The Debates around Islamophobia Essay Example

it is just a mere rhetoric and for the general public and in the political sector, it represents a means to turn to uncertainty and clichés. As a result, the term faces the risk of being changed into a basis of anger as opposed to a critical source to attain equality and societal justice. Islamophobia is a type of bias on the increase in the United States affecting the communal life and opportunities of the majority of the American citizens (Awan, 43). The main aim here is to initiate a strong and thoughtful academic debate for conceptual explanation in the rather contested topic. The questions attracted by this debate include; what describes Islamophobia and whether it is a type of religious prejudice, whether Islamophobia is a type of racism, in what ways can the concept be operational as an instrument of social research, what the historical expressions of the concept are and what the lineage of the concept is.

In his speech entitled axis of evil, 2002, the president of the United States, George Bush was perceived by the Americans specifically as making an attempt to demonize Islamophobia and the adversaries of freedom (Mirhosseini, Seyyed-Abdolhamid & Hossein, 54). President Bush argues that majority of Islamic terror groups hide in major cities yet accomplishing their attacks in remote areas and continues to say that Americans are going to distort their plans by closing terrorist camps and summon terrorists to justice. The next step is to counter regimes that offer support terror from threatening America or friends to America with weapons of collective destruction. Islamophobia has been demonized by quite a number of politicians and other public intellectuals

in a manner that has really altered its image at the worldwide scale. Following the strikes experienced by the United States in 2001, the Islamic people were termed as typical terrorists.

All the public investigations in the United States confirm the dominance of negative judgments about Islam. This pessimistic perception towards Muslims in the United States is mainly due to the manifestations of the foreign policy confrontations posed by Islam universally. Following a report released in 2015, there was an evidence of seventy-eight incidents whereby mosques were under attack, more than ever submitted in a single year since Americans started tackling such reports. This year saw the greatest number of instances, both the destruction aspect and the intimidation category. A report from the CRG department in 2011 as presented by Berkeley, argued that Islamophobia in America is the current demonstration of the bias that has overwhelmed the nation ever since its earliest days. Put in other words, it is the identical old hate, presented with a somewhat new target.

In 2010, the United States Islamophobia system had its most victorious national attainment when a subject of its members succeeded to engineer an argument regarding Park 51, a projected Islamic cultural setting in lower Manhattan. The discussion ventured into the 2010 voting cycle and the idea of confining the establishment of areas of worship, in general, an abomination to American principles, gained feasibility among typical candidates for civic office. Park 51, together with Pastor Terry Jones’ 2010 global Burn a Koran Day in Florida, was the final practical climax in anti-Islam movement (Awan, 43). The 2010 series was marked by efforts to resist the construction or extension of

Islamic areas of worship throughout the nation.

In the period of late 2010 and 2014, the system was firm at work; however, it was majorly invisible to the unconcerned about its efforts. Nevertheless, the Network’s achievements during this era cannot be undermined. After constituents of Daesh (ISIS) killed two Americans at the end of August of 2014, Americans from all backgrounds, together with Muslims, reacted with refusal and disgust. Despite plentiful proof that Daesh was as well murdering Muslims, the huge majority from where rejection to the group’s ideology arose, the majority blamed every follower of Islam pertaining to the group’s actions. After the Kouachi group attacked the organization belonging to Charlie Hebdo publication in Paris in 2015, the blame was exaggerated. This recent sequence of Islamophobia that started towards the end of August 2014 was dominated particularly by its brutal tone (Mirhosseini, Seyyed-Abdolhamid & Hossein, 54).

Some large organizations advocate for the American Muslim problems, comprising of the Muslim American Society, Islamic Society of North America, Muslim Student Organizations, Muslim Public Affair Council and Council for American and Islamic Relations. These organizations do operate mostly on a country-wide level with several dispersed local and regional branches.  MPAC was founded with the commitment to democracy and American ideals, stressed through MPAC refusal to accept any international funding. MPAC defines itself as an American institution which shapes as well as informs public policy and opinion by serving as trusted resource to the government decision makers, policy organizations as well as media. The body advocates for American Muslim in America and also they engage with American Muslim communities by organizing workshops as well as other events around the American

Muslim issues Islamophobia (Sayyid & AbdoolKarim, 134). Most of MPAC prominent youth programs are the yearly leader's summit which does gather the young American Muslims around the popular theme areas. The organization's summit is thematically distinct although they all focus on strengthening the participant’s capacities to communicate as well as network efficiently.  On the summit, the youth discuss on how to best maintain contacts by use of social media along with when to leverage connections towards community and personal goals.

A study which was conducted by PEW research institute in the U.S.A in the year 2010 revealed that favorable views about the Muslims among the American community have declined since the year 2005. 35% of the individuals in the united states say that Islam as a religion encourages violence more than any other religion and most of the individuals not to like Muslims (Kincheloe et.al, 145). Islamophobia has become more visible in most of the countries which are known to be non-religious and very secular. The increasing distance between the life-words of the majority societies along with their allochthonous Muslim source is evident. Most of the Americans are much more optimistic about the integration of Muslims in the American community. Most Americans believe that Islam is a religion of prejudice as they make too many demands. Another event that mostly demonstrates the growing negative perceptions of Muslims as well as Islam in the West is the burning of Quran by one of the pastors in Florida on March 20 in the year 2011. The preacher oversaw the burning of Quran in church after coming across Muslim holy book “guilty” of the crimes which were committed against humans. The

burning was carried by two pastors Terry Jones and Wayne Sapp. The burning of Quran was presented as the execution as Quran was found guilty. The event was open and was attended by more than 30 individuals. However, the event caused a much dissimilar uproar in various parts of the world, mostly among Muslims in a manner that has deteriorated divide among Muslim and Christians in America.

The original Islamic sources do not contain the rulings and prescriptions that are worrying to the secular and liberal mind (Sayyid & AbdoolKarim, 138).  Originally Islam was conceived to be a general mode of life that comprised of economic, legal along with political dimensions additionally to religious ones. The followers of Mohammad expected that Muslim would live in a political society, therefore, raising concerns in today’s world about the religious minorities’ rights as well as separation of state and mosque. Furthermore, hadith along with Quran establishes clearly the prescriptions that are more problematic today like the harsh punishments for adultery and theft which is cutting off the hands and stoning, the death penalty for the unrepentant apostasy as well as different rights for women and men. Although the rulings might be progressive Americans, term them as retrograde (Kincheloe et.al, 145).

The establishment of an offensive jihad so as to expand the domain of Islam’s through warring upon the unbelievers and also the development of the dhimini structure for which religion minorities could stay in the Islamic lands protected though with a restricted status for the exchange of paying extra tax. The undertaking for the Muslim nowadays is just to understand the historical context of hadith and Quran, drill on later

accretions as well as recover the spirit of Muslim which is underlying and that upholds the overarching principles such as dignity and justice. The religious and political powers of Islam suppressed more modest schools of thinking which left the field narrower and less liberal scholars.  The Saudi –Sponsored Wahhabism is stifling the true Islams well as pouring billions of dollars in endorsing their prejudiced personal faith.
Research proposal

Islamophobia poses a great danger to the democratic fundamentals of the United States and the social harmony as well as the coexistence of diverse cultures throughout America. Both civil society and the states should admit the significance of the issue and build up concrete plans to counter Islamophobia (Sayyid & AbdoolKarim, 166). Islamophobia should be recognized as a crime and should be integrated into all state statistics all over the United States. To aid in data collection pertaining Islamophobia incidents, victims’ registers ought to be introduced in the United States (Tausch, 118). So as to assist the victims of Islamophobia assaults, therapy services for victims have to be established in the United States. The officials in charge of security in the United States should be trained by qualified staff concerning Islamophobia. The Muslim community has to be sanctioned with information to fight Islamophobia, more so in the course of the formation of a conscious of the mishap of hate crimes. Efforts should be put in place to ensure that educational organizations and stakeholders work towards formulating substitute narrative of Muslims in the United States and the affected nations as well.

The government should formulate a strategy that makes sure that the rights of religious minorities are respected and that no

discrimination is to be encountered at the workplace to Muslims. This will lessen the view of Muslims as potential threats to the nation. In my opinion, so as to improve Muslim image all over the world it requires a persistent and intense efforts from the Muslim themselves, both in Muslim communities as well as the Islamic world. The efforts ought to comprise a complete course of the change.   Muslims will in no way be capable of improving their image globally if the fail to emerge as a nation of civilization and culture. According to some of the scholars, intercultural dialogue is a key medicine that can overcome the general humanity ills.

Work cited

1. Mirhosseini, Seyyed-Abdolhamid, and Hossein Rouzbeh. Instances of Islamophobia: Demonizing the Muslim "other". , 2015. Print.
2. Tausch, Arno. Against Islamophobia: Quantitative Analysis of Global Terrorism, World Political Cycles and Center Periphery Structures. New York: Nova Science, 2007. Print
3. Awan, Mr I. Islamophobia. Place of publication not identified: Policy Press, 2016. Print.
4. Sayyid, S, and AbdoolKarim Vakil. Thinking Through Islamophobia: Global Perspectives. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. Print.
5. Kincheloe, Joe L, Shirley R. Steinberg, and Christopher D. Stonebanks. Teaching against Islamophobia. New York: Peter Lang, 2010. Print.