Islamophobia in social work: epistemic coloniality and the limits of disciplinary knowledge

Islamophobia has become a pervasive feature of contemporary life, shaping Muslim experiences. Despite its relevance to social work’s commitments to social justice, it remains marginal and weakly theorized in mainstream scholarship. This article argues that this marginality reflects disciplinary knowledge formation rather than a simple research gap. A scoping review of Web of Science and Scopus – indexed social work journals found that only 33 of 42,152 articles explicitly addressed Islamophobia. Qualitative analysis shows it is often treated as background context rather than a structural form of racialized governance. Addressing anti-Muslim racism requires critical reflection on social work’s epistemological foundations.