The Rise of Islamophobia in Recent Decades - Essay Example

Critically evaluate explanations to the rise of islamophobia in recent decades In the modern academic dis the issue of islamophobia is becoming more and more popular. In fact, it even interacted contemporary scientific interest from Orientalism; unlike this term, negative connotations of fear and discrimination are the core elements of islamophobia. In the given circumstances, it is highly important to trace the roots of its appearance in order to understand how to stop the spread of anti-Muslim movements in the Western world. In particular, islamophobia has a practical dimension as it challenges the rights of minorities in modern democratic societies. In the given essay, the case of British islamophobia is analysed both in its local representation and in the global context. In particular, it is evident that the disputes on the meaning of this brand-new term surround its analysis; however, it is noticeably fed by powerful media campaign and unclear political response in the British case. To start with, the notion of islamophobia should be given. In this context, Dekker and Noll (2007) provide the semantic field of it by using such words as ‘hostility’, ‘violence’, ‘enmity’, ‘rejection’, ‘exclusion’, and ‘discrimination’ (p. 2). In Ihsanoglu’s (2010) opinion, islamophobia is has a purpose “to negate Islam’s sublime values of peace, compassion, and tolerance, and all the noble virtues that Islam stood for throughout fourteen centuries of tolerant, brilliant and radiant civilization” (p. 11). To certain extent, islamophobia is even a “modern-day thought crime” (Horowitz and Spencer, 2011, p. 2). In this case, islamophobia is a negative process created in Western world. For the clarification, Imhoff and Recker (2012) propose to differentiate ‘Islamoprejudice’ and ‘Secular Critique of Islam’; in their opinion, the level of radicalization of the prejudices makes these two categories independent from one another (p. 811). In the similar manner, Lambert and Githens-Mazer (2010) distinguish ‘anti-Muslim hate crime’ from ‘Islamophobia and discrimination’ (p. 38). However, in educational sphere it is common to use the broadest notion of islamophobia in order to combat with all the exhibition of it in the British society (NASUWT, 2014). In the given circumstances, Allen noticed that nowadays islamophobia spreads from various two-fold extremes; thus, the source of hatred and the level of its radicalisation differs significantly (p. 144). Specifically, he mentions colour of skin, appearance, migration, military or the religion (p. 149). In other words, it is evident that islamophobia in its basis creates a myth; consequently, it is a political action with diverse range of visible reactions (from radicalized hate crime to the certain discrimination practices). For Kilvington (2013), islamophobia is a classic type of symbolic racism, which means homogenisation of the diverse Muslim social group in Britain. In this context, Horowitz and Spencer (2011) think that “in its origin, “Islamophobia” was a term designed as a weapon to advance a totalitarian cause by stigmatizing critics and silencing them” (p. 15). Correspondingly, Saeed (2011) noticed that even in academic field in the years following the events of 9/11, Muslim minorities were not heard as they were oversimplified as authoritarian and neglected (p. 212). Consequently, the main feature that characterizes islamophobia is the irrationality of fear based on the myths and legends of the past (Horowitz and Spencer, 2011, p. 2-3). In particular, mythological worldview presents Islam as “monolithic, authoritarian and oppressive to women” (Choudhury et al., 2006, p. 8). Moreover, the majority of the researches on islamophobia concentrates on grass-roots level (Runnymede Trust, 1997; Allen and Nielsen, 2002; Choudhary et al., 2006; Zahiri, 2008; Lambert and Githens-Mazer, 2010), as wide public is under the significant influence of islamophobia. In the given circumstances, media and government in Western world in general and in Great Britain in particular let this issue to gain such an extent. On the one hand, media is responsible for the spread of islamophobia in the world. In fact, it is widely known that media is one of the most powerful actors in all the spheres of social live; consequently, it shapes the attitude towards Muslim people in public. In addition, journalist work created the mythological element of islamophobia. Precisely, they created the link between fear and Muslims through continuous narratives based on prejudices and stereotyping. Citing Allen (2007), “the media is being earmarked as one of the most virulent producers of those stereotypical misunderstandings of Muslims and Islam that allegedly underpin such discourses and understandings” (p. 145). In other words, in contemporary highly mediated world the image created in various channels of communication significantly influences the reality. All over the Western world, Muslim show their high concern on the way local media represented their community after the terrorist attack in USA in 2001 (Ameli et al., 2007, p. 8). In fact, Grosfoguel and Mielants (2006) explains this phenomenon as escalating the previous forms of anti-Arab racism in post-colonial era “through an Islamophobic hysteria all over the world, specifically among the dominant elites” (p. 8). In this context, “anti-Muslim discourse vary across different national contexts” (Zahiri, 2008, p. 4). In other words, the point that American events had a significant impact on Muslim representation all over the world is definitive for our epoch. In case of Great Britain, local media after the 9/11 event demonstrated immediate response by creating negative image of Muslims (Allen and Nielsen, 2002, p. 29). The extent was so noticeable that it allows to state that “there is overwhelming evidence that Muslims are considered the most disliked and discriminated against group in Britain when compared to other religious groups” (Bleich and Maxwell, 2013, p. 43). In this context, it is important to mention that this trend appeared in the circumstances where minority representation in media in general had already been weak (Ameli et al., 2007, p. 8); thus, the Muslim voice could not be powerful to create a public media discussion. As a result, media by creating news stigmatized Muslims at the same time. Moreover, Dekker and Noll (2007) highlight the role of the closest social environment as the powerful factor of islamophobia as translator of negative media messages (p. 19). In addition, The Teacher’s Union (NASUWT, 2014) stresses on the fact there are no effective measures on the national level to combat islamophobia at schools (p. 8). Thus, the representation of Muslim in Western societies is solely negative even to-date. In particular, the research conducted by European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (Choudhary et al., 2006) demonstrate that media creates mainly negative connotations for Islam (p. 8). In this context, Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is working on creating tolerant background in the multicultural communication, as it is dangerous for international stability to maintain the current situation (Insanoglu, 2010, p. 11-12). In fact, these and some others activities were fruitful enough to position islamophobia not on the lowest level comparing to the other religious and ethnic minorities (Ameli et al., 2013, p. 45). However, this represents only the fact the problem is not critically negative but does not rejects it itself. On another hand, the political weakness of the official response to the spread of islamophobia complicates the process. In this context, one of the core cases of islamophobia is the existence of political dimension of Islam as the religion itself (Horowitz and Spencer, 2011, p. 6). Therefore, islamophobia is a political issue for Western European states “now and in the future” (Dekker and Noll, 2007, p. 1). On the global scale, it is a cornerstone event of 9/11 in the perception of Muslim origin all over the world. After that, the term islamophobia entered the academic discourse in the way we use it nowadays. Even though these events occurred in USA, the European world because of its local media formed the same semantic field of this notion. For instance, in the opinion on behalf of EUMC, the political events of 11 September 2001 and the further struggle in Middle East had evoked a spread of fear and provoked islamophobia significantly (Allen and Nielsen, 2002, p. 5). However, in British case the history of islamophobia is not limited to the events directly connected to 9/11. For instance, from the personal perspective of Amir Saeed (2011), the London Underground and bus bombings on July 7, 2005 caused the political debate on whether Muslims can be included into the ‘core national culture’, which appeared shortly (p. 211). In addition, Geisser noticed that the law existed in Great Britain in the 1990s had served as a useful background in establishment of negative attitude; in turn, this phenomenon is evoking Muslim “self-organisation” as the specific form of resistance to this governmental policy (p. 10). Currently, Bleich and Maxwell in their research (2013) demonstrate in their research that British political environment does not have a common view on islamophobia (p. 39). In this context, the far-right British National Party widely supports islamophobic views (Allen and Nielsen, 2002, p. 29). Even though British government demonstrate its tolerance on the highest level (Allen and Nielsen, 2002, p. 30), unfortunately, it does not solve the problem. In fact, the opposite movements of political incentives and media environment neglect this trend. For instance, British government had launched public discussion on Hizbullah aggression at the same time when media widely translated the images of Israeli crimes (Ameli et al., 2007, p. 7). Consequently, politically proclaimed steps towards Muslim inclusion were unclear and mottled in contrast to monosemantic media appeals. Nevertheless, the case of islamophobia has certain political traits; moreover, it requires political will in decision-making process. In this case, recent analyses on islamophobia mostly present Great Britain as one of the most aware countries on the problem. For instance, Allen indicates the existence of an annual award of the “Islamophobe of the Year” as a progressive step in increasing of the awareness on this problem (p. 146). Moreover, several incentives on cooperation between British police and Muslim communities were fruitful (Allen and Nielsen, 2002, p. 29). In general, Dekker and Noll (2007) believe that policy makers should design a kind of policy that prevents isolation and strengthens position of Muslim groups in European countries (p. 20-21). However, European respondents state that they see their governments as being positive to the engagement of multicultural communication; nevertheless, they indicate the alienation of young people caused by local police (Choudhary et al., 2006, p. 10). Nevertheless, contemporary political attempts seriously lack strategical thinking (NASUWT, 2014, p. 10). In this context, the prevalence of negative messages prevents the direct contacts with Muslims to appear; thus, the negative image is still stable (Dekker and Noll, 2007, p. 19). In this context, British political system as democratic one encourages the variety of ideologies and visions. However, this situation translates on the radicalisation of British society. In particular, English Defence League is under the influence of politically proclaimed islamophobic agenda and creates certain ‘street tactics’ on attacking Muslim communities (Saeed, 2011, p. 211). In this case, radicalisation of Muslim young people in the society complicate the existing relations with Muslim population in Western countries in general (Dekker and Noll, 2007, p. 1) and in Great Britain in particular. In order to sum up, the core problem that causes the appearance of islamophobia has dualistic nature. On the one hand, the presence of anti-Muslim media messages creates a situation when myth of islamophobia is constantly strengthening. In fact, the events that happened of 9/11 evoked the huge amount of fear all over the Western world. In fact, this panic was strong and clearly linked to the all the internal Muslim communities. Thus, the myth of islamophobia appeared. Due to the fact that contemporary global world is highly interconnected and mediated, the local Muslim community in Great Britain experienced the same processes as all the other ones. On another hand, the lack of the respond on this from political actors in Britain let the problem remain. In the circumstances when Muslim community is not that strong to resist islamophobia created in media sphere, political incentives both on the grassroots and on the highest level should enter the stage. In fact, British case of political reaction is one of the most progressive in contrast to the other Western countries. However, this contemporary proclaimed tolerance is partial and does not cover the enlarging islamophobia in British society. References: Allen, C. and Nielsen, J. (2002). Summary Report on Islamophobia in the EU after 11 September 2001. EUMC (European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia. [online]. Available at: http://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/199-Synthesis-report_en.pdf [Accessed 6 Jan 2015]. Allen, C. (2007). Islamophobia and Its Consequences. In: European Islam. Challenges for Society and Public Policy, eds. S. Amghar, A. Boubekeur and M. Emerson. Brussels: Center for European Policy Studies, pp.144-67. Ameli, S., Marandi, S., Ahmed, S., Kara, S. and Merali, A. (2007). British Muslims’ Expectations of the Government. The British Media and Muslim Representation: The Ideology of Demonisation. Wembley: Islamic Human Rights Commission. Bleich, E. and Maxwell, R. (2013). Assessing Islamophobia in Britain: Where do Muslims Really Stand? In: M. Helberg (ed.). Islamophobia in the West: Measuring and Explaining Individual Attitudes. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 39-55. Choudhary, T., Aziz, M., Izzidien, D., Khreeji, I., and Hussain, D. (2006). Perceptions of Discrimination and Islamophobia: Voices from Members of Muslim Communities in the European Union. EUMC (European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia. [online]. Available at: http://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/182-Perceptions_EN.pdf [Accessed 5 Jan 2015]. Dekker, H. and Noll, J. van der (2007). Islamophobia and Its Origins [pdf]. In: ECPR Conference, Pisa, 6-8 September 2007. Available at: http://www.uu.nl/SiteCollectionDocuments/SW/Ercomer/digital%20publications/dekker_pisa07.pdf [Accessed 6 Jan 2015]. Geisser, V. (n.d.). Intellectual and Ideological Debates on Islamophobia: A «French Specificity» in Europe? In: Islam. [online] Stanford: Stanford University. Available at: http://stanford.edu/dept/france-stanford/Conferences/Islam/Geisser.pdf [Accessed 5 Jan 2015]. Grosfoguel, R. and Mielants, E. (2006). The Long-Durée Entanglement Between Islamophobia and Racism in the Modern/Colonial Capitalist/Patriarchal World-System: An Introduction. Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge, 1, pp. 1-12 Horowitz, D. and Spencer, R. (2011). Islamophobia: Thought Crime of the Totalitarian Future. [ebook] Sherman Oaks: David Horowitz Freedom Center. Available at: http://www.frontpagemag.com/upload/pamphlets/Islamophobia.pdf [Accessed 5 Jan 2015]. Ihsanoglu, E. (2010). Islamophobia and Terrorism: Impediments to the Culture of Peace. Arches Quaterly, 4 (7), pp.11-13. Imhoff, R. and Recker, J. (2012). Differentiating Islamophobia: Introducing a New Scale to Measure Islamoprejudice and Secular Islam Critique. Political Psychology, 33 (6), pp. 811-824. Kilvington, D. (2013). British Asians, Covert Racism and Exclusion in English Professional Football. [online] Culture Unbound (Journal of Current Cultural Research), 5, pp.587-606. Lambert, R. and Githens-Mazer, J. (2010). Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime: UK Case Studies. European Muslim Research Centre. London: University of Exeter. Runnymede Trust (1997). Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All. London: Runnymede Trust. Saeed. A. (2011). 9/11 and the Increase in Racism and Islamophobia: A Personal Reflection. Radical History Review, 111, pp.210-215. NASUWT: The Teacher’s Union (2014). Tackling Islamophobia [online]. Birmingham: Hillscourt Education Centre. Available at: http://www.nasuwt.org.uk/groups/public/@education/documents/nas_download/nasuwt_004309.pdf [Accessed 7 Jan 2015]. Zehiti, K. (2008). The Redeployment of Orientalist Themes in Contemporary Islamophobia. Studies in Contemporary Islam, 10, pp. 4-44. Read More