Roots of Anti-muslim Narratives.

 

Muslims have historically been racialised in Western contexts. This has been particularly prominent in modern history. Of course, Muslims are not a race. But they are racialised. They are treated as a race, viewed as a monolithic entity, imagined as a collective threat which must be dealt with as a whole. This explains the larger policies and practices that discriminate against Muslims broadly, without evidence of wrongdoing. If one Muslim does something bad (eg, Osama bin Laden), then ALL Muslims must be somehow connected to this person. That only occurs because Muslims are treated collectively, not as individuals. The racism in question can certainly also depend on skin colour - for example, some people who get targeted with hate crimes are singled out because they “look” Muslim even though they may have an Arab background, or a South Asian background, but belong to a different religious community. But what we are also talking about here is what social scientists call “cultural racism”, or hatred and hostility of others based on religious beliefs, cultural traditions, and perceived ethnicity.

Todd Green believes the three main causes - past and present - of Islamophobia are imperialism, nationalism and racism. Western hostility towards Muslims dates to the Middle Ages, as Islamic empires arose and then came into conflict with European Christian kingdoms and empires. For centuries, Islamic empires had the upper hand militarily, culturally, etc. This shifted in the 18th century and by the 19th and 20th centuries, European empires (notably Britain and France) imposed some form of imperial rule on many Muslim-majority regions. All of this matters because the Western perception that Muslim populations are obstacles to larger political and imperial ambitions has a long history, and throughout this history, anti-Muslim tropes have been generated to perpetuate larger political and imperial ambitions. It’s in this context that beliefs emerged that Muslims are uncivilised, irrational, violent and misogynistic. All of this negativity has taken on a new life in the age of social media and frenzied hashtags, when migrants and refugees have been weaponised by right-wing parties and politics have become more polarised than ever. Green explains: “In modern history, the rise of nationalism and nationalist movements, particularly those inspired by the far right or conservative political elements, have generated significant Islamophobia. This is particularly the case in countries in which Muslims are a minority population. From India to Myanmar to the Netherlands to the United States, nationalist parties and actors have cast Muslim populations as existential threats to the nation that must be regulated, restricted, or removed. In such contexts, doubt is cast on whether one can be Muslim and Indian, Muslim and Dutch, Muslim and French, Muslim and American, etc. Muslims are a foil against which far-right nationalist movements define national identity.” But at the heart of Islamophobia is also the primal, base fear of “the other”. What you don’t know and you don’t understand, you are likely to automatically consider to be evil, says Qadhi. “So there’s a natural protective reflex that people have of their own cultures. Anything that is foreign and alien to their culture at times becomes sinister.” He argues that most people, more importantly journalists, need to be cognisant of this. “People are acclimatised to viewing the world from their own paradigm, and view their paradigm to be inherently superior. So, if another civilisation comes along with other understandings of culture, morality and gender; the assumption is intrinsically made that it is deficient and that it is inferior to what we have.

 In the last two decades, one event and its aftermath has been a catalyst in demonising Muslims and Islam, the attack on the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001. For those of us old enough, we can tell the younger generation that we live in a post 9/11 world. “One of the main causes in recent times has been the war on terror,” Qadhi says. “And the horrific events of 9/11, which have been decontextualised from the realities of the back and forth between the West and the various aspects of the Muslim world. And if one were to contextualise it, nobody’s going to sympathise with terrorism, but one would understand that these acts of violence are not coming from Islam as much as they are coming from sociopolitical causes.” Brown University researchers determined that post-9/11 wars were responsible for the death of 4.5 million people.3 In the United States, Michael Rolince, FBI special agent in charge of counterterrorism, Washington, DC, says that more than 500,000 American Muslims were interviewed by the FBI. The same Islamophobic rhetoric has been used around the world to target Muslims. Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid argues there is an “evil nexus” between terrorism, the so-called “war on terror” and Islamophobia, which are not only connected but mutually reinforce each other. “This has devastated the lives of Muslims around the world. China calls Uighurs ‘terrorists’ putting them in detention camps; Burma calls Rohingyas ‘foreigners’ and ‘terrorists’ burning 350 villages , France went into Central African Republic to fight ‘terrorism’ resulting in the destruction of almost all of the 435 mosques as per US head of mission statement in the UN5 and now India is defining Kashmiris and Indian Muslims in similar Islamophobic rhetoric.”

Much of what has been written, reported and portrayed in the last two decades has been through the lens of the war on terror and its ensuing military interventions from Asia to the Middle East. Muslim communities have also had a constant cloud of suspicion, fear and surveillance hanging over their heads. Two decades after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, the hate aimed at Muslims has spilled over from harassment to the actual murder of Muslims. “So, when we delink the ‘war on terror’ from the zeitgeist, a sociopolitical reality of this time, and when we only present one side and cherry-pick specific incidents, and don’t get any context for them, it becomes very easy to then stigmatise and stereotype the causes for these acts of violence,” says Yasir Qadhi. He has had to deal with not just the community which is affected by Islamophobia, but also how it has an impact on wider society. “The fact of the matter is that the radicalism that we see in the Middle East is actually a reaction to foreign policies imposed on the region. It’s a reaction to the military, the social and the political engagements. And the blockades, that America in particular and others have done. So, if you understand these acts as a reaction to political causes, which is what they are, automatically that changes and you understand this isn’t necessarily from the religion, as much as it is the standard back and forth that takes place between civilisations and between competing entities.” The ensuing “war on terror” led to a wave of attacks in Europe. In France, terrorist acts are extensively covered by news media. These acts have often been associated with Islam and the Muslim community residing in France, even though police investigations have established no genuine connection to the religion. Consequently, a certain discourse has developed in France, which is exacerbated after each attack. Commentators and journalists, sometimes self-proclaimed experts (in a wide range of fields from sports and medicine to religion) tend to formulate subjective opinions rather than engaging in rigorous fact-checking, as would be expected from journalism professionals. A significant number of people, who consume this rhetoric from various media, then believe and even trust this constant onslaught of rhetoric. And that leads to discriminatory and reductive narratives, particularly towards Islam.