Oftentimes, in Western countries, Muslims are impartially and arbitrarily perceived as supporters of terrorism. The negative perceptions, prejudices, and discriminations are existential threats to Muslims.
After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, in the United States, crimes against Muslims surged in the US.
The terrorists hijacked four passenger jetliners and crashed them into major US buildings killing about 3,000 people. The attacks are said to be carried out by al-Qaeda terrorists.
However, they have set the pace for the new era of hate crimes and Xenophobia against Muslims even after more than two decades.
FBI statistics reveal that there was a spike in hate crimes against Muslims after the 9/11 attacks, and are still on an upward trend in the US.
Also, a leaked FBI travel watch list in June, indicated that a vast majority of those listed for air travel bans or subjected to extensive scrutiny were Muslims.
In Europe, too, Muslim populations are targeted as potential terrorists.
In 2015, the European Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans, described Islamophobia as “one of the biggest challenges in Europe.”
According to the European Islamophobia Report 2021, anti-Muslim sentiment was “as pressing a problem” across the continent as it was in previous years.
The report said that the UK and France became “the main spots of anti-Muslim hatred and Islamophobic incidents.”
“Anti-Muslim campaigns of far-right parties in EU member states dominate the discrimination against Muslim individuals and communities,” it added.
Moreover, the report said in all areas of life Muslims face systemic discrimination from employment to health care, education and the justice system.
Apart from such discriminations Muslims are facing in Europe, the desecration of the Muslims’ holy book, the Quran, has become a trend lately, especially in Sweden and Denmark.
The blasphemous acts have sparked protests across the Muslim world, while European governments justify their inaction on grounds of advocating the so-called freedom of speech.
The animosity towards Muslims and the unfounded fear and even hatred of the Islamic faith and Muslims would result in the othering of ethnicities and systematic dehumanization. The consequences could be horrific.
In July 1995, a genocidal massacre took place in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica. About 8,000 Bosnian Muslims were murdered by the Army of the Bosnian Serb Republic led by General Ratko Mladić.
Srebrenica needed to be “ethnically cleansed” to create a territorially contiguous political entity of Republika Srpska.
In another classic case of ethnic cleansing, nearly 24,000 Rohingya Muslims have been killed by Myanmar’s state forces Since August 25, 2017, according to a report by the Ontario International Development Agency.
The report also added that more than 34,000 Rohingya were also thrown into fires.
The instances of genocide and ethnic cleansing against Muslims could easily spread to other parts of the world.
Demonization and persecution of Muslims, especially in Western countries, can undeniably lead to the abuse and murder of thousands of Muslims by non-Muslim regimes.
By Maryam Qarehgolzou
