a.

Background and Problems Definition

Islamophobia is one of the greatest crucial issue in the world right now. Islamophobia is
a form of hatred and fear of everything that is related to Islam. There’s people consider Islam as
radical. And why is that? That’s because the fear of the possibility that the Muslim might be
taking over the world makes people scared. They have been seeing everything that Muslim can
only do is terror, just like what happened back in 2001 where several airplanes got hacked by
hacker and hit the World Trade Center building in USA. And the mastermind behind this tragedy
was Al-Qaeda. That’s why until now people still fear the Muslim. They only view Muslims as a
bunch of terrorists who can only carry out terror in the name of Islam.

Meanwhile, Xenophobia is a form of fear of foreigners who have different languages,

cultures, and skim colors. The fear is created because there’s a sense of insecurity and fear of
something they don’t know. They fear that the people that they just meet will pose a threat. We
can also define it as a form of Phobia about foreigners, mixed with old-fashioned racism and
concerns over terrorism. This thing has become a very crucial issue too just like what happened
in USA. When President Donald Trump got elected as a president, he planned to make a border
to make US as a country that is free of Muslim. That’s because they consider Muslims as a
foreigner and they fear that if Muslims still exist in USA what happened back in 2001 might be
happening again in the future.

b. 1) Research Question
Are there parties with hidden interests and agendas behind Islamophobia and Xenophobia
issues in Europe?
   2) Research Purpose
Describes the influence of Islamophobia and Xenophobia issue and debates on European
States policies.
   3) Relevance to the theoretical and practical field
We think this issue has become an international urgency, given many discrimination issues and
because this issue has an important role in the world of politics today that shapes a lots of
policies worldwide. Therefore, it is important to discuss whether this issue is a mere hatred
towards a specific identity or it is driven by a particular interest for their own gain. This study will
try to help to uncover critical areas in the issue of Islamophobia and Xenophobia from the side
of political interests which is not sought out by many previous researchers.

c. Literature Review
Everything that is happening in this world is always connected to each other, just put it
like every actions that we take usually will have a direct impact on the actions that will be taken
by the others (Kaminski, 2014). Just like what happens between the western media and the
Muslim countries. Every portrayal that the western media makes about Muslim will give an
immediate and direct impact on the developments in every aspect to the Muslim countries
(Kaminski, 2014). But that’s not only the case here, there’s a case about the the racialisation of
Muslims and the gendered Islamophobia. This has become a very crucial issue because there
are countries that had already begun the racialisation of religious subjects such as the states in
Europe (Banfi, 2017). Because of that many scholars had already begun their research on the
features of Islamophobia forms in postcolonial era. They start investigated by how the gendered
representations of Muslim women played the role in colonial and postcolonial times (Eskandari,
2014). There’s also the case of xenophobia, xenophobia is actually almost the same case as
Islamophobia, but xenophobia is more like the case where people start judging the others by
races, languages, skin colors, cultures, and religions. But in the eastern Germany where the
climate of violence and racism have become worsening, the government took the initiative to put
the education for young people as their main agenda as the countermeasure (Galizia, 2006)

There’s also the case between Brazil and Portugal, at that time there’s a Minas Gerais’
conspiracy in 1789 stated that Brazil wanted to seperate themselves from Portugal and wanted
to be an independent country. Brazilians believed that they deserve the right to control and
govern their own country, and that the Portuguese were only taking the advantage of Brazil as
they have alot of resources. That’s why they wanted Portuguese to leave Brazil as they consider
the Portuguese as strangers that will only pose a threat to their country (Barbosa, 2009)

Islam is always associated with violence and its role tends to be considered as an
antagonist. There is a long history and reason why Islam is always associated with violence. But
what most people know is, the event of 9/11. After the tragedy, western world seemed reluctant
or even afraid of Islam or Islam-related things. The hate crimes that are considered common
because they are related to Islamophobia are an example of the opposition of states in
campaigning for anti-human discrimination carried out in recent years. USA is one of the
countries that launched a war on racial discrimination and discrimination based on faith
(Islamophobia and Anti-Americanism Book Excerpts,2012).

In this increasingly advanced era both in the field of technology and information,
Western prejudice or suspicion of Muslims is even greater. It shows that racial discrimination
and crime of hatred in the world have not at all find a way out, or even find the idea to solve it.
These hatreds are including Xenophobia and Islamophobia. These hatreds are developed by
time, and not only by the people, but also by the government and the states itself. It is often
called ‘Alarmism’, which means spreading exaggerated rumors and excessive warning about
real or shadow threats, and often has a hidden agenda behind it. Western media and
government played a huge role on alarmism. It can be in various forms, but in the news or
media it is often called ‘yellow journalism’ which consists the reports of sensationalization of
stories to exaggerate small risks. The Government also openly expressed its hatred of Islam by
imposing such hatred on their people, as seen from several policies and steps made, including
the case of alarmism. Some Muslim individuals considered that living in the west is very difficult
for them. They are often seen as an aggressor in the Western society. (Gillborn, 2006)

Multiculturalism has created diversity in western societies where various cultures

and different religions aim to live together harmoniously (Klug, 2012). Therefore, most Muslims
are hoping to get a peaceful and harmonious environment in a multicultural society like today.
Islam that has got a bad image in the community raises other prejudices that Islam is always
associated with the practices of terrorism that can be a threat to their civilization (Feldman,
2012). Therefore, it is important for Muslims to create positive norms in their social life (Carr,
2006).
d. Theoretical Framework
Critical Race Theory assumes that the prejudice faced by Muslims today is a
presumption that is generally set by the West and used as an ideology for Islamophobia. The
media that shape people's views illustrates that Muslims are politically and socially incompetent
in social life. In response to political construction and education, such situations indicate that
Islamophobia is reconsidered but in a dysfunctional manner (Klug, 2012). Also, The West
always needs to have an enemy, therefore they used Islam as a scapegoat (Carr, 2006).
Cultivation Theory states that the developing Muslim population around the globe and
the constrained expanded interaction among societies features the need to find out the media's
capacity to cultivate and keep up a fear of the religion and area of the world. Mass media are
constantly reporting bombing crimes and the people will unnecessarily assume that it is either
Muslim or Arab, etc. Media capitalizes the fear of attack by the ISIS to spread the hatred, then
the Muslims suffer at the hands of Islamophobia. (Shanna, 2016)

e. Discussion and Findings

 As of September this year, 29% of Americans still believe that Obama is a Muslim,
according to a poll by CNN and the Opinion Research Corporation. when individuals
(again often white, often Republican) were trying to undermine Barack Obama’s
credibility in 2004 and claim that he could not be trusted, they said he was a secret
Muslim.
 When Brits were asked this year what words they think of when they hear the word
Muslim, their most common responses were “terror”, “terrorism” and “terrorist”.
 In a survey by Pewresearch that sought out only Muslim respondents, in 2011, they
found that 28% said that in the past year, people had acted suspiciously of them, 22%
said they had been called offensive names and 21% said they had been singled out by
airport security.
(The Guardian, 2015)

f. Conclusion
Islamophobia that has developed in Western countries is inevitable. Various kinds of
events that add to the image of Muslims throughout the world makes Muslims have to be the
opposite to the West. The visible gap between Islam and the West makes Muslims must
maintain an attitude in the eyes of the world. Discriminatory and racist behavior is indeed
unavoidable in social life. In the era of globalization where almost all countries in the world are
multicultural is common if the practice of discrimination and racism occurs. Because there is
fear or even suspicion of a group against other groups. Opinions that developed and were made
by the media seemed to force Muslims to become a minority in global contestation. The
rampant practice of Islamophobia and various western provocative attitudes which have
angered the Muslim seems to have become a chat every day. Western government policies
which also contributed to the isolation of Muslims in various countries were also considered very
alarming and not in accordance with what was campaigned. Widespread discrimination
practices seem to have the support of the government in the absence of clear laws for those
who act racist or discriminatory against a group.