Islamophobia and the oppression of Muslims in the West.

Islamophobia refers to an irrational fear of Islam. Negative perceptions of Islam can be traced back to the Crusades and through colonialism, but it has gained new ground post 9/11 all over the world. Most islamophobists stereotype Islam as more or less a terrorist religion with various factions all across the world involved in just a single motive, the Jihad. The Jihad itself has been grossly misrepresented in the West; and this has led to increasing marginalization of Muslim communities all across the world.

The Congressional Research Service came out with a report on the difficulties faced by European countries in particular, in integrating Islamic communities and in creating a sense of nationalism amongst them. The report goes on to say how the British, French and Spanish governments have failed miserably in addressing this aspect of immigrant integration. This, along with the lower socio-economic status of many muslims in Europe, has led to an increased exploitation of these masses by fundamentalist islamic terrorists. From the time of 9/11 various Western countries have formed new policies to contain these "homegrown" terrorists and have intensified their dialogue with the moderate elements living in the West. Newly formed laws in legalization of citizenship status, immigration as well as anti-discrimination legislation have led to further marginalization of the muslim factions.

In fact the term Islamophobia becomes irrelevant at this point, for this discrimination is not purely based on religion; but also on race, ethnicity and class. It is also now a state-formed real threat; similar to the massive anti-semitism that was created by Nazi leaders all over Europe during the second world war.

1. The religious diversity of Islam and the ethnic populations that practise it are subsumed by the policies of the West and is compounded by the lower socio-economic status of muslim immigrants in Europe.

When we look at the various islamic communities across the world, we see a very diverse set of societies in many countries. They differ ethnically and in their religious perception of Islam. All this is usually subsumed when the western governments make policies entirely based on religion. All over Europe the islamic communities usually form the underclass. There is rampant unemployment among these communities; and most of them live in extremely poor conditions usually set apart from the mainstream population.

2. Terrorism is viewed as something that has infiltrated in along with the immigrants. Many Western countries do not accept this as a problem that has been caused by their own failure to reach out to the ethnic muslims in their countries.

With increasing terrorism; many European countries have created stricter immigration laws. What they fail to see is that terrorism is neither foreign nor domestic ; it is as if the internal and external security policies have been conflated with one another. Part of the 9/11 attacks were planned in Europe; in Hamburg. At least twenty people that have been arrested in Guantanamo Bay are Europeans. In France for example, the police was given extra power to stop and search vehicles at will, to search houses without prior notification and also extensive monitoring of electronic equipment. In Germany, religious groups could be legally banned in the interest of maintaining democracy. In England, suspects could be detained indefinitely if they were perceived as "unsuitable" for living in the country. One in eight people arrested as a terrorist suspect was a muslim. Increasing number of muslims were arrested for other kinds of crimes due to the now -increased power enjoyed by the police. These are just a few representative examples of the many European countries that have strengthened anti-immigration laws, making expulsion of foreigners easier.
The worst policies were however exercized by the US government. The PATRIOT Act lessened the restrictions on surveillance, allowed various personal records to be obtained by authorities, reduced the privacy of attorney-client conversation, and broadened the definition of terrorism to include ‘material support,’ a concept which has not been fully defined. Along with these changes in the law, American citizens have been imprisoned without judicial review, mosques have been searched for radiation without warrants, phone calls and phone records have been obtained without court approval, and individuals have been abducted and sent to secret prisons, as well as foreign prisons where they could be interrogated with more violent methods.

3. Islam is seen as a threat and there is increasing anti-muslim sentiment among the western populations
   .Islam is now seen as a threat to the integrity of European countries. There is increasing anti-immigration sentiment among the people. This anti-Muslim sentiment is widely seen not just as an increased physical abuse of muslims, but also abuse through political, media and intellecutal discourse. This discrimination stems from the policies towards ethnic minorities, anti-terrorism policies, and legal changes expressed in immigration and naturalization processes. In Europe rejection of cultural differences has thus become more common and more public.
   Islamists are also seen as terrorists in Europe. There is an increasing suspicion of Muslims to be rooted in radical islam; but out of the 358 terrorists arrested in France, only 94 are muslim; the rest are Basque separatists. In the UK, all search laws as well as anti-terrorism laws were disproportionately used against people from South Asian decent.
   In the immigration policies, many European countries have a naturalization test that immigrants must take. This has increasingly become anti-Islamic. Islamic women living in France are banned from wearing the burqa in public and they must accept treatment from male doctors too. Netherlands and Germany show increasingly sexual pictures of nudists and expect the immigrants to be completely OK with sexuality, and other kinds of sexual orientations. It is increasingly clear that most of these tests create a bridge between the immigrant and the mainstream by showing extreme differences in their respective cultures. Muslim immigrants also face increasing difficulties in obtaining residence permits, visas and nationalization.

4. There’s been an increase in the physical and verbal abuse of ethnic Arabs, South Asians and other marginalized communities stemming from anti-muslim sentiments.

Increasing hate crimes against muslims are also a characteristic of islamophobia. Right after 9/11 eighty separate physical abuse incidents against muslims were carried out in Netherlands, a bomb was placed in a muslim primary school; and a right-wing youth set fire to a mosque.
In England, mosques were defaced, women and taxi drivers were increasingly abused physically and anti-muslim epithets were shouted across to them. France and Spain are also guilty of vandalization and increased violence against Muslims, which includes murder of muslim citizens.

5. There’s been an increase in the number of political parties that openly condemn Islam and gain popular vote hence.

The dynamics of islamophobia also stem from the translational formation of European Union and erosion of boundaries. This along with pressures from increasing immigrant populations has led to a redefinition of nationalism. This is seen as the Forza Nutva, a political party in Italy wanted it to be recognized as essentially a catholic state, which naturally means that muslims cannot be good citizens. In Spain, while the socialist party contends to integrate marginalized communities, the centre right popular party condemned this problem as a problem of immigrants and not that of the state. The anti-immigrant tendencies that have been present in these states as shifted more to islamophobia as masses are exposed to images of the stereotypical radical Islamic terrorist. For example, the Bradford riots in England could have been classified as racist, but the British National party instead classified it as a natural reaction to international terrorism. Le Pen and the National Front in France have played up on the already present fears of anti-muslim sentiments and have gained power. Italian and German political parties have used similar propaganda to gain popular vote. So much so that former prime minister Margaret Thatcher quoted that all muslims were responsible for terrorism. Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi has made many claims that the Western Civilization was far superior to Islam. In Spain former president of the Catalan Autonomous Government was quoted saying, that it was easier to integrate the Polish, Italian and French populations but not the Arab populations, even the moderate ones. Netherlands however brought about the most drastic political changes, by incorporating extreme ideas such as forbidding of Islam, deportation of second generation Moroccans, and the ban of gender segregated mosques.

Increasingly some politicians such as Nicholas Sarkozy have started using terms such as “good” and “bad” islam. The fact the muslims have to prove that they are good law abiding citizens shows the underlying assumption that they are viewed as troublemakers.

6. Skewed representation by the media and anti-islam literature have compounded the racist problems faced by muslims.

The media has been sending out subtle images of that are clearly islamophobic. Sensationalist news are now seen in all channels about international terrorism, and in covering such events, the media groups together all kinds of Islamic forces together, and subsumes them under one major radical Islam population. The media increasingly mixes the “Islamic religion” and the “muslim world” portraying muslims as largely homogeneous and monolithic, and inherently bad because of being a muslim; often raising questions of the largely negative ideas that stereotype islam such as status of women’s rights, rising fundamentalism and some cultural practices that the West finds offensive.

The media thus portrays a pretty skewed picture of muslim life in all the different countries. Usually sensational stories cover honourable sacrifices, forced marriages of women, etc and never anything in positive light. The media thus adopts public attitudes and prejudices instead of being informative portraying Islam and muslims as potential threats to the society.

Many intellectuals have also contributed to this growing oppression of muslim populations all over the world. Oriana Follaci’s “The Rage and the Pride” attacks muslims as being part of a terror-religion bent on destroying the Catholicism in Italy. The book sold 1.5 million copies. Many professors share the opinion that Islam is a terror religion and some of them oppose muslim immigration as it would bring in these terrorist fractions into the West. In Netherlands, the prominent philosophy professor Herman Philipse has openly claimed that Islam is a violent tribal culture that is incompatible with modern day life.

7. There is increased oppression of muslims when it comes to openly practicing their religion in public.

Many western countries have claimed to have adjusted to allow muslims to practise their religion. But this has been done mainly within the legal and social frameworks of Chrisitianity. Attempts to build mosques always have local resistance. The practice of religious instruction in public schools has presented problems to muslims, especially in the context of the blame Islam faces for international terrorism. In 1998, in Sttutgart, Baden- Wuettermburg, Germany, a school refused to hire a public school teacher because she wore a veil. In 2003, seven German states followed suit to ban the wearing of head scarf in schools. With respect to ongoing religious education in school, muslims have always been at a loss. Accustomed to the organization of the European Christian churches, their voices are not heard for lack of an official hierarchal clergy.

Thus in this increasingly islamophobic scenario, many institutions try to fight against discrimination of muslims. Muslims have tried to strengthen their own organizations to keep account of separate events and discriminatory policies. In Germany there has been no dialogue whatsoever for the protection of Muslims. The Deutsches Islamforum is a Muslim organization that battles anti-muslim tendencies in the society. Spain and Netherlands have various organizations trying to fight the dual evils of xenophobia and racism. There has been some community efforts in the UK to battle islamophobia. For example the campaign of the Southwark police and the muslim community with slogans such as “Islamophobia – Don’t suffer in silence” gives hope to some Muslims living in the country. There still is however a huge ocean to cross, to reach out to suffering Muslims in various marginalized communities across the world.

Reference: SECURITIZATION AND RELIGIOUS DIVIDES IN EUROPE

Muslims In Western Europe After 9/11: Why the term Islamophobia is more a predicament than an explanation by Jocelyne Cesari, GSRL-Paris and Harvard University Submission to the Changing Landscape of Citizenship and Security 6th PCRD of European Commission