Islamophobia: Causes and consequences

By: Talha Aslam

Islamophobia, a term expressed to depict fear of Islam is widely used to connote

indiscriminate attitudes, beliefs and emotions directed towards Islam or Muslims.

In reference to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word Islamophobia means “Intense dislike
or fear of Islam”. It was first coined by French Scholar Alain Quellien, as ‘’Islamphobie” in
1910 to describe a prejudice against Islam that is rife among the people of the West. Later,
it was adopted by English Literature in 1923. As a concept in practice, it is considered a
new word of an old notion presented by Edward Said in his work on Orientalism where West
has always been associating derogatory sentiments and stereotypes to the practices of
Islam.

The term Islamophobia developed in late 1990’s and early 2000’s by political activists, non-
governmental organizations, commentators, international organization to draw attention
towards the evils of a rhetoric bringing harms directed towards Muslims and Islam.

Yet Islamophobia emerged on the plane of international discourse with the publication of a
report by the Runnymede Trust in 1997 titled; ‘’Islamophobia: A Challenge for all of us’’. It
laid down the concept of Islamophobia as a useful shorthand way of referring to dread or
hatred of Islam – and therefore, to fear or dislike of all or most Muslims.

In 2004 United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan opened a UN conference on

“Confronting Islamophobia” with the lament, “When the world is compelled to coin a new
term to take account of increasingly widespread bigotry, that is a sad and troubling
development. Such is the case with Islamophobia.”

According to Imam Dr Abdul Jalil Sajid, chairman of the Muslim Council for Religious and
Racial Harmony UK, Islamophobia is “the fear and/or hatred of Islam, Muslims or Islamic
culture and history. Islamophobia can be characterized by the belief that all or most
Muslims are religious fanatics, have violent tendencies towards non-Muslims, and reject as
directly opposed to Islam such concepts as equality, tolerance, and democracy” (RISC
2011).

The Terrorist Attack of 9/11 provided an impetus to the rise of Islamophobia. After the
attack of Twin Towers Islam was being viewed as a conservative, barbaric and intolerant
perspective of life. Muslim was posited as blood thirsty savages under the banner of a
monolithic religion.

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 Islamophobia: Causes and consequences

The West holding the power to Information Technology spread the acrimony, condemning
Muslims to racial discrimination and ridiculed Muslim community as perpetrators of
violence and unrest in society.

With the rise of Islamophobia across the board, the far-right political parties of liberal
western communities gained momentum in exploiting the subjected minorities of Muslims to
confer political gains. Islamophobia became a subterfuge to add defamation to Islam by
public commentators and political actors. The 2016 Presidential elections of America were
one of the most acrimonious and confrontational campaigns in the history of America.

Extraordinary political rhetoric, outbursts in distasteful discriminatory tones, and anti-

Muslim invectives blemished the campaign of United States (US) Presidential Elections of
2016. To endorse his political agenda, Donald J. Trump specifically focused upon Muslims as
a grave issue, and likely toyed with the public pulses, which resulted in an unpredictable
election result.

Mirroring the perceived reality, media as an invention of information shapes public opinion.
Media reports after 9/11 specifically underrepresented Muslim views and negatively
portrayed Islamic culture. Islam was painted as a religion of discrimination, radicalization
and regression by the Western media. With the advent of digital media, providing a carte
blanche demerited the situation further.

The rhetoric of Islamophobia dispersed hatred speech & acts of defamation on social media
websites backed by the freedom of speech narrative.

Social media being a personal medium of communication galvanized the connotations of

Islamophobia and intimidated Muslim minorities living in liberal Western communities.
Society deprived of inter-faith harmony glaringly promotes intolerance and rejection
towards those who is considered other. European countries including America and Canada
practiced anti-Semitism long before Islamophobia surfaced. The hate of Muslims towards
Jews and of Jews towards Muslims persists even in today’s scenario.

Terrorist attack of 9/11 and shooting in Orlando’s night club reinforced the primitive
visceral hatred towards Muslims and Islam, exacerbating the discriminative attitudes and
tarnishing the fabric of freedom for all narrative of Western society. Islamophobia, a
narrative delegated to hatred and intolerance took its toll on the Muslim minorities resided
in Europe and America.

Bin Laden became a schoolyard taunt and banning Muslim women from wearing hijab, a
public policy. Implicating Muslims with discriminations in political, social and civic life
became a normalized attitude by the authorities.

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 Islamophobia: Causes and consequences

Surveillance by security agencies in order to keep radicalization at bay and interfering with
practices of Islam demonstrated consequences far beyond the imagination.

In the wake of events like 9/11 and with the rise of ISIS and Al-Qaeda, West launched a
military operation to quell the terrorism machinations.

In quest to quash Talibans of Afghanistan, a full fledge operation was launched by Western
forces on 16 September, 2001. Furtherance of the military operation was seen by the world
as Operation Inherent Resolve to quash the ISIS in Middle East. Fallouts by use of cogency
to suppress the militancy had adversarial effects. It led to displacement of indigenous
innocents and anarchy for the state structures.

The aftermath of Islamophobia’s notion was evidently witnessed during the refugee crisis
resulting from Arab Spring specifically during and after Civil War of Syria. Hundreds of
thousands were displaced and was seeking refuge in the modernized Western states.

Engulfed by the fear of Islam and hatred rooted deep in conscience towards Muslims, the
European countries demurred the refugees entering their premises. The far-right political
parties of the West depicted the war-torn refugees as invaders of freedom to culture and
Western values. Rallies and protests were carried out extensively against the refugee
situation and the debate of Us versus Them surfaced in the legislative bodies of the Western
societies. The provocative phobia of Islam, hurtling in the Western society presents itself as
propensity of violence and vandalism.

The antipathy of Westerners towards followers of Islam turned out as harrowing for
Muslims in West.

A report published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (US) states that more than two
thousand anti-Muslim offenses have been perpetuated in United States alone. The Kingston
mosque incident where English vandalized the holy premises of worship and attack of
violent mobs in Hamilton City of Canada on Muslim Education centres and mosques is
another story of the liberal region.

One major incident reported as a backlash of Islamophobia was shootings in New Zealand,
where 51 Muslims were subjected to death.

The pretext of ‘national security’ in a post-9/11 world is particularly useful, being an

amorphous concept that can be made to fit any inconvenient truth and throttle indicted to
discriminatory shenanigans.

Alienation of Muslims from political and civic life in upgraded societies of West is an

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 Islamophobia: Causes and consequences

epitome of Islamophobia.

The unemployment rate for followers of Islam was seen at pinnacle especially in United
States and European countries. Subjected to discrimination in education sectors, the
repugnancy of Islamic views with the values of West was deplored on behest of
Islamophobia. Travesties of Muslims as subjugators, discriminatory attitudes of authorities
were considered just.

Irreverent attitudes of the West towards the diaspora of the East proved to be harrowing for
Muslim women and children. The Council on American-Islamic Relations’ in California
surveyed 11 to 18 years old Muslim students to examine their experiences in school and
reported that 50% American Muslim students were bullied based by the hatred towards
Islam. In France, incidents of pulling scarfs of Muslim women in public was highly reported.
Islamophobia, as a just reason of hatred provided abyss for the most vulnerable community
of Muslims minority residing in the West.

As a principle, it is the duty of United Nations and its law enforcing organs to maintain
International Peace and protect its subjects from Human Rights violations. The world post
9/11 witnessed the failure of United Nations and its law enforcing organs. A research
conducted by Brown University states 200,000 & 40,000 civilian causalities in Iraq and
Afghanistan respectively.

Arab League Envoy to Syria put out an estimate of 400,000 that had died in the Civil War.
The supreme of all states and international protector of civil rights was proved as a fiasco.

The on-going atrocities of Indian Military on the besieged Kashmiri’s resulted in 51,000
civilian casualties from 1989-2018 but as the Guardian Angel of Human Rights, United
Nations neutrality to the conflict is questionable for the supremacy of International
Humanitarian Law.

Published in Daily Nation

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