Islamophobia is prejudice against Muslims and Islam (part 1)

Islamophobia is prejudice against Muslims and Islam. Islamophobia refers to hostility and unfounded fear of towards Islam. Such hostility and fear leads to discriminations and racism against Muslims by excluding them from the social, mainstream political ,stereotyping the presumption of guilt by association, economic, and public life of the nation. It includes the perception that Islam is inferior to the West has no values in common with other cultures, and rather than a religion it is a violent political ideology. Professor Anne Sophie Roald wrote that steps were taken in January 2001 at the “Stockholm International Forum on Combating Intolerance”, where Islamophobia was known and recognized as a form of Anti-Semitism and intolerance alongside Xenophobia and it was an official acceptance of the term towards Muslims.

As an anti islamophobia I’ll say the consistent acts of terrorism performed by Muslims are not the main cause of Islamophobia but the main causes of Islamophobia are the 9/11 bombings which called thousands of Americans and also the 7/7 bombings in London and so many more. This has led to the illusion that only Muslims are bombers and they should be feared. . Muslims are being blamed for everything now a day. Exaggeration of the media of Muslims has not led to Islamophobia. Instead, U.S. government and the media have fanned the flames of something more that is older than 9/11. Islamophobia goes far back in history, the term seems that it goes back to the 1980s but came into the common usage after the attacks in the United States at September 11, 2001. In 1997, the British Runnymede Trust defined and described Islamophobia as the “hatred or dread of Islam and therefore, to the dislike and fear of all Muslims,” stating that Islamophobia also refers to the practice and matter of discriminating against Muslims.

Islamophobia has resulted in the unquestioned and general acceptance of the following:

• Islam is a monolithic religion and cannot adapt to new realities.
• Islam does not share common values with other major religion.
• As a religion Islam is inferior to the West. It is archaic, irrational and barbaric.
• Islam supports terrorism and it is a religion of violence.
• Islam is nothing but a violent political ideology.

The Muslim people who live in the west are highly impacted by Islamophobia and its bad effects. Muslims, as the members of minority communities in the West, grow up against a background of Islamophobia. They are always in a fear of some kind of discriminations in every sector of social and professional life and this is the result of the Islamophobia in America. In 2006 the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) conducted a survey on American Muslim voters. Results show that American Muslim voters are young, highly educated, but 77 percent of the voters said Muslims worship the same God as Jews and Christians do; 69 percent believe that resolution to the Palestinian cause would be a reason to improve America’s standing in the Muslim world; 66 percent support working for normalization of relations with Iran; 55 percent are very much afraid that the War on Terror has become a war on religion Islam.

Now we have tackled this and that stay tuned to read more about Islamophobia in my next article as i will talk about more about Islamophobia.

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