Islamophobia in Malaysia: A Keyword-Based Analysis from Muslim Perspectives

Islamophobia is commonly understood as prejudice, irrational fear, discrimination, or hostility directed toward Islam and Muslims. Although global scholarship on Islamophobia has grown, the discourse remains predominantly Western-centric and often lacks the cultural nuance needed to capture how Islamophobia manifests in Muslim-majority settings such as Malaysia. This study addresses this gap by examining Islamophobia discourse in Malaysia using a survey-based keyword analysis anchored in local sociocultural perspectives. Data were gathered from 229 participants in Melaka through a structured survey designed to represent a broad demographic range, including variations in age, gender, education level, and ethnicity. An initial set of 39 Islamophobia-related keywords was derived from prior academic literature, media narratives, and Malaysian socio-political discussions. These keywords were subsequently reviewed and validated by three subject-matter experts in religious studies, media and communication, and semantic web and ontology to ensure contextual relevance and semantic precision. Quantitative analyses were conducted to examine the frequency, clustering, and categorization of the validated keywords using the Tripartite Islamophobia Scale, which conceptualizes Islamophobia along three dimensions: Anti-Muslim Prejudice, Anti-Islamic Sentiment, and Conspiracy Beliefs. The findings show that most keywords align with the Anti-Islamic Sentiment dimension. Frequently recurring terms such as “Halal,” “Allah,” “Syariah law,” “Penyalahgunaan Kalimah Allah,” and “attacking Islam” emerged as central to negative or politicized portrayals of Islam and Muslims in the Malaysian context. The results further indicate notable demographic differences in perceptions, suggesting that communities interpret and experience Islamophobia in diverse ways. A key contribution of this study is the development of a context-sensitive keyword set tailored specifically to Malaysia. This set provides a foundational tool for systematically extracting and analysing textual data for constructing a comprehensive Islamophobia corpus. By grounding keyword selection in empirical validation and local sociocultural insights, the study advances corpus-building methodologies and offers a valuable resource for future research, policy development, media monitoring, and public education initiatives across Southeast Asia.