Can Muslims Think?

Both refreshing and daring in its command of rich but often neglected theoretical repertoires, Can Muslims Think brings a striking freshness to the critique of Islamophobia's rotten hold on Europe's melancholic psyche. With timely originality, Hafiz places today's all-consuming Islamophobia squarely within the wider conditions of Europe's general decline. Hafiz poignantly shows that Europe's refusal to reconcile itself to a humbled sense of its place in the world not only renders Muslims a fetichised and brutalised object of revanchist fear and alarm, but also stunts the very ability of Europeans who believe themselves to be natives to realise an affirmative, humanist future. At stake in Can Muslims Think is nothing less than our collective ability to live humane lives once spared the violent and now anachronistic delusions of European grandeur, civilisation and cohesiveness.

Can Muslims Think? is a deeply illuminating account of why Muslim identity has become so significant to the post-empire British imagination about self and other. In the process, Hafiz displays a mastery of philosophical and historical sources and teases out in compelling detail continuities and disjunctures in racial formation. The result is an essential guide for making sense of Islamophobia today as well as for confronting persistent and intertwined logics of racism and colonialism.

Islamophobia, a pervasive and escalating phenomenon in Western Europe, is fueling a surge of nativist and anti-internationalist sentiment. This sentiment, deeply rooted in fear and misunderstanding, has profound implications for Muslim minorities, who often find themselves at the receiving end of systemic marginalization and exclusion. The rise of populist, anti-immigrant sentiment has been a significant driver of these developments. Populist movements, often characterized by their simplistic and reductionist narratives, have capitalized on economic insecurities and cultural anxieties to scapegoat Muslim minorities and other immigrant groups. This scapegoating serves to consolidate their political base and legitimize their exclusionary policies. The resulting marginalization of Muslim minorities, in turn, exacerbates social divisions and perpetuates a cycle of fear, mistrust, and hostility... Hafiz's work is both a call for a more inclusive and empathetic future and a critical examination of the structural and historical roots of Islamophobia. It is an indispensable read for anyone interested in race, religion, or identity in contemporary Europe, making a substantial contribution to the discourse on these topics.

Muneeb Hafiz has written a necessary book on Islamophobia, making sense of it in its proper time and place. That is, British Islamophobia is not just about Muslims per se, but about Britain coming to terms with its troubled past and uncertain future.