Conclusion

Abstract

In the previous chapters, we have shown that Muslims are politically constructed as the other of Western democracies. As synthesized by David Theo Goldberg: The Muslim in Europe has come to represent the threat of death … The Muslim image in contemporary Europe is overwhelmingly one of fanaticism, fundamentalism, female (women and girls’) suppression, subjugation and repression. The Muslim in this view foments conflict … He is a traditionalist, pre-modern, in the tradition of racial historicism difficult if not impossible to modernize, at least without ceasing to be “the Muslim.”1 This book is an attempt to unveil the multiple mechanisms at work in the binary opposition that pitches Islam against the West. To do so, it has operated at two different levels.