A Divided World

Anti-Islam narrative is being promoted by Right-Wing ideologues worldwide to exploit the latent hate for votes

- Seema Guha

ISLAMOPHOBIA is not confined just to India. Nor is it a new phenomenon. But since 9/11 and America’s War on Terror, Muslims have been under attack in Europe and America and across Asia, Australia, in short around the world. The tendency to see all Muslims as terrorists have made them the target of hate crimes. Samuel Huntington’s The Clash of Civilization helped to popularise the idea that Islamic culture could not co-exist with Christianity and fueled what is now popularly known as Islamophobia which, simply put, implies intense suspicion and “othering” of Muslims.

“A number of factors have played a role in the mainstreaming of Islamophobia, including the spread of conspiracy theories and misinformation on social media,” says Mobashra Tazamal, Associate Director of US-based Georgetown University’s Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. “However, one of the primary reasons Islamophobia has been able to spread across the globe has been due to the role of governments and mainstream politicians who’ve adopted, promoted, and sanctioned anti-Muslim racism both in their rhetoric and in their policies. From France to India, we’ve seen leading politicians adopt prejudicial and discriminatory views about Islamophobia as a way to rile up a majoritarian base and scapegoat a community that is already marginalised. This has been a successful technique in garnering votes during election campaigns,’’ she explains.