Islamophobia

Template:Discrimination2 Islamophobia is a controversial term that refers to what its proponents see as prejudice or discrimination against Islam or Muslims. The term dates back to the late 1980s, but came into common currency after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Opponents of the concept argue that it is often misused to undermine legitimate criticism of Islam.

In 1997, the British Runnymede Trust defined Islamophobia as the "dread or hatred of Islam and therefore, to the fear and dislike of all Muslims," stating that it also refers to the behaviour of excluding Muslims from the "economic, social, and public life of the nation." It includes the perception that Islam has no values in common with other cultures, is inferior to the West, is a violent political ideology rather than a religion, that its criticisms of the West have no substance, and that discriminatory practices against Muslims are justified.

Etymology

The term is formed of Islam, the post-classical Latin -o- connecting vowel, and the post-classical Latin combining form -phobia which is used to form nouns with the sense 'fear of' or 'aversion to.' See List of anti-ethnic and anti-national terms for other "-phobia" coinages.

Use of the concept

A number of prominent individuals and organizations have used or defined the concept. Kofi Annan told a UN conference on Islamophobia in 2004: "[W]hen 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." Muzammil Quraishi, senior lecturer in criminology at the University of Salford, writes that "whether we refer to behaviour as 'anti-Muslimism' or 'Islamophobia' seems a moot point. If we are agreed that either term refers to behaviour encapsulating hatred, and/or dislike to the extent of social and economic exclusion of Muslims, we must move to discover the extent of such behaviour and to evaluate how this influences crime and victimization ..."

In 1996, the Runnymede Trust established the Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia, chaired by Professor Gordon Conway, the vice-chancellor of the University of Sussex. Their report, Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All, was launched in November 1997 by the Home Secretary, Jack Straw. It described Islamophobia as involving eight distinctive features:

1. Islam is seen as a monolithic bloc, static and unresponsive to change.
2. 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.
3. It is seen as inferior to the West. It is seen as barbaric, irrational, primitive, and sexist.
4. It is seen as violent, aggressive, threatening, supportive of terrorism, and engaged in a clash of civilizations.
5. It 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.

Imam Dr Abduljalil Sajid, one of the members of the Runnymede Trust's Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia which published the 1997 report argued that:

"Hostility towards Islam and Muslims has been a feature of European societies since the eighth century of the Common Era. It has taken different forms, however, at different times and has fulfilled a variety of functions. For example, the hostility in Spain in the fifteenth century was not the same as the hostility that had been expressed and mobilised [ sic] in the Crusades. Nor was the hostility during the time of the Ottoman Empire or that which was prevalent throughout the age of empires and colonialism. It may be more apt to speak of 'Islamophobias' rather than of a single phenomenon. Each version of Islamophobia has its own features as well as similarities with, and borrowings from, other versions."

The American writer Stephen Schwartz has defined Islamophobia as the condemnation of the entirety of Islam and its history as extremist; "denying" the existence of a moderate Muslim majority; regarding Islam as a problem for the world; treating conflicts involving Muslims as necessarily their own fault; insisting that Muslims make changes to their religion; and inciting war against Islam as a whole.

EUMC report

The largest project monitoring Islamophobia was undertaken following 9/11 by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC). Their May 2002 report "Summary report on Islamophobia in the EU after 11 September 2001", written Chris Allen (UK) and Jorgen S. Nielsen of the University of Birmingham, was based on 75 reports — 15 from each EU member nation.

The report highlighted the regularity with which ordinary Muslims became targets for abusive and sometimes violent retaliatory attacks after 9/11. Despite localized differences within each member nation, the recurrence of attacks on recognizable and visible traits of Islam and Muslims was the report's most significant finding. Incidents consisted of verbal abuse, blaming all Muslims for terrorism, forcibly removing women's hijabs, spitting on Muslims, calling children "Usama," and random assaults. Muslims have been hospitalized and on one occasion paralyzed.

The report also discussed the portrayal of Muslims in the media. Inherent negativity, stereotypical images, fantastical representations, and exaggerated caricatures were all identified. 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

Salman Rushdie was one of 12 prominent writers who signed a statement condemning Islamophobia as a "wretched concept."

The concept of Islamophobia has been criticized on several grounds. Some critics argue that it is real, but is just another form of racism and does not require its own category, while others argue that, unlike racism, Islam is a religion that people can choose to adopt, to retain or to leave or apostatize. Others argue that it is used to censor criticism and that its use threatens free speech.

British writer and academic Kenan Malik has called the concept a "myth," arguing that it obfuscates discrimination against Muslims with criticism of Islam, and that it is used to silence critics and Muslim reformers. He writes that the extent to which Muslims are more vulnerable to social exclusion and attacks than other groups is exaggerated, and that the concept allows politicians who may have supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq or the War on Terror to "reclaim the moral high ground" and "pitch for the Muslim vote." He argues that the result is the creation of a culture of victimhood, allowing individual Muslims to attribute low achievement to Islamophobia, and not to themselves. Islamophobia is not a form of racism, in his view, because Islam is a belief system. "I can be hateful about other beliefs, such as conservatism or communism. So why can't I be hateful about religion too?"

Malik's analysis of Islamophobia was criticized by Inayat Bunglawala from the Muslim Council of Britain and Abdul Wahid from the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir. Bunglawala writes that Malik's argument is limited to overt acts of violence against Muslims. As an example of less overt prejudice, Bunglawala cites a BBC study that found applicants for jobs who had English-sounding names were more likely to secure an interview than those with Muslim names. By ignoring non-violent examples of alleged Islamophobia, Malik's commentary "makes a mockery of victims of prejudice by pretending they have not been discriminated against," according to Bunglawala. In addition, he argues that Malik did not adequately study the proposed law against the incitement of religious hatred, and that he failed to appreciate the definitions of the term "Islamophobia" according to the very sources he uses in his article.

In the wake of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, a group of 12 prominent writers signed a statement in the French weekly satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in March 2006, warning against the use of the term Islamophobia to prevent criticism of "Islamic totalitarianism." The novelist Salman Rushdie was among these signatories. The statement alleged that "Islamism is a reactionary ideology that kills equality, freedom and secularism wherever it is present. We refuse to renounce our critical spirit out of fear of being accused of "Islamophobia", a wretched concept that confuses criticism of Islam as a religion and stigmatization of those who believe in it."

British columnist Josie Appleton argues Runnymede Trust uses the term Islamophobia to prevent criticism of Islam. "Rather than engage Muslims in debate, non-Muslims are supposed to tiptoe around them, for fear of causing offense." Afshin Ellian, a Dutch law professor, writes that the concept is used to delegitimize criticism by characterizing it as pathological while civil-rights activist Bahram Soroush has called it "intellectual blackmail". French writer Robert Redeker argues that the history of the term demonstrates that the term Islamophobia was created by "radical islamists" to "tackle feminists".

Johann Hari of The Independent has criticized the use of the term by organizations like Islamophobia Watch, arguing that liberal Muslims interested in reform are left unsupported because people fear being accused of Islamophobia. He writes: "If Muslim women and Muslim gays are going to have any kind of decent life, the [Muslim] liberals need to receive solidarity and support – but slap-dash charges of Islamophobia intimidate people who could offer it ... While Islamophobia Watch talk about defending Muslims, they end up defending the nastiest and most right-wing part of the Muslim community – the ones who are oppressing and killing the rest."

Critics have cited the case of British journalist Polly Toynbee, who was nominated in May 2003 for the title of "Most Islamophobic Media Personality of the Year" at the Annual Islamophobia Awards overseen by the Islamic Human Rights Commission, who has argued that there is no such thing as Islamophobia. The nomination was based on her comments in The Guardian that "[w]herever Islam either is the government or bears down upon the government, it imposes harsh regimes that deny the most basic human rights."

Reacting against a proposed UK law curtailing religious criticism, actor and comedian Rowan Atkinson drew the distinction between racism and criticism of religion: "To criticise a person for their race is manifestly irrational and ridiculous but to criticise their religion, that is a right... A law which attempts to say you can criticise and ridicule ideas as long as they are not religious ideas is a very peculiar law indeed."

Islamophobia-phobia

Writing in the New Humanist, philosopher Piers Benn suggests that people who fear the rise of Islamophobia foster an environment "not intellectually or morally healthy", to the point that what he calls "Islamophobia-phobia" can undermine "critical scrutiny of Islam as somehow impolite, or ignorant of the religion's true nature", encouraging "sentimental pretence that all claims to religious truth are somehow 'equal', or that critical scrutiny of Islam (or any belief system) is ignorant, prejudiced, or 'phobic'".

The New Criterion editor Roger Kimball argues that the word "Islamophobia" is a misnomer. "A phobia describes an irrational fear, and it is axiomatic that fearing the effects of radical Islam is not irrational, but on the contrary very well-founded indeed, so that if you want to speak of a legitimate phobia — it’s a phobia I experience frequently — we should speak instead of Islamophobia-phobia, the fear of and revulsion towards Islamophobia."

American writer Stephen Schwartz, director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism, has cautioned against what he sees as a tendency to accuse all opponents of Islamic radicalism of Islamophobia, but writes that it is nevertheless a real phenomenon. He defines it as the condemnation of the entirety of Islam and its history as extremist; denying the existence of a moderate Muslim majority; regarding Islam as a problem for the world; treating conflicts involving Muslims as necessarily their own fault; insisting that Muslims make changes to their religion; and inciting war against Islam as a whole.

Efforts against alleged Islamophobia

There have been efforts against alleged Islamophobia by many organizations in many countries; some of these are detailed below.

• In 2006 the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) set up an observatory on Islamophobia which will monitor and document activities perceived as Islamophobic around the world.
• A radio talk show host from 630 WMAL on November 26, 2006 allegedly exposed the prevalence of Islamophobia by seeming to advocate a government program to force all Muslims to wear "identifying markers." The hoax was revealed at the end of the program. See Jerry Klein’s 2006 Islamophobia Radio Experiment for more details.
• During the accession talks regarding Turkeys possible entry to the EU, then Prime Minister of Holland, Jan Peter Balkenende, said Islamophobia must not affect the possibility of Turkey's entry to the European Union.
• 50,000 people signed a petition urging French President Jacques Chirac to "consider Islamophobia as a new form of racism, punishable by law. The statement reads that the publishing of insulting cartoons of Muhammad by the French press hurt and offended the feelings of French- Muslims."
• In Tower Hamlets, a densely populated area in London with a large Muslim community, a crime reporting scheme called "Islamophobia - Don't Suffer in Silence" has been set up which police hope will raise awareness of Islamophobia and help them to understand the extent of the alleged problem.
• The British National Union of Teachers (NUT) has issued guidance to teachers in the union advising that teachers have to "Challenge Islamophobia", and that they have a "crucial role" to play in helping to "dispel myths about Muslim communities."
• Following an Islamist demonstration outside the Danish Embassy in London organized by the Al Ghurabaa organization in response to the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, the Muslim Association of Britain organized a peaceful rally in Trafalgar Square. Organizers made available placards and T-shirts bearing the rally's official slogan, the phrase, "United against Islamophobia, united against incitement."
• Following the July 7 bombings, the British government set up a number of initiatives aimed at combating alleged Islamophobia, including the "National Forum against extremism and Islamophobia". There was also plans by the British government to ban incitement to "religious hatred", however, this failed to get through the House of Commons.
• The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan issued a call in 1999 to world leaders to combat Islamophobia. Abdel-Elah Khatib, the Jordanian foreign minister said "The international community must consider how to confront this phenomenon of Islamophobia in order to prevent its proliferation".
• The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) and the Trades Union Congress (TUC) held a seminar on how to combat Islamophobia.

Incidents reported as examples

Alleged acts of Islamophobia

• Dr Amanda Wise and Ghali Hassan from GlobalResearch.ca have alleged that the 2005 Cronulla riots were the result of a climate of "Islamophobia" in Australia.
• Dalil Boubakeur, a director of a Paris mosque described the vandalism on a Mosque in Paris, France as Islamophobic.
• Giles Tremlett of The Guardian referred to the burning of a Muslim Sanctuary in the Spanish city of Ceuta, as an instance of Islamophobia.
• Halima Mautbur, from the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations called an attack on a hijabi Muslim woman "an Islamophobic incident".
• Doudou Diène in a report prepared by the UN Commission on Human Rights released on March 7, 2006 mentioned the publishing of the cartoons at the heart of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy regarding, "The development of Islamophobia or any racism and racial discrimination ..."
• On March 8, 2006 the Islamic Human Rights Commission made a press release entitled, "Islamophobia in Prisons stretches far beyond Belmarsh" concerning prisons in Britain.
• Destruction and vandalism of Muslim graves in France were seen as Islamophobic by a report of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia.
• Vandalism of Muslim Graves in Charlton cemetery in Plumstead, London.
• Muslim protesters alleged that the Forest Gate anti terror raid in London was Islamophobic.
• In Germany, the state of Baden-Württemberg has proposed regulations that require 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.
• A BBC survey taken in the summer of 2004 found that employment applicants with Muslim names were far less likely to be called for an interview than applicants whose names did not appear to be Muslim. This study was taken by using fictitious applications to jobs using candidate descriptions that were similar in qualification and education, but under different names. The survey found that while a quarter of 'nonmuslim applicants' were invited to an interview, only 9% of the applications with Muslim names were responded to with invitations. Groups, such as the Muslim Council of Britain have cited this as further evidence for the widespread existence of Islamophobia.
• In 2005, The Guardian commissioned an ICM poll which indicated an increase in Islamophobic incidents, particularly after the London bombings in July 2005. Another survey of Muslims, this by the Open Society Institute, found that of those polled 32% believed they had suffered religious discrimination at airports, and 80% said they had experienced Islamophobia.
• France, which has a strong secular tradition separating church from State, was accused of Islamophobia when the law on secularity and conspicuous religious symbols in schools was passed, which bans the wearing of conspicuous religious symbols in public schools. The policy extends to Muslim headscarves, large Christian crosses, Jewish skullcaps, and other visible signs of religion, although the display of small religious symbols (such as the Star of David, crosses, and Hand of Fatimas) is permitted.
• In a February 10, 2004 report by Al Jazeera the head of the Party of France's Muslims, Muhammad Latreche in discussing the French law on secularity and conspicuous religious symbols in schools was quoted as saying that the legislation would, "institutionalise Islamophobia".
• In January 2006 the Dutch parliament voted in favor of a proposal to ban the burqa in public, leading to accusations of Islamophobia. Filip Dewinter, the leader of Vlaams Belang bloc has said his party is "Islamophobic." He said: "Yes, we are afraid of Islam. The Islamisation of Europe is a frightening thing."
• An Arab teenage is driven to suicide because of bullying.

Views labeled Islamophobic

• Carl Ernst, a scholar of Islamic studies, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations has alleged that Robert Spencer is "Islamophobic".
• The Council on American-Islamic Relations has stated that the views of Ann Coulter are Islamophobic.
• Oliver Duff of The Independent said in 2006 that the British National Party attempted to use increasing Islamophobia to make gains in local elections.
• Liz McGregor and John Hooper of The Guardian, has alleged that the views and writings of Oriana Fallaci, an Italian journalist and author of "The Force of Reason", was "Islamaphobic" [sic].
• The Islamic Human Rights Commission gave U.S Attorney General John Ashcroft a nomination for their 2003 "Islamophobe of the year" award for publicly saying, "Islam is a religion in which God requires you to send your son to die for him. Christianity is a faith in which God sends his son to die for you"
• The Islamic Human Rights Commission made Daniel Pipes a nominee for their 2004 and 2005 "Islamophobe of the year" awards.
• A December 2005 interview by Vlaams Belang frontman Filip Dewinter with the American-Jewish newsweekly The Jewish Week included a question if "Jews should vote for a party that espouses xenophobia". Dewinter responded by saying: "Xenophobia is not the word I would use. If it absolutely must be a ‘phobia,’ let it be ‘Islamophobia.’"
• The UK Minister Peter Hain's statement that Britain's Muslim community is "isolationist" was met with accusations of Islamophobia, as well as Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's public claim that Western civilization is superior to Islam.
• Some suggestions in the United Kingdom debate over veils (which concerned the circumstances in which Muslim women should be required to remove the Niqab) were considered Islamophobic by MP John McDonnell.
• CAIR and the Associated Press called United States Rep. Virgil H. Goode, Jr. (R-VA) islamophobic for his Dec. 2006 letter stating that Rep-elect Keith Ellison's desire to use the Qur'an during the swearing in ceremonies was a threat to "the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America" and for saying "I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies."
• Concerning the US state of North Carolina’s position (as expressed by their attorney general’s office) in the ongoing case of ACLU of N.C. & Syidah Matteen v. State of North Carolina that the only swearing-in for testimony in court that was valid had to be on a Christian Bible (and that all others must choose to affirm), CAIR's Legal Director in Washington D.C, Arsalan Iftikhar, said “This shows there's a lot of anti-Muslim sentiment, especially here in the United States.”

ABC News has reported that "[p]ublic views of Islam are one casualty of the post-Sept. 11, 2001 conflict: Nearly six in 10 Americans think the religion is prone to violent extremism, nearly half regard it unfavorably, and a remarkable one in four admits to prejudicial feelings against Muslims and Arabs alike." They also report that 27 percent of Americans admit feelings of prejudice against Muslims. According to Gallup polls, 40 percent of Americans admit to prejudice against Muslims, and 39 percent believe Muslims should carry special identification.

General references

• While in Kazakhstan, the former Pontiff, Pope John Paul II, prayed for "both Christian and Muslims to raise an intense prayer to the one almighty God", and begged "God to keep the world in peace." He won praise from the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, for "protecting the world from Islamophobia".
• In March 2005 Queen Noor of Jordan, while on the BBC television program "Breakfast with Frost", said, "What grieves me today, truly, is the fact that not only in the United States but also in Europe we've seen the rise, over the last few years, of Islamophobia," adding, "Muslim populations and the Muslim world has been increasingly, not decreasingly, viewed as a menace, as alien, as, perhaps, incompatible with Western societies and values. And I passionately believe that that is not true and that we have a great deal of work to do there."
• Anja Rudiger, Executive Coordinator of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, argues that it is no longer acceptable to use skin color as an attribute to distinguish people, and that religion and culture have become the "markers of seemingly 'natural' kinds of differences." She writes that Islam has become "the new 'other' ..."
• The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, said that the media bore some responsibility for a "rising tide of Islamophobia." He compared the reporting of Muslims in Britain to the way the flight of Jews from Russia had been covered 100 years ago.

Incidents on aircraft

• On 16 August 2006 British passengers on-board a flight from Malaga to Manchester requested the removal of two men of Asian descent from a plane. According to a spokesman for the Civil Guard in Malaga, "These men had aroused suspicion because of their appearance and the fact that they were speaking in a foreign language thought to be an Arabic language, and the pilot was refusing to take off until they were escorted off the plane." A security sweep of the plane found no explosives or any item of a terrorist nature. Monarch Airlines booked the men, who were Urdu speakers, into a hotel room, gave them a free meal and sent them home on a later plane. The men later responded, "Just because we're Muslim, does not mean we are suicide bombers." The Islamic Human Rights Commission blamed "ever-increasing Islamophobia" related to the "war on terror" for the incident.
• A passenger traveling to the British Virgin Islands on a plane bound for the United States from Manchester in the UK was forced off the plane prior to takeoff. The man, a British-born Muslim residing in the United States, said he was singled out because he was a Muslim pilot and was left feeling "demoralized and humiliated. I must have met the profile on the day. I have an Arabic name, I am a Muslim, I'm from Britain and I know how to fly."
• On 21 November 2006, six imams were forcefully removed from a US Airways flight at Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport on suspicions of terrorism. The event led to an outcry from Muslim organizations in America saying that what happened showed the growing prejudice against Muslims in America. Details of the accusations made against the imams can be found in the official police report on the incident (currently exclusively hosted here), which includes written witness testimony of the imams' extremely suspicious activity, such as praising terrorism, praying unnecessarily loudly, asking for seat-belt extensions that were obviously not needed (then putting said extensions under their seats), not sitting in their assigned seats (having someone near each exit in a pattern shared by hijackers of the past), and getting up to move around and confer with each other repeatedly. See Flying Imams controversy for more details regarding this incident.

See also

• Anti-Arabism
• Persecution of Muslims
• Historical persecution by Muslims
• Islamist terrorism
• Islam
• Criticism of Islam
• Alliance of Civilizations
• Clash of Civilizations
• Islamophobia Watch
• Religious intolerance
• Islamofascism

Further reading

• Forum against Islamophobia and Racism
• Islamophobia.org
• "Islamophobia", Islamicawareness.net
• Islamophobia Watch
• "From Aladdin to Lost Ark, Muslims get angry at 'bad guy' film images" -The Guardian, 25 January 2007
• Speech against Islamophobia and racism at CUPE National Conference in Vancouver, Canada
• Muslims and Islam in European History Textbooks
• "Rally against incitement and Islamophobia in London", eyetopic.co.uk, February 11, 2006.
• Chris Allen (UK) Islamophobia resources: writing, articles & publications
• Dr. Louay Safi's Articles on Islamophobia
• Brooks, James. "Deep roots of Islamophobia Islamonline.net.
• Deane, Claudia and Fears, Darryl. Negative Perception Of Islam Increasing, The Washington Post, March 9, 2006.
• El Fadl, Khaled Abou. "On revising bigotry", chapter from The Conference on the Books: The Search for Beauty in Islam, Scholars of the House.
• Gray, Muriel. "How can we have respect for Islam when we are too fearful to criticise it?", The Glasgow Herald, February 5, 2006.
• Hassan, Fardusa. "Beauty queen enters Islamophobia debate", The Guardian, August 31, 2006.
• Hassan, Ghali. The Road to the Muslim Holocaust, Globalresearch.ca, February 7, 2006.
• Lamont, Norman. "Down with multiculturalism, book-burning and fatwas", The Daily Telegraph, May 8, 2002.
• Marud, Abdal-Hakim. "Muslims and the European Right", Masud.co.uk, first delivered as a lecture on April 30, 2000.
• Nacos, Brigitte L., Fueling Our Fears: Stereotyping, Media Coverage, and Public Opinion of Muslim Americans. 2006
• O'Keefe, Derrick. Maclean's magazine goes over-the-top with racist cover story, Seven Oaks Magazine, October 27, 2006.
• Pipes, Daniel. "Islamophobia?", New York Sun, October 25, 2005.
• Ramji, Rubina. "From Navy Seals to The Siege: Getting to Know the Muslim Terrorist, Hollywood Style" The Journal of Religion and Film, Vol. 9, No.2, October 2005
• Riyanto, Geger. "The Genealogy of today's Islamophobia", The Jakarta Post, October 27, 2006.
• Walter Laqueur. The Origins of Fascism: Islamic Fascism, Islamophobia, Antisemitism, Oxford University Press blog.
• Barry Van, Confronting Islamophobia in Educational Practice ISBN 1-85856-340-2
• Castle, Stephen. "Islamophobia takes a grip across Europe", The Independent, December 18, 2006.