There is widespread cultural debate on whether Islamophobia is a deeply-ingrained Western problem or an artificial construction used primarily for manipulation. While social scientists should be in a prime position to contribute to this debate, we find ourselves strangely unable to produce objective analyses on the matter. Why? Over 400 years ago, Francis Bacon identified overcoming cultural bias – the idol of the cavern – as one of the reasons the scientific method is needed in the first place. In the present article, I discuss the history of Islamophobia research as a Baconian idol of the cavern stemming from progressive ideology. This narrow progressive cavern has made it increasingly difficult for scientists to ask (and answer) truly objective questions about Islamophobia. To help move us beyond our metaphorical cavern, I “start from scratch” and present a novel conceptualization based on what the Islamophobia construct should mean and how we might best measure it. Drawing on this conceptualization designed around clinical phobias, I then present research showing that Islamophobia is indeed a real phenomenon – but it is also likely not very widespread. However, the primary message from this small sample (total n = 437) is not a definitive answer to questions about Islamophobia. Rather, it is to offer a novel direction for future researchers to help overcome the long history of progressive influence that has restricted our ability to learn about the construct.
Lucian Gideon Conway (Sun,) studied this question.