Islamaphobia Response

Due to class conflicts with my music ensembles, I was unfortunately unable to attend the dialogue on Islamaphobia. Luckily, Hillel and Project Nur hosted an interfaith dialogue on this subject about a week after the initial event, so I was able to at least get some of those ideas into myself. Along with this event, my exposure to world religions through Parochial school as well as Boy Scouts and personal study leads me towards the second question posed, whether or not there are “particularities in Islamophobia that make it different from previous movements against other religions.” My answer for this is an emphatic yes, because the element of globalism adds another complication in balancing ignorance and compassion, making finding the true path more divisive and politicized than ever. As for how we can address this, only the free exchange of ideas and respect for the dignity of every individual are paths sure to help in this country.

Eboo Patel compares Islamophobia today with the anti-Papist sentiments of America’s past. It does make sense to a point, that the dominant religious lobby should oppose that of an increasing minority so as to retain power. It makes sense as a recurring motif, but this situation is not quite as simple. What I can ascertain from Patel’s text as well as my parochial education is that the nature of anti-Papism was rooted entirely in ignorance. The narrative is that the Evangelical Protestants armed with reformation fervor and scant facts chronically suppressed the Roman and Eastern Churches from gaining any political power.

Islamophobia seems to be more complicated. While Sharia law can be seen as analogous to Catholic Canon law in this anxiety, we must consider the effects of globalization in how it plays a role in shaping Islamophobia. As geographic boundaries present less of an obstacle, the Western world peeks deeper into the state of the Middle East. What we see is terrifying, and one can argue that the fear is not irrational. We see vast armies of extremists committing atrocities in the name of Islam. We see the terrifyingly wide support for their cause. We see anti-Semitism comparable to Hitler’s. We see the irrefutable oppression of women and those of other religions. These give us cause to have rational fear—not a phobia—of something that is happening on foreign shores.

The sort of cancerous Islamophobia which we are striving to diminish comes from the dangerous ignorance that compels us to see other people as firstly part of a group, and only later recognize their own individual dignity. Great injustices have been committed against Muslims in America for this very reason. Those who are truly Islamophobic operate tribally, only seeing people for one of their identities. The Hillel-Nur discussion centered around a short film in which we saw Orthodox Jews and Muslims coming together to chat, eat, and meet each other’s families. Though deep prejudices were present on both sides, after a few weeks they started to get to know each other as people who cared about their families. After the film, we and the people from Nur had a concise chat affirming that we do not hold prejudices against each other because we know each other as friends and fellow student who have to deal with the same battles.

Ultimately, to solve this issue we must be open to the ideas of anyone who cares. Politically and culturally, both right and left have a tendency to steamroll each other when it comes to issues like this with one rejecting Islam as a viable addition to American life and the other demonizing those who present perspectives that are out of line with their preconceived notions. We must walk the line between ignorance and relativism to begin to find viable solutions.