Islamophobia

Islamophobia
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Introduction
Islamophobia has grown to be an important concept in contemporary times. Despite the wide acclaim that the concept has generated in the last few years, little effort has been made to provide a sound definition that may permit methodical relational and fundamental analysis. The term was originally coined during the late 1990s by the scholarly community as well as political activists who were drawn by the dangerous rhetoric that were directed at people who profess the Islamic faith and Islam, who live in liberal democracies in Western nations. In as much as Islamophobia can be perceived within the political realms, it has grown to be used for analytical objects. In research, it has been used to in determination of its origins, place, magnitude, proportions, consequences, and caused of anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic perspectives. However, Islamophobia does not have a single widely accepted definition.
Hence, it can be very challenging comparing levels of Islamophobia over time, social group, location or even echelons of comparable types, for instance, xenophobia, racism or even anti-Semitism. Without a term that affects across such analogous proportions, it is more nearly difficult to select the reasons and implications of the concept with any accuracy. This paper examines Islamophobia within the realms of diversity perspective, and a usable concept that demands further analysis. It uses theories that are in light of social and psychological theories of prejudice and discrimination, and to the extent of comparative structures of bigotry.

The objective of the paper is to provide a critical focus on the definition for students and lecturers alike. Hence, the paper uses detailed information that is available on the internet and other literary sources to determine its relevance to the concept of diversity. Islamophobia can be defined as an arbitrary harmful approach and energy that are directed towards Muslims and Islam.
Origins and Ambiguity of the Concept
It can be stated that even though Islamophobia might be a new term, the concept is generally known throughout western countries interactions with Islam (Kundnani, 2014). The west has always associated Islam with negative sentiments, certain stereotypes and harmful images. However, in 1997, the concept gained a wide audience with different publications that made the direct inference to the term. A phobia refers to an incomprehensible and irrational fear of a situation or object, and it can be a challenge for the troubled to considerably locate and communicate the origin of the fear, yet such exists. Thus, from the combination of both Islam and phobia, Islamophobia can denote hatred, fear and unexplained hostility that are directed towards the Muslims and Islam, and often propagated by negative prejudices, that results in discrimination, bias, exclusion, and marginalization or people of the Islamic faith from taking part in civic and social life (Mohiuddin, 2015).
Islamophobia is said to have increased in many folds after the events of 2001 September 11, when terror attacks and made in New York City bringing down the world trade center’s twin towers. Islamophobes preassume guilt or crime through association, or through media relevancy, and hate messaging becomes the unique characteristic of such people. Numerous ills that are associated with Islamophobia are widespread and even tolerated and accepted in different parts in the western counties. This is in stark contrast to the liberal notions that are prevalent in these parts of the world. Over the last fifty years, the United States succeeded in entrenching civil rights to people of color, a major milestone against discrimination and racial prejudice. However, if anything, the gradual increase in Islamophobic cases suggest that a reverse movement against racial discrimination and prejudice.
It should be affirmed that the tragic event of 11 September has grown on to fuel prejudice, hatred, suspicions and fear against Muslims (Kundnani, 2014). The terror attack renewed more pressure and spotlight on Islam and Muslims, and some inferences on both the religion and its adherents. First, the religion depicts a monolithic belief system and it is unyielding in accepting the realities of the postmodern society. Second, the religion’s values seem completely different when compared to other cultures and other faiths. Third, Islam propagates barbaric traits, affirmed on archaic and irrational beliefs. Fourth, Jihad, an Islamic-sanctioned tool of terror has been used throughout the globe to commit violence to the society.
Islamic institutions that exist in the Western countries have borne the brunt of hatred and suspicion, and these have always been accompanied by illogical excuses that have been made when interacting with such institutions.
Terror and radical groups such as Al-Qaida, ISIS, Al-Shabaab, HAMAS, Hezbollah, and others seem the rightful source of the fear and hatred for Islam and Muslims. Through the actions of these radical Islamic groups the wider society in the Western world has come to perceive Islam and interpret the real meaning of the religion in a different light. It has come to associated with the wider society in America and Western Europe with acts of terrorism. The American press of those that exists in the Western European countries has been the silent propagators of Islamophobia (Mohiuddin, 2015).
In the political arena, Islamophobia has become more pervasive, and within the presidential campaigns hastening up, Muslims and Islam, the debate has become more prevalent in American presidential debates. Remember, there are Americans who dislike President Obama because of his middle name, Hussein, which is an Arabic name associated with Islam. Islamophobia is gaining more prominence in American presidential campaigns, particularly because of the recent Paris attacks this year, which was instigated by Muslims, who were revenging depiction of Prophet Muhammad on a satirical news outlet in France. Secondly, the recent refugee problem brought about by the Syrian crisis has unified Americans into a single voice calling for the expulsion of Syrian Refugees who are Muslims and allowing non-Muslims into the country (Fisher, 2015). Indeed, the political arena and partisan lobbying are in unstable. North Americans and most of the Western European countries are treading in unchartered waters of bigotry with respect to attitude towards Islam. Muslim Americans must be confused on the best way to have interests catered for at the political arena (Kundnani, 2014).
Emergence and Propagation
What is apparent from the increasing expressions of Islamophobia is the keen realization of insufficient information on not only cultures, but also on nations. This reveals a serious need to forge new associations that help in creating an understanding through acknowledgment and respect for every individual’s cultural diversity. In the past and through historical information, it has been made abundantly clear that the manner in which people address concerns of the other people play a bigger part in determining the vibrant relations that can be forged between nations, institutions and individuals and that can lead to stability, and avoid confrontation.
In the past, confrontational lines between nations existed purely on economic ideologies and military arrangements or even geographical institutions. In the present, cultural considerations have emerged and replaced these other mentioned hereinabove as the major source of confrontational lines. A fact that compounds confrontation, making them to be deeper, and intricately wired, as the culture are entrenched into the psyche of an individual. Further, the present world is different from those of the past, and this because today, technological advances have made a smaller world a reality, and hence the potential of an individual as well as that of the society to commit atrocities has multiplied many folds. Obviously, the human race can unite and transform such a huge potential in the present world in matching the needs of humanity in methods that could help in maintaining security and peace throughout the globe.
The Idea that Islam has been conceived, as the problem of humanity in the present century is indeed spiteful, as the crimes committed by a few errand radical groups cannot be linked to the populations of the Islamic world (Mohiuddin, 2015). This line of thought shows and symbolizes cruel and unreasonable bigotry by the disseminators. Nonetheless, the other part of the population who are attracted to such a line of thoughts, are just ignorant of what is in store. The threat in this way of classification and discrimination is that it makes Muslims who form a significant part of the world population to be suspects and rejects and tries to group every Muslim into a single category. Such allegation, in reality, reveals the importance of producing and spreading the truth about Islam and Islamic communities.
Conclusion
The gradual emergence of Islamophobia threatens world peace, security and stability, as it prevents efforts that encourage propagating multicultural outlooks that are based on respect, tolerance, understanding of the cultural and religious diversity. Premeditated and methodical disparagement of Islam in the shape of campaigns that incite the masses to religious odium that targets Muslims involve harmful outcomes for every individual who profess the faith over the globe and such may affect an individual’s identity and dignity. In the United States and Western Europe, the frequency of hate messages paddles the ground for more expressions of odium towards Muslims in different forums and methods, which have included both physical and verbal attacks, one that has led to increased isolation and discrimination in the society.
The intensified campaign vilifying Islam should be a matter of deep concern for the civilized world, and the kind of utterances by national leaders in these countries with respect to Islam and the Islamic culture is quite unfortunate, and the matter should be expediently tackled through every form that it seeks to rear its head. President Obama has stood firm in the mix of unwavering attack on his personality, especially because of his Middle name, a common Islamic name. His administration has renewed calls for a sober system of tackling the issue and addressing problems that arise from the Propaganda spread by those who fear and hate Islam and Muslims, and this has been in the light of the alarming statement from United States politicians, and far right citizens.
Terrorism and religious radicalization should be a problem for the entire international community, and more efforts should be used in combating the scourge, and build a world of multicultural diversity. In a diverse multicultural world, human dignity, as well as their fundamental freedoms, is completely respected. Terrorists have no conscience, and it should not be linked to people, or religion, as it propagates destruction and war throughout the present civilized world. Despite the scholarly acclaim that Islamophobia origins were much earlier conceived, the September 11 terror attacks created an intolerant society to millions of Muslims who are law-abiding members of the society and neither professes the terror principles, not do they wish to be involved in radicalized principles. Muslims at every level have borne the brunt of the negative image created by the Al-Qaida, and at the moment being perpetrated by the ISIS’ brutal regime in Iraq and Syria.
A hypothetical question asked in the scholar community is that terror attacks conducted by radical Islamic groups in the western nations and their key installations throughout the world bred Islamophobia, and that to eradicate Islamophobia, then terrorism by the radical groups must cease. Indeed, this is a simplistic approach to such a grave phenomenon, and this is majorly because the rationale and thinking underscoring are irrefutably misleading. Islamophobia has existed throughout the West’s interactions with Arabs and Muslims for centuries, and it is only recently, that the events of the September attack, and other subsequent terror attacks on other countries in Europe has it been more widespread. The terror attacks in the countries have merely drawn on pre-existing manifestations of prevalent xenophobic and Islamophobic attitudes towards Muslims.
References
Fisher, M. (2015 December 7). It’s not just Trump: Islamophobia in America is spiraling out of
control. Vox The Latest. Retrieved 17 December 2015 from
http://www.vox.com/2015/12/1/9822452/muslim-islamophobia-trumpKundnani, A. (2014). The Muslims are coming!: Islamophobia, extremism, and the domestic war
on terror. Verso Books.
Mohiuddin, A. (2015). Islamophobia in America: The anatomy of intolerance. Edited by Carl W.
Ernst. Intellectual Discourse, 23(1).