Sophia Rose Arjana holds an M.A. from Columbia University, an M.T.S. from Emory University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Denver and Illiff School of Theology. Her main areas of research are imaginary Muslim monsters, Muslim representations in popular culture, non-hajj pilgrimage traditions in Islamic societies, liturgy in North American Muslim communities, and Jewish and Islamic liberative theology. She has published articles on Islamic shrine architecture and the role of racial constructions in Orientalist discourse and has forthcoming book chapters on female and queer imams in the United States, liberation theology, and the Iranian sociologist Ali Shari'ati.

A Choice 2015 Outstanding Academic Title

"Arjana succeeds in supplying ample evidence that exposes a long history of the 'monsterization' and vilification of Muslims within the Western European and North American traditions of popular culture. Her concern for how these perpetuate mischaracterization of both Muslims and Islam and result in mistreatment, unfair exclusion, and outright injustice is well grounded and deserves serious attention, with expressed hope for correction."--R. Charles Weller, Religion

"Islamophobia is a broad pathology of our times. Pegged to September 11, 2001, it has continued to flourish in the shadow of subsequent wars waged by the US and its allies, throughout the Middle East. While Abu Ghraib became one of the showcases of American horror, Homeland set the mark for thinking about, or imagining, Muslim enemies. Both are highlighted in this, the first genealogy, which is also a semiotics, of Islamophobia. A well-researched, carefully staged book, it illumines how brutal images of monster Muslims have become commonplace, almost reflexive in the long afterlife of the War on Terror." --Bruce Lawrence, Professor of Islamic Studies Emeritus, Duke University

"Rigorously historical, and partaking of the best of discursive analysis, this is a remarkable study of the distorted mirror in which the Western imagination has conceived of Muslims. As Arjana demonstrates, this tells me almost nothing about Muslims, and a great deal about the Western imagination. Arjana makes a persuasive case that in order to understand the dehumanizing practices in Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, Bagram, and elsewhere, we need to cast a much longer critical look at the history of the Western imaginaire about Muslims [as] Monsters. Essential reading for Islamic studies, American studies, and European history." --Omid Safi, Director of Duke Islamic Studies Center, Duke University

"In The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie wrote this about the power of representation: "They describe us . . . that's all. They have the power of description, and we succumb to the pictures they construct." In her exhaustive and often disturbing work, Sophia Arjana catalogues the many ways in which Muslims have been described as monsters. It is a compelling book." --Amir Hussain, Editor, Journal of the American Academy of Religion

"Well-written and intellectually stimulating, the book provides an insightful and complex account of the historical development of imaginary Muslim characters and their relationships to existing human beings. A must read for anyone interested in Western representations of Islam and its followers... Highly recommended." --CHOICE