Envisage some tangible measures to reverse the growing Islamophobia that could be taken.

 

Observing events, media news, discourses, public feelings, and incidents on Islamophobia occurring during the latest 16-months period, the Islamophobia Observatory draws some conclusions as pointed below: 

 Islamophobia around the world continued to ascend and had reached the most significant level since 9/11. The negative trend was clearly reflected through intensive media campaigns and public discourses against Islam; through the growing intolerant attitudes against Muslims; through a significant number of incidents occurring sporadically against individuals, mosques, Islamic centers, and attires; as well as through wide-spread insults targeting the Holy Qur’an and sacred symbols of Islam. 

 The United States is not anymore a very safe place to live for Muslims since more and more American non-Muslims feels anxious and fearful with Muslims’ presence. The series of terrorist attacks hitting Paris and Brussels in 2015 and 2016 had made the Islamophobia situation even worse, for Muslims around the US faced immediate backlash, including vandalism to mosques and Islamic centers, hate-filled phone and online messages and threats of violence; while most of survey predict that such a negative trend will continue to deteriorate in the future, mainly because the existing fear of Islam and Muslims has been perpetuated by the on-going phenomenon of extremism and violent terrorism. At the current period towards election in the US, Islamophobic minded politicians continued to gain constant popularity among the voters, by exploiting issues such as extremism, terrorism, surveillance policy, and Syrian refugees. 

 In Europe, Islamophobia was reaching an alarming level, particularly in the aftermath of the Paris and Brussel nightmare. People blamed the entire Muslim population, accusing Islam as violent religion that caused all the calamity brought by the terrorists. The mainstream society was pretty much pointing the finger at all Muslims for the existence of terror, forgetting the fact that many Muslims were among the victims, and that Islam always condemns such act of terror. Many of Europeans even express their support for 'the removal of Islam' from their society, hence Muslims in Europe were becoming the victims of prejudice. Such a situation was getting even worse due to the current immigrant issue. Hundreds of thousands refugees from Syria have drawn renewed attention to the continent’s Muslim population while many European countries, including France, Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, have been concerned about the growing Muslim communities in their countries, the circumstances that have led to calls for restrictions on immigration at governments, and contributed to the soaring Islamophobia at community and grassroots levels. 

 Apart from the US and Europe, Islamophobia has been concerning in Myanmar, Australia, India, and Thailand. In Myanmar the conclusion was justified by the prolonging issue related to Rohingya Muslims, as well as by a series on incidents by which Buddhist mob attacked Myanmar Muslim community in some townships, destroyed mosque and school, and displacing members of Muslim community. In Australia, the conclusion was justified by the constant growth and popularity of far right ideologies as well as by a number of incident against mosques and Muslim individuals. In India, the conclusion was justified by the strong tendency of discrimination in the form of socioeconomic deprivation against Muslims communities and individuals, the situation which was somehow condoned and fueled by the current government. In Thailand the conclusion was justified by the presence of discriminatory Law against Muslims, the acute suspicion by the Buddhist majority as well as by the Thai Government, blacklisting policy targeting Muslim individuals, restriction on Muslims’ movement and expression, and discrimination in employment—all of these have contributed to the prolonging tension in southern provinces of the country. 

 Phobia against veil, hijab, and burqa continued to be a serious contagion spreading across the globe. Since France in 2011 passed its first anti-veil law restricting women from wearing veils in public schools, the head coverings of observant Muslim women, the same policy has attracted more and more governments in different regions, and had become one of the most potent flash points in the countries’ tense relations with their Muslim population. After France and Belgium’s official adoption of the policy, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Sweden, Netherlands, Germany, Guinea, Central African Republic, and Malta were now starting to join the party by implementing, or towards implementing the similar policy.

  Discriminations against Muslims in employment continued to exist even more openly around the world, since a significant number of cases surmounted Muslim workers who were fired, alienated, and discriminated because of their religion or simply because of the dress they put on. The United States, France, New Zealand, Australia, and India are the hotspots of such discriminations in employment against Muslims. 

 The growing Islamophobia was counter-balanced. Along with the alarming trend of Islamophobia, there were efforts in many countries around the world that promoted the positive image of Islam, supported harmony and tolerance, while countered anti-Islam sentiments and other Islamophobic activities, which in fact a very significant power towards combating Islamophobia and incitement of hatred and violence towards Islam and Muslims. These positive efforts were reflected through balanced public policies, court decisions and trials against Islamophobes, positive views on Islam among non-Muslims, counter balances on far right ideology, friendly gestures on hijab and veil, and solidarity between faiths as well as dialogue among religions. 

 The fast-growing of Islamophobia in certain part of the world was obviously not only pushed by incidents, events, discourses, media, issues, etc. but was also linked to the roles played by institutions working on Islamophobia-related subject. Some of these institutions have in fact been working to forge Islamophobia itself, implanting ‘fear’ against Islam throughout the nation and society, and eventually they have contributed to the creation of prejudice and intolerance within the society. Some other institutions, at the contrary, proved themselves to be part the solutions by engaging into numerous academic, political, and social activities introducing Islam and its many virtues along which, or having tried to put issues related to Islam at the more-balanced perspectives. Based on the above-pointed conclusions, the Observatory envisages some tangible measures to reverse the growing Islamophobia that could be taken by Member States and by the OIC, either unilaterally or by cooperation with each other as well as in collaboration with other international entities. 

The said measures are listed as the following: 

1. To hold workshops, seminars, and intellectual campaigns towards raising awareness on the danger of Islamophobia as well as towards promoting the positive images of Islam, particularly in places and countries been assessed as the ‘hotspots’ of Islamopobia. 

2. To strengthen the existing mechanisms for inter-faith and interreligious dialogues, to help avoiding misperceptions and to promote better understanding and mutual respect. 

3. To increase the role of religious and community leaders to curb tendencies of extremism by promoting the ideals of tolerance, moderation, mutual respect and peaceful co-existence. 

4. To encourage inter-faith and inter-religion dialogues within the OIC Member States to raise awareness about religious interpretations and beliefs, and open space for further discussion about Islam and faith. 

5. To initiate projects to counter Islamophobia through collaboration with of United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), and with non-OIC countries, especially the US and in European countries where the Islamophobia was found most concerning. 

6. To start collaborating with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) who have been working actively in advocating anti-Islamophobia activities and in addressing the causes of Islamophobia at community and grassroots levels. 

7. To perform regular visits to some western countries and meet with local Muslim communities with the view of listening their concerns or problems; to discuss on how to better addressing Islamophobia; and to recommend how the OIC could be a help. 

8. To continue working with the media to promote the responsible-use of freedom of speech, while to implement policy in Member Countries towards holding whoever accountable for perpetuating hate speech and extremism. 

9. To use a variety of communications channels to expand public debate and engagement on issues related to Islamophobia, especially among youth in the OIC Member States. 

10. To speed up the implementation of the OIC Media Strategy in Countering Islamophobia, adopted at the 9th Islamic Conference of Information Ministers (ICIM), held in the Republic of Gabon, in 2012. 

11. To expand the outreach programs covering the deprived immigrant communities, especially those in Europe and in the US. 

12. To take measures against discrimination in employment, opportunities, and social integration in order to deter unemployed Muslim youth falling prey to extremist ideologies, which in a longer term may add insults to the current injuries of Islamophobia brought by terrorist groups. 

13. To integrate Islamophobia along with peace education, human rights and multicultural values into school curricula in Member Countries. 

14. To establish Islamophobia Centers in Member Countries while to strengthen the already-existing centers in some Member States, as well as in the OIC General Secretariat. 

15. To improve the work performance of Islamophobia Observatory by allocating necessary resources to allow the Observatory establishing network with other hate speech monitoring and reporting mechanisms around the world. 

16. To maximize the roles of OIC Offices abroad, especially those in Brussels and New York, by informally working with local Muslim communities for addressing the issue Islamophobia at community level.