George Morgan and Scott Poynting (eds) Global Islamophobia: Muslims and Moral Panic in the West. London: Ashgate

Previous to 2001, Islam was a mere flicker on the radar of popular xenophobic paranoia. A decade and a half and the world’s first global moral panic later, this situation has changed entirely, apparently by design. As the editors of Global Islamophobia point out, the Terror Scare has elevated Muslims to ‘transnational folk devil,’ foisting the logic of ‘if you think for yourselves the terrorists win’ on the public realm in the name of defending democratic values. The paradoxical character of the generally destructive effects of this Terror Scare on democratic culture remains hard to miss, not least given the rhetoric about western values that tends to accompany much of the debate.Download the PDF file from this page to read Ben Debney's complete review of George Mirgan and Scott Poynting's edited book.