Multiculturalism, Islam, and the clash of civilization theory: rethinking Islamophobia

In this article, I discuss how Islamophobia is not an unfounded hostility against Islam, but a hostility that has its last raison d'être in the fear of multiculturalism and its consequences. To demonstrate this hypothesis, the article analyses the opinion, expressed by Huntington and shared by some intellectuals and politicians, that we are experiencing a clash of civilisations between the West and Islam. By contrast, I argue that Europe perceives Islam as a transruptive (Hesse 2000) force that, through transculturation processes, might be able to challenge the alleged Judaeo‐Christian heritage of Europe. Islamophobia stems from the defence and resistance against the possible effects of real multicultural contacts between Islamic values and European–Western ones.