Public atheism and 'Islamophobia' on Twitter

This chapter will discuss the influence of the new atheist authors on discourses and debates around Islam in the setting of the digital social. It will analyse the line between online secular critique of religious intolerance (such as sexism and homophobia) and support for Islamophobic discourses. The analysis will be undertaken through the most popular tweets of New Atheist figures who are frequently accused of Islamophobia. By combining the tweets of individuals, with their interactions with a wider group, I hope to show the connections between popular figures and the milieu with which they interact. This method will allow an analysis of the views of the New Atheists that are gaining wider support. Through a discourse analysis, I will show the kinds of concepts that are being propagated by the New Atheism. Their content will be analysed in the context of accusations of Islamophobia. It will discuss whether this content is actually Islamophobic or part of a process of legitimate secular critique. Of course, nothing is ever so simple in Sociology and the line between secular critique and support for Islamophobic discourse is difficult to navigate. By linking this digital analysis with social theories around 'Islamophobia' and 'secular critique', this chapter will show that even where secular critique is the intention, Islamophobia can be the outcome of such discourses, particularly in the polarised environment of the digital social.