Multiculturalism, Social Distance and "Islamophobia": Reflections on Anti-racism Research in Australia and Beyond

There has been a flourishing of anti-racism research and commentary on Islamophobia in Australia over the last 15 to 20 years, utilising multiple national surveys on attitudes towards multiculturalism, Muslims and Islam. This article discusses and critiques this research and its accompanying discourse, with special attention given to the questionable way in which social distance scales are used to identify and then frame "Islamophobia" and apparent classes of Islamophobes in Australian society at large. The negative consequences of the resulting conceptual and linguistic framing from this research are discussed, and the underlying methodological flaws and biases of anti-racist researchers are identified and explained as three key "asymmetries" relating to social constructs versus reality; stereotypes and groups; and avoidance of reciprocity.