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* doctoral researcher into Islamophobia in the UK and co-author of the EUMC Islamophobia report
* by James Brooks, Islamonline.net * by James Brooks, Islamonline.net
* by Saeid Reza Ameli, Islamic Centre of England, October 1997 * by Saeid Reza Ameli, Islamic Centre of England, October 1997

Revision as of 04:46, 28 March 2006

Template:Totallydisputed Islamophobia is a neologism referring to a prejudice towards the religion of Islam and its adherents , or by extension to predominantly Muslim peoples and their cultures. On December 7, 2004 at a U.N. sponsored seminar entitled "Confronting Islamophobia: Education for Tolerance and Understanding”, Ahmed Kamal Aboulmagd, a prominent Ph.D. Muslim thinker and former member of the Government of Egypt, disputed the neologism and described the term as "derogatory" as there was "not only a question of fear, but also a matter of hatred". .

Some consider these feelings to be the product of ignorance, irrationality, or mere prejudice; others claim that they are wholly or partly justified. The term is used variously and the existence of the phenomenon is disputed.

Human Rights Watch and the Council on American-Islamic Relations claim to have documented a recent increase in what they describe as "Islamophobic" events and hate crimes against Muslims and Islamic organizations .

History and use of the term

The term 'Islamophobia' dates at least back to the 1970s , but it came to be much more popular during the 1990s. It is formed with the Greek suffix -phobia 'fear of -' in a similar way to xenophobia or homophobia. It thus reflects the influence of such 1990s movements as multi-culturalism and identity politics. During this period, some sociologists and cultural analysts argued that there was a shift in forms of prejudice from ones based on race to ones based on notions of cultural superiority and otherness.

Actions and beliefs typically described as Islamophobic range from systematic discrimination to physical assault. Hate crimes against Muslims are commonly categorized as Islamophobic, as is inflammatory hate speech , and criticism. The UK Minister Peter Hain's statement that Britain's Muslim community is "isolationist" was met with accusations of Islamophobia, and Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's statement that Western civilization is 'superior' to Islam was similarly alleged to be Islamophobic. . In Germany, the state of Baden-Württemberg requires citizenship applicants from the member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference to answer questions about their attitudes on homosexuality, domestic violence and other religious issues. .

Clothing has become a flashpoint of alleged Islamophobia. France, which has a strong secular tradition separating church from State, was accused of Islamophobia when the wearing of headscarfs by Muslim girls at school was banned. The policy, however, extends to large Christian crosses, Jewish skullcaps and other visible signs of religion, although small crucifixes and stars of David are still allowed. The Dutch parliament has voted in favour of a proposal to ban the burqa in public, which has led to similar accusations.

File:Arabcartoon.jpg
This cartoon from the Jordanian newspaper Al Ghad expresses the belief of some Muslims that the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons are an example of how Islamophobia has become acceptable in the West. Clockwise: "This one is racist", "this one is anti-Semitic", "and this one (bottom) falls under freedom of speech"

The term most often appears in discourse on the condition of immigrant Muslims living as minorities in the United States, Europe, and Australia, although it has also been used in recent years in countries such as India, and occasionally in connection with non-immigrant Muslim communities or individuals. In the most prominent cases, however, experiences of immigrant communities of unemployment, rejection, alienation, and violence have allegedly combined with Islamophobia to make integration difficult. It has been argued that this has led, in the United Kingdom for example, to Muslim communities suffering higher levels of unemployment, poor housing, poor health, and higher levels of racially motivated violence than other communities.

Since September 11, 2001, given the strong association between Arabs and the religion of Islam, Islamophobia is sometimes expressed as a form of anti-Arab racism, though the majority of Muslims are not Arabs. In the UK, 'anti-Arab' sentiment is quite rare and so Islamophobia has been seen, to some degree at least, as being transitory: a 'cultural racism' that has shifted from markers of race to markers of religion . In Germany, the majority of victims have not been Arabs, but rather are from Turkey, perhaps the most secular Islamic country. Anti-Muslim bias has also occasionally been expressed in violent attacks on Sikhs who were mistaken for Muslims on account of their distinctive turbans. Human Rights Watch claims to have documented what they describe as a recent upward trend in Islamophobic events and hate crimes against Muslims.

It has been argued that Islamophobia also exists in India. These claims are based upon a definition of Islamophobia that is more associated with communal politics in India, although accusations of the denigration of Islamic culture history are also present.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan told a December 7, 2004 UN conference on the emergence of Islamophobia that "(when) the world is compelled to coin a new term to take account of increasingly widespread bigotry — that it is a sad and troubling development. Such is the case with 'Islamophobia'."

Characterizations

Stephen Schwartz

American journalist Stephen Schwartz claims that Islamophobia consists of the following:

  • attacking the entire religion of Islam as a problem for the world;
  • condemning all of Islam and its history as extremist;
  • denying the active existence, in the contemporary world, of a moderate Muslim majority;
  • insisting that Muslims accede to the demands of non-Muslims for theological changes in their religion;
  • treating all conflicts involving Muslims as the fault of Muslims themselves; and
  • inciting war against Islam as a whole.

Schwartz suggests that Islamophobia, so defined, actually exists, though individuals are often accused of it without justification.

Runnymede Trust

File:Islamophobia graph.png
This graph from the Runnymede Trust tries to visually summarize all aspects of Islamophobia.

In the United Kingdom, the term “Islamophobia” was not used in government policy until 1997, when the UK race relations think tank Runnymede Trust published the report Islamophobia: A Challenge For Us All. In a section entitled The Nature of Islamophobia, the report itemizes eight features that Runnymede attributed to Islamophobia:

  1. Islam is seen as a monolithic bloc, static and unresponsive to change.
  2. Islam is seen as separate and “other”. It does not have values in common with other cultures, is not affected by them and does not influence them.
  3. Islam is seen as inferior to the West. It is seen as barbaric, irrational, primitive, and sexist.
  4. Islam is seen as violent, aggressive, threatening, supportive of terrorism, and engaged in a clash of civilizations.
  5. Islam is seen as a political ideology, used for political or military advantage.
  6. Criticisms made of 'the West' by Islam are rejected out of hand.
  7. Hostility towards Islam is used to justify discriminatory practices towards Muslims and exclusion of Muslims from mainstream society.
  8. Anti-Muslim hostility is seen as natural and normal.

The Runnymede description of Islamophobia has been accepted by by numerous Muslim organizations such as FAIR UK, the Forum against Islamophobia and Racism.

Some criticism of the Runnymede definition has however been put forward what with its 'closed views' being deemed outdated and unable to accommodate such manifestations of Islamophobia as physical violence or material damage, both of which have been prevalent since 9/11 across Europe.

Anti-Islamophobia efforts

  • The Forum on Islamophobia and Racism (FAIR) was established in order to combat Islamophobia in the United Kingdom but has since become a dormant organisation.
  • The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) recently organized a conference with the topic of "Islamophobia and Anti-Americanism: Causes and Remedies," which touched on the issue of Islamophobia. Guest speakers included those from several American universities, Amnesty International, and former Deputy Premier of Malaysia Anwar Ibrahim.

EUMC Report into Islamophobia in the EU following 9/11

The largest monitoring project ever to be commissioned into Islamophobia was undertaken following 9/11 by the European Monitoring Centre for Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC).

From a total of 75 reports – 15 from each EU member nation - a synthesis report was published in May 2002. Entitled 'Summary report on Islamophobia in the EU after 11 September 2001' it was co-authored by Chris Allen and Jorgen S. Nielsen at the University of Birmingham, England.

The report highlighted the regularity with which ordinary Muslims became targets for abusive and sometimes violent retaliatory attacks, all of which were seemingly becoming more extreme and accepted.

According to the report, despite localised differences within each member nation, the recurrence of attacks at street level upon recognisable and visible traits of Islam and Muslims was the report's most significant finding. These attacks took such form as the following: verbal abuse indiscriminately blaming all Muslims for terrorist attacks; women having their hijab torn from their heads; male and female Muslims being spat at; children being called 'Usama' as a term of insult and derision; and random assaults, which on one occasion, left a victim paralysed and others hospitalised.

The representation of Muslims in the media was also noted. Whilst some media initially attempted to differentiate Muslims, this was not always the norm. Inherent negativity, stereotypical images, fantastical representations and grossly exaggerated caricatures were all readily identifiable, drawing upon pre-9/11 established norms to locate further justification and resonance within the media’s audiences.

Similar concerns about the role of politicians and other opinion leaders were also raised. Within the mainstream of political activity, some political leaders made immediate verbal statements stressing the need to differentiate between 'Muslims' and 'terrorists'. In Portugal however, political leaders remained silent. In some other countries, mainstream political leaders were much more vocal and emotionally charged as regards anti-Muslim rhetoric, with both Italy and Denmark being earmarked in the report.

The report concluded that, 'a greater receptivity towards anti-Muslim and other xenophobic ideas and sentiments has, and may well continue, to become more tolerated' .

Criticism of the concept

Some commentators have questioned the concept of Islamophobia.

Commonly, critics of the term argue that its use is an attempt to police or censor opinion by characterizing any criticism of Islam or Muslims as pathological and irrational, just as use of the term anti-Semitism may be an attempt to censor criticism of Israel. Some of these critics cite the case of the British liberal feminist journalist Polly Toynbee, who was nominated for the title of "Most Islamophobic Media Personality of the Year" at the Annual Islamophobia Awards overseen by the Islamic Human Rights Commission in May 2003. The nomination was based on her comments in an article she had written for the London-based liberal newspaper The Guardian:

Religious politics scar India, Kashmir, Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, Sudan ... the list of countries wrecked by religion is long. But the present danger is caused by Islamist theocracy … There is no point in pretending it is not so. Wherever Islam either is the government or bears down upon the government, it imposes harsh regimes that deny the most basic human rights.

Toynbee has rejected the label of "Islamophobe" and argued that her comments must be judged on their truth or falsity, not on the offence they might give to most members of the Muslim community.

British columnist Josie Appleton criticized the definition given by the Runnymede Trust thusly:

This Runnymede report talked about a rising 'anti-Muslim prejudice' that needed addressing in policy. But the section titled 'The nature of Islamophobia' suggests a very broad notion of prejudice — examples of Islamophobia included people seeing Islam as inferior to the West, rather than just distinctively different; seeing Islam as monolithic and static, rather than diverse and progressive; seeing Islam as an enemy, rather than a partner to cooperate with (7). This also seemed to be founded on an over-sensitivity, an attempt to stem any kind of criticism of Islam. Rather than engage Muslims in debate, non-Muslims are supposed to tiptoe around them, for fear of causing offence. Since 11 September we have seen how this attitude can stifle discussion.

Civil-rights activist Bahram Soroush views the term Islamophobia as a form of "Intellectual blackmail", a means of avoiding legitimate criticism of Islam by "scaremongering".

Kenan Malik, a British journalist, has made several points in rejecting the widespread existence of Islamophobia in his essay The Myth of Islamophobia:

  • Caution is needed in attributing Islamophobia as the base cause of any event.
  • It is not sufficient that a Muslim is a victim of crime.
  • The accusation of Islamophobia can be used as a mechanism to stifle debate and criticism of the cultural practices of Muslim societies.
  • Finally, anti-social behaviour and deliquency may be the cause of any of the events cited as being islamophobic attacks.

UK researcher Chris Allen has not denied the reality of Islamophobia but has criticised the primary theory, concept and definition of Islamophobia—that of the Runnymede Trust—as naïve and over‐simplified.

Wolfram Richter, professor of economics in the University of Dortmund believes that what is seen as Islamophobia is essentially just another form of racism.

Possible examples of Islamophobia

See also

References

  1. Religion as a fig leaf for racism, Jeremy Seabrook, The Guardian, 23 July 2004, retrieved 29 January 2005 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/race/story/0,11374,1267567,00.html
  2. Discrimination and Legislation - Response of Dr. Anya Rudiger from Discrimination and Legislation session of Muslims in Europe post 9/11 conference, 2003-04-26, St Antony's College, Oxford retrieved 2005-01-29 from http://www.sant.ox.ac.uk/princeton/pap_rudiger.shtml
  3. Islam and Muslims in Europe, Tariq Ramadan, Equal Voices issue 10, published by European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) verified 2005-01-29 from http://eumc.eu.int/eumc/index.php?fuseaction=content.dsp_cat_content&catid=3e3e6e32a2316&contentid=3e3e8c602f879
  4. Discrimination and Legislation from Muslims in Europe post 9/11 conference, 2003-04-26, St Antony's College, Oxford retrieved 2005-01-29 from http://www.sant.ox.ac.uk/princeton/pap_malik.shtml
  5. Trapped in the ruins, William Dalrymple, The Guardian, 2004-03-20, verified 2005-01-29 from http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1172782,00.html
  6. Loop professor takes heat for conduct, The DePaulia, verified 17 May 2005 from http://www.thedepaulia.com/story.asp?artid=77&sectid=1
  7. Orientalism, Edward W. Said , ISBN 0614216303 (1996 edition, Kazi Pubns Inc), quote given is taken from Page 74 of the "2003 Edition", publisher unknown.
  8. CHRIS ALLEN& JORGEN S. NIELSEN, (2002) Summary report on Islamophobia in the EU after 11 September 2001. Vienna: European Union Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia.
  9. Ibid, p.43.
  10. CHRIS ALLEN (2005) From race to religion: the new face of discrimination in ABBAS, T. (ed.) Muslim Britain: communities under pressure. London Zed Books.
  11. CHRIS ALLEN Islamophobia: its meanings and manifestations in the UK and Europe (Paper). Islam d’Europe, University of Fribourg, Switzerland (13 December 2005).

External links

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