Heard of Christianophobia? What drives Islamophobia?

Looking into the complexities of Islamophobia, it is hard to point out what exactly are the reasons that drive this sense in the minds of many. It is safe to say that it is only a small minority that looks at Islam as an alien idea to the Western culture, however, their voices are louder and it makes all the difference when it comes to perception.

It is a fact that in the early days, Muslim migration to the West was considered a symbol of multiculturalism. In my opinion, Islamophobia in the West has nothing to do with the terrorist activities of those who claim to be Muslims. Enough number of atrocities have been committed by Christian denominations in the West, however, the world has never heard the term ‘Christianophobia’.

The turbulent past between Protestant and Catholics left Britain and Northern Ireland in dispute for centuries. Yet, the animosity and violence that followed had never escalated into creating a sense of phobia. I guess it is the cultural practices and a different world view in general that puts one community at odds with another. The term ‘clash of civilisations’, which underlines that people’s cultural and religious identities, will be the primary source of conflict in the post Cold War world perhaps holds true.

War and battles alone, don’t alienate one population from another as much as cultural incompatibility does. Even religious differences cannot entirely be the underlying reason that puts people at odd with each other. If that was the case, Hindus and Buddhists living in the West would have faced a similar kind of fate of, which Muslims face today.

One of the primary reasons for Islamophobia in the West could be driven by the intolerance towards visible cultural and religious symbols that are seen in public. To the Westerners, these kind of symbols are perceived as odd, and that too, in a cultural matrix that is prominently secular and in which its population maintain their ethnic and religious identity as a private affair.

Perhaps social scientists can do a research on this phenomena to shed some light on the psychological factors that are involved, that way we might be able to address the issue better.

— The reader is an Indian business development coordinator based in Dubai