Indicting Islamophobia.

• Author: Ruth, David
• Position: RELIGIOUS GROUNDS

ISLAMOPHOBIA represents a form of racism mixed with cultural intolerance as a whole, rather than simply intolerance of Muslims and Islam, according to a paper from a Rice University sociologist. "The Racialization of Islam in the United States: Islamophobia, Hate Crimes and 'Flying While Brown'" was published in the journal Religions. Author Craig Considine, a lecturer in sociology, reviewed more than 40 news articles and referenced dozens of academic studies relating to the experiences of American Muslims and the stereotypical depictions of them. His analysis revealed several findings from the various articles and research papers that support his argument that racism is a symbolic form of Islamophobia, which has been misrepresented as a form of religious bias that oppresses U.S. Muslims on the grounds that Islam is nefarious and antithetical to American values.

"We often hear that, because Muslims are not a race, people cannot be racist for attacking Muslims. This argument does not stack up. It is a simplistic way of thinking that overlooks the role that race plays in Islamophobic hate crimes."

Considine summarizes the findings: In 2016 alone, incidents of Islamophobia, including acts of violence and nonviolent harassment, rose by 57%; 59.2% of hate crimes in 2015 were linked to a race/ethnicity/ancestry bias--19.7% were linked to religious bias and 17.7% to a sexual-orientation bias; more than 50% of Muslims experienced some form of hostility between 2010-14, and more than one-third felt they had been targeted on the basis of being identified as Muslim; news outlets give drastically more coverage to crimes by Muslims, as attacks by Muslim perpetrators receive, on average, 449% more coverage than crimes carried out by non-Muslims; and, out of more than 1,000 Hollywood films depicting Arabs, 932 portrayed them in a stereotypical or negative light (for instance, Arabs/Muslims were constructed as the ominous figure: the bearded, dark-skinned, turban-wearing terrorist; only 12 films depicted these individuals in a positive way).

Considine indicates that, in spite of the racialization of Islam, the population of Muslims in the U.S. is heterogeneous. Of the approximately 3,300,000 Muslims living in the U.S. in 2017, no single racial or ethnic group accounts for more than 30% of the total population. Thirty percent of...