Islamophobia in Europe is the unpleasant act, mindset and perspective of opposition by Europeans towards the Islamic religion or Muslims. The rise of anti-Muslimism has started since the late 20th century where a lot of terrorism attacks occurred were mainly done by the Islamic State (ISIS), Al-Qaeda and many more Islamist individuals. One specific incident that became the trigger to the use of the wording and the act of islamophobia is the 9/11 attack targeting the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City which was the operation of the Islamic terrorist group, Al-Qaeda. The strongly cultured Islamic tradition also become a factor that leads to the increasing number of Islamophobic incidents across the world.
When a person sees Muslims as a big figure, the more irritated the person will be when he or she is surrounded by the presence of them (Husain, 2014). One of the factors leading to islamophobia is the fact that Muslims are very visible and can be easily recognised by the way of their traditional clothing. The display of women in a full niqab and less common for the men wearing a long, ankle-length robe that is usually white in colour gives off the impression of a very different culture where they may come off as really standing out from the crowds. Ever since the 9/11 terrorist attack, views on Muslims have been negatively impacted where these people are stereotyped as terrorists and are seen as the enemy. Many reported cases involving unpleasant acts of the Muslim community contributes a lot in the perception of the non-Muslims. From news on persecuted and murdered non-Muslims to gangs of specifically Pakistanis who targeted young girls, the view on the Islamic community has changed over the years where they are often seen as overly-sensitive and aggressive especially when it comes to anything that associates and affiliates with their belief.[1]
While there can be many causes that lead to the rise of Islamophobia, some remarkable events may be the one of them. Back in 2014, a video by the Islamic State group went viral immediately after being released. The whole purpose of exposing the video was to send out a message to Britain, who at that time, together with America planned to attack the group. The video shows the beheading of an innocent British aid worker, David Haines, who was forced to read out a message that claims that David Cameron, the current British prime minister at that time is responsible for his death. The terrorist group had also deliver a warning that another British hostage will be the next one to be executed. Previously on 19 August, a video was also released showing the murder of an American journalist, James Foley. He was the first to be executed in the IS mode (Miller, 2014).[2]
Muslims in many parts of the world go through hostility that come in various forms in their everyday lives. The community is living in an unhealthy environment where people around see them as a threat and Muslim refugees are perceived as invaders. The worsening situation was identified as an increase in the number of discrimination cases was reported. Not only that but it was also identified through social media and the rise in political issues regarding the topic. A number of countries in the European continent started the "burqa bans" in the attempt to regulate Muslim women from wearing religious Muslim attire such as niqabs and veils taking away the freedom of religion (Benoist, 2018).[3] As reported by Akbar Shahid Ahmed (2017) based on the words of the ministry, the attacks on the immigrants that have just arrived in Germany in 2016 are almost thrice in number compared with the recorded number of attacks a year back, in 2015.[4]
In 2017, the number of attacks recorded on anti-Muslims was excessive and it came to the point where even the victims were too frightened to even report the committed crimes that were put against them. Based on an analysis made by EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), an estimation of only about 12% of those who have suffered and had to go through discrimination and actions of hate reported the cases to the officials meanwhile the rest remained silent. After a study on Islamophobia was conducted in 33 countries in Europe, the increase in Islamophobic incidents was claimed to be significant as noted by Enes Bayrakli and Farid Hafez in the European Islamophobia Report 2017. The statistics were examined and evaluated by 40 researches that reside in these European countries that were being observed. For a country that is one of the most vital and impactful among the others in the continent, Germany has a dreadful record on anti-Muslim discrimination. In 2017, the number of hatred incidents reached almost as high as 1000 and on top of that, not only do the people had to experience being disfavoured, over 100 attacks took place on some mosques, the Islamic place of worship. At that time, the daily average of crime committed against refugees who were also targeted was 5.2 percent (Ataman, 2018).[5]
One of the most highlighted cases of Islamophobia took place in Luckenwalde where a Palestinian woman who was just hired in the town hall for an internship was fired from her job on day one because she was wearing a headscarf and refused to take it off when she was told to. In the defence of the mayor, she claimed that the Muslim refugee wearing the headscarf represents a religious perspective and it violates the neutrality of the working environment (Hall, 2016).[6]
Even in Hungary, the doorway country for asylum seekers who wish to enter Western Europe, Muslims give off a very strong image of terrorism. They are not seen as refugees but rather as invaders. Although the United Kingdom is known to have large diversity, and is thought to be multi-cultural, Muslims are often identified as non-citizen and as potential terrorists. In a way, Islamophobia is just a form of racism. Racists in Germany strongly believe that problems come from being Muslims (Benoist, 2018).[3]
Phobia, according to the Cambridge English Dictionary refers to an unreasonable fear and hate towards an object or a particular situation.[7] While the word Islamophobia is described in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia as the illogical fear in the way people communicate or act that oppose Muslim individuals and the religion itself including the communities.[8] Any discriminatory act or judgment on Muslims can be considered as an act of Islamophobia. The term has been commonly used ever since the 9/11 attack but was originated in 1970s long after the various forms of Islamophobia occurred by an Iranian fundamentalist, where the aim of the creation of the word was not specified whether or not it is to be used on the religion or the people who believe in Islamism (Peretz, 2011).[9]
A study of the Islam history in the US by Jennifer Williams (2017) claims that the bigotry started in the American history during the slavery era where the trading of slavery occurred in which Muslims were brought into America as slaves since 1950s. Ever since they entered the US, they were not seen as none other than people who are different, they were recognised as the “other”. Most of the time, the African Muslims were isolated from the enslaved Africans and the white Americans due to the beliefs and practices of the Islamic religion that distinguish them from the others. These Muslim migrants practice very strong Islamic culture, they conserve their traditions, values and identity that they give the impression of not blending in with the citizens of America. Eventually, as many as almost all of them converted their beliefs to Christianity to adapt in the new environment. At the time when the image of African Muslims had started to fade in the US, millions of immigrants began arriving to the shores of the country where a large percentage of these newcomers were from the Islamic Middle Eastern countries (Williams, 2015).[10]
After the rise of Islam in the 7th century CE, there is no doubt that the existence of Muslims in Europe has been present since. Some parts of the continent were even ruled by the Islamic rule for a short period of time, in the 9th to 11th century in Malta, Sicily and parts of Southern Italy. The Mongol expansion into Eastern Europe also played a big role in the history of the Muslim world and Europe as the rulers of the realms left in the 13th and 14th century became Muslims (Nielsen, 2011).[11] The growth of the Islamic communities is supported by migration and the conversion of some region into Muslim countries. A study conducted shows that the biggest factor that cause the expansion of Muslims between 2010 and 2016 is the migration of the people that seek for asylum in Europe (Hackett, 2017).[12]
According to an article by C.L. Illsley (2018), Islam at that time holds a position as the second most popular religion having 1.8 Billion followers all around the world compared to Christianity as the largest religion with 2.3 Billion believers.[13] In 2018, the world’s population was reported to be 7.7 Billion, this indicates that as of that year, the Muslim population covers around 23.4% of the whole world’s population ("World Population," n.d.).[14]
Over the past few years, the number of Islamic followers has been rising drastically and it is claimed to be the fastest- growing religious group in an article published in the year 2017. Muslims were predicted to have a significant grow between the years 2015 and 2060 and are expected to exceed the number of Christian followers as the current largest religion. This forecast is the result of the study in the growth of the Islamic population in the past. According to a survey, Muslim women have an average of 2.9 children. This number is the largest compared to women from other religions, Christian women at 2.6 and others at 2.2, which indicates that the fertility of the community exceeds the non-Muslims. Aside from that, it was also reported that the religion has the youngest median age recorded in comparison to other religions which implies that there will be more Muslims having children in the future rather than Christians or Buddhists bearing children. With these two facts based on surveys being considered, supports the estimation of the extreme rise of the Muslim population in the upcoming years (Lipka & Hackett, 2017).[15]
Muslims make up about 4.9% of the Europe population in 2016 but, with the vast number of migrants from predominantly Muslim countries entering the continent, this percentage is bound to grow bigger (Hackett, 2017).[12] Although for some political reasons, the actual number of the Muslim population in some places are kept hidden and instead, authorities laid out the reduced number. In other cases, people are pressured into believing that being Muslims means putting their lives at risk. This results to many refusing to be identified and declare themselves as Muslims which automatically lowers the statistics. Situations like this can often be found in countries where the Islamic community is less and is a minority. Meanwhile on the other hand, where an exact figure is not present, the number is commonly estimated and this estimation is frequently unrealistically excessive. In certain times, miscalculation of the real number of the Muslim population of a country exist due to researchers assuming that people originating from various places are Muslims when in reality, this may not be appropriate therefore, making the data imprecise and illegitimate (Nielse, 2011).[11]