By Kazim Alam
The fight against Islamophobia is long and arduous, but Muslim nations refuse to be browbeaten by ongoing assaults on their identity and faith.
“Islamophobia in its essence is a political problem. Together with some other Muslim countries, Türkiye has become the voice of Muslims on this issue,” says Turkish-German University Associate Professor Dr Enes Bayraklı, who is also the co-editor of the European Islamophobia Report.
He says the fact that Türkiye is vociferously condemning Islamophobia is particularly important because many of the Western leaders, especially in Europe, refrain from even mentioning this word.
“Naming the problem at the top diplomatic forums is really important to exert pressure on these (Western) governments to acknowledge the problem. They do not even recognise the problem,” he tells TRT World.
Geolocating hateful content
A study published by the Islamic Council of Victoria, an Australia-based organisation, showed more than 3.7 million Islamophobic posts made on X, formerly Twitter, between August 2019 and August 2021. More concerning was the discovery that the social media platform removed only 14.8 percent of anti-Muslim posts after nearly a year.
About 86 percent of geolocated anti-Muslim posts originated from India, the United States and the United Kingdom, it showed.
Türkiye has condemned these incidents in the strongest terms.
“The increase and spread of hostility towards Islam along with international terrorism is worrying. These negative developments have reminded us again that we need more solidarity, more understanding of each other and tolerance,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a group of global leaders late last year.
Türkiye has led various initiatives at international forums like the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Council of Europe to combat Islamophobia.
Bayrakli says the importance of Türkiye highlighting the issue of Islamophobia on international platforms can’t be overstated. Building global coalitions with countries like Pakistan and Malaysia that have been equally vocal on this issue is key, he says.
“Currently, many European countries don’t even register hate crimes of this sort. They don’t publish official data on this issue,” he says, adding that highlighting the issue at multilateral forums will raise awareness at the global level.
Farid Hafez, senior researcher at Georgetown University’s The Bridge Initiative, says economic and political pressure should be exerted on countries like France that have institutionalised Islamophobia.
Calling for the dismantling of what he calls the “Countering Violent Extremism (CVE)” infrastructure, Hafez says it has allowed for the strongest crackdown on Muslim civil society, which is fighting Islamophobia in the West.
“CVE as a concept is not only targeting violence, but has allowed several European nation-states to criminalise Muslim religion per se, from wearing the Hijab to having mosques,” he tells TRT World.
“Without (international) pressure, there won’t be any incentives for European governments to abandon their politics as usual,” he says.
