Introduction
Islamophobia is a complicated and multifaceted phenomenon that has appeared in Western culture for a long time. It is a product of many historical, cultural, and psychological forces that all intersect to alienate a group of people based on shared characteristics. Islam is a religion that has spread to many corners of the world and rooted itself in very different nations and communities with a rich history and a fascinating culture. In spite of that, Muslims often get bundled together and seen as an enemy, the other, the invading force.
Racialization
An essential factor of Islamophobia is the process called ‘racialization,’ which is explained in detail by Garner and Selod in their paper “The Racialization of Muslims: Empirical Studies of Islamophobia.” The concept of ‘race’ has always been determined based on phenotypical and cultural similarities. The determination of a person’s race has historically been done at the behest of the dominant Western culture (Garner and Selod 14).
The people that get thus racialized often either have little in common or are not very different from the other, previously established, racial groups, save a few notable aspects. Sometimes, just one characteristic is enough to determine a race, such as religious faith. It is the case with Muslims, as they are an ethnically diverse group that shares much of the phenotype with other established races.
Muslims have become a race in the eye of the Western public, despite not technically being one, and that racialization has led to the emergence of unfair treatment. Similar processes have happened with other groups over the years. Ethnicities that belong to the broad Caucasian race have been singled out and ostracized in the Western nations, such as Eastern Europeans, the Irish, or the Jews.
The process of racialization itself relies on there being a culturally dominant group of observers, which set the status quo. In the case of Islamophobia, Europeans and Americans have historically been that cultural hegemony, which racialized Islam and labeled it “the Other.” The othered group is assumed to be homogenous, and all individuals in it are discriminated against based on one characteristic.
The exact mechanisms of discrimination are sometimes grounded in politics. The state can often create a discourse that denies Muslims their ability to integrate and simply be normal citizens. The most common racial stereotype tied to Muslims in the West is terrorism, but there are also others. They all add up to the perception that being a Muslim and being a Westerner are somehow irreconcilable. Due to being ‘anti-Western,’ the Muslims are often treated dismissively or abused by the authorities. They are discouraged from participating in society and can face outright physical harm for speaking up.
The article provides a theoretical framework that creates parallels between Muslims and other racial minorities that have historically been oppressed. Somehow, the abuse of a visible racial minority appears more real because the markers of otherness are less elusive and more ingrained in the public consciousness. The entire American history is riddled with the racial dichotomy that is impossible to miss. Through the concept of racialization and the tying of double consciousness theory to Muslims, Islamophobia can be academically explored as what it is: an example of racism. It can help answer the question, “how does Islamophobia work on the social level?”
The Case of Poland
The second article, “Making Anthropology Matter in the Heyday of Islamophobia and the ‘Refugee Crisis’: The Case of Poland,” was written by Buchowski. It describes the situation in Poland, and how Poles treat Muslims both inside and outside the borders. Nationalistic attitudes have been present in the country for centuries, but the ethnically and culturally homogenized Poland only appeared in the second half of the XX century.
The Soviet Union, which conquered Poland, espoused values of total equality, which meant the destruction of any sort of diversity. The Communist government was forcibly equalizing citizens to combat political dissent and unfavorable thoughts. The state-enforced secularism was especially hard for the Muslims as well (Buchowski 53). The ethnic and religious minorities were not present in the public discourse very often during the Soviet reign. Because that artificial homogeneity persisted after the Soviet Union dissolved, the white Christians became the national status quo. Muslims, logically, became the outgroup and were only tolerated if they integrated into the mainstream culture.
The Polish Muslim population is low, relative to other European countries. There exists a historical group of Polish Tatars, which comprises the ‘indigenous’ Muslim population, along with immigrants that moved to Poland several generations ago and have integrated into the society. The newer immigrants, who started coming into the country at the end of the XX century, are mostly comprised of former students, immigrant business owners, and war refugees.
There are also Polish converts to Islam, but they are less visible and less persecuted due to their belonging to the ethnic majority and retaining some of the white privilege (Garner and Selod 17). All of these groups constitute less than a tenth of a percent of the country’s population. The older Muslims are recognized as a valid part of the nation, and they make an effort to integrate into the dominant culture seamlessly.
Historically, Polish people did not exhibit much Islamophobia and were indifferent towards the Muslim population. However, after Islamic terrorism rose to prominence in the media, old grudges were remembered. Some of the famous Polish military triumphs were against Muslim nations, and the Christian religion sees Islam as an enemy to the Western way of life. Islam quickly became associated chiefly with terrorism and fundamentalist zealots. Because of that historical heritage, when the Muslims and Muslim sympathizers wanted to build religious structures in Poland, it was met with outrage.
The minarets and mosques were seen as encroachment, terrorist dens, and harbingers of the ‘Arabization’ of Europe. In the mid-2010s, the European refugee crisis erupted, which radicalized Poles against even the Tatars that have lived in the country for generations. They called for more caution and oversight and produced offensive campaigns and slogans that violently denigrated all Muslims and refugees. The state’s restrictive policy on Islamic immigration only served to bolster the dehumanization of the refugees.
The author of the study claims that the Polish culture is so homogenous that the citizens took pride in it. They began fiercely guarding their culture against even imaginary enemies. The article uses Polish cases as examples of how Islamophobic views propagate and how it can harm innocent people. It is a valuable source because it also describes the historical and political context that has led to the spread of Islamophobia.
A Season in Mecca
To properly understand Muslims and the roots of Islamophobia, one must have some knowledge of the Islamic ways, which many people do not. That does not only include the religious rituals or systems of belief. While Islam is a religion, it has an impact on the sociopolitical aspects of life in Muslim nations. An excellent book that sheds light on the Muslim faith, the Muslim society, and the Muslim individuals is Hammoudi’s A Season in Mecca.
The author has a dual identity: he was born in a Muslim society, but he received a Western education. His determination to perform hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, was driven both by intellectual curiosity as an anthropologist, and spiritual doubts. His reflections on his religion and the world permeate the narrative, in which he describes the rituals in great detail. The dissonance between him and everyone else grounds the narrative in the sense of alienation that only stokes the need for understanding.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the book is the author’s descriptions of everything adjacent to the pilgrimage. It is both morbidly fascinating and deeply tragic that the Moroccan government’s authoritarianism creates loopholes for petty officials to abuse their power and profit from a mandatory religious ritual. The author describes the state’s systems for keeping pilgrims under control as a “gold mine” (Hammoudi 27).
The entire institution seemed morally bankrupt, and Hammoudi himself is reminded of colonial nations that made Morocco what it was. Even the gender inequality that is hard-wired into the Islamic faith seems to surprise the author after his arrival in Medina. The Saudi Muslims seemed more zealous and judgmental to him than his native Moroccan ones, and the gender separation was like nothing he had ever seen before.
The book is something that every anthropologist or anyone interested in Islam should read. The multifaceted and in-depth exploration of religion and society is very informative and somewhat surprising. The sheer amount of effort it takes to embark on this spiritual journey sheds light on the Islamic ethic. The author’s contemplative and reflective approach to the pilgrimage will inspire readers to contemplate and reflect as well.
Works Cited
Buchowski, Michał. “Making Anthropology Matter in the Heyday of Islamophobia and the ‘Refugee Crisis’: The Case of Poland.” Český lid, vol. 103, 2016, pp. 51-67.
Garner, Steve, and Saher Selod. “The Racialization of Muslims: Empirical Studies of Islamophobia.” Critical Sociology, vol. 41, no.1, 2014, pp. 9–19.
Hammoudi, Abdellah. A Season in Mecca: Narrative of a Pilgrimage. Polity, 2006.