ISLAMOPHOBIA AND ANTI-MUSLIM HATRED: …

1 1arches quarterlyvolume edition winter VOLUME 4 EDITION 7 WINTER 2010 ISSN 1756-7335 ISLAMOPHOBIA AND ANTI-MUSLIM HATRED: CAUSES & REMEDIES volume edition winter 2arches quarterlyWestgate House, Level 7, Westgate Road, Ealing, London W5 1 YYTel 020 8991 3372 / Fax 020 8991 / of articles and reports for Arches Quarterly should be made by e-mail, in Word format, to the editors: The views expressed in Arches Quarterly are those of the individual authors and should not be taken to represent a corporate view of The Cordoba Foundation. The Cordoba Foundation UK 2010 Anas Altikriti Chief ExecutiveAbdullah Faliq Managing EditorAssociate Editors:Amjad Mohamed-SaleemS. AlamArzoo Khan Art EditorArches Quarterly is published byTHIS ISSUEV olume 4 Edition 7 Winter 2010 ISSN 1756-7335 Available 4 EDITION 7 WINTER 2010 ISSN 1756-7335 ISLAMOPHOBIA AND ANTI-MUSLIM HATRED: CAUSES & REMEDIESC over image: a segment of The Battle of Cable Street Mural in muslim -concentrated Shad-well neighbourhood in East London, which was created by artist Dave Binnington.

2 The mural stands as a powerful symbolic reminder of anti -fascism in the East End. On 4th October 1936, local people stopped Oswald Mosley and his British Union of Fascists marching through Cable Street, then a mainly Jewish area. A slogan from the Spanish Civil War, a popular anti -fascist cause of the time, was widely used: They Shall Not Pass - No Pasaran! In June 2010, people of all faiths and none, unions and civil rights groups, young and old, marched passed Cable Street in a powerful stand against the racist, ANTI-MUSLIM English Defence League (EDL) who threatened to attack The East London Mosque, and create ten-sions in the community. The coalition, United East End, claimed this was the fi rst time the EDL have been forced to call off a planned demonstration in the quarterlyvolume edition winter INTHISISSUE06081114244254647075848996102 108116128142147156 Editorial Abdullah FaliqForeword Anas AltikritiIslamophobia & anti -Semitism: History and Possibility Rabbi Reuven FirestoneIslamophobia and Terrorism: Impediments to the Culture of Peace Prof Ekmeleddin IhsanogluSweden and ANTI-MUSLIM Hysteria Kristoff er Larsson Will Europe Surrender to Selective Racism?

3 An Interpretative Model of a Worsening Phenomenon Hossam ShakerIslamophobia: A Deep-Rooted Phenomenon Marwan MuhammadMuslims in the Polish Media the New Folk Devil? Dr Konrad PedziwiatrSituating ANTI-MUSLIM Hatred in Contemporary Indian Society Ram PuniyaniThe Defence of Omar Khadr in the Age of ISLAMOPHOBIA Dennis EdneyPicture GallerySole Protector, of What? Unpacking Turkey s ANTI-MUSLIM Policies Dr Merve Kavakci IslamIslamophobia, Mimetic Warfare and the Bugaboo of Shari a Compliance: Counter-Strategies for Common Ground Dr Robert D. CraneContemporary ISLAMOPHOBIA Before 9/11: A Brief History Dr Chris Allen ISLAMOPHOBIA and Hispanophobia: How They Came Together in the Euro-American Imagination Walter D. MignoloThe New McCarthyism in Europe Liz Fekete LITERATURE PROMOTIONS: ISLAMOPHOBIA (Chris Allen)Thinking Through ISLAMOPHOBIA : Global Perspectives (S.)

4 Sayyid & AbdoolKarimVakil )Headscarf Politics in Turkey: A Postcolonial Reading (Merve Kavakci Islam)The New muslim Elites in European Cities: Religion and Active Social Citizenship Amongst Young Organized Muslims in Brussels and London (Konrad Pedziwiatr)The Islamic World in the New Century (Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu) ISLAMOPHOBIA : The Challenge of Pluralism in the 21st Century (John L. Esposito and Ibrahim Kalin) ISLAMOPHOBIA and ANTI-MUSLIM Hate Crime: UK Case Studies (Robert Lambert and Jonathan Githens-Mazer)Still Not Easy Being British: Struggles for a Multicultural Citizenship (Tariq Modood)Homeland: Into a World of Hate (Nick Ryan)A Suitable Enemy: Racism, Migration and ISLAMOPHOBIA in Europe (Liz Fekete)Citizenship, Identity and the Politics of Multiculturalism: The Rise of muslim Consciousness (Nasar Meer)2351746288106115127140146155 Analysing the Growing Scepticism Towards the Idea of ISLAMOPHOBIA Dr Nasar Meer and Professor Tariq ModoodNew Gallup Report: muslim -West Discourse Julian Weinberg British muslim Organisations: The Target of an Orchestrated Neocon Campaign of Denigration Dr Robert LambertSouth African Muslims Over Three Centuries.

5 From the Jaws of ISLAMOPHOBIA to the Joys of Equality Ebrahim Rasoolvolume edition winter 4arches quarterlyTHE CORDOBA FOUNDATIONFOUNDED IN 2005, The Cordoba Foundation (TCF) is an independent Public Relations, Research and Training unit, which promotes dialogue and the culture of peaceful and positive coexistence among civilisations, ideas and people. We do this by working with decision-making circles, researchers, religious leaders, the media, and a host of other stakeholders of society for better understanding and clearer comprehension of inter-communal and inter-religious issues in Britain and ACTIVITIES INCLUDE: Structured consultation and advisory services Face-to-face interaction with decision-makers andfi gures of authority In-house research Workshops, seminars and debates on pertinent issues Training and capacity-building Periodicals and journals Resourceful website5arches quarterlyvolume edition winter edition winter 6arches quarterlyFROM THE EDITOR In this winter issue, Arches responds to the rising levels of ANTI-MUSLIM hatred across the globe.

6 Commonly referred to as ISLAMOPHOBIA , the term is not without debate, as clearly discussion abounds with respect to its origins and defi nition. Contributors from multiple disciplines discuss, among other things, the conceptual challenges posed by ISLAMOPHOBIA as a term as well its origins and instrumentalisation; the location of ISLAMOPHOBIA in the racial imperial-colonial matrix, and the contrasting traits of this phenomenon with anti -Semitism and Hispanophobia, respectively. Insights from a number of European countries as well as America, Canada, India, Turkey and South Africa reinforce the incontrovertible fact that far from it being an abstract intellectual exercise, ISLAMOPHOBIA or anti -Muslimism is a reality today. Recent studies attest to the proliferation of this pervasive ideology of hate resulting in attacks on Muslims in the West at diff erent levels of wishing to overstate the problem, facts on the ground and statistics in this issue of Arches speak for themselves.

7 In France, for example, a muslim is said to be aggressed every three days whilst every three weeks, a mosque is profaned or vandalised. In Britain, British Muslims and an increasing number of mosques face a high level of threats and intimidation the example of a muslim woman punched and called a terrorist in front of her petrifi ed daughter is deeply alarming. In the Netherlands, the fascist Geert Wilder s party won a considerable number of seats and signed an alliance with the Liberals, granting him legitimacy to seek actual power in the next election. In Germany, Egyptian-born muslim , Marwa El-Sherbani was brutally murdered in a Dresden courtroom while giving testimony against her neo-nazi abuser. More than one fourth of American Muslims surveyed by a number of public opinion polls reveal personal experiences of ISLAMOPHOBIA , or know someone who has experienced it.

8 In Australia, over half of schoolchildren in Victoria viewed Muslims as terrorists, and two out of fi ve regarded Muslims as unclean . In Sweden, Muslims who practice their faith are depicted as radicals thanks to the likes of Sweden Democrats party chairman Jimmie Akesson, who warned that Islam was our biggest foreign threat since World War Two . In Poland, the mainstream media and some politicians aggressively attack the small community of Muslims depicting them as the new folk devil . In Denmark, the Danish newspaper Jullands-Posten published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad depicting him as a terrorist, insulting Muslims the world over, then escalated further following the release of Dutch fi lm Fitna, ridiculing the Qur an. In India, violence and ANTI-MUSLIM policies such as the Ayodhya Judgement (which legitimised the Babri Mosque destruction) target and subjugate Indian Muslims.

9 France and Belgium introduced laws banning the wearing of the burqa and niqab in public spaces, and Switzerland banned the construction of new mosque minarets. Th e list can go on, but the picture emerging from Far from it being an abstract intellectual exercise, ISLAMOPHOBIA or anti -Muslimism is a reality quarterlyvolume edition winter EDITORIALall this, as Liz Fekete, author of A Suitable Enemy, aptly surmises is we are witnessing a new McCarthyism -- only today the Islam scare is replacing the red scare . Whilst some continue to debate the appropriateness of the term ISLAMOPHOBIA , and others confl ate it with Islamic extremism , inferring that ISLAMOPHOBIA hands a propaganda coup to Islamists or that it stifl es legitimate criticism of Islam and Muslims, Chris Allen, author of ISLAMOPHOBIA , is right to reject this thesis as being extremely dangerous.

10 Th is is because it indirectly legitimises indolent stereotypes such as equating all Muslims as terrorists, thus pandering to fascist groups and sections of the media who resort to this line of thinking in order to make deceitful attacks on Islam. We are witnessing today a dramatic shift of racist and intolerant views from the far right nationalists to the mainstream parties throughout Europe. Views and rhetoric such as these no longer target racial groups but religious institutions, Islamic movements and their leaders in the pretext of freedom of speech, la cit , and fi ghting extremism. As Nasar Meer and Tariq Modood highlight, Muslims who complain about Islamophobic attacks are frequently challenged, criticised and their status as victims denied. Th is is not helped by society that increasingly views ANTI-MUSLIM prejudice as a socially-acceptable norm; which co-chairman of the Conservative Party, Baroness Warsi lamented had passed the dinner-table test in Britain.