Hegemony of Trump: Manifestation of Islamophobia in an inaugural speech

Abstract

In some publications, it has been observed that media proliferation promotes the negative views on Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic extremism, or Islamic terrorism. These discourses have contributed to worsening tension in different sociocultural contexts such as between the West and Islam, which is commonly known as Islamophobia. The discourse around islamophobia has become an implied tool to construct hegemony such as reflected in a political pretext to show attitude and view of the dominant power. The present study offers an insight from the perspective of critical discourse analysis to understand the discourse around islamophobia. Using the principles of Fairclough's (1989) Critical Discourse Analysis with its three dimensions: text, discursive practice, and social practice, the study adapted a two-stage analysis model to describe and interpret a section of Trump’s inaugural speech that seems to be contradictory as it mentions a reflection of islamophobia amidst the promotion of peace. The result of the study shows that Trump’s islamophobia is implied in the part of an inaugural speech as a content related to Islam and terrorism. Relevant to the intention of the speech given to the Indian audience, the observed section of the speech is probably not misplaced; instead, reflects Trump’s view on Islam and terrorism as well as his dominance.