Ideological Representation of Islamophobia: A Comparative Critical Discourse Analysis of Imran Khan and Donald Trump’s Speeches

Abstract

The negative portrayals of Islam and Muslims is presented by American leaders to make public discourses suitable for their political interests. Since September 11, the term Islamophobia has been consistently used by American media and political leaders to ridicule and harass Muslims. The study examined different manifestations of Islamophobia across a wide spectrum of sociopolitical perspectives taking into account the speech of Donald Trump in election campaign of 2016 and speech of Imran Khan in United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on September 27, 2019. By using comparative critical discourse analysis approach, it is tried to examine the concept of Islamophobia of two political leaders belonging from two different countries.  This is qualitative study based on Fairclough’s 3D model of critical discourse analysis to inspect the impact of language on audience and society.