Some have pointed out that Islamophobia is no longer a spontaneous expression of emotions. Instead, it has turned into an ideology that has found its way into the political agendas of right-wing extremist groups and populists seeking political gains by promoting hatred against Islam and Muslims. This includes verbal and physical abuse against their scripture, holy personalities and symbols. It has also been demonstrated through assault against mosques, cemeteries and religious centers.
This systematic effort to distort the image of Islam and Muslims has continued to worsen over the last five years. The unfortunate increase in terrorist activities, socio-political and economic problems that have resulted in the greater refugee crisis in Europe has also exacerbated the propaganda against Islam by the far right-wing politicians.
This manifestation appears to have now taken a turn for the worse thanks to the fanatic activities carried out by fundamentalist groups in different parts of the Middle East and also in Europe. The markers of identification of communities have clearly moved from just race, color and national or ethnic origin to include religion being the cause for cultural superiority and inferiority. In more ways than one, Islamophobia appears to have gained multi-dimensional manifestations- both in the social and political spheres. This has made it less anomalous and less mysterious.
Interestingly, the Runnymede report contrasted "open" and "closed" views of Islam, and stated that the following "closed" views are equated with Islamophobia: (a) Islam is seen as a monolithic bloc, static and unresponsive to change; (b) It 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; (c) It is seen as inferior to the West. It is seen as barbaric, irrational and primitive, (d) It is seen as violent, aggressive, threatening and engaged in a clash of civilizations; (e) It is seen as a political ideology, used for political or military advantage; (f) Criticisms made of "the West" by Muslims are rejected out of hand; (g) Hostility towards Islam is used to justify discriminatory practices towards Muslims and exclusion of Muslims from mainstream society and (h) Anti-Muslim hostility is seen as natural and normal.
In order to differentiate between prejudiced views of Islam and secularly motivated criticism of Islam, Roland Imhoff and Julia Recker have also formulated the concept "Islam prejudice", which they subsequently operationalized in an experiment. The experiment showed that their definition provided a tool for accurate differentiation. Nevertheless, other researchers' experimental work indicates that, even when Westerners seem to make an effort to distinguish between criticizing (Muslim) ideas and values and respecting Muslims as persons, they still show prejudice and discrimination of Muslims—compared to non-Muslims—when these targets defend supposedly antiliberal causes.
The University of California Berkeley’s Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project has suggested this working definition: "Islamophobia is a contrived fear or prejudice fomented by the existing Eurocentric and Orientalist global power structure. It is directed at a perceived or real Muslim threat through the maintenance and extension of existing disparities in economic, political, social and cultural relations, while rationalizing the necessity to deploy violence as a tool to achieve 'civilizational rehab' of the target communities (Muslim or otherwise). Islamophobia reintroduces and reaffirms a global racial structure through which resource distribution disparities are maintained and extended.
It needs to be mentioned here that the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims span the full range of human appearance, and there is no way to actually “look Muslim.”
Nevertheless, race operates at the very core of Islamophobia. In the aftermath of 9/11, in America and beyond, repetitive violent attacks were reported against non-Muslims, such as Sikh Americans, Indians, South Asians, and others.
Everyone hurt or killed in these attacks were vulnerable to Islamophobia because their appearance was consistent with the racial description of what a Muslim was supposed to look like. Some sociologists feel that it needs to be interpreted as discrimination against people who look different.
The social construction of racial categories has today become the heart of the process by which Islamophobia has evolved with the potential of affecting anyone who “looks Muslim” and also created the racialization of Muslims.
This method of creating a separate social and cultural dimension has in recent years helped to generate an extraordinary surge in Islamophobic hate crimes and discrimination across the world. This unfortunate development, according to strategists cannot be disassociated from the fact that Muslims are now being portrayed in the mindset of the people not only as racially distinct, inferior and savage but also as anathema to modern pluralistic culture. Consequently, many historians are suggesting that any effective understanding of Islamophobia must take into account the full scope of race and racism.
In many parts of the Western world, the offensive stereotypical and distorted discourses against Islam and Muslims have led to the production of a collective mind-set that is difficult to uproot, and is being invoked whenever clashes occur involving anyone from the Muslim community. This approach is particularly employed for political reasons by many right-wing extremist movements that are today employing Islamophobia as a means to gain popularity by intimidating Muslims and promising their electorates, if elected, to enact strict laws against them. Such a dimension has already emerged in many countries in Western Europe.
Based on these realities, including racial profiling of Muslims, Islamophobia has become a form of racism mixed with cultural intolerance as a whole, rather than simply intolerance of Muslims and Islam. This matrix is emerging despite the civil society and sections of the international community making efforts to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance through the introduction of international legal measures as reflected in the UN Convention against Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) and the agreement on the Durban Declaration.
However, it is also generally held that since Muslims are not a race, therefore, racially based anti-discrimination legislations are insufficient or restrictive to counter Islamophobic discrimination. In the 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam, the European Union asserted the principle of nondiscrimination on the basis of religion in Article 13.
The United Nations has also developed a number of instruments, including treaties, conventions and protocols with regard to religious discrimination. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966) for example, prohibits more specifically religious discrimination while the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief, adopted in 1981, provides a comprehensive list of rights regarding freedom of thought, conscience and religion. The 1993 Vienna Conference has also underlined the need to implement speedy and comprehensive elimination of all forms of racism, xenophobia and related intolerance.
Unfortunately, while these proposed refinements have become part of Member States policies and anti-discrimination legislations, the surge in Islamophobia, as a form of racial discrimination has continued to threaten the effectiveness of these strategies in tackling the negative manifestations of racism.
Consequently, we are witnessing racial and religious intolerance and hatred, reflected mainly through identity constructs and the rejection of diversity. This has been evidenced strongly in the Rakhine State of Myanmar in the case of Rohingya Muslims where there is resistance to the process of multi-culturalization of societies.
In view of these evolving realities, Bangladesh has drawn attention to advance reforms, both at the legal and political levels, for the protection of minorities and communities affected by all contemporary forms of racism, including Islamophobia.
In this regard, special efforts are being undertaken to establish a multi-stakeholder’ dialogue to objectively analyze Islamophobia and discuss the crucial questions about complexities, dilemmas, and paradoxes of racial identity and Islamophobia, and the disturbing implications of rising Islamophobia for the persistence of racism in modern societies. This approach is also seeking to apply the tools developed for understanding racial discrimination to analyze Islamophobia.
These measures need to be coordinated across the globe. This will help us to see how the challenges and negative consequences of communalism can be overcome and positive equations promoted for universal guidance and application at different levels, both by the State and non-State actors.
(Muhammad Zamir, a former Ambassador is an analyst specialized in foreign affairs, right to information and
good governance,
can be reached at <[email protected]>)