Islamophobia in the Western World

By: Regan Rigolo and Matt Norton

What Is Islamophobia?Islamophobia was originally defined as “unfounded hostility towards Muslims, and therefore fear or dislike of all or most Muslims”

The Main thoughts that are associated with people regarded as Islamophobes is as follows:

“Islam is monolithic and cannot adapt to new realities

Islam does not share common values with other major faiths

Islam as a religion is inferior to the West. It is archaic, barbaric, and irrational.

Islam is a religion of violence and supports terrorism.

Islam is a violent political ideology.”

- UC Berkeley Center for race and gender

Reasons for IslamophobiaMost of the recent history of Islamophobia

is due to Events such as 9/11, the recent

paris attacks, and other events by religious

fanatics of islam. Thanks to groups such as

ISIS, and Al-Qaeda there is a fear from

members of western society of the entirety of the muslim religion

Fear of muslims and the media

Everywhere we go we are bombarded with the

current feelings towards muslim people and the idea

of them being “terrorists” and muslim people being

anti-western. and the media appropriates these

notions in nearly every aspect.

The modern media of a terrorist is someone from the middle east.

Media (continued)

It has been found in a case study that between 1994 and 2004 that muslim viewpoints were talked about in the media overall in a much more negative light, with includes depictions of both islam as a religion and muslims themselves as a threat to western security. This negative image of islam is not helped with most media titles such as “islamic terrorism” “islamic bombs” and “violent islam” resulting in islam being associated with the violent and negative words beside them.

Islamophobia in Politics

Islamophobia is also very evident in politics. Many people try to use the fear of muslims to increase votes. There is examples of this with our own country, with stephen harper using the niqab debate, and the threat of islamic terrorism

to try and get votes.

Politics (continued)

And in america there is Donald trump who claims that

when the world trade centers went down, he saw

“thousands and thousands of people cheering in

jersey city.” and is for surveillance of certain

mosques.

Paris Attacks and Politics

On November 13th, 2015, Paris had multiple attacks where 130 people were killed and 368 people injured. Which caused a large response from the countries and people who stand against terrorism. The United States response can be viewed as a form of aversive racism and generalizing an entire group of people. They passed the American SAFE act which makes it more difficult for refugees to enter the country. Other countries such as Canada stood strong in their standpoint to bring 25,000 refugees into Canada.

Islamics suffer from constant labelling as a terrorists or a threat.

Islamophobia In Canada

Memes

Canada is known around the world for its successful multicultural model. This however does not exempt it from racism and Islamophobia.

For Example:

After the Paris attacks earlier in November numerous anti-Islam events occurred within Canada, such as a muslim woman being attacked and robbed while picking up her child from school at Grenoble public school.

Another example also coming from southern Ontario, is one in which a mosque was burnt down and is being investigated as a hate crime.

Islamophobia has been running rampant since 9/11 and escalated again recently due to the paris attacks, responding to violent attacks with “vigilante racism”.

Graph showing Anti-Islamic hate crimes

Anti-Islamic hate crimes

As the previous slide shows the amount of hate crimes has gone up significantly compared to pre 2000 numbers. The most significant year being 2001 due to the events of 9/11. However ever since 9/11 the number of Anti-islamic hate crimes has not dropped below 100 in any year since. Compared to the numbers of total hate crimes seen on the right which have been are dropping every year since 2008 with the exception of 2013.

Islamophobia and Aversive Racism

Aversive racism, is a form of racism that is more subtle when compared to the events we hear about, in the news which are overt racism. Aversive racism is avoiding interaction with certain racial groups, or in the case one can not avoid interaction, interacting with them differently that one would normally. It is not unheard to say some may avoid talking to an Islamic person, or avoiding an area due to the high level of Islamics.For example I have heard firsthand some people avoid Brampton due to the high level of Hindus and Muslims.

In Conclusion

● Islamophobia is rampant within North America and is apparent in media, politics, education, and numerous other influential positions.

● Events occur to enhance the paranoia such as the Paris Attacks

● The view towards muslims has never been the same since 9/11

● Even Canada suffers from Islamophobia

ReferencesCashmore, E. (2004). Encyclopedia of race and ethnic studies. London: Routledge.

Center for Race & Gender. (n.d.). Retrieved November 28, 2015, fromhttp://crg.berkeley.edu/content/islamophobia/defining-islamophobia

Muslim woman attacked in Toronto, told to ‘go back to your country’: Police. (2015, November 17). Retrieved November 28, 2015, from http://globalnews.ca/news/2343508/muslim-woman-attacked-while-picking-up-children-from-toronto-school-police/

News, C. (2011, September 6). Harper says 'Islamicism' biggest threat to Canada. Retrieved November 28, 2015, from http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/harper-says-islamicism-biggest-threat-to-canada-1.1048280

News, C. (2015, November 16). Peterborough mosque arson is suspected hate crime. Retrieved November 28, 2015, from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/mosque-peterborough-fire-1.3320013

Tani, M. (2015, November 22). Trump: I saw 'thousands and thousands' of people in New Jersey cheer the 9/11 attacks. Retrieved November 28, 2015, from

http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-new-jersey-cheering-9-11-2015-11

Graph from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamophobia#Anti-Islamic_hate_crimes_data_in_the_United_States