Anti-Islamism

The initial conquest of the Holy Land by Islam in the 7th century did not immediately engender anti-Islamism because Christian pilgrimages were allowed to continue to holy sites. Byzantine ecclesiastical authorities initially classified Islam as yet another of the many Christian heresies of that age. However, the unstable geopolitical situation of the late 11th century, with the intolerant caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah and the Great Schism in 1054 and loss of Asia Minor due to the defeat of the Byzantine army by the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, led to the commencement of the Crusades in 1095 to reconquer Muslim held lands.

Aside from the conquest of Spain, the Crusades brought many Europeans from all over Europe into contact with Islam for the first time. The context of a jihad (holy war) gave rise to the perception that Islam is a religion of the sword and led Europeans to assume that it is an inherently violent religion.

In the 20th century, the Turkish leader Kemal Atatürk separated religion from state in Turkey, introducing a Civil Code based on European models instead of Islamic tradition.

There is a growing belief in certain European and U.S states that Muslims are secretly mass breeding in an effort to attain global domination. Proponents of this belief include the now dead Pim Fortuyn, Jean-Marie Le Pen, Jörg Haider and Daniel Pipes, amongst others.

In India, Hindu nationalism has collided violently with Muslims as in the affair of the Babri mosque of Ayodhya.

Contemporary events relating to the Middle East conflict have fostered this negative image of Islam.

Many groups have issued statements rejecting Anti-Arab and Anti-Muslim prejudice in America, including the Central Conference of American Rabbis (Reform Judaism) and the Anti-Defamation League. Although many prominent Jews and Christians, such as Jackie Mason, Ariel Sharon and Daniel Pipes have referred to Islam as "Evil". Evangelical Baptist Christian Lieutenant-General William G Boykin was also quoted as saying a Muslim soldier in Somalia had an "idol" for a God.