Islamophobia is a mixture of fear, hatred and baseless prejudices against Islam and its followers. Hate, stigmatisation, racism, discrimination at workplaces, public places, in political spheres are some of the common things faced by Muslims all around the globe. It rests in mindsets of people and is reflected through their actions and behaviour that include violence, hate speech, burning and vandalising of religious places, abusing women wearing hijab, insulting the Holy Quran, Holy Prophets and sacred symbols of Islam. It also encompasses verbal and physical threats, discrimination in education employment, housing or access to goods and services.
In various parts of the world, islamophobia has been introduced as an important area of concern especially in those countries where Muslims are in a minority. According to some journalists the incident that become the base of islamophobia’s birth was Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa of 1989 inciting to murder the British Indian writer Salman Rushdie, the author of The Satanic Verses. Ayatollah Khomeini was one of the famous Islamic scholars and the leader of Iran. However, Islamophobia has always been present in Western countries, but from time to time it has been explicit and extreme.
In 2005 an Islamic scholar Ziauddin Sardar wrote in The New Statesmen that islamophobia is a wide spread Europe-based phenomena, praised by anti-Muslim political figures in the West. Most of the government policies had failed to provide equal rights to minorities especially to Muslims, forcing them to face poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, limited political and civic participation in society, giving rise to religious discrimination. Such anti-Muslim activities as denouncing Islam and the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him), attacks on religious places.
By the efforts of Ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan, March 15 has been officially announced as the day to combat islamophobia. Several OIC conferences had been called on the issue of islamophobia but they were never fruitful
Muslims throughout the world should raise their voices on such incidents to let the world know that the love for the Holy Prophet (PBUH) exists in our hearts and we can sacrifice our lives for the honour of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and we would never allow anyone to insult our Prophet (PBUH) or make jokes out of Islam and its prospects.
The West equated Muslims with terrorism after 9/11, hough the basic narrative should be understood that terrorism has nothing to do with any faith or religion. Unfortunately, the heads of Muslim countries didn’t check on conveying themselves as moderates when it was the time to take a stand for their people. Every country wants peace and prosperity but when it comes to religious dignity its a responsibility for everyone to raise their voices against the wrong.
The anti-Muslim invasion of Palestine, and Jammu and Kashmir, have always been neglected by the Western countries. They always talk about human rights and freedom but have been equally involved in Muslim genocide that never comes to an end. The USA facilitating Israel for its military invasion in Palestine. The extremists in India who demolished the Babri Masjid. The brutality in Afghanistan, Kashmir, Palestine, Syria, Yemen has gone unseen many times by the world’s wide media.
Women and girls had often been found on the edge of this hatred, and are mostly targeted due to the mode of their dressing, by Islamophobes saying that Muslim women are oppressed by their religion and thus should be liberated. Pakistan’s Permanent Representative in he UN, Ambassador Munir Akram, said that islamophobia is ‘poorly understood’ phenomena intersected with anti-immigrant and anti-refugee sentiment. He also added that “it is essential to promote right information about this disturbing global trend that could reach very top of many governments around the world. Islamophobia does not affect a small group of Muslims. It also affects all the Muslims living around the world. Globally it is reported many times that Muslims do not feel respected by the Western community.”
In late 2009 the largest party of the Swiss Parliament put a referendum to ban the construction of minarets. The country opposed the ban for the sake of the country’s image. However, 60 percent of the voters did vote in favour of the ban on the construction of minarets (mosques). On a very public debate the non-Muslim Swiss society said that it is foolish for Muslim community to feel discriminated over the ban on construction of minarets.
The term gained its prevalence due to 9/11, after which the USA portrayed Muslims as terrorists, suspecting more than 160 Muslims to be involved in the incident, saying that Al-Qaeda had planned all this although the true facts and story about the incident always went hidden. It was a trick in which Muslims were trapped and involved so that Muslims all over the world would be known as terrorists.
In recent years we all have seen the rise in blasphemous remarks against the Holy Prophet (PBUH), the cartoons first in Jyllands Posten and then in Charlie Hebdo, the incidents of burning the Holy Quran in Netherlands and Denmark, and most recently in India when the spokesperson of BJP, Nurpur Sharma addressed with her hateful speech about Islam and the Holy Prophet (PBUH). Islam is a religion of hatred and full of violence are a few words from her speech whereas the whole speech has been removed from every social media platforms so there would be no evidence of what she has said. That was the speech on which the Prime Minister of India appreciated the spokesperson and many celebrities from India supported her blasphemous remarks.
We all have witnessed the protests that were carried out upon the murder of George Floyd and other black people who were murdered for only being black. Almost all Hollywood, Bollywood celebrities, and political figures condemned as a violation of human rights, but when the Canadian Muslim family was murdered brutally for just being Muslim, no one was there to protest or support them. It’s totally not about the hate for any black, white or brown people, but the partialities Muslims have faced and are facing today as well. What must be realized is that these are not isolated incidents. They coincide with the rise of Islamophobia.
Muslims throughout the world should raise their voices on such incidents to let the world know that the love for the Holy Prophet (PBUH) exists in our hearts and we can sacrifice our lives for the honour of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and we would never allow anyone to insult our Prophet (PBUH) or make jokes out of Islam and its prospects.
