Abstract
Minority communities across the globe are increasingly being targeted for vilification and demonization which consequently result in their marginalization and persecution, among other forms of physical, psychological, structural and cultural violence. These may be on account of race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disabilities or other demographic indicators—a phenomenon which summatively came to be known as hate speech/crime. When such violence ballooned beyond bearable level against the black community in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s, it triggered counteroffensive under the veneer of “white devil,” insighting the production of “How Hate Begets Hate” and Bigger Thomases of that world. In recent times, nowhere is such hate more pronounced than the one directed at the Muslim communities living in various countries of the West. Their framing as irrational, incompatible and security threat to the West has resulted in a number of stringent legislation/policies targeting them, beside organized violence by individuals and a propaganda industry feeding on this. This rising Islamophobia, as the study found, is a byproduct of historical experiences, fuelled contemporarily by the economic and political interests of individuals and organizations. Using qualitative content analysis and political economy as methodological and theoretical frameworks respectively, this study identifies the key players in heightening anti-Muslim sentiment in the West, as well as their motivations and strategy of public deception. It also explores the phases and causes of tension in West–Muslim relations, the role of media and the solution to this, among other things.
Highlights
The crackdown on Rohingya Muslims by Myanmar security agencies and the dust it raised in international media and the United Nations had hardly died down when public attention was shifted to China, where similar persecution was ongoing
AP, the BBC, Reuters, the New York Times and the Economist etc. consistently reported and commented on the continual clampdown of the minority Uighur Muslims and their detainment in concentration camps by Chinese authorities under the guise of assimilation and de-radicalization. In such facilities, these Muslims are being treated for “mental illness” that Islam is perceived to be by the Chinese authorities
Meer and Modood (2009), on the other hand, observe that such critiques stop short by impressing Islam as a dichotomous entity from Muslims, whereas in reality the two are inseparable; noting further that those who reported attacks and discrimination to the Runnymede follow-up research maintained they experienced these when they conspicuously appear as Muslim—wearing the hijab, turban, beard, dress like Arabs etc
Summary
The crackdown on Rohingya Muslims by Myanmar security agencies and the dust it raised in international media and the United Nations had hardly died down when public attention was shifted to China, where similar persecution was ongoing. Meer and Modood (2009), on the other hand, observe that such critiques stop short by impressing Islam as a dichotomous entity from Muslims, whereas in reality the two are inseparable; noting further that those who reported attacks and discrimination to the Runnymede follow-up research maintained they experienced these when they conspicuously appear as Muslim—wearing the hijab, turban, beard, dress like Arabs etc. Along this line Alexander (2017) wonders how possible it could be to fear and resent Islam without actual reference to Muslims. There is nexus, in practice, between the thesis of frustration–aggression theory and the cyclic interaction of structural and physical forms of violence
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