How did islamophobia start?

Answer 1

Problems with the Term Islamophobia
"Islamophobia" really has no definition and can be easily applied to any criticism of Islam or of Muslim practices, even if the words are spoken by Muslims. Islamophobia, therefore encompasses a wide variety of concepts like:

• Anti-Muslim Bigotry: The belief that Muslims as people are wicked or problematic. This is the Muslim rough equivalent to Anti-Semitism for Jews.
  
• Anti-Islamicism: The belief that the ideology and beliefs of Islam as a religious construction and lifestyle manifesto promote wrong-doing or are seriously problematic to a multicultural society.
• Anti-Islamism: The belief that Islam as politically manifest is capable of determining actual laws promotes inequality, injustice, and moral incorrectness.

Criticism
People accused of being Islamophobic are often claimed to be "extreme" and to use violent and racist comments against Muslims. (Admittedly, it is unclear what could be racist about Anti-Muslim statements since Islam prides itself on being for all races and all peoples, but this term is used instead of "religionist" or "bigot".) This makes it very easy for Muslims and Muslim apologists to claim that any incendiary remark, whether factual or farce is "racist" and therefore wrong without actually considering the point of view.

Additionally, the use of the term "phobia" implies that the fear of Muslims, Islam, or Islamism, is entirely irrational, just like the fear of the number 13 or the fear of heights. This is absurd since, unlike the number 13 or the heights, Muslims actually do things. Whether as a group they do more good or ill is certainly worth a discussion, but this moves the "fear" from being irrational (decided without evidence) to rational (decided with evidence). It would therefore, not be "phobia" but a conclusion, in the same way that all other hatreds are conclusions.

Discussion of the History of Anti-Muslim Bigotry:
Anti-Muslim Bigotry, began in the Middle Ages and was a much more visceral religious and political hatred of Islam than what we see today. There was a real fear in Europe that the OMINOUS THEY were going to take over. Islam, therefore, became the boogeyman and regardless of what Islam actually represents (or represented at that time) it was painted with colors of that immeasurable fear. Islam was a major world power for much of the Middle Ages. Umayyad Spain fought against three proto-Spanish States. Abbassid coins have been found as far away as Sweden. Ottoman armies besieged Vienna, Austria. It was not wholly inconceivable that the "European Way of Life" would come under direct threat. (This was similar to the perspective of the antebellum U.S. South.)

Hatred of Muslims shifted in tone and character during the Enlightenment Period. John Adams once wrote in a Treaty with the Barbary States (of North Africa) that "America being free of religion has no quarrel with Musselmen". Islamic States were no longer threatening and much of the majority-Muslim areas of the world were subsequently colonized by European powers. Since World War II, there has been a massive Immigration of Muslims into Europe, once again leading to many Europeans feeling like they are being invaded by a political force. This rekindled the Middle Age symbols but in an entirely new light.