Islamophobia

Islamophobia is hatred or prejudice towards Islam or Muslims generally. There are

several other terms used, such as anti-Muslimism, Muslimophobia, anti-Islamism and many
more. Islamophobic people views Muslims as terrorist, resulting from the 11th September
attacks, the rise of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and other terror attacks in Europe and
the United States by Islamic extremists. Islamophobia is also said to be a form of racism by
some scholars while others questioned the relationship between Islamophobia and racism.

This ‘phobia’ can be seen mostly in western countries. According to Council on

American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), there are 1164 incidents of nationwide hate crimes, 506
nationwide anti-mosque incidents and 2783 nationwide federal agency abuses from 2014 to
2019. The top 5 types of abuse according to their civil rights data 2014-2019 are harassment,
employment, FBI, hate crimes and lastly denial of religious accommodation. Without a doubt,
terrorist organizations exploiting Islam as a means to claim more ground and gain new recruits,
in particular, capable of staging violent acts in the heart of Western cities have largely
contributed to this growing modern racism by encouraging Islamophobics to equate Islam with
terrorism and blame Islam for their evil actions (Aydin, 2016). Hence, Muslims in the West are
the most obvious victims of both ISIS-like terrorism and Islamophobics.

Islamophobia is still widely spread as there are many incidents happened due to
Islamophobia. (Unknown, 2019) stated that an incident of two Muslim men have called for an
investigation after they say they were "racially profiled" and the American Airlines flight to
Dallas, Texas, they were travelling on was cancelled. Isam Abdallah said his flight was
cancelled because the aeroplane crew was "not comfortable to fly" with him and a second
passenger, Abderraoof Alkhawaldeh, on board.

The latest news of Islamophobia that had shaken up the world was the mosque shooting
in New Zealand that claimed 50 lives and wounded dozens of people during Friday prayer, 15th
March 2019. This incident had triggered other Islamophobics to show their hatred.
Islamophobic incidents have rocketed by almost 600 per cent in Britain following the New
Zealand terror attack. Tell Mama said that in the week after 50 Muslim worshippers were
gunned down, offenders used “language, symbols or actions” linked to the atrocity to target
Muslims in the UK (Dearden, 2019).
 However, Islamophobia also happens in Asia. For instance, Myanmar where many of the
locals were led to believe that the Rohingya Muslims were indeed terrorists; fuelling a ‘slow-
burning genocide’ as observed by Maung Zarni, a human rights activist (Farhan, 2019). The
conflict invokes Buddhist and Muslim nationalist in order to protect and preserve national
ethnicities as religious identities in turn causing the rise of the new phenomena of Asian
Islamophobia (Farhan et al, 2019).

Other than that is China, where Islamophobia is rampant. Stereotypes about Muslims as
violent outsiders in China have long existed (Hammond, 2019). The 9/11 incident has
strengthen their stereotypes towards Muslims as terrorist and extremist. The result is a
pacification campaign against people presented by the Party-state—both to domestic and
international audiences—as terrorists. Although attention is currently focused on Uighurs, there
is mounting evidence that the Chinese Communist Party (C.C.P.) is taking aim at all Muslims
by bulldozing mosques, shuttering Islamic bookstores, and removing Arabic script from
storefronts and restaurants in an effort to “Sinicize” Islam, the Party’s goal seems to be the
complete assimilation of Muslims and the eradication of Islamic practices in China (Hammond et
al, 2019).

Unfortunately, in our country, Malaysia, also has been ‘infected’ by small number of the
population. According to (Alias, 2019), there were a series of postings insulting Prophet
Muhammad SAW that led to numerous police reports and at least one conviction thus far.
These postings mimic the hate narrative for Islam widely available on social media. Some
postings despicably called the Prophet a “paedophile”. The meme used was clearly intended to
denigrate Islam and Muslims (Alias et al, 2019). However, Islamophobia cases in Malaysia are
still bearable and controllable as it is a Muslim friendly despite being a multi-racial country.

As the conclusion, Islamophobia is a growing problem that needs to be addressed. The

people of Southeast Asia should reject it in order to foster a harmonious future for ASEAN’s
citizens. 14 days after the Christchurch shooting, Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s prime
minister, gave a speech saying that “an assault on the freedom of those who want to practice
their faith or religion is not welcome here” (Farhan et al, 2019). All Muslim and non-Muslim
countries must rise to the challenge to defeat Islamophobia, without which more than a billion
believers of Islam would become easy targets; not unlike three- dimensional props in a video
game (Hussin, 2019).
References

Aydin, Y. N. (2016). Anti-Muslim Hate: Muslims are Victims of the IslamophobiaFounded

Security Dilemma in the West. Journal of Global Peace and Conflict, 4(2),59-89. Retrieved from
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/0d3c/b3fade9d1fab1605583003a11f21b4b2ad8e.pdf

Dearden, L. (2019, March 23). Islamophobic incidents rocket by 600% in UK during week after
New Zealand terror attack. Independent News, Home Affairs Correspondent. Retrieved from
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/new-zealand-shooting-attack-muslim-hate-crime-
rise-uk-a8836511.html

Unknown, (2019, Sept 20). Muslim men seek inquiry after 'racially profiled' on US flight.
AlJazeera News, Human Rights. Retrieved from
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/muslim-men-seek-probe-racially-profiled-flight-
190920053406942.html

Farhan, A. (2019, March 29). Islamophobia in southeast asia. Retrieved from

https://theaseanpost.com/article/islamophobia-southeast-asia

Alias, L. S. (2019, Apr 12). Be firm on islamophobia in malaysia. Malaysia Kini. Retrieved from
https://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/472019

Hussin, R. Dr. (2019, March 18). Fight islamophobia together. New Straits Times. Columnists.
Retrieved from https://www.nst.com.my/opinion/columnists/2019/03/470644/fight-islamophobia-
together