Islamophobia in the West

Published November 20, 2015
Without addressing situations in Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya etc, there can be no real resolution of militancy.—AP/File
Without addressing situations in Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya etc, there can be no real resolution of militancy.—AP/File

THE backlash was expected from the moment the grisly events on Friday evening in Paris last week began to unfold. Muslims across Europe and North America braced themselves for the ‘tsunami of hatred’ — as some of them put it — that they knew was coming.

Those apprehensions have been more than realised in the deluge of threats against the community: venomous phone and online messages; vandalism of mosques, Islamic centres and Muslim-owned businesses; individuals clearly identifiable as Muslim physically attacked; and vigils by Muslims for the Paris victims disrupted by racist, Islamophobic abuse.

Some politicians have capitalised on last week’s massacre to whip up already simmering sentiment against giving asylum to largely Muslim refugees fleeing war-torn Syria.

Governors of at least 26 US states have said they would bar Syrian refugees from resettlement in their states. Poland has called for a revision of the EU policy on the migrant crisis; Hungary and Czechoslovakia reiterated the view that terrorists would slip into the continent amongst the droves of refugees and wreak mayhem.

In short, it is exactly as the militant Islamic State group which carried out the massacre in the French capital, might have hoped.

There have been considerable level-headed analyses in the media along these lines; many individuals — including some family members of the Paris victims — have also written movingly about their refusal to succumb to blind hatred that can only serve the militant organisation’s ends. However, right-wing hysteria — often underwritten by cynical political agendas — is firmly in the ascendant.

At this juncture, world leaders need to demonstrate statesmanship and a more nuanced understanding of the situation instead of pandering to their base. Referring to the migrant crisis, President Barack Obama has tried to steer the narrative in a more considered direction by saying, “We do not close our hearts to these victims of such violence and somehow start equating the issue of refugees with the issue of terrorism”.

His observation that there could not be “a more potent recruitment tool for [IS] than some of the rhetoric coming out of here in the course of this debate” aptly highlights the danger posed by the non-Muslim world giving in to xenophobic impulses.

President François Hollande too has also categorically stated that Islamophobia will not be tolerated. There need to be far more calls for restraint coming from the West.

At the same time, it is also a fact that Islamist violence in the world today has its genesis in long-festering grievances — unacknowledged, trivialised or deliberately misrepresented — such as the situation in Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya etc.

Without addressing these issues in a meaningful way, there can be no real, long-term resolution of militancy.

Meanwhile, for its part, the Muslim world, through the organisations that claim to represent it, needs to craft a collective, hard-hitting response to the depredations being committed in the name of Islam.

Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2015

Opinion

Editorial

Quetta bombing
Updated 10 Nov, 2024

Quetta bombing

THERE appears to be no end to the stream of violent incidents occurring in Balochistan, indicating a clear failure ...
Burdened courts
10 Nov, 2024

Burdened courts

ACCORDING to recent reports, the new chief justice has set about implementing a recently adopted plan for clearing...
Playing in Pakistan
10 Nov, 2024

Playing in Pakistan

MOHSIN Naqvi, Pakistan’s cricket chief, has shown a brave face. Now he has to be unrelenting and put the onus on...
Wake-up call
Updated 09 Nov, 2024

Wake-up call

Pakistan must heed UN's wake-up call and bring its laws and practices in line with its international human rights obligations.
Foreign banks’ exit
09 Nov, 2024

Foreign banks’ exit

WHY are foreign banks leaving Pakistan? In the last couple of decades, we have seen a number of global banking...
Kurram protest
09 Nov, 2024

Kurram protest

FED up with the state’s apathy towards their plight, the people of Kurram tribal district took to the streets on...