A Resource Guide
Islamophobia, or anti-Muslim racism, is the fear of or hatred towards, or prejudice against Muslims or Islam. It is generally constructed due to historical and modern misconceptions of Islam, the Ummah, and the Muslim world. These misconceptions have intensified since 9/11, especially in Europe and North America.
Understanding Islamophobia and its Many Dimensions
According to scholar Khaled Beydoun, “Islamophobia is far more than merely ‘dread or hatred of Muslims,’ or ‘fear or dislike’ of the religion and its followers. These prevailing definitions tend to fixate on [...] the behaviors and actions of individuals.”
Beydoun further states that “the actions of the state and the state’s relationship to the actions of citizens, is vital to understanding Islamophobia.” In other words, Islamophobia goes beyond individual actions and can be a key component of state policies.
Islamophobia can also be embedded in state law and policy. It can be hidden in neutral terms, masking an underlying discrimination, and perpetuating the myth that Muslim identity is linked to the threat of terror and that Islam as a civilization clashes with the West. One should note Mawlana Hazar Imam frames this perception not as a clash of civilizations but as a clash of ignorance.
One of the major implications of Islamophobia is a sharp rise in hate crimes, which has been evident over the last decade. Hate crimes can include acts of physical violence, verbal harassment, displays of hateful propaganda, vandalism, threats made to Muslim people or organizations, and online hate. The National Council of Canadian Muslims has created a tool to track anti-Muslim hate crimes.
Islamophobia also goes beyond hate crimes. Often, we think of Islamophobia as individual actions of hate between people. However, governments play a part through their policies – including travel and clothing bans, as well as policing practices, for example. Islamophobia is also perpetuated through media stereotypes of Muslims in journalism and the entertainment industry. These stereotypes include Muslims as terrorists, uncivilized, and misogynistic. “Islamophobia is” is a video series that summarizes all the different dimensions of Islamophobia.
Below is an excerpt from the article, Education Theme 6-1: Misperceptions and Misrepresentations of Islam, an article posted on the.Ismaili:
In June 2002, Mawlana Hazar Imam spoke of the need for greater education to correct misperceptions and improve understanding in his speech at the Banquet Hosted in Honour of Governor Perry in Houston, Texas:
“For a number of years I have voiced my concern that the faith of a billion people is not part of the general education process in the West – ignored by school and college curricula in history, the sciences, philosophy and geography. An important goal of responsible education should be to ring- fence the theologising of the image of the Muslim world by treating Muslims as it treats Christians and Jews, by going beyond a focus on theology to considering civil society, politics, and economics of particular countries and peoples at various points in their history. This will reveal the fundamental diversity and pluralism of Muslim peoples, cultures, histories, philosophies and legal systems… Within the Islamic world there is work to do as well, starting with a better understanding and appreciation of the pluralism of cultures and interpretations among Muslims.”
What Mawlana Hazar Imam is saying is that Islam and the Muslim world are not adequately covered in Western education. When Western narratives do consider Islam, they often assume that the entire Ummah - comprised of over 1 billion people - is monolithic and can be defined by focusing on Islamic theology. This reductionist and oversimplified version of Islam and Muslims as being associated with intolerance and violence - rather than diverse histories, societies, cultures, and economies - leads to misunderstanding.
- Speech: Mawlana Hazar Imam, Commonwealth Press Union Conference, 1996
- Speech: Mawlana Hazar Imam, Opening Ceremony of the Ismaili Centre, Burnaby, 1985
- Speech: Mawalana Hazar Imam, Upon receiving the "Tolerance" award at the Tutzing Evangelical Academy, 2006
- Article: Karim H. Karim, “The Historical Resilience of Primary Stereotypes: Core Images of the Muslim Other,” 1997
- Article: Carl W. Ernst, “Introduction: Islamophobia in America,” 2013
- Article: Ameer Ali, “From Islamophobia to Westophobia: The Long Road to Radical Islamism,” 2016
- Whether Muslim women can wear a headscarf to work is a hotly contested issue in some parts of Europe. A new HBR study sheds light on some of the biases that women who choose to veil may face on the job market.
- Muslims Should Disarm Islamophobia With Kindness. The Quran has many verses that command a courteous response to even a terrible insult to Islam. This New York Times article tackles Islamophobia and uses Quranic verses to teach Muslims can deal with such bias.
- A study published in June 2021 found that nearly 40 percent of Muslim characters portrayed on the screen were perpetrators of violence. Consequently, negative stereotypes of Muslims in the media are prominent and can influence how Muslims are treated in society.
- This CBC article discusses the importance of creating better Muslim representation in the media.
- This article, entitled Shattering Stereotypes With Aga Khan IV and the Ismaili Community, talks about how Mawlana Hazar Imam dispels fears of diversity and Islamophobia by fostering a cosmopolitan ethic through architecture.
- Friday Night Reflections: The Rise of Islamophobia - Exploring the Roots of Intolerance. In this episode of Friday Night Reflections from November 2020, host Zain Velji and interfaith leader Eboo Patel explore and reflect on the roots of religious bigotry and how each of us can transform ignorance and misperception into interconnectedness and understanding.
- American Islamophobia: Understanding the Roots and Rise of Fear by Khaled A. Beydoun. The term “Islamophobia” may be fairly new, but irrational fear and hatred of Islam and Muslims is anything but. Though many speak of Islamophobia’s roots in racism, have we considered how anti-Muslim rhetoric is rooted in our legal system? Using his unique lens as a critical race theorist and law professor, Khaled A. Beydoun captures the many ways in which law, policy, and official state rhetoric have fueled the frightening resurgence of Islamophobia in the United States.
- Un-Canadian: Islamophobia in the True North. Graeme Truelove discusses how the media, police, politicians and social media, in the absence of preventive measures, have facilitated the growth of Islamophobia in Canada in a post-9/11 world.
- The 'fighting Islamophobia' books for young adults. A girl being groomed to become a suicide bomber might not sound like the most child-friendly novel. But fiction books about terrorism and radicalisation have been helping children and young adults "resist extremism and Islamophobia" since the 9/11 terror attacks, new research suggests.
- Countering Islamophobia in North America: A Quality-of-Life Approach (coming December 2021) by el-Sayed el-Aswad discusses the definition of Islamophobia, the roots of Islamophobic hate rhetoric, and how to counter it. It also considers Islamophobia a form of racism and that it should be addressed through education at its fundamental level.
- Standing up to discrimination and hate should be everyone's business, says community activist Wale Elegbede. In this Ted Talk entitled “It Takes a Community to Eradicate Hate”, he shares how his community in La Crosse, Wisconsin came together to form an interfaith group in response to Islamophobia and racism -- and shows why a mentality of caring for your neighbors can make life better for everyone.
- Speak - A Short Film premiered at the Ismaili Centre Vancouver and is about Muslim identity, fear, Islamophobia, and speaking out. The short film highlights how Islamophobia impacts youth in Canada and struggles contemporary Muslims deal with when choosing between speaking out and defending their faith and identity or staying quiet out of fear of judgement, negative consequences, or even persecution.
- Dr. Shafique Virani, a Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Toronto and author of the award-winning book The Ismailis in the Middle Ages: A History of Survival, A Search for Salvation, emphasises the role of education as a practical and positive approach to Islamophobia in this video, Fighting Islamophobia with education | ViewPoints .
- Episode 209 - Dr. Omid Safi: "Islamophobia" in America. Muslims have been part of the fabric of America for more than five hundred years. There were likely Muslim members of Columbus's crew when they arrived in the American hemisphere in 1492. Trans-Atlantic slavery would have certainly brought to this country Africans who practiced Islam. In this podcast, our guest Dr. Omid Safi examines the complex history of Muslims in America. In doing so, his discussion helps us to more fully understand the impact of "Islamophoboia" in the United States.
- Tell Them, I Am (only available on Apple Podcasts) - In a media landscape that can still be pretty awful for Muslims, Tell Them, I Am, a new podcast from KPCC, aims to give Muslims a space to define their own identities outside of stereotypes and broad generalizations. Over the course of the series, host and producer Misha Euceph interviewed 22 people, all Muslims, about the defining moments of their lives. While the show dropped episodes every weekday of Ramadan, "Tell Them, I Am" doesn't really have anything to do with the holiday. "If somebody released something during Christmas time or during Hanukkah," Euceph says, "they wouldn't necessarily be asked about like, what are important aspects of Christmas or Hanukkah."
- NCCM – National Council of Canadian Muslims | Community Resources. This website contains resources designed to help empower Canadian Muslims and tackle Islamophobia in Canada. It includes guides on knowing your rights and responsibilities as Canadian Muslims, both those in general society and in post secondary institutions.
- Islamophobia in Canada - Submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief. Proportionate criticism of Islam or Muslims based on factual evidence is not intrinsically Islamophobia, just as criticism of the tenets or followers of other religions or ethnic groups does not necessarily indicate bigotry or prejudice. Islamophobia is gendered, meaning that it operates according to gendered stereotypes about Muslim men (as violent terrorists and patriarchs) and Muslim women (as subjugated victims and dangerous cultural vectors).
- Islamophobia in schools: How teachers and communities can recognize and challenge its harms. Recent overt attacks against Muslims in London, ON, Hamilton and Edmonton have surfaced and exacerbated the fear that Canadian Muslims have been living with for many years.
- Canada: Muslim group sets recommendations to tackle Islamophobia. A leading Muslim advocacy group has issued dozens of recommendations to tackle Islamophobia in Canada in the aftermath of deadly attacks and hate incidents targeting members of the Muslim community in recent years.
- Canada needs to take concrete action against anti-Muslim hate crimes. Community, crowdfunding and grassroots organisations have been at the forefront of efforts to tackle Islamophobia, but collective trauma can only heal with proactive leadership to create safety for all.
- The Government of Canada Concludes National Summit on Islamophobia. In Canada, diversity is one of our greatest strengths, yet we know that discrimination and racism continue to take an unacceptable toll on our communities. The recent deadly hate-motivated terrorist attack on a Muslim family in London, Ontario, underscores the urgent need to take further steps to combat Islamophobia and all forms of racism.
Onstage Conversations 2022 are presented by Simon Fraser University, in partnership with the Ismaili Centres.
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The above resources are provided for information and reflection purposes only. Inclusion above does not imply endorsement of the views presented by the respective authors or publishers.