Samira Sattar and Zainab Alam, members of New Jersey’s Islamic Network Group, engaging in a community education session. Photo from Luna Stage’s Twitter, @LunaStageCo.
Within the past two decades, Islamophobia has been widespread in the United States. Steven Solaita, a former professor at Virginia Tech, has stated that “Since 9/11, Arab Americans have evolved from what [is] described as an invisible group in the United States into a highly visible community that either directly or indirectly affects the United States' so-called culture wars, foreign policy, presidential elections, and legislative tradition.” Thus, Islamophobia is the result of the birth of a specific Muslim identity. And yet, ever since 2001, anti-Muslim assaults in the United States have been increasing. According to data published by the Pew Research Center, there were 127 reports of aggravated or simple assaults against Muslims in total, which tops the peak of 93 recorded in 2001. In 2015, 91 cases of anti-Muslim assault were reported.
On a global scale, Muslim societies are simply not receiving the respect they deserve. According to Gallup, notable percentages of Westerners in European countries and the United States say the West does not respect Muslim societies.
What is being done to combat Islamophobia, not just in the United States, but around the world?
Dr. Amina Esaat Daas, a professor at the University of Leeds, wrote an article published in 2019 titled, “How to tackle Islamophobia – the best strategies from around Europe”. In the article, Daas explains how she and her colleagues devised a toolkit that consists of the best methods and tools being used around Europe to challenge Islamophobic rhetoric.
She explained that one of the essential things she found in the study was that each context had its own specificity or identity. “For example, if you think about Greece, there are the historic Greco-Turkish relations that color the way in which the Greek population perceived Muslimness. Whereas in France, you had the colonial history that shaped the way in which French North African relations persist today, and I think there’s a lot in the French case in terms of Islamophobia, we still see a lot of the colonial control, regulation of action and particularly regulation of bodies.”
She said that the common narrative of Muslims in each of the nations was that Islam is inherently violent and that Muslimness is backwards.
When talking about the methodology of the study, Daas explained how “the work was divided into three major strands… We first thought to map Islamophobia, and have a standardized consistent analysis of the eight countries we studied. We then interviewed policymakers, jurists, media professionals, grassroots activists, trade union members, and other people engaged in countering Islamophobia, as well as individuals in the arts sector. This fieldwork helped us devise a case-by-case practice of the best and most effective methods. The third and last phase consisted of devising the toolkit and discussed the best ways to coherently apply all these tools.”
Daas emphasized that the main objective of the toolkit is to stress the need to define Islamophobia, deconstruct the popular narrative, and reconstruct a more realistic one led by anti-racist activists and Muslims alike. For example, there have been interfaith projects inaugurated in Germany that call attention to friendliness and camaraderie between Muslims and non-Muslims. Since the idea of Islamophobia is purely based on the belief that Islam is threatening to Eurpeans’ lives, a method used to fight this idea is to emphasize the multiple roles Muslims engage in daily. By defining Islamophobia, documenting it, and deconstructing its narrative to reconstruct newer, more positive ones, we can shift away from more reactionary counter Islamophobia strategies that “often fall on deaf ears,” according to Daas.
“Existence is resistance,” Daas concluded in her interview with me. “To exist as a marginalized individual, and to live the way you live in a positive way, that is your resistance. Muslim women are doing this on a daily basis; judges, politicians, actors, and art producers are finding space to showcase their voices. In having that space for voices and diversity, I think that is how we can use our presence to challenge certain ideas.”
To contrast, when looking at Islamophobia in the United States, I had the opportunity to speak with Ishaq Pathan, the deputy executive director of the Islamic Networks Group, a peace-building organization providing face-to-face education and engagement opportunities that foster understanding of Muslims and other misunderstood groups to promote harmony among all people. Pathan runs the Youth Speakers Program for Muslim students, which is intended to give students who have been victims of Islamophobia a chance to open up about their experiences and attempt to find ways to counter anti-Muslim sentiment.
“I’m a Muslim myself. I’ve experienced Islamophobia ever since I was a young child,” Pathan said. “I came to ING in 2016, and have been working with Muslim teens ever since.”
Given that Islamophobia is a very sensitive topic, I asked Pathan how he goes about getting the students to open up about their experiences.
“First and foremost, the goal is to have them feel comfortable within the space. When dealing with Islamophobia and bullying, a lot of young students aren’t really willing to acknowledge what they’re going through. What we found when we were doing the first workshop, once one student starts to talk about their own experiences, others will start to chime in and share their experience as well.”
We discussed the multiple methods that have been proposed to fight anti-Muslim sentiment throughout the nation. To contrast, he explained what ING is doing to counter Islamophobia.
“Our organization holds the perspective that face-to-face engagement and education is what will counter Islamophobia,” he said. “There are many ways to do so, of course, this is just one, but it's the approach we take. There’s a study done by UC Berkeley that demonstrated that when someone interacts with another person with a conversation that consists of meaningful dialogue, their opinions about them have the potential to change, and that change has the potential to be long-lasting. We hold this belief and we do our own studies where we give presentations throughout many societies. We have found that the perspectives of people regarding Islam improve because they see authenticity from Muslims speaking for themselves. That’s what we do with the students as well, to have them become advocates for themselves.”
As a matter of fact, there is a plethora of evidence that supports the approach ING takes to fight Islamophobia. A report done by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding includes an annual Islamophobia index which showed that negative public opinion of Muslims has increased in the United States in the past year. The Islamophobia Index was determined by the extent of agreement of these five assertions
Most Muslims living in the United States are more prone to violence than others.
Most Muslims living in the United States discriminate against women.
Most Muslims living in the United States are hostile to the United States.
Most Muslims living in the United States are less civilized than other people.
Most Muslims living in the United States are partially responsible for acts of violence carried out by other Muslims
Those who actually knew Muslims personally scored lower on the Islamophobia index, as well as other positive viewers of minorities as a whole. According to the ISPU, “analysis reveals that knowing a Muslim personally is among several protective factors against Islamophobia. When a Muslim is a close friend, Islamophobia is further reduced. We found that three in four Jews know a Muslim, about half of the general public know a Muslim, but only about one in three among white Evangelicals know an American who is Muslim.” More predictors of low Islamophobia levels include, but are not limited to Black Americans, Democratic leanings, and feminists.
“When I first experienced Islamophobia, I was in middle school, and I didn’t really know how to process it,” Pathan concluded. “One thing I try to instill in young students is to accept it and work against it through education and compassion. Recognizing that anyone making negative comments towards them has the power to change”.
I grew up believing that racism and xenophobia were issues that could be solved with mere conversation; that all you needed to understand was the basic fact that all of us are born equal. I was simply an individual who was not prejudiced. I’ve come to understand, however, that that isn’t enough. Given the history of the world we live in, we must all try and actively fight prejudice.