essay on islam of phobia

The Devastating Mental Health Effects of Islamophobia

“Mom, I’m fine” were the last words of 6-year-old Palestinian-American, Wadea al-Fayoume, who was stabbed 26 times and murdered on October 14. The man charged with his murder is his landlord Joseph Czuba, who is also charged for attacking Wadea’s mother, Hanaan Shahin. Shahin sustained over a dozen stab wounds from fighting off Czuba as he reportedly yelled, “You Muslims must die!” How is a landlord who was previously described as being “friendly” with the family and in the weeks prior had built Wadea a tree house , now facing trial for such heinous hate crimes?

Context is important in this story. This was not a sudden occurrence. Shahin, an immigrant from the West Bank, told investigators that Czuba had insisted earlier that week that she and her son move out of the home they were renting from him in a Chicago suburb. The timing of these requests directly corresponded to the latest escalation of violence in Israel and Palestine, and its accompanying news cycles. According to the prosecutor , Czuba’s wife told investigators that her husband had been listening to conservative talk radio in the days leading up to the murder and had become “obsessed” with the unfolding war to the point that he believed that “they were in danger and that [Shahin] was going to call over her Palestinian friends or family to harm them.”

Unfortunately, the horrific hate crimes Czuba was charged with were not the only ones against Palestinians, Muslims, or other minority groups often mistaken for Muslims in recent days. On October 17, a Sikh teen was punched on a New York City bus in a reported hate crime assault by a man who attempted to remove the teen’s turban exclaiming, “We don’t wear that in this country.” In the same week, Carl Mintz was charged with terrorism for posting on Facebook that he wanted to go into Dearborn, Mich., a predominantly Muslim and Arab city, and “hunt down Palestinians.” Two men were arrested in connection to assaulting an 18-year-old Muslim in Brooklyn, N.Y. while yelling explicit anti-Muslim slurs. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has reported 1,283 bias incidents against Muslims since the violence in the Middle East escalated and has tracked hundreds of inflammatory posts and hate speech that have been shared recently across social media platforms—just a few examples include Muslims and Palestinians being called “savages,” “terrorists,” and “barbarians.”

Islamophobia, an irrational fear and hostility towards Islam or Muslims, has deep roots that can be traced back to Western colonialist archetypes of the “ uncivilized other .” By diminishing the complexity of individuals and essentializing Islam, these colonial powers created a seedbed for the dehumanization and generalization of people today perceived to be Muslim or Muslim-adjacent. And perhaps most importantly, these kinds of hate crimes and the rise of Islamophobia have extensive, negative mental health impacts on Muslim communities in the U.S. and around the world.

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On my own campus at Stanford University, an Arab Muslim student was the victim of a hit and run on November 3 that landed him in the hospital. According to a statement by Stanford’s Department of Public Safety, the Islamophobic assailant made eye contact with the student, accelerated his car to strike him, and then yelled, “F*** you people” as he hit the student before driving off. Other forms of aggression over the past few weeks included Muslims receiving death threats , hijabs being torn off , and protesters being shot at , run over , spat at, and harassed. Another egregious form of intimidation resulted in Muslim student leaders at colleges across the country who signed their names on public statements, later found their pictures and names plastered on the side of smear trucks parked on their campus, a practice known as doxxing. Doxxing is not a new phenomenon and research has shown that such practices have a significant impact on the emotional and mental health of the victims including causing anxiety, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and Complex PTSD. In fact, 44% of doxxing victims have reported experiencing significant mental health consequences as a result of such targeted attacks.

Some scholars who study hate crimes have found that spikes in Islamophobic hate crimes strongly correlate with media reporting. This, too, is not a new phenomenon. What began as diaries and travelogs of Europeans claiming license and authority to represent the Muslim and Arab world to the West—all while justifying colonialism and fueling imperial expansion—has been replaced by a new medium: the modern media machine. The power of the written word, accompanied by caricatural images portraying Muslims and Arabs as subhuman or in need of saving, shaped centuries of enduring bias.

Sensationalized stories that sow seeds of paranoia and cement the “other” as someone that must be feared and even eliminated, are not innocently relaying information. Rather they are perpetuating biased narratives about minority communities. When the average person is inundated with news cycles about the instability in the Middle East without proper context or knowledge of the lived experiences of Muslims, they are being conditioned to distrust the Muslim family living next door. This unexamined implicit bias is undeniably shaped by the media . Inconsistencies in terminology used in reporting and the disproportionate reporting of negative incidents involving Muslims contribute to distorted perceptions of this community. According to the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU), every year since 2016, over 60% of American Muslims have reported experiencing at least one instance of religious discrimination—higher than all other religious groups in the U.S.

The unpredictability of the time, place, and circumstances of Islamophobic incidents puts many Muslims in a nearly continuous state of hypervigilance. This insecurity can directly translate into deleterious mental health implications for Muslim Americans. We can better understand the influence of these Islamophobic interactions on the emergence of psychological problems. This socioecological model is often depicted over four levels: individual, interpersonal, community, and policy.

On an individual level, studies show that experiencing Islamophobia is associated with poorer mental health outcomes in both Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim. Discrimination due to Muslim identity is associated with a greater number of depressive symptoms , fear and anxiety , lower self-esteem , and overall psychological distress . Daily repetitive harassment that Muslims face may be the biggest factor contributing to long-term mental health issues, while violent, hate-motivated crimes can increase fear, hypervigilance, and identity disturbances. Furthermore, early exposure to harassment affects the developmental well-being of Muslim youth; twice as many Muslim children report being bullied compared to the general U.S. population. In a 2021 California-based study, 56% of Muslim school-age respondents reported feeling unsafe at school due to their identity, and 20% of them reported missing school due to these feelings.

On an interpersonal level, individuals who have previously experienced discriminatory interactions are more likely to suffer from continuous anticipation of harassment that puts them at a higher risk of developing psychosocial problems. This anticipatory fear in the public arena often results in social marginalization that deprives Muslims of the health-promoting effects of social engagement. For many Muslims, there are heightened fears around relatively routine undertakings such as going for a walk with one’s family or attending worship services. These fears stem from tragic Islamophobic attacks such as the 2021 murder of the Afzal family in London, ON—a Muslim family who was run over while taking a walk together. The 2019 live-streamed Christchurch Mosque shooting in New Zealand that killed 49 people and the 2017 Quebec Mosque shooting that killed six and severely injured eight peaceful worshipers are still very fresh in many Muslims’ minds. Even simply engaging with one’s neighbors runs the risk of ending in tragedy, as was seen in the 2015 murder of three visibly Muslim youth from Chapel Hill, who were gunned down by their Islamophobic neighbor.

Watch More: The Killer Was Driven by Rage, but Was the Murder of 3 College Students a Hate Crime?

On a communal level, Islamophobic incidents that target Muslims in any part of the U.S. perpetuate a sense of insecurity and could result in trauma by proxy for other American Muslims. In speaking with many families of school-aged children, I found that they each repeated the same thing: All they could see was Wadea when they hugged their own child this past week—myself included. Many American Muslims also reported that the bias and misinformation in the current news cycle is causing them to experience flashbacks to the hateful, xenophobic rhetoric spewed in the aftermath of the 2001 tragedy of 9/11 and during the lead-up to the 2016 presidential elections. Though belonging to a community is often a protective factor, if this community is a stigmatized group, its members may internalize hateful stereotypes that could eventually lead to identity concealment and in turn negative health outcomes . Two common examples include removal of religiously identifying clothing, such as the hijab, due to feeling unsafe or anglicizing non-English “Muslim” names in an effort to be white-passing or undetected as a Muslim.

On a policy level, legislation passed over the last three decades have contributed to growing Islamophobia. The passing of the Patriot Act in 2001 led to increased detention, unjustified arrests, and interrogations of Muslim Americans. The 2017 Executive Order 13769, dubbed the “Muslim Ban,” coincided with an estimated 67% increase in hate crimes toward Muslims, and was an immensely anxiety-laden time for Muslims. Indeed, the American Psychological Association opposed this ban, citing concerns around serious mental health implications and increased discrimination towards those impacted by the travel ban. Research has also shown that the rhetoric and legislative decisions by the Trump administrations impacted the daily living and mental well-being of American Muslims.

These interconnected levels each pose risk to the psychological wellness of Muslims. It is imperative that we recognize and address the common thread across all of them, which includes the perpetuation of Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian tropes, as well as biased media coverage of what the former director of the office of the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Craig Mokhiber, has called an unfolding genocide of the Palestinian people and cited as the cause of his resignation. Wadea’s parting words were meant to comfort his mom—and us. Though he is at peace now, we are far from it.

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2021 Islamophobia in Review: United States

Overall, 2021 demonstrated that islamophobia remains a constant and growing threat around the globe. anti-muslim racism in 2021 remained ever present as hate crimes and individual attacks targeting muslims persisted. across the globe, the key players of anti-muslim racism were again states themselves, as this year witnessed increasing discriminatory legislation and policies. china continued to deny the growing body of evidence pointing to genocide being committed against uyghur muslims and an international tribunal was held in the u.k. with testimony from survivors of xinjiang’s concentration camps. in canada, a man killed a muslim family of four in a horrific calculated hit-and-run, leading to canadian muslims demanding the government take concrete measures to tackle islamophobic violence. in france, president emmanuel macron’s government took a page from china’s book by implementing legislation aimed at constructing a state-approved islam, resulting in widespread discrimination targeting muslim civil society and curtailing the rights of french muslims, especially women. similarly, the austrian government took measures to intimidate and silence austrian muslim activists and organizations, even going so far as to publish a map detailing the locations of hundreds of mosques and associations. in the united kingdom, the ruling conservative party persisted in evading calls to address institutional islamophobia within its ranks. state hostility and prejudice towards muslims was present across the european continent, with rulings aimed at restricting muslim identity such as halal meat and hijab bans. in india, the country’s growing hindu nationalist forces retained last year’s theme of conspiracy theories, claiming indian muslims were engaging in “love jihad,” “economic jihad,” and even “narcotics jihad.” additionally, there were large episodes of anti-muslim violence in various parts of the country such as tripura, gurgaon, and assam, all of which were supported by the rising hindu nationalist voices. the year was also spent uncovering the role of social media platforms in larger campaigns of violence targeting muslims as seen in india and myanmar. in the united states, the country marked twenty years since the deadly september 11th attacks and reckoned with the impacts and consequences of two decades of the war on terror at home and abroad., 2021 islamophobia in review: united states.

With the inauguration of Joe Biden as the country’s 46th president, American Muslims welcomed the new administration and celebrated as Biden reversed Trump’s Muslim Ban . While applauding the measure, many noted that a reversal would not bring back the time and lives lost as a result of the previous discriminatory measure, and called on Biden to use this moment to tackle the presence of anti-Muslim racism in society, calling for accountability and justice.

As Biden took office, new Republican representatives took their positions following the 2020 elections, including Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert , whose numerous stunts of harassment and bullying played out throughout the year. They repeatedly targeted Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar with anti-Muslim slurs, such as calling her “ pro Al-Qaeda ,” a member of the “ jihad squad ” (a slur that also plays on the “ the Squad ” label given to Rep. Omar and her fellow three progressive congresswomen), and a terrorist. Following Boebert’s discriminatory and dangerous remarks, Omar received an uptick in hate mail and played one of the many death threats she had received in which a man called her a “ Muslim sand n***** bitch,” and threatened “there’s plenty that will love the opportunity to take you off the face of this f*cking earth. You will not live much longer, b*tch, I can almost guarantee you that.”

The episode highlighted the growing acceptance and even tacit approval of Islamophobia in the GOP, as leadership failed to take action against Boebert and did not publicly condemn her comments. Boebert herself refused to publicly apologize to Omar, and even doubled down on the anti-Muslim harassment and bullying, claiming the Muslim congresswoman was “playing the victim.” House minority leader Kevin McCarthy’s silence in the face of these discriminatory remarks could be explained by the fact that data demonstrates that Republican voters largely hold anti-Muslim views. A 2018 study conducted by Dr. Maneesh Arora found that 54 per cent of Republicans surveyed would vote for an anti-Muslim candidate, and separately noted that a 2020 YouGov survey found that 37 percent of Republicans approved of discrimination against Muslims. Further, the GOP fully supported former President Donald Trump, who arguably made Islamophobia a part of his campaign and presidency, and repeatedly targeted Rep. Ilhan Omar with anti-Muslim smears and rhetoric. Boebert it appears is simply following standard party practice by employing Islamophobia to amp up her base. This year also demonstrated that Republican representatives who’ve aligned with former President Trump (and embodied his tactics) are not some “fringe” figures, rather they’ve become “ indicators ” of where the party is headed and the values it upholds. While the GOP leadership fails to hold Boebert accountable, House Democrats passed a new bill (led by Omar and Rep. Jan Schakowsky ) that would establish a new special envoy position at the State Department to monitor and combat Islamophobia worldwide. It’s unlikely this bill will get passed in the Senate but it is indicative of where the country stands: despite the entrenchment of Islamophobia in society, there is a growing movement against it.  

2021 also marked 20 years since 9/11 and the inauguration of the war on terror that saw the U.S. invade Afghanistan and Iraq and wage drone strikes across the globe including in Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, and Syria (to name a few). This year was one of reflection of the global impact of this borderless and timeless war. New data from Brown University’s Costs of War project found that in the last three years alone, the U.S. has been active in counterterrorism operations in at least 85 countries. The domestic and global impacts of the War on Terror were painstakingly explored in American journalist Spencer Ackerman’s book, “Reign of Terror,” published in August of this year, which explored how the structure and framing of America’s counterterrorism operations, which were aimed at fighting an “ amorphous concept like terrorism,” that allowed for two decades of mass state-sponsored violence.

The following excerpt from Ackerman’s book sums up the past two decades: In response to 9/11, America had invaded and occupied two countries, bombed four others for years, killed at least 801,000 people — a full total may never be known — terrified millions more, tortured hundreds, detained thousands, reserved unto itself the right to create a global surveillance dragnet, disposed of its veterans with cruel indifference, called an entire global religion criminal or treated it that way, made migration into a crime, and declared most of its actions to be legal and constitutional. It created at least 21 million refugees and spent as much as $6 trillion on its operations. Through it all, America said other people, the ones staring down the barrel of the War on Terror, were the barbarians.

August also witnessed the U.S. pull all of its troops out of Afghanistan, resulting in what can only be described in a humanitarian catastrophe as the Taliban returned to power and millions of Afghans faced uncertainty with the new regime and economic hardship. It’s hard to forget the devastating images and video of Afghans desperately trying to flee for safety, rushing to the airports and clinging to the wings of planes. During this time period, a U.S. drone strike killed ten members (seven of them children) of a family, drawing international outrage to an act that has been occurring for at least the last 15 years but too little attention. The drone strike brought the use of unmanned arrival vehicles into conversation and called attention to the number of civilian deaths these weapons were responsible for. A powerful investigation by Azmat Zahra for the New York Times revealed that the Pentagon’s own records showed how “ the air war has been marked by deeply flawed intellig ence, rushed and often imprecise targeting, and the deaths of thousands of civilians, many of them children, a sharp contrast to the American government’s image of war waged by all-seeing drones and precision bombs.” In a rare turn of events, the U.S. government admitted that they had killed innocent civilians in the Kabul strike, calling it “a horrible tragedy of war,” but upheld the last two decades war on terror mantra that no crime has been committed ; there was no “criminal negligence.” No one was held responsible for the deaths of those 10 civilians and drone strikes continue to be supported by authorities despite even greater evidence supporting the argument that drone strikes don’t work and have routinely killed civilians. This year also marked the deaths of former Secretary of State Colin Powell and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfled , both men who played a leading roll in the construction and promotion of the war on terror. Powell sold the war in Iraq to the United Nations, claiming that Saddam Hussain had ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’ (all of which proved to be false). The total number of Iraqi civilian deaths as a result of the war is unknown but the Iraq Body Count project places the number of deaths since 2003 between 185,724 and 208,831, as of June 30.

Rumsfeld was the individual who authorized the “enhanced interrogation,” aka torture , of individuals U.S. authorities arrested and detained during the war on terror. A 2002 memo signed by Rumsfeld authorized “20-hour interrogations, use of phobias, and stress positions.” Rumsfeld’s orders resulted in the abuse of hundreds of prisoners in US custody, including those held at Guantanamo Bay. Since it was opened in 2002, the prison at the military navel base has held 780 Muslim boys and men ; today it remains open with 39 prisoners , 14 of whom are being held indefinitely without charge. The prison continues to be a living contradiction to the values the U.S. claims on the global stage: a living remnant of the atrocities committed by the United States in the name of security.

The year also marked 20 years of a domestic war on terror and the ramifications of government surveillance and suspicion has had on the American Muslim community. From reflecting on the consequences of being on the government’s no-fly list to the Supreme Court deciding “whether a lawsuit can go forward in which a group of Muslim residents of California allege the FBI targeted them for surveillance because of their religion,” it was a year of reckoning.

20 years later and the long-lasting devastation as a result of state-sponsored Islamophobia is finally being acknowledged and spoken about. American Muslims reflected on government rhetoric and programs that for the past two decades marked them as threats and suspicious, and how that resulted in widespread violations of their civil rights and liberties . 

As mentioned earlier, while Islamophobia remains ever-present within American government and society, the U.S. also witnessed greater a political involvement from Muslims, inaugurating a new set of American Muslim politicians who won seats in local elections across the country.  In New York, Shahana Hanif became the first Muslim woman elected to NYC council, while in Boston, MA, Tania Fernandes Anderson gained her council seat by defeating her opponent “who had relied heavily on anti-Muslim rhetoric in his campaign.” Other successful campaigns in Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey and Pennsylvania also put Muslims in key local offices, with the city of Hamtramck in Michigan electing the country’s first all-Muslim city council. Further, President Biden nominated and the Senate confirmed the appointment of Rashad Hussain as Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom (IRF). 

2021 was a year of reflection and calls for accountability as the country marked twenty years since the 9/11 attacks and the onset of the global war on terror, which has had catastrophic reverberations abroad and at home. Despite the entrenchment of Islamophobia in certain segments of the government and amongst portions of the public, there is a vocal and growing movement pushing back against this dangerous bigotry. 

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05 Jan 2022

2021 Islamophobia in review: China

In 2021, the world heard more personal testimonies from Uyghurs who had survived China’s network of concentration camps as a growing international movement called on countries to boycott the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. This year also involved Chinese authorities restructuring their targeting of Uyghurs, moving many prisoners to forced labor camps and institutionalizing discriminatory practices, such as removing domes from mosques, aimed at erasing Uyghur culture and identity. read the complete article

2021 Islamophobia in review: India

Throughout 2021, Indian Muslims found themselves on the receiving end of countless mob attacks and state violence as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government continued to embolden the country’s right-wing Hindu nationalist forces. Further, conspiracy theories constructing Indian Muslims as a threat to the Hindu majoritarian population gained credibility thanks to the rhetoric and actions of politicians and the government. read the complete article

2021 Islamophobia In Review: Canada

In July of 2021, Mustafa Farooq of the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) made a chilling observation: “The reality is that Canada has suffered more mass killings motivated by Islamophobia in the last five years than any other country in the G7. This cannot be allowed to continue.” read the complete article

Eight ways that Islamophobia operates in everyday life

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Immigration and national identity currently are at the forefront of the public conscience. In France, the burkini ban and in the UK proposals for migration controls following the Brexit vote are dividing communities. The growing tensions mean that many ethnic and religious minority communities are increasingly experiencing racism in their everyday lives.

In 2015, Islamophobia reportedly increased by 200% in the UK while anti-Muslim attacks in the US grew by 78% . The term Islamophobia is defined as “ unfounded hostility towards Islam ”. This includes “unfair discrimination against Muslim individuals and communities” and the exclusion of Muslims from political and social affairs.

But the term “Islamophobia” is somewhat confusing: it supports the idea that there is only one “Islam” and implies a “fear” of it. Some have argued for new, more accurate terms such as anti-Muslimism . Like the word itself, the phenomenon of Islamophobia is equally complex, and cannot be put neatly into a box. Here are some of the ways it affects everyday life.

1) It isn’t only experienced by Muslims

It is not only Muslims who are targeted by Islamophobic racism. A diverse range of people from different ethnic and religious minorities also encounter it on a daily basis , mostly as a result of people assuming that they are Muslims. Sikhs, Hindus, other south Asians, those with African heritages and even some central and eastern European migrants are all lumped into one category. This can make other religious and ethnic minorities insecure in public spaces, and in their everyday encounters with others.

2) It is shaped by geopolitics

Experiences of Islamophobia are strongly interconnected with geopolitical events such as 9/11, the 2005 London bombings , the 2013 Woolwich incident and the ongoing conflict in Syria. Research shows that experiences of racism and Islamophobia increase shortly after such events before declining gradually.

In addition, our own research has found that the reporting of such events in the mainstream media contributes to the negative stereotyping of Muslims . We interviewed young people, aged 12 to 26, who claimed that references to Muslims as “extremists” and as a “threat” to British ways of life in the media skew the public’s perception of Muslim communities – despite frequent campaigns to challenge such negative associations.

3) It ignores the diversity of Muslim communities

Islamophobia makes it appear as if “the” Muslim community lacks any internal diversity. Muslims can be of any ethnicity and have varying attitudes with regards to how and when they practise their religion. Muslims also have different attitudes to, and ideas about, issues such as feminism , gender and sexuality . To lump them all into one category is to overlook the diversity of Muslim communities.

4) It’s different for men and women

Women and men do not experience Islamophobia in the same way. Women are more likely to experience anti-Muslim sentiment , particularly if they are wearing a headscarf, hijab or burka. In fact, 61% of Islamophobic incidents reported to Tell MAMA in 2015 were against women, and 75% of these victims were visibly Muslim. For Muslim men, markers of Muslimness – such as having a beard, brown skin or wearing “Asian clothes” – increase the likelihood of them experiencing Islamophobia. Although men were less likely to experience Islamophobia than women, when they did, it was similar in nature , including verbal abuse, physical assault and threatening behaviour.

5) It can make Muslims wary of public places

Despite heavy coverage of Islamophobic attacks on public transport , our research has found that this racism is not restricted to specific places . It occurs in schools, colleges, neighbourhoods, public spaces and at airports .

Significantly, it also shapes Muslims’ mental maps of public spaces, and where they feel it is safe or unsafe for them to visit. Muslims are inclined to moderate their movements in public spaces and this at times feeds into debates about self-segregation and the accusation that Muslims are living parallel lives .

6) Attacks vary in intensity and nature

Physically aggressive forms of Islamophobia include outright extreme violence , as well as things like headscarfs being pulled off by fellow passengers on public transport. There is also name-calling, taunting, or individuals being made the subject of jokes and “banter” in public. Online Islamophobia is prevalent on social media sites, too, although such contexts also provide a space to challenge such behaviour .

The responses to these different forms of Islamophobia by those who experience it are also variable. Our research found that young people demonstrate resilience to so-called banter and name-calling. But for others, Islamophobia may mean subtle forms of avoidance and exclusion, such as being stared at, not having someone sit next to you on the bus or experiencing a general sense of social distance.

7) Islamophobia is reproduced institutionally

Government institutions can reinforce and reproduce Islamophobia through counter-terrorism initiatives , such as the UK’s Prevent strategy for schools. There are a number of concerns about the ways that educational institutions monitor and survey students who look Muslim as a result of these policies, and how this leads to Muslim students feeling increasingly monitored when on campus .

Anti-Islamic sentiment is also experienced in the workplace – 100% of participants in a small focus group recently said that they had directly experienced, witnessed, or have family members who had experienced discrimination in the workplace. Some Muslims may be reluctant to challenge such forms of discrimination as a result of what they see as aggressive secularism and feel silenced as a result.

8) Young people build new strategies

Young people have had to develop a range of strategies in order to negotiate and resist Islamophobia. Some have talked about adopting “self-securitising” techniques to mitigate against the harm of feeling “targeted”, avoiding certain spaces or conversations. Others, like Australian researcher Rhonda Itaoui have been more resistant and challenged Islamophobia through proactively speaking out against it – but not all have the confidence to do this.

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Islamophobia by Todd Green LAST MODIFIED: 27 October 2021 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195390155-0285

Islamophobia refers to the fear of and hostility toward Muslims and Islam that is driven by racism and that leads to exclusionary, discriminatory, and violent actions targeting Muslims and those perceived as Muslim. Although the word “Islamophobia” entered widespread public and political discourse only in the late 1990s, hostility toward Islam and Muslims in the West dates back to the Middle Ages. With the 9/11 attacks, “Islamophobia” became the primary designation for the prejudice experienced by Muslim minority populations in Western nations. The post-9/11 era witnessed the significant rise and expansion of the academic study of Islamophobia. Islamophobia studies is often conflated with Islamic studies, even though the former is focused not so much on the analysis of Islamic texts, traditions, histories, or rituals as it is on the religious, social, cultural, historical, and political factors that give rise to anti-Muslim racism and discrimination. This entry focuses primarily on academic studies of Islamophobia in North American and European contexts, though the last section bears witness to the growing attention scholars are paying to the global dimensions of Islamophobia.

Elahi and Khan 2017 explores the origins and main contours of modern Islamophobia in Britain, expanding on the original Runnymede Report from 1997 that introduced the term “Islamophobia” into widespread public and political discourse. Allen 2010 , Bazian 2019 , and Said 1978 address theories, concepts, and/or methodologies undergirding the academic study of Islamophobia. Cesari 2011 , The Bridge Initiative , Green 2019 , and Zempi and Awan 2019 offer broad introductions to and comparisons of Islamophobia in Europe and the United States. Beydoun 2018 introduces the legal and political dimensions of Islamophobia in America, while Bayrakli and Hafez 2015 – and Taras 2012 focus on Islamophobia in diverse European contexts.

Allen, Chris. Islamophobia . London: Routledge, 2010.

A theoretical introduction to the concept of Islamophobia, accompanied by a critique of the essentialized definition employed by the Runnymede Trust’s original 1997 report on Islamophobia.

Bayrakli, Enes, and Farid Hafez, eds. European Islamophobia Report . 2015–.

An annual report published by the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA) that tracks the state of anti-Muslim sentiment and discrimination in over thirty European countries.

Bazian, Hatem. “Islamophobia: An Introduction to the Academic Field, Methods, and Approaches.” In Islamophobia and Psychiatry . Edited by H. Steven Moffic, John Peteet, Ahmed Zakaria, and Rania Awaad, 19–31. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2019.

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-00512-2_2

Introduces the broader themes and methodologies found in the emerging academic field of Islamophobia studies.

Beydoun, Khaled A. American Islamophobia: Understanding the Roots and Rise of Fear . Oakland: University of California Press, 2018.

DOI: 10.1525/9780520970007

While the book struggles to acknowledge and engage with many of the seminal studies on the structural and systemic manifestations of Islamophobia, it nonetheless offers important perspectives on and analyses of the legal and political forces driving Islamophobia in the United States.

The Bridge Initiative .

An online research project based at Georgetown University that offers educational resources, original research, and scholarly commentary on anti-Muslim bias and discrimination. Includes concise and accessible fact sheets on prominent anti-Muslim individuals and organizations in Europe and North America.

Cesari, Jocelyn. “Islamophobia in the West: A Comparison between Europe and the United States.” In Islamophobia: The Challenge of Pluralism in the 21st Century . Edited by John L. Esposito and Ibrahim Kalin, 21–43. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.

A concise essay that broadly compares the ways that Islamophobia manifests itself in Europe versus the United States, with a particular emphasis on the political, cultural, and religious challenges facing European Muslims.

Elahi, Farah, and Omar Khan, eds. Islamophobia: Still a Challenge for Us All . London: Runnymede, 2017.

Updated study of Islamophobia in Britain by the Runnymede Trust, covering a wide range of topics including the impact of Islamophobia on British Muslims in relation to employment, hate crimes, counterterrorism, and health. The original 1997 study signaled the introduction of the term “Islamophobia” into the larger public and political discourse in Britain and eventually in other Western nations.

Green, Todd H. The Fear of Islam: An Introduction to Islamophobia in the West . 2d ed. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2019.

DOI: 10.2307/j.ctvcb5c4r

Comprehensive survey of the historical roots and contemporary manifestations of Islamophobia in Europe and the United States. Offers introductions to many of the most common themes addressed in the study of Islamophobia. Helpful starting point for scholars and students new to the subject.

Said, Edward W. Orientalism . New York: Vintage, 1978.

Groundbreaking study that deconstructs Western assumptions and stereotypes about the “Orient” (the Middle East and North Africa). Maintains that Western discourse about Muslims and Arabs in the 19th and 20th centuries reflects colonial interests and power. Said’s book provides the theoretical and analytical framework for a large number of academic studies of Islamophobia.

Taras, Raymond. Xenophobia and Islamophobia in Europe . Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2012.

A broad survey of anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant attitudes in Western Europe, with in-depth case studies of France and Germany.

Zempi, Irene, and Imran Awan, eds. The Routledge International Handbook of Islamophobia . London: Routledge, 2019.

A multidisciplinary collection of essays introducing various facets of Islamophobia. Focuses mostly on Europe and North America.

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Amer F. Ahmed, the vice provost for diversity, equity, and inclusion and chief diversity officer at the University of Vermont, spoke with Tufts faculty, staff, and students about recognizing microaggressions.

What Do You Know about Islamophobia?

Amer F. Ahmed talks about the misconceptions that fuel discrimination against Muslims, Arabs, and Palestinians

The first step in combating Islamophobia is understanding what Islam is not.  

It is not bound by one interpretation of Shariah, or Islamic law. It does not espouse violence. Most of its followers are not Arab.  

Those are some of the misconceptions that Amer F. Ahmed, the vice provost for diversity, equity, and inclusion and chief diversity officer at the University of Vermont, highlighted as he spoke at Tufts this week. Ahmed discussed the assumptions and erroneous beliefs that fuel discrimination against Muslims and people perceived as Muslim.   

The workshop he offered, titled “Addressing Anti-Muslim, Anti-Arab, and Anti-Palestinian Bias and Creating Inclusive Campus Environments,” was sponsored by the  Office of the Vice Provost for Institutional Inclusive Excellence . On March 27, Ahmed led one session for faculty and staff and another for students.  

Muslims, Arabs, and Palestinians are different groups, although individual people may belong to more than one of those groups, Ahmed explained. Only about 18-20% of the world’s 2 billion Muslims are Arab. A significant number of Arabs identify as Christians, including more than half of Arab Americans.  

One thing people in all three groups have in common? Whether they are Muslim are just perceived as such, Ahmed said, they can all be targets of the same fear and hostility that result in the bias, discrimination, and marginalization called Islamophobia. 

Ahmed, who grew up in Ohio as the son of Muslim immigrants from India, emphasized that Muslim communities and their cultures are as diverse as the places in the world they can be found, from Saudi Arabia to China to France to Mali.   

“There’s all this diversity, and that also translates into different interpretations, different understandings of how the religion shows up in peoples’ lives,” he said. Thus, the Taliban’s extremist laws, for example, are at odds with the equity that many Muslim individuals and communities interpret as inherent in Islam.  

Before 9/11, Ahmed said, he and other Muslims in the United States dealt with ignorance. After 9/11, it was suspicion.   

“There was a sudden focus on our community,” he said. “There have been hate crimes, threats, harassment, surveillance, investigations.” He and his family, he said, “have experienced every one of these things.”  

His worst experiences have to do with coming back to the United States after traveling and being taken into a room by customs officers for interviews. “I’ve experienced this a lot,” he said. “You have to sit there. If you ask questions, you get yelled at.”

“I live 35 minutes from the Canadian border, and I just don’t cross the border by myself,” he said.

Members of the university community can act by recognizing microaggressions, the everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults that target marginalized groups, he said. Such microaggressions, intentional or unintentional, may endorse the stereotype of Muslims as terrorists, assume that all Muslims have the same culture, or pathologize the Muslim religion as abnormal or a problem.  

Allies can also reach out to Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian people to hear what they are going through, “because there’s fear to share our experiences,” Ahmed said, “especially students, because of the doxing that they’ve seen happen.”

This workshop was part of  Tufts Talks Openly , a newly launched series of programs across Tufts focused on building awareness and knowledge to nurture an inclusive community. Among other Tufts Talks Openly offerings: a series of conversations called “ Dialogue and Action in an Age of Divides ,” organized with colleagues from across nine Massachusetts universities; expanded programming on inclusive and responsive dialogues; employee trainings on navigating challenging interactions; and training sessions on addressing hate and discrimination, including antisemitism .

Understanding Antisemitism to Create Allies

Creating More Inclusive Classrooms—and Space for Difficult Conversations

Coming Together Across Difference

What Does 'Islamophobia' Actually Mean?

A brief history of a provocative word

When I recently asked Sam Harris what he thought of the word 'Islamophobia,' he directed me to a tweet that noted the following: “Islamophobia. A word created by fascists, & used by cowards, to manipulate morons.”

“I don’t think [the tweet] overstates the case by much,” said Harris, the atheist author whose sweeping critique of Islam (and the "meme of Islamophobia") on Real Time With Bill Maher has sparked a broader debate about Islamophobia —both the phenomenon and the term itself—in the age of ISIS and Islamist politics.

“Islam is not a race, ethnicity, or nationality: It’s a set of ideas," Harris told me. "Criticism of these ideas should never be confused with an animus toward people. And yet it is. I’m convinced that this is often done consciously, strategically, and quite cynically as a means of shutting down conversation [on] important topics.”

Some chart the popularization of the term 'Islamophobia" back to a series of studies in the 1990s by the Runnymede Trust, a left-leaning British think tank. A 1997 reported entitled “Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All” documented “closed” views of Islam in the U.K., including perceptions of the religion as a single bloc that is barbaric, sexist, and engaged in terrorist activities.

But Robin Richardson, who edited the Runnymede report and currently works for the educational consultancy Insted, maintains that the think tank simply borrowed the term from previous usage. In a recent paper, he traces the phrase to Alain Quellien's use of the French word islamophobie in 1910 to criticize French colonial administrators for their treatment of Muslim subjects.

Richardson claims that post-colonial theorist Edward Said was the first to use the word in English, when he wrote in 1985 about “‘the connection … between Islamophobia and antisemitism’ and criticized writers who do not recognize that ‘hostility to Islam in the modern Christian West has historically gone hand in hand’ with antisemitism and ‘has stemmed from the same source and been nourished at the same stream.’”

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“In its earliest historical usage, the term ‘Islamophobia’ described prejudice and hostility towards Muslims—not an ‘irrational fear of Islam,’” Nathan Lean, author of The Islamophobia Industry , told me. “Critics of the term often lambast it on the basis of an etymological deficiency, insisting that it thwarts the possibility of critiquing Islam as a religion while simultaneously suggesting the presence of a mental disorder on the part of those who do.”

“Religions differ, and their specific differences matter,” Harris explained. “And the truth is that Islam has doctrines regarding jihad, martyrdom, apostasy, etc., that pose a special problem to the civilized world at this moment in history.”

“We deny this at our peril,” he added.

Harris and Maher, who has issued similar criticisms of Islam, have their defenders, but others have challenged their claims. In a testy exchange on CNN, for instance, the author Reza Aslan described Maher’s views on Islam as “facile” and called out the media for referring broadly to “Muslim countries” when discussing violent extremism and the oppression of women. “[In] Indonesia, women are absolutely 100 percent equal to men,” he observed. “In Turkey, they have had more female representatives, more female heads of state in Turkey than we have in the United States.”

"We're not talking about women in the Muslim world, we're using two or three examples to justify a generalization. That's actually the definition of bigotry," Aslan said.

But is the term 'Islamophobia' itself, with its connotations of a psychological disorder, an offensive word?

“Offensiveness is in the eye of the beholder,” said William Downes, a linguist with a focus on religion at York University in Toronto. “The key question is offensive to whom?

“The term might be offensive if it reminded the Islamic community ... that there were those in society who actively disliked it and feared it because they identify it with a terrorist threat or an existential threat,” he continued, noting that using the word contributed to “othering” Muslims as a group.

Richardson, for his part, regrets employing the term in his 1997 Runnymede report and has outlined eight problems with using 'Islamophobic' as a descriptor of an anti-Islamic individual or activity. Characterizing someone as an Islamophobe, he says, implies that they are "insane or irrational," which impedes constructive dialogue, obscures the context-specific roots of the observed hostility, and erroneously portrays anxiety about Muslims as a minority condition.

“The key phenomenon to be addressed is arguably anti-Muslim hostility, namely hostility towards an ethno-religious identity within western countries (including Russia), rather than hostility towards the tenets or practices of a worldwide religion,” Richardson writes. “The 1997 Runnymede definition of Islamophobia was ‘a shorthand way of referring to dread or hatred of Islam—and, therefore, to fear or dislike of all or most Muslims.’ In retrospect, it would have been as accurate, or arguably indeed more accurate, to say ‘a shorthand way of referring to fear or dislike of all or most Muslims—and, therefore, dread or hatred of Islam.’”

Aslan, meanwhile, is supportive of the term. “It’s the proper word,” he told me. “As with any kind of bigotry, anti-Muslim sentiment is not based on a rational response but an emotional one. Bigotry is a result of fear. Speaking about it as a phobia makes sense.”

“Bigotry resides in the heart, not brain,” he continued. “The problem with an emotional response like fear is that it is impervious to data and information. I would say that all racism and bigotry is phobic in one sense or the other. To me, Islamophobia is a neologism that works.”

In fact, Aslan prefers “phobic” to the related “anti” construction. “To use a word like 'anti-Semitism' doesn’t make sense, because you can be a Jew and not a Semite, [and] be a Semite and not a Jew,” he said. “Like any word, ['Islamophobia'] is ultimately based on a consensus by the people who use it, and despite the fact that anti-Semitism is not a proper word to literally describe vitriol against Jews, it’s come to mean it. In other words, it might not be the most precise term, but it works.”

Nathan Lean isn't enthusiastic about the term, but he hasn't come across a better alternative. “Do some people use the word ‘Islamophobia’ irresponsibly? Sure,” he said. “Does that mean that the word is bad on the whole or that we should ditch it? Absolutely not. Doing so denies the existence of a real threat facing Muslim communities by handicapping the way we talk, write, and think about it. It also prevents [us] from finding a more equitable way forward.”

The impact of Islamophobia

Affiliation.

• 1 Institute of Psychoanalysis, London
• PMID: 19795546
• DOI: 10.3366/e1460823509000397

Muslims, as members of minority communities in the West, grow up against a background of everyday Islamophobia. I suggest that the Muslim self internalized in such a setting is denigrated (Fanon 1952), a problem usually grappled with during adolescence when identity formation is the key developmental task. This typically involves the adolescent taking on polarized positions and embracing extreme causes. Following the 9/11 and 7/7 attacks Islamophobia intensified, which can be understood, at the psychological level, as an internal racist defence against overwhelming anxiety. Within that defensive organization, which I describe, fundamentalism is inscribed as the problematic heart of Islam, complicating the adolescent's attempt to come to terms with the inner legacy of everyday Islamophobia. I explore these themes through a case study of a young man who travelled to Afghanistan in the 1990s, and by brief reference to Ed Husain's "The Islamist" and Mohsin Hamid's novel "The Reluctant Fundamentalist".

Publication types

• Historical Article
• Adolescent Behavior* / ethnology
• Adolescent Behavior* / physiology
• Adolescent Behavior* / psychology
• Adolescent Development / physiology
• Cultural Diversity*
• Europe / ethnology
• History, 20th Century
• Identification, Psychological
• Islam* / history
• Islam* / psychology
• Middle East / ethnology
• Psychology, Adolescent* / education
• Psychology, Adolescent* / history
• Race Relations* / history
• Race Relations* / legislation & jurisprudence
• Race Relations* / psychology
• Religion / history
• Social Conditions / economics
• Social Conditions / history
• Social Identification
• Social Values / ethnology
• United States / ethnology

Essay on Islamophobia and Its Effects

Thesis statement, introduction, causes of islamophobia, effects of islamophobia.

• Islamophobic Incidents
• Efforts Against Islamophobia

Islamophobia has directly affected young Muslims; the negative perceptions that are associated with Islam may lead to self-exclusion and exclusion, with noticeable effects on self esteem and social practices. A lot of efforts were made to control the effects that were triggered by the impact of Islamophobia.

Experts define Islamophobia as fear against, or prejudice or hate towards Islam or Muslims. (islamophobia.org) There has been an increase of the perceived trend of Islamophobia in the 2000s, that been linked to the 9/11 attacks in the USA, while on the other hand some relate it to the rapidly growing Muslim populations in the Western World, due to both immigrations and high fertility rate.

A lot of young people are negatively affected by Islamophobia. Young Muslims are directly and highly affected by it, the facts that lead to many acts of discrimination. It’s quite obvious that negative perceptions associated with Islam may lead to self-exclusion and exclusion, with noticeable effects on self esteem and social practices.

The concerns of Muslim world over the rise of Islamaphobia have become one of the major challenges of today’s world. This phenomenon is voiced very strongly in global and regional politics troubling the relationship between Islam and Western countries. Terrorism has assumed serious proportions and become major cause Muslim stereotyping in the modern world where the role of media is central. Media wars took turned for the worst since the 9/11 terrorists attacks in the US.

As a result, Muslims are subjected to different forms of discrimination inciting hatred and unrest in the society. This has been blamed on manipulation and misrepresentation of actual facts by media particularly in the North America, Britain and Europe. Media portrayal of Muslims in an offensive and denigrating manner witnessed unsettling changes on both systems making Muslims victims of terror and violence.

Media have been delegated the responsibility of shaping public opinion while covering reality at the same time, but in this case, continued attacks by a section of marginal groups by the West has fostered a culture of intolerance and misunderstanding.

Media shapes how we see the world, and by choosing negative and frightening names for people in communicating the crisis problem greatly shapes individual’s perception towards the group in question. Mirza (2009) argues that global dominance of Western media is capable of influencing people against Islam and Muslims by using the 9/11 attacks to capitalize its political campaign.

Mirza (2009) adds that the media depict Muslim what Mirza (2009) terms as “fundamentalism”, “extremism” and “racialism” (p.1). Media being the central information point represent Muslims as collective victims of terrorisms and a security threat to the Western people hence the reason for their war justification in wars tone countries.

While politicization of how media has stereotyped the entire Muslim group, little efforts have been made to respond to new cadre of islamaphobic. Too often, we (viewers and readers) are caught in between engaging in revisionism debate of Islamic religion and the convincing media position of what would otherwise be classified as injustice.

Discrimination, Exclusion and Self-esteem

Dekker and Jolander (2009) argue that “Islam is the most anti-racist and anti- prejudicial way of life” (p.1). Politicisation of Muslim followers as terrorists has brought a very sad reality of hate and violence. It has been argued that discrimination of such groups has become a major problem on the minority in Muslim communities living in foreign countries diminishing the powerful universality of their culture.

The development of hostile relationships has been on the rise resulting to increased discrimination and social isolation among Muslims. Muslim youths on the other hand have experienced great social exclusion increasing chances of school dropouts and low performances. The European Monitoring Centre (EUMC) also reported high undesirable outcome of discrimination and violence towards Muslims to be attributed from negative mass media reports.

Many of these reports were associated with exclusion, discrimination and violence particularly in schools and in housing sectors. These unfounded hostility on Muslin followers led to one-dimensional interpretation of the Islam as ‘terrorists’ resulting to low school performances, high unemployment rate, low wages, verbal threats and physical aggression (Dekker and Jolander, 2009, p.3).

EUMC Reports

European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) reports on the nature of discrimination against Muslim and Islamophobic incidents recorded high rates of discrimination incidents particularly in areas of employment, education and housing which it argues to be linked to Islamaphobic attitudes (Bohner, 2010, p.240).

Increased levels of Islamaphobic are represented in areas of poor housing and below average grades particularly in school going youths. In employment sector, EUMC (2004) argues that in Ireland State an increase of 7% in unemployment rates as opposed to the national average of 4 per cent as a result of low income levels. The same reports provided that European immigrants, more particularly Muslims are more likely to drop out of schools or even worse obtain lower qualifications as a result of discrimination.

In whereas religious education is involved, Imams without formal qualification with little understanding of the local social context invited to teach Muslim immigrants were likely to increase lack of understanding of Muslim religion. While on housing aspect, Muslim followers suffered greater vulnerability and insecurity in their housing status as opposed to other groups.

List of incidents described as “Islamophobic”

United kingdom.

Since the September 11 th attacks on the U.S, extremists groups have targeted Muslim communities in UK by vandalising their places of worship and intimidating their religion. For example, the Kingston Mosque was attacked by throwing bottles of beer and bacons and urinating on mosques following match against Muslim extremism (Commet, 2010, p.1).

United States

A Muslim cab driver was brutally attacked by a New York resident after professing to the Muslim religion (Siegel, 2010, p.1).

At the beginning of May, a group of unknown people attacked a mosque in Canadian City of Hamilton causing severe damages to Muslim schools and buildings which were estimated to have cost 5,000 Canadian dollars (Trend, 2010, p.1).

Efforts against Islamophobia and Conclusion

EUMC has proposed policies and measures to adequately tackle discrimination and addresses social injustice in areas of discrimination, employment opportunities and education standards that lead to social cohesion. Such strategies include;

• Implementation of legislation; EUMC proposes for specific measures to promote equality. It argues that formation of groups such as Race Equality Directive and the Employment Equality Directive will ensure minority individuals vulnerable to discrimination are aware of their rights.
• Recording and policing Islamic incidents. EUMC proposes for recording of racism incidents and encouragement of diversity police training programs.
• Implementation of social integration to ensure equal opportunities and encourage social cohesion should include Muslim representatives in policy making.
• Promotion of equal access to education and inclusion of Muslim religion in current curriculum to ensure history of minority groups are accurately represented (EUMC, 2004, p.4).

In practical efforts, Luxembourg Ministry of Education incorporated a syllabus on “Instruction religieuse et morale” which focused on Inter-faith dialogues and explains human values of non-Christian religions. Secondly, the Inter-faith dialogue known as the ‘Islamic Forums’ in the same country aimed at reducing prejudices and fears towards the Muslim community will greatly reduce Islamaphobia incidents.

Discussions on racism and Islamophobia in schools should be greatly encouraged to reflect diversity within communities. Encouraging Muslims to engage in Europe public life such as politics and social processes will greatly reduce Islamaphobic incidents. And lastly, media should validate its information to ensure its accuracy before reporting to the general public.

Bohner, G. (2001). Attitudes. Introduction to social psychology, 3 , 239-282.

Commet, S. (2010). UK: Mosque attacked by protesters against Muslim extremism . Web.

Dekker, H., & Jolanda, N. (2009). Islamophobia and its origins: A study among Dutch youth. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 20 (3), 1-31.

EUMC. (2004). Highlights of EUMC report: Muslims in the European Union: Discrimination and Islamophobia. Social Science Research , 45, 1-5.

Mirza, M. (2009). The Perception of Islam and Muslims in the Media and the Responsibility of European Muslims Towards the Media. Islamic Journal , 1, 1-4.

Siegel, E. (2010). Muslim cab driver stabbed in New York City Michael Enright arrested on hate crime charge. The Huffington Post , 1,1.

Trend. (2010). Unknown persons attacked mosque in Canada . Web.

• Chicago (A-D)
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IvyPanda. (2023, October 28). Essay on Islamophobia and Its Effects. https://ivypanda.com/essays/islamophobia/

"Essay on Islamophobia and Its Effects." IvyPanda , 28 Oct. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/islamophobia/.

IvyPanda . (2023) 'Essay on Islamophobia and Its Effects'. 28 October.

IvyPanda . 2023. "Essay on Islamophobia and Its Effects." October 28, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/islamophobia/.

1. IvyPanda . "Essay on Islamophobia and Its Effects." October 28, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/islamophobia/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Essay on Islamophobia and Its Effects." October 28, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/islamophobia/.

• Has Islamophobia Affected the Arab Nation?
• Islamophobia Effects on the Arab Nation
• Islamophobia and Its Impacts on British Muslims After 7/7
• Muslim Response to Islamophobia and Negative Stereotypes Associated With the Religion
• Islamophobia – Major Causes and Effects
• Islamophobia: Racialization and the Case of Poland
• Islamophobia Is on the Rise in Germany
• Women in Islam: Some Rights, No Equality
• Islamophobia: Bias to Muslims and War After the 9-11 Incident
• The Islamic Religion in the United States
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I urge Member States and the international community to stand in solidarity with journalists around the world today and every day, and to demonstrate the political will needed to investigate and prosecute crimes against journalists and media workers with the full force of the law.” UN Secretary-General António Guterres

What is Islamophobia?

Islamophobia is a fear, prejudice and hatred of Muslims that leads to provocation, hostility and intolerance by means of threatening, harassment, abuse, incitement and intimidation of Muslims and non-Muslims, both in the online and offline world. Motivated by institutional, ideological, political and religious hostility that transcends into structural and cultural racism, it targets the symbols and markers of being a Muslim.

This definition emphasises the link between institutional levels of Islamophobia and manifestations of such attitudes, triggered by the visibility of the victim’s perceived Muslim identity. This approach also interprets Islamophobia as a form of racism, whereby Islamic religion, tradition and culture are seen as a ‘threat’ to the Western values.

Some experts prefer the label 'anti-Muslim hatred,' fearing that the term 'Islamophobia' risks condemning all critiques of Islam and, therefore, could stifle freedom of expression. But international human rights law protects individuals, not religions. And Islamophobia may also affect non-Muslims, based on perceptions of nationality, racial or ethnic background.

A rising tide of anti-Muslim hate

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has repeatedly condemned the continuing acts of anti-Muslim hatred and bigotry around the world, warning on several occasions that this worrying trend targets not only Muslims but also Jews, minority Christian communities and others.

In his message for the International Day to Combat Islamophobia, Guterres warns that Muslims face institutional discrimination, barriers and violations of their human rights and dignity. “Divisive rhetoric and misrepresentation are stigmatizing communities. Online hate speech is fueling real-life violence”, he added.

Calling for a strong stance against all forms of bigotry, the Secretary-General urges leaders and individuals alike to condemn inflammatory discourse, safeguard religious freedom and promote mutual respect and understanding, while digital platforms must take a stand against hateful content and protect users from harassment.

Recent measures to combat Islamophobia include the adoption by the General Assembly of a new resolution requesting the Secretary-General to appoint a United Nations Special Envoy to Combat Islamophobia.

Hate speech and violence online and offline

In response to the alarming trend of rising hate speech around the world, the Secretary-General launched in 2019 the  United Nations Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech .

The UN Human Rights Chief also voiced his alarm over the rise in global hatred, including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, since the beginning of the Israeli military operation in Gaza (7 October) in response to the attack on Israel by Palestinian armed groups.

Volker Türk strongly condemned the sharp rise in cases of hate speech, violence, and discrimination, both online and offline. He emphasized that states must ensure a safe and enabling space for participation and debate, consistent with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

Lack of policies to promote diversity

States have a responsibility to address any hatred based on religion or belief in a manner that complies with human rights, recalls the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief , Nazila Ghane, in her last report on Hatred on the basis of religion or belief .

The expert stresses that advocacy of religious hatred that leads to discrimination, hostility or violence should be prohibited by law. While international norms and standards provide a framework to combat incitement to discrimination and violence, laws are not enough, and States should also adopt policies and programs that promote diversity and freedom of expression , especially in multicultural and interconnected societies, proposed Ghane.

Among her recommendations to the States, the Special Rapporteur proposes that countries could collect data on hate speech, take robust action against discriminatory speech, invest in trust-building, review legislation and policies and ensure no impunity for State actors who engage in hate speech.

Another report  by the former  UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief , Ahmed Shaheed , found that suspicion, discrimination and outright hatred towards Muslims had risen to 'epidemic proportions’ following the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 and other horrific acts of terrorism purportedly carried out in the name of Islam.

Combating Islamophobia

Many Governments have taken steps to combat Islamophobia by establishing anti-hate-crime legislation and measures to prevent and prosecute hate crimes and by conducting public awareness campaigns about Muslims and Islam designed to dispel negative myths and misconceptions.

The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution sponsored by 60 Member-States of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which designated 15 March as the International Day to Combat Islamophobia. The document stresses that terrorism and violent extremism cannot and should not be associated with any religion, nationality, civilization, or ethnic group. It calls for a global dialogue on the promotion of a culture of tolerance and peace, based on respect for human rights and for the diversity of religions and belief.

See other events around the world .

Let us keep working together to advance the shared values of inclusion, tolerance and mutual understanding — values that are at the heart of all major faiths and the United Nations Charter.” UN Secretary-General António Guterres

Did you know?

Guidelines for educators on countering intolerance and discrimination against muslims.

These Guidelines were developed jointly by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the Council of Europe and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

• General Assembly resolution establishing the Day (A/RES/76/254)
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief (A/RES/36/55)
• Countering Islamophobia/anti-Muslim hatred to eliminate discrimination and intolerance based on religion or belief  (A/HRC/46/30)
• A working definition of Islamophobia  
• UN Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech

Related websites

• Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief
• International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief
• World Interfaith Harmony Week
• World Day for Cultural Diversity
• International Day for Countering Hate Speech
• Hate Speech
• Fight Racism
• United Nations Alliance of Civilizations
• UN News articles

Fight Inequality, Fight Racism

Racism, xenophobia and related discrimination and intolerance exist in all societies, everywhere. Racism harms not just the lives of those who endure it, but also society as a whole. We all lose in a society characterized by discrimination, division, distrust, intolerance, and hate. The fight against racism is everyone’s fight. We all have a part to play in building a world beyond racism.

#Say No to Hate

Hate speech incites violence and intolerance. The devastating effect of hatred is sadly nothing new. However, its scale and impact are now amplified by new communications technologies. Because fighting hatred, discrimination, racism and inequality are among its core principles, the United Nations is working to confront hate speech at every turn. You can, too .

Why do we mark International Days?

International days and weeks are occasions to educate the public on issues of concern, to mobilize political will and resources to address global problems, and to celebrate and reinforce achievements of humanity. The existence of international days predates the establishment of the United Nations, but the UN has embraced them as a powerful advocacy tool. We also mark other UN observances .