First of all, it is necessary to understand "Islamophobia" or what is known as "Islamophobia", a term that refers to prejudice, hatred and fear of Islam and Muslims. The term came into use in English in 1997 when a left-wing British think tank called Reminder Trieste denounced hatred, fear, and tribal judgment against Islam and Muslims.

"Islamophobia" is a neologism that consists of two parts: Islam, phobia, and "phobia" is a suffix that refers to fear and irrational phobia of something beyond its actual supposed danger. The Swedish comparative theologian Matthias Gardel defined the term as "thesocial production of fear and prejudice against Islam and Muslims, including acts aimed at attacking, discriminating against or isolating people based on assumptions of their association with Islam and Muslims."

Obviously, this concept includes within it an element of "fear" and this in itself may be misleading in many people's thinking when dealing with the term. We always say that it is not justified to hold people accountable or to account for their fears, because they often arise because of their personal experiences and the resulting mental perceptions that led them to adopt certain positions. But the question we must ask today is what perceptions have arisen among many people about Islam and Muslims, have they really been formed as a result of their experiences, or has the media machine played a major role in the increase and escalation of this fear?

There are millions of people who have never met a Muslim, yet they have a false image of Islam and believe that Muslims are "bloodthirsty for the sake of entrenching their fanatical beliefs, beheading without batting an eyelid, acting like monsters, brutally bombing here and there, and causing the deaths of civilians and innocent people."

The negative image of Muslims promoted today by many false news in the world makes people have a superficial idea of Islam and Muslims. Although this picture is far from true, it is unfortunately enough to generate "fear".

Of course, those responsible for these misconceptions are not the owners of these fears but those who raised them in themselves through misleading ideas and images. The source of Islamophobia is not those who can fear such perceptions, but those who generate feelings of hatred as a result of fear; people will panic at the sight of such alleged violence.

The truth is that there is no point in criticizing people just because they are afraid. In my opinion, Islamophobia cannot be the source of those people who have become targets or even victims of the fear industry. All these people need is "awareness" and an absolute truth about Islam, its goals and perceptions, about Muslims, their tolerant faith and their ability to coexist with many cultures over time.

Ifop poll figures in 2019 showed that acts of discrimination and attacks against Muslims in France are increasing every day compared to people of other religions.

Islamophobia Industry

Research, politics, communications and media institutions that produce this fear and fabricate and disseminate this news accurately participate in the Islamophobia industry. In this industry, both consumers and end-users are victims. The first victims of Islamophobia are not Muslims, as is believed, but groups that are deprived of the message of Islam and do not know anything about it, and therefore easily fall prey to fanaticism and fear.

Of course, these groups are not aware of this deprivation and are not directly harmed by Islam, Muslims are the ones who are the target of the attack of hatred all over the world at any time, and unfortunately this attack may fall at the hands of these groups that have been ignorant for years and tremble in fear, and some of them come these heinous acts against Muslims.

The most vulnerable groups of Muslims to racism are Muslim women who are doubly discriminated against in the non-Muslim community on the basis of gender, ethnic identity, and religion.

Former French professor Nashanda, originally from Nigeria, recounts that she suffered from Islamophobia and racism in French schools, saying that she abandoned the teaching profession she loves under pressure from the administration and bullying her colleagues, after declaring herself a convert to Islam and wearing the hijab. The frequency of this racist behavior towards her and the restrictions caused her to enter a state of severe depression, before she gave up teaching and started her own business.

"Things were going well at the institute where I study until I decided to commit to wearing the hijab, so the administration's perception of me and its attitude towards me changed, and most of my classmates treated me after they learned of my religious commitment and noticed my keenness to wear the hijab outside the school," she says.

The school adds forty "became the director storming the classroom suddenly explanations flimsy, and other times sends who watch me from afar, and in periodic meetings he hints and states that the curricula of education in France curricula purely secular, and that the administration of the Institute does not tolerate at all any professor trying to influence students with his extremist religious ideas or Islamic dress and behavior."

Ifop poll figures in 2019 showed that acts of discrimination and attacks against Muslims in France are increasing every day compared to people of other religions.

The survey revealed that 40% of the sample were victims of racist behavior, 48% were subjected to some form of discrimination during education in schools, 13% confirmed that they were subjected to discrimination by the police when interrogated, 17% were subjected to the same treatment when looking for work, and 14% were subjected to racism and discrimination when looking for housing.

On the other hand, the survey showed that women are more vulnerable to discrimination and racism than men, as we find that the percentage of women reached 46% compared to 38% of men, in addition to the fact that acts of discrimination against veiled women reached 60% compared to non-veiled Muslim women, which reached 44%, especially during the job search journey.

The results of the survey also indicated that 37% of veiled women were subjected to insults, verbal insults and defamation, and in terms of professional life, the survey showed that 63% of Muslim executives suffer from racism compared to 34% of workers.

Ifop survey figures in 2019 show that acts of discrimination and attacks against Muslims in France are increasing every day compared to people of other religions (UN)

History of Modern Islamophobia

The concept of Islamophobia flourished at the beginning of the first decade of the third millennium, specifically after the attacks of September 11, 2001, which took place in the United States and were claimed by Al-Qaeda, and brought about a qualitative shift in the reality of international relations and resulted in the occupation of two Islamic countries, Iraq and Afghanistan.

This has revived the problem of confrontation between Islam and the West that a number of Western Zionist intellectuals have preached since the end of the Cold War, promoting the emergence of Islam as a new enemy of the West instead of communism represented by the Soviet Union, and some of them promoting the idea of the end of the communist "red danger" and the emergence of the Islamic "green danger".

With the emergence of Islamophobia, in many Western countries, a far-right political discourse has grown, actively seeking to exploit the international situation resulting from the September 11 attacks, the anti-Islamic media discourse, and the social reality in the West and its problems of identity and integration, especially for Muslims and Arabs.

The results of this discourse were evident in the growing hostilities against Muslims and Arabs, the violation of the sanctity of mosques and Muslim cemeteries that have been desecrated on more than one occasion, and groups of right-wing youths systematically attacking Muslims in the streets and alleys of European cities whenever they have the opportunity.

In the light of these factors, a racist anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Islamic sentiment has emerged, fueled by the entrenched ignorance of Islam among large segments of Western societies, and by an inciting discourse in some media outlets and an incoherent and ignorant discourse on Islam in the most moderate media outlets.

World Islamophobia Day

In 2022, the United Nations General Assembly declared March 15 as the International Day to Combat Islamophobia, emphasizing the need to take concrete action in the face of rising hatred, discrimination and violence against Muslims.

Turkey's permanent envoy to the UN, Sedat Onal, described the phenomenon of Islamophobia in the world as a "real and growing threat."

This came in a speech on Friday at a high-level event to mark the first International Day against Islamophobia at the United Nations General Assembly.

"Islamophobia is a real and growing threat, and Muslims face various manifestations of Islamophobic and hate crimes despite their growing social and economic contributions around the world," Unal said. Unal noted that this goes hand in hand with the "populism" and polarization that increasingly dominate political discourse in many countries.

He stressed that Islamophobia fueled racist and xenophobic tendencies and had become a fundamental threat to democracy. Unal stressed that these acts of hatred cannot be justified under the guise of freedom of expression, noting that these acts violate fundamental rights and freedoms, adding that "sacred values and symbols must be kept out of the reach of extremists and opportunists."

Conferences are held in many countries today thanks to the awareness of this phenomenon. For example, this year's Center for Islam and Global Relations at Sabahattin Zaim University in Istanbul held its fourth Islamophobia conference since 2018, and this year featured 51 speakers from 12 countries.

Beyond previous meetings, which I have followed closely, I have noted that one of the most effective steps in combating Islamophobia has been taken: producing discourse, conducting research, bringing together academic and intellectual circles interested in the subject, creating a network that will pressure political and intellectual environments to make their voices heard, keeping records, and creating archives.

Islamophobia in Muslim-majority countries

The fourth conference was titled "Examining the Cultural and Geopolitical Dimensions of Islamophobia in Most Muslim Countries," meaning that one of the sources of Islamophobia industry is Muslim-majority countries.

Some may ask: Does Islamophobia exist in Muslim-majority countries? Of course this may sound strange, but should we be surprised by what we went through many years ago here in Turkey and 99% of its population is Muslim and which creates hope for the entire Muslim world these days? Has secularism in this country not succeeded in producing and consolidating all fears related to Islam in all its dimensions?!

As we dig deeper, it is not surprising to see that the greatest source of Islamophobia is Muslim-based societies. The colonization to which these countries were subjected could only continue after Islam was isolated from political and social life. In other words, because the number one threat to colonialism has always been Islam and Muslims, confronting Islam and Muslims with the problem of legitimacy has been an important element of the entrenched power equation. For this reason, the Islamophobic industry has found a foothold in Muslim-majority countries.

In his speech on this day last year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Islamophobia continues to spread like a plague, especially in Western countries, poisoning all segments of society, from the street to the class of politicians, workers and government officials. He stressed that the fight against rising Islamophobia is not only a matter for Muslims but for humanity as a whole, but that otherwise it will not be possible to prevent Islamophobic attacks such as those that took place in New Zealand in 2019 and Canada in 2021.

Mr. Sami El-Erian, Director of the Center for Islam and Global Relations, who organized the conference with his team with extraordinary effort over 4 years, identified 4 areas on which the industry is based:

  • Authoritarian regimes that use Islam for their own interests.
  • The role of foreigners or colonizers in the service of colonial economic or geopolitical interests.
  • Secular elites at the intellectual and cultural levels.
  • Established structures in Muslim societies such as the judicial system, the media, academia, political class and bureaucracy.

All these areas need to be evaluated separately. Today, governments and ruling elites in Muslim countries are inciting Islamophobia to gain acceptance and legitimacy in the West. This is the most powerful source that feeds fears into hatred in Western societies that are relatively unaccustomed to Islam.

On the occasion of the International Day Against Islamophobia on 15 March, the Baku International Centre for Multiculturalism and the Centre for the Analysis of International Relations are also holding a conference entitled "Islamophobia is a Special Form of Racism and Discrimination: Global Challenges Across Borders". On this occasion, we are now in Azerbaijan, and we will try to share our impressions of this conference in our next article.

We will not stop fighting and writing about our religion until one day people and governments stop viewing Islam as a "fossilized" and "separate" religion that has nothing to share with other cultures, that is barbaric, irrational and degraded by the West. It is this view that is used to justify discriminatory practices against Muslims and their exclusion from society, and this must be changed culturally in order for our societies to enjoy calm and peace.