We aren’t doing enough: European Islamophobia

I have lived in a Muslim country my whole life, and have been exposed to the values and teachings of Islam, as well as their manifestations in people. Some of my closest friends, teachers, and classmates are Muslims. Their religion is not what defines them, and it certainly should not be the determining factor in whether they deserve to live. Despite the common misconception of Muslim people being backward, old-fashioned, and disrespectful, I have never once experienced this in all my years. Being a practicing Hindu and Indian immigrant, I have been the recipient of kindness, acceptance, support, integration, and respect from Muslims.

This is why it shocked me when, earlier this month, when 2 Muslim women were stabbed by two European women. The Algerian women were walking and asked the European women to please tie their dogs on a leash since they were scaring their children. In a quickly escalated altercation, the women took out a knife and started to slash these women, while demeaning them with words such as “Dirty Arabs”. I consider myself very well acquainted with social media and the news, yet I have personally found this to be one of the least covered stories I have ever heard of.

While this is a horrific story, it presents itself as a microcosm of prejudiced thinking. After reading this article, you will not fear and flinch every time you walk by white women, and you will not worry that they are radical xenophobes who are willing to attack at any moment. However, this standard is not upheld for Muslims. Many Muslims are profiled as dangerous and disrespectful because they are grouped together with Muslim extremists. Every Muslim in the world is not a fundamentalist, but this animosity can only suggest that people assume that they are.

It shocks me, that people have the ability to dislike a person because of the religion they follow. The hypocrisy is only heightened when we consider that all religions teach people to be respectful to everyone. In Christianity, the Golden Rule of Love Thy Neighbour still withstands in scripture but is often overlooked through Islamophobia. There was a 52% increase in Islamophobic attacks in France from 2017 to 2018 and in Austria, it was 74%. This is just the numbers. It is not the feelings. Anger. Trauma. Worry. Pain. Discrimination. It is none of these things. No one will ever be able to slip into the skin of the Muslims who are targeted every day by a continent we consider to be modern and accepting.

Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights provides a right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.
Article 10 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights: Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. This right includes freedom to change religion or belief and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or in private, to manifest religion or belief, in worship, teaching, practice, and observance.

In June this year, the Belgian Courts authorized the banning of the Muslim headscarf in the Haute Ecole. Another important aspect of Islamophobia apart from violent attacks are legal discriminations like this, hidden underneath a veil of a savior complex. People often view Muslim women as oppressed under their religion and veil, and needing liberation, even if it is forceful. A hijab is the choice of a Muslim woman herself, and giving her the choice to wear a headscarf is enshrined not only in her religion but in the core values of feminism. The liberation of a woman can be through modesty or promiscuity, and policing either of these is sexist at its core. Islamophobic sexism is not a quiet movement in Europe. In the case that Muslim women applied with a headscarf photo in their CV, only 3% of companies invited them to an interview in Germany. In the Netherlands, the organization Meld Islamofobie noted that 90% of the victims of Islamophobic incidents were Muslim women.

It is clear that Muslims in Europe face discrimination in a range of avenues. Whether it is in the cases of the Constitutional Court, employment opportunities, or violent attacks: the life of a Muslim in Europe is difficult. If I were to define privilege, I would do it by presenting these statistics. The life of Muslims in Europe has been deprived of convenience and safety, awarding privilege to white-passing/ white people because they would be less likely to be Muslim. There is no valid reason for widespread Islamophobia, and there is no moral argument for the harassment Muslims face on a daily basis.

Islamophobia is, and will always be a radical, immoral, and unethical, implementation of discrimination that should be eradicated not just in Europe, but in the whole world.

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