difficulties for those governing the colonies were deemed Islamophobic. Those who found Islam to be neutral or even helpful to the colonial administrators were deemed Islamophilic.
By the end of the twentieth century, ‘Islamophobic’ referred to those who had or showed “a dislike of or prejudice against Islam or Muslims, especially as a political force,” in the words of one dictionary. This word is often used in political conflicts — conflicts which contain more passion than reason. It is used as an insult.
Geographically far from the colonies and former colonies, the word ‘Islamophobic’ is used as a weapon in debates inside Western Civilization.
Over the course of the century, ‘islamophilia,’ never a frequently-used word, became even more rare, but continues to exist. It refers to “a generalized affection for Islam and Muslims” which is “likely to be based on wishful thinking and a politics of fear,” writes Andrew Shryock, who continues:
If we persist in portraying Islamophobia as an irrational force of misperception, we might well render ourselves oblivious to its ultimate causes and consequences. The corrective policies we develop in response to it might, in the manner of a bad diagnosis, end up reinforcing the very syndrome they were meant to counteract.
Islamophilia morphed during a century from a term relevant to colonial administration to a term used by Romanticists and Orientalists. “Romanticists” were authors of a particular phase of European literature which viewed the world through the lens of passion and emotion instead of reason and logic. “Orientalists” were researchers who explored the texts and cultures of what is called the Middle East or the Near East. The intersection of these two — Romantic Orientalists — invented fanciful accounts of the cultures of the Middle East: accounts which often painted Islam in an optimistic light, depicting the Muslims as wise sages, dashing heroes, and shrewd tacticians. These Romantic Orientalists departed from the actual data gathered by Orientalists who did linguistic and historical research; the Romantic Orientalists relied more often on folk tales and accounts of medieval travelers.
The twists and turns in the histories of these words is described by Pascal Bruckner:
Islamophobia: the term probably already existed in the nineteenth century, which explains its spontaneous use by imperial officials. As for its antonym, Islamophilia, whether erudite or popular, since the seventeenth century it has been a constant in European history, which is still massively fascinated by Islamic civilization. But after the Iranian Revolution of 1980 the expression ‘Islamophobia’ underwent a mutation that weaponized it. Between the expulsion of the American feminist Kate Millet from Teheran in 1979 for having protested against the regime’s requirement that Iranian women wear a veil, and the Rushie affair in 1988, which exploded under the influence of British Muslims, this dormant word suddenly awoke and became active in another form. A word does not belong to the person who created it but to the one who reinvented it to make its use widespread. This lexical rejuvenation makes it possible to kill two birds with one stone: stigmatizing traitors to the Muslim faith, on the one hand, and shutting up godless Westerners, on the other.
As these words changed their meanings over the course of a century, the geographical reference changed as well. At first, they were focused on the situation in the colonies. A century or more later, they are now focused both on the relations between the former colonies and Western Civilization, as well as on societal conflicts within Western Civilization.
