Islamophobia in the West

by Dr. Abdul Qatar Tash

Prejudice against Islam and Muslims is acquiring new dimensions in many Western societies. The religion and its followers are being maligned. The systemic distortion of their image is no longer a minor irritant that can be ignored.

Some of those who have made a study of the phenomenon call it “Islamophobia,” indicating thereby that the campaign has its root in a morbid fear of Islam and that, in the course of time, it will arouse the same fear in the public mind. The end result, they believe, will be the creation of a climate of hatred and distaste in these societies for everything Islamic.

This observation is not a case of oversensitivity on our part as Muslims. A number of Western thinkers and intellectuals have begun addressing the problem and warning their people of its consequences.

A Warning Note

One such warning note came recently from Professor Gordon Conway of Sussex University in Britain. Discussing the issue of this prejudice, he said that a careful look at the media print media in particular would show the extent of anti-Muslim sentiments. In tabloids, he pointed out, the attack against Islam was usually harsh and savage, while in more respected papers it was more subtle.

Conway attributes this antipathy to various reasons some religious, others racial. Obviously, intellectuals like Conway have read the warning signs and have the vision to see what they would mean in the future. They have seen the hate spreading and taking root in their societies. And having foreseen the danger, they have decided to confront it.

A group of British experts in racial relations announced last July their decision to set up a special committee to study and analyze “Islamophobia,” as manifested in the British media in particular. Conway is expected to head this committee. It is to submit the findings of its study in the summer of 1997. In fact, the formation of such a committee was one of the recommendations of an earlier study team, constituted by the same group of experts. The subject of that study was “anti-Semitism in Britain.” They recommended the setting up of another committee similar to the one on anti-Semitism to monitor the bias against Muslims in Britain.

Professor Conway and his colleagues are not the only ones worried by the spread of “Islamophobia” in British society. There are many other discerning men adopting the same attitude. A few months ago Fred Halliday, professor of international relations at the London School of Economics, published a book, Islam and the Myth of Confrontation, in which he sought to address the anti-Islamic campaigns in the West and to refute the myth that Islam represented a threat to the West as is being propagated by many. He tried to differentiate between Islam as a religion and culture, and fundamentalism in its ideological and political context.

This new outlook and perspective, which are finding increasing acceptance in the Western intellectual arena, must be welcomed and supported by us. It will be of immense help in minimizing the harm done to the culture, values and followers of Islam by the hostile elements in the West. Such attempts at correction, coming from the West itself, would be able to influence Western minds better since they come from their own respected intellectuals, experts and writers.