As with all prejudices, it is important to fight Islamophobia

Moved by my granddaughter’s distress at Islamophobic language she had heard, I wrote an op-ed that the newspaper published with the banner “Is America safe for my Muslim granddaughter?” One of the responses I received was from a reader who said I should have asked the question is the America safe from my Muslim granddaughter. Clearly, there are many who think that Islamophobia is fake. Obviously, it is real and has been recognized for a long time.

One of the groups that I organized, the “International Strategy and Policy Institute” published an article by John Woods in 1996 on “Imagining and Stereotyping Muslims.” Muslim stereotyping, we concluded, was much worse than of other groups in the past.

The term Islamophobia was coined by a British think tank the Runnymede Trust in 1997. A somewhat awkward term, it is understood as irrational hatred of Islam and Muslims. It is just like Antisemitism is understood for hatred of Jews. At the January 2001 at the “Stockholm International Forum on Combating Intolerance,” Islamophobia was recognized as a form of intolerance, alongside Xenophobia and Antisemitism.

The thoughtful secretary-general of United Nations, the late Kofi Annan, was one of the first world leaders who recognized the need to combat Islamophobia. He commented that “when the world is compelled to coin a new term to take account of increasingly widespread bigotry — that is a sad and troubling development.”

This inspired him to organize the first U.N. conference on combating Islamophobia in 2004. March 15 was designated in 2022 as the “International Day to Combat Islamophobia.”

Islamophobes assume Muslims to be a monolithic block who have no values common with others, are inferior to the West and are irrational, primitive and sexist. Islamophobes believe Islam is not a religion in the traditional sense, but an ideology used for political and military dominance. In the pursuit of these goals, Islamophobes say, Muslims are violent and support terrorism. Any criticism of the West by Muslims is rejected out of hand.

There is a worldwide trend with increasing hate toward Muslims. It regards men differently from women — men violent, women oppressed. Muslims feel they are fighting the stigma of being Muslim by an invisible boundary. Some try to conceal their Muslim identity. Studies have linked Islamophobia to physical and mental health outcomes. More research is needed in this area.

In the U.S., Muslims have been the subject of physical and verbal violence. Council on American-Islamic relations reported 8,658 complaints last year, which is a 7.4% increase. Employment discrimination, asylum, education and hate crimes were reported in a descending order. Incidents included attempted drowning of 3-year-old Palestinian American girl in Texas, beating of a Muslim man in New York and shooting of two Israeli visitors who were mistaken as Palestinian in Florida.

What surprises me most is that those in the media who sleep with one eye open when it comes to the N word and Antisemitism are in near coma when the behavior is Islamophobia.

Disturbingly all major universities used “manufacture of consent” strategy to suppress protest. Protesters were physically removed, doxed, some were even arrested and expelled, rules of what constitutes free speech were rewritten. It has left the young in a crisis of uncertainty and asking the question do we belong here.

Combating Islamophobia must start with education and busting ignorance. Ignorance leads to misconceptions that leads to negative Images, reductionism, prejudice, bias and racism. Islamophobia is a vile potion of racism, religious bigotry and political opportunism.

Hatred is bad for the target but also for the society, if it aims to be inclusive and kind. We need to start in our country, as what U.S. does has an impact far beyond its borders. The long and dark shadow of how U.S. trampled on well-established norms in dealing with terrorism, and the language to obfuscate torture as enhanced interrogation became universal. On the other hand, if the U.S. can combat racism in all its different forms, including and especially Islamophobia, its light will brighten every dark corner of the world.

Ameliorating Islamophobia is a challenge. Media all over the world play a major role in overtly or unwittingly in perpetuating Islamophobia. The least mainstream media can do is permanently delink Islam and Muslim from the word terrorism. It is easy to do as they have already done it with other faiths. Domestic terrorism is a neutral term not linked to a faith or group. Fighting Islamophobia is fighting racism

Let us make America safe for all its grandchildren.

• Javeed Akhter is a physician and freelance writer from Oak Brook.