Excerpt:
Right-wing politicians are using Islamophobia to win elections, according to a leading scholar on the issue.
“Islamophobia both in Europe and the U.S. is being used as a political project that is connected to the right wing and possibly by discredited political elites who are using the demonizing of Muslims to win elections,” Dr. Hatem Bazian of the University of California-Berkeley told Anadolu Agency on Sunday.
Bazian, who is also a weekly columnist for the Istanbul-based English language newspaper Daily Sabah, is in Istanbul to take part in a three-day conference on Islamophobia at Sabahattin Zaim University.
“So, therefore, the strategy of demonizing Muslims and targeting Muslims is driven by electoral politics,” said Bazian, who is also a co-founder and professor of Islamic Law and Theology at Zaytuna College, the first accredited Muslim liberal arts college in the U.S.