ON May 20, 2023, I delivered a speech on Islamophobia at a webinar. It was organised by students of the Centre for Foundation Studies (CFS) at Gambang Campus, International Islamic University Malaysia.
The webinar gave me an opportunity to present some of my research on the subject. During the talk, I examined Islamophobia and its different forms.
We need to draw a clear line between the term "Islamophobia" and its concept and practice. The term is not very old, but its practice (or anti-Islam and anti-Muslim hatred and hate crimes) is as old as Islam itself.
According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the first known use of the term "Islamophobia" occurred in 1923. Another view provides a proximate date and suggests that the word first appeared in a 1922 essay written by the French Orientalist, Étienne Dinet (1861-1921) — who embraced Islam in 1913 and changed his name to Nasreddine Dinet.
The term "Islamophobia" gained significant academic interest following its use in the Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said's essay "Orientalism Reconsidered" (1985). It received further attention through the publication of the report, "Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All" (1997) by the UK's Runnymede Trust.
It rose to global prominence when the United Nations organised a seminar on "Confronting Islamophobia: Education for Tolerance and Understanding" in New York on Dec 7, 2004. It was on this occasion that the then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan (1938-2018) stated:
"The word seems to have emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s. But, the phenomenon dates back centuries."
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has been publishing a yearly bulletin titled "The OIC Observatory on Islamophobia" since 2008. The first volume was submitted to the 11th OIC summit that was held in Dakar, Senegal on March 13-14, 2008.
Concerns about Islamophobia among the global community were deepened in the aftermath of the deadly attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand that killed over 50 congregants.
Since the mass shootings happened on March 15, 2019, the United Nations subsequently passed a resolution to declare March 15 as International Day to Combat Islamophobia.
The 1997 report published by the Runnymede Trust defines Islamophobia as "the fear or dislike of all or most Muslims. Such dread and dislike have existed in Western countries and cultures for several centuries."
This definition has some limitations. First, it limits the scope of victimhood to Muslims alone and does not include non-Muslims who can also be victims of Islamophobia.
Second, it focuses on "Western countries and cultures" as the sites of Islamophobia and seems to exclude Muslim-majority countries as possible places of the prejudice and hate crimes motivated by Islamophobia.
In that sense, the definition provided by the UN makes greater sense. It reads:
"Islamophobia is a fear, prejudice and hatred of Muslims that leads to provocation, hostility and intolerance by means of threatening, harassment, abuse, incitement and intimidation of Muslims and non-Muslims, both in the online and offline world."
It is important to remember that Islamophobia may affect non-Muslims as well because of their nationality and racial/ethnic background.
For example, Balbir Singh Sodhi (1949-2001) was a Sikh of Indian origin and looked like many Muslims in appearance. On Sept 15, 2001, in the aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy, he was mistaken for a Muslim and killed at a gas station in Arizona, USA.
Non-Muslims who sympathise with the plight of predominantly Muslim populations (like the Palestinians) may become direct or secondary victims of Islamophobia.
Rachel Corrie (1979-2003) was an American non-Muslim and a fighter for justice for the Palestinians. She was bulldozed to death by Israeli forces on March 16, 2003, as she sought to prevent them from demolishing a Palestinian house in Gaza.
Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh (1971-2022) was a Palestinian-American Christian who strove to tell the world about the sufferings of the Palestinians.
She was shot dead by an Israeli soldier as she was covering a raid by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) in Jenin in the West Bank.
Since some Muslim countries have been invaded and occupied by Western powers in recent decades, Islamophobia is often associated with the West.
I argue against the notion that the West or non-Muslim majority countries are exclusive sites of Islamophobic practices. They happen in Muslim-majority societies as well.
A few years ago, one of my hijab-wearing female students sought employment in Kuala Lumpur.
On two occasions, she was selected for a position by private companies but was asked to take off her Islamic headscarf if she wanted to work there.
Since she refused to do so, the companies declined to employ her.
Unelected and undemocratic ruling elites in Muslim-majority countries often resort to Islamophobic oppression to divert attention from corruption, poor governance and other real issues.
They do so to please Islamophobic regional/global powers with a view to remain in power at all costs.
In the discussion of Islamophobia, there is a tendency to focus only on physical violence. As a result, intellectual work that incites Islamophobia is given inadequate attention.
In other words, the discussion of physical violence outweighs that of epistemic violence (or violence through knowledge). What is more, Muslims often seek to counter epistemic violence through street protests which eventually become counterproductive.
Prophet Muhammad made use of poetic genius, especially of Hassan ibn Thabit, to respond to Islamophobic poetry composed by poets hostile to Islam and Muslims.
Unfortunately, Muslims have failed to follow such strategies in countering Islamophobic discourse which breeds anti-Islam and anti-Muslim prejudice.
Muslims' responses to intellectual Islamophobic work should be in kind — intellectual work against intellectual work, literature against literature, artistic work against artistic work, and so on.
Taking to the streets, shouting and burning of books are not the right response to an intellectual or literary attack.
I hope students and young scholars of the likes of the CFS students who invited me will be better equipped to address the scourge of Islamophobia.
The writer is a faculty member at International Islamic University Malaysia and the Editor-in-Chief of Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature. He can be reached at mmhasan@iium.edu.my