Risks of Islamophobia.

 

Hate has consequences not just for Muslims but for wider society. The FBI has told the US congress that in addition to terrorism, “domestic violent extremists collectively pose a steady threat of violence and economic harm to the United States”. One of its reports says there are constant underlying drivers for domestic violent extremism which includes “Islamophobia”. From the genocide of Bosnians at Srebrenica less than three decades ago, and the Gujurat massacres two decades ago, to the ongoing murder and displacement of Palestinians, Islamophobia is at the nucleus of the mass murder of Muslims internationally. Omar Suleiman adds: “And it’s not limited to non-Muslim violence on Muslims. Islamophobia, disguised as a crackdown on extremism, also fuels the egregious human rights abuses of many authoritarians in the Muslim-majority world.” Violence against Muslims can also arise from the hands and actions of individual citizens who harbour hatred towards them, a hatred often inspired by political actors. Todd Green wants journalists to remember examples such as the Norway massacres of 2011 and the Christchurch attack in 2019. And then there’s the rise in hate crimes. Experts link Islamophobia to an exacerbation of divisions within society. A deterioration of the social fabric almost always results in mistrust and ends in violence. Anti-Muslim hate crimes have risen since 9/11 in the US and Europe. In the US, these spikes often accompany presidential election cycles, with presidential candidates targeting Muslims implicitly and explicitly with language and policies that frame Muslims as threats to the nation.

Yasir Qadhi believes that the risks of Islamophobia are almost genocidal. “Take 2023 India for example, the type of rhetoric that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) uses is quite literally straight out of Nazi textbooks. How they’re in signing up the masses for ethnic erasure.” He adds: “Although India may be exhibiting some of the worst cases currently but in Western countries, like France, the notion of France’s historic role in Muslim countries like Algeria is totally ignored, when it comes to reporting on the banlieues and Muslims. Qadhi argues that France has been pillaging Algeria for more than a century and that’s completely overlooked when the media talks about a people who, for generations, were colonised. There’s rarely a question, asks Qadhi, of “why so many people of north African origin live in France? The reason is that France claimed Algeria to be its own colony. So if you said one country, well then, now the descendants of your colony’s subjects want to claim the same rights as the French. But mainstream politicians in France don’t want that and they justify their policies again by weaponising Islamophobia.” 

Violence against Muslims can take the form of state and state-supported/affiliated actors targeting Muslim populations with war and/or widespread violence, according to Todd Green. We see this violence also in Myanmar with the targeting of the Rohingya. China relied on US rationales for the war on terror to single out Uighurs as a suspect population, and this eventually led to the widespread internment of Uighurs. In many European countries, a divisive political climate tends to marginalise Muslims (particularly in France). Some French Muslims say this leads to feelings of stigma and exclusion, both in education and the workplace. Discrimination also persists in the job market, with cases of racism and job refusals. It’s crucial to acknowledge that Islamophobia is a problem in France, with acts of violence and discrimination against Muslims. However, there are also subtler and systemic forms of racism that affect the daily lives of some French Muslims. Because this is rarely reported and discussed in mainstream media, the risk is that a continual exposure to discriminatory treatment, such as job or housing rejections, or repeated police stops due to their skin colour, leads individuals to feelings of rejection and mistrust towards society at large. Academics argue that some might react by adopting a protective or even communal stance. These experiences can reinforce a sense of isolation and can potentially even push some individuals towards radicalisation.