Thesis Statement
Islamophobia has directly affected young Muslims; the negative perceptions that are associated with Islam may lead to self-exclusion and exclusion, with noticeable effects on self esteem and social practices. A lot of efforts were made to control the effects that were triggered by the impact of Islamophobia.
Introduction
Experts define Islamophobia as fear against, or prejudice or hate towards Islam or Muslims. (islamophobia.org) There has been an increase of the perceived trend of Islamophobia in the 2000s, that been linked to the 9/11 attacks in the USA, while on the other hand some relate it to the rapidly growing Muslim populations in the Western World, due to both immigrations and high fertility rate.
A lot of young people are negatively affected by Islamophobia. Young Muslims are directly and highly affected by it, the facts that lead to many acts of discrimination. It’s quite obvious that negative perceptions associated with Islam may lead to self-exclusion and exclusion, with noticeable effects on self esteem and social practices.
Causes of Islamophobia
The concerns of Muslim world over the rise of Islamaphobia have become one of the major challenges of today’s world. This phenomenon is voiced very strongly in global and regional politics troubling the relationship between Islam and Western countries. Terrorism has assumed serious proportions and become major cause Muslim stereotyping in the modern world where the role of media is central. Media wars took turned for the worst since the 9/11 terrorists attacks in the US.
As a result, Muslims are subjected to different forms of discrimination inciting hatred and unrest in the society. This has been blamed on manipulation and misrepresentation of actual facts by media particularly in the North America, Britain and Europe. Media portrayal of Muslims in an offensive and denigrating manner witnessed unsettling changes on both systems making Muslims victims of terror and violence.
Media have been delegated the responsibility of shaping public opinion while covering reality at the same time, but in this case, continued attacks by a section of marginal groups by the West has fostered a culture of intolerance and misunderstanding.
Media shapes how we see the world, and by choosing negative and frightening names for people in communicating the crisis problem greatly shapes individual’s perception towards the group in question. Mirza (2009) argues that global dominance of Western media is capable of influencing people against Islam and Muslims by using the 9/11 attacks to capitalize its political campaign.
Mirza (2009) adds that the media depict Muslim what Mirza (2009) terms as “fundamentalism”, “extremism” and “racialism” (p.1). Media being the central information point represent Muslims as collective victims of terrorisms and a security threat to the Western people hence the reason for their war justification in wars tone countries.
While politicization of how media has stereotyped the entire Muslim group, little efforts have been made to respond to new cadre of islamaphobic. Too often, we (viewers and readers) are caught in between engaging in revisionism debate of Islamic religion and the convincing media position of what would otherwise be classified as injustice.
Effects of Islamophobia
Discrimination, Exclusion and Self-esteem
Dekker and Jolander (2009) argue that “Islam is the most anti-racist and anti- prejudicial way of life” (p.1). Politicisation of Muslim followers as terrorists has brought a very sad reality of hate and violence. It has been argued that discrimination of such groups has become a major problem on the minority in Muslim communities living in foreign countries diminishing the powerful universality of their culture.
The development of hostile relationships has been on the rise resulting to increased discrimination and social isolation among Muslims. Muslim youths on the other hand have experienced great social exclusion increasing chances of school dropouts and low performances. The European Monitoring Centre (EUMC) also reported high undesirable outcome of discrimination and violence towards Muslims to be attributed from negative mass media reports.
Many of these reports were associated with exclusion, discrimination and violence particularly in schools and in housing sectors. These unfounded hostility on Muslin followers led to one-dimensional interpretation of the Islam as ‘terrorists’ resulting to low school performances, high unemployment rate, low wages, verbal threats and physical aggression (Dekker and Jolander, 2009, p.3).
EUMC Reports
European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) reports on the nature of discrimination against Muslim and Islamophobic incidents recorded high rates of discrimination incidents particularly in areas of employment, education and housing which it argues to be linked to Islamaphobic attitudes (Bohner, 2010, p.240).
Increased levels of Islamaphobic are represented in areas of poor housing and below average grades particularly in school going youths. In employment sector, EUMC (2004) argues that in Ireland State an increase of 7% in unemployment rates as opposed to the national average of 4 per cent as a result of low income levels. The same reports provided that European immigrants, more particularly Muslims are more likely to drop out of schools or even worse obtain lower qualifications as a result of discrimination.
In whereas religious education is involved, Imams without formal qualification with little understanding of the local social context invited to teach Muslim immigrants were likely to increase lack of understanding of Muslim religion. While on housing aspect, Muslim followers suffered greater vulnerability and insecurity in their housing status as opposed to other groups.
List of incidents described as “Islamophobic”
United Kingdom
Since the September 11th attacks on the U.S, extremists groups have targeted Muslim communities in UK by vandalising their places of worship and intimidating their religion. For example, the Kingston Mosque was attacked by throwing bottles of beer and bacons and urinating on mosques following match against Muslim extremism (Commet, 2010, p.1).
United States
A Muslim cab driver was brutally attacked by a New York resident after professing to the Muslim religion (Siegel, 2010, p.1).
Canada
At the beginning of May, a group of unknown people attacked a mosque in Canadian City of Hamilton causing severe damages to Muslim schools and buildings which were estimated to have cost 5,000 Canadian dollars (Trend, 2010, p.1).
Efforts against Islamophobia and Conclusion
EUMC has proposed policies and measures to adequately tackle discrimination and addresses social injustice in areas of discrimination, employment opportunities and education standards that lead to social cohesion. Such strategies include;
- Implementation of legislation; EUMC proposes for specific measures to promote equality. It argues that formation of groups such as Race Equality Directive and the Employment Equality Directive will ensure minority individuals vulnerable to discrimination are aware of their rights.
- Recording and policing Islamic incidents. EUMC proposes for recording of racism incidents and encouragement of diversity police training programs.
- Implementation of social integration to ensure equal opportunities and encourage social cohesion should include Muslim representatives in policy making.
- Promotion of equal access to education and inclusion of Muslim religion in current curriculum to ensure history of minority groups are accurately represented (EUMC, 2004, p.4).
In practical efforts, Luxembourg Ministry of Education incorporated a syllabus on “Instruction religieuse et morale” which focused on Inter-faith dialogues and explains human values of non-Christian religions. Secondly, the Inter-faith dialogue known as the ‘Islamic Forums’ in the same country aimed at reducing prejudices and fears towards the Muslim community will greatly reduce Islamaphobia incidents.
Discussions on racism and Islamophobia in schools should be greatly encouraged to reflect diversity within communities. Encouraging Muslims to engage in Europe public life such as politics and social processes will greatly reduce Islamaphobic incidents. And lastly, media should validate its information to ensure its accuracy before reporting to the general public.
References
Bohner, G. (2001). Attitudes. Introduction to social psychology, 3, 239-282.
Commet, S. (2010). UK: Mosque attacked by protesters against Muslim extremism. Web.
Dekker, H., & Jolanda, N. (2009). Islamophobia and its origins: A study among Dutch youth. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 20 (3), 1-31.
EUMC. (2004). Highlights of EUMC report: Muslims in the European Union: Discrimination and Islamophobia. Social Science Research, 45, 1-5.
Mirza, M. (2009). The Perception of Islam and Muslims in the Media and the Responsibility of European Muslims Towards the Media. Islamic Journal, 1, 1-4.
Siegel, E. (2010). Muslim cab driver stabbed in New York City Michael Enright arrested on hate crime charge. The Huffington Post, 1,1.
Trend. (2010). Unknown persons attacked mosque in Canada. Web.