‘It’s Not a Race, It’s a Religion’: Denial of Anti-Muslim Racism in Online Discourses

Jennifer E. Cheng ()
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Jennifer E. Cheng: School of Social Sciences, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia

Social Sciences, 2022, vol. 11, issue 10, 1-16

Abstract: This article investigates the denial of anti-Muslim racism in online discourses. It does so by examining Facebook posts responding to a bystander anti-racism video about a Muslim woman. Particularly salient on social media is the lack of rules, etiquette or social taboos around racism controlling what people post and how they express themselves. This allows comments that are blatantly racist and antagonistic rather than concealed and subtle as is more socially acceptable in offline spaces. Using critical discourse analysis, the article will delve into the rhetorical and linguistic strategies the posters use to deny that racism toward Muslims can exist. It will expose how the denial of anti-Muslim racism is used in attempts to silence Muslims and anti-racists as well as to convince the general public that Muslims deserve the ill treatment they receive. However, exposing the strategies of racism deniers gives us a better understanding of how to resist such discourses.

Keywords: racism; Muslims; denial; online discourses; offline discourses (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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