This dissertation interrogates the pervasive deployment of Islamophobic rhetoric within U.S. political, cultural, and media discourses, especially when those discourses concern issues related to gender, sex, and sexuality. I ask why anxieties around gender, sex, and sexuality are negotiated through denigrations of Islam. I argue that the use of Islamophobic rhetoric in such discourses intersects with and buttresses other systems of power and oppression such as misogyny, homophobia, racism, and xenophobia. I examine case studies such as the use of the analogy “the gay jihad” by conservative political actors attempting to pathologize gay rights activism, invocations of “the Taliban” and “Sharia” by liberal critics of reproductive restrictions, and media attempts to Islamicize instances of mass casualty violence. In each of these case studies, Islam functions as a stable signifier of violence, repression, and extremism employed to define and regulate discursive boundaries around morality, modernity, and national belonging. My analysis of each of my three case studies reveals that culture wars around religious liberty, reproductive control, immigration, and gun violence serve as extensions of imperialism and white Christian nationalism. At the end of this work, I propose a framework for ameliorating such discursive violence. I advocate an epistemological restructuring that centers intersectionality and relationality and refuses the reinscription of religious and cultural difference.
","abstract_html":"<p>This dissertation interrogates the pervasive deployment of Islamophobic rhetoric within U.S. political, cultural, and media discourses, especially when those discourses concern issues related to gender, sex, and sexuality. I ask why anxieties around gender, sex, and sexuality are negotiated through denigrations of Islam. I argue that the use of Islamophobic rhetoric in such discourses intersects with and buttresses other systems of power and oppression such as misogyny, homophobia, racism, and xenophobia. I examine case studies such as the use of the analogy “the gay jihad” by conservative political actors attempting to pathologize gay rights activism, invocations of “the Taliban” and “Sharia” by liberal critics of reproductive restrictions, and media attempts to Islamicize instances of mass casualty violence. In each of these case studies, Islam functions as a stable signifier of violence, repression, and extremism employed to define and regulate discursive boundaries around morality, modernity, and national belonging. My analysis of each of my three case studies reveals that culture wars around religious liberty, reproductive control, immigration, and gun violence serve as extensions of imperialism and white Christian nationalism. At the end of this work, I propose a framework for ameliorating such discursive violence. I advocate an epistemological restructuring that centers intersectionality and relationality and refuses the reinscription of religious and cultural difference.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Boles, Kirsten Erin"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Cultural Studies, PhD","degree_level":"Restricted to Claremont Colleges Dissertation","degree_discipline":"School of Arts and Humanities","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Ruqayya Khan","Eve Oishi"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2025,"date_issued":"2025-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2025-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:41:17Z","subjects":["Christian nationalism","Mass casualty violence","Islamophobic rhetoric","Liberal critics","Immigration","Religion"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/1040","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Ruqayya Khan","Eve Oishi"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Boles, Kirsten Erin"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2026-05-12T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["School of Arts and Humanities"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Restricted to Claremont Colleges Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Cultural Studies, PhD"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Christian nationalism","Mass casualty violence","Islamophobic rhetoric","Liberal critics","Immigration","Religion"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/1040"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This dissertation interrogates the pervasive deployment of Islamophobic rhetoric within U.S. political, cultural, and media discourses, especially when those discourses concern issues related to gender, sex, and sexuality. I ask why anxieties around gender, sex, and sexuality are negotiated through denigrations of Islam. I argue that the use of Islamophobic rhetoric in such discourses intersects with and buttresses other systems of power and oppression such as misogyny, homophobia, racism, and xenophobia. I examine case studies such as the use of the analogy “the gay jihad” by conservative political actors attempting to pathologize gay rights activism, invocations of “the Taliban” and “Sharia” by liberal critics of reproductive restrictions, and media attempts to Islamicize instances of mass casualty violence. In each of these case studies, Islam functions as a stable signifier of violence, repression, and extremism employed to define and regulate discursive boundaries around morality, modernity, and national belonging. My analysis of each of my three case studies reveals that culture wars around religious liberty, reproductive control, immigration, and gun violence serve as extensions of imperialism and white Christian nationalism. At the end of this work, I propose a framework for ameliorating such discursive violence. I advocate an epistemological restructuring that centers intersectionality and relationality and refuses the reinscription of religious and cultural difference.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Narratives of Exclusion: Gender, Sex, Islamophobia, and Violence in American Political Discourse"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Ruqayya Khan","Eve Oishi"],"dc:creator":["Boles, Kirsten Erin"],"dc:date.available":["2026-05-12T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["This dissertation interrogates the pervasive deployment of Islamophobic rhetoric within U.S. political, cultural, and media discourses, especially when those discourses concern issues related to gender, sex, and sexuality. I ask why anxieties around gender, sex, and sexuality are negotiated through denigrations of Islam. I argue that the use of Islamophobic rhetoric in such discourses intersects with and buttresses other systems of power and oppression such as misogyny, homophobia, racism, and xenophobia. I examine case studies such as the use of the analogy “the gay jihad” by conservative political actors attempting to pathologize gay rights activism, invocations of “the Taliban” and “Sharia” by liberal critics of reproductive restrictions, and media attempts to Islamicize instances of mass casualty violence. In each of these case studies, Islam functions as a stable signifier of violence, repression, and extremism employed to define and regulate discursive boundaries around morality, modernity, and national belonging. My analysis of each of my three case studies reveals that culture wars around religious liberty, reproductive control, immigration, and gun violence serve as extensions of imperialism and white Christian nationalism. At the end of this work, I propose a framework for ameliorating such discursive violence. I advocate an epistemological restructuring that centers intersectionality and relationality and refuses the reinscription of religious and cultural difference.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/1040"],"dc:subject":["Christian nationalism","Mass casualty violence","Islamophobic rhetoric","Liberal critics","Immigration","Religion"],"dc:title":["Narratives of Exclusion: Gender, Sex, Islamophobia, and Violence in American Political Discourse"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["School of Arts and Humanities"],"thesis:degree_level":["Restricted to Claremont Colleges Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Cultural Studies, PhD"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:41:17Z"}