The Globalization Of Islamophobia

ISLAMOPHOBIA

The phenomenon of Islamophobia has markedly surfaced at the beginning of the twenty first century, and has shown us how easily bigotry against minority groups can resurface to pit one part of the humanity against the other, thus creating cultural fault-lines on a global scale. Recently, we all have witnessed how the unthoughtful or ill-mannered actions of only a few or even a single individual can stir up provocations across the globe. As a matter of fact, we are witnessing with distress and dismay the snowballing effects of sowing seeds of hatred by extremists across the board. (esposito, 2011) The increasing manifestations of Islamophobia bring to our attention a mutual realization of inadequate knowledge about nations and cultures.

Past experiences and history have taught us that the way we address the issues of “the other” determines the dynamic of relations between nations and can lead either to stability or confrontation, depending on the way we choose to tread. Not long ago, the fault-lines between nations used to be drawn on military pacts, political ideologies or geographical on cultural considerations. This fact makes confrontations deeper and more intricate because cultures are profoundly embedded in the psyche of individuals. It also brings forth further the reality that as the technology advances and globalisation makes our world ever more smaller, the potential ability of an individual as well as of communities to do both good and evil exponentially increases. Naturally, it should be our common aim to channel such an increasing potential to fulfil the needs of humanity in a way that would sustain peace and security around the world.

Islam is still deemed as a religion of war, violence and blood-spilling sacred Jihad. However, these assumed hostility and aggressiveness of Islam was deeply planted in the mind of extremists and the western people, whose opinions mostly are shaped by the media, by the 9/11 attacks and bombing. (Qaradawi, 2010) It is also safe to assumed that these acts of “Jihad”, are misunderstood and misinterpreted by extremists of both sides, are all derived from the Quranic verses, around 109 verses, which encourage Muslims to fight the infidels. Their mistake is de-contextualization. In de-contextualized, any language can lose its actual meaning and intention, and become misinterpretations. The same is with these Quranic verses; once decontextualized, commands and appeals of killing and beheading the non-believers and hypocrites will come to live and executed. These things are made worst by the media where they would manipulate the facts and hide the real stories as they would want something hot to sell their stories and make profit. To believe that Islam is a religion of violence is to hold the same ideas as extremist groups do, and to believe that all Muslims believe in mono-existence and violence is to legitimize the bombings committed. As today, there are about 1.6 billion Muslims around the globe, and just less than ten percent, which is less 160 million, can be called terrorists as how would the media would label it.