The basis of the discussion at 'Islamophobia Conference 2016' held on Saturday, December 10th, related to findings from a report released in 2015 by organizers of the annual event, The Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC).
The report was entitled ‘Environment of Hate: The New Normal for Muslims in the UK’; it was well-received for its examination of the hardships that currently face Britain's Muslim communities.
"The significant rise in anti-Muslim rhetoric being given a credible voice in mainstream politics and media is a sign of our times, and it seems to serve a hidden purpose," Les Levidow, a senior Social Sciences research fellow at Open University, told the conference.
Anyone who is a critic of UK foreign policy is marginalised. There is a war on dissent #IslamophobiaConference
— IHRC (@ihrc) 10 декабря 2016 г.
"The government can now even target groups of non-violent individuals or groups who are even vaguely suspected as holding so-called 'extreme' or 'alternative' views. They then have the power to suspend organization activities, take away the basic rights of individuals, impose banning and even closure orders where any breach becomes an automatic criminal offense. This can also cause to antagonize the actions of the violent groups that exist out there, almost by default. These are all worrying dynamics and require a unified, collective response by us all," Levidow added.
Ramon Grosfoguel is an Associate Professor from the University of California at Berkeley; he attributed the rise of Islamophobia and the targeting of racial and religious minorities to the waning economic power of the traditional developed economies in the global economic system:
"There is a serious identity crisis in the West, it seems, and Islamophobia is a kind of transferring of working class discontent towards Muslims and refugees in Europe. In the US, this same discontent has been targeted towards Mexicans, Black communities and Latinos, as seen during the presidential elections," he told the conference.
Several Mosques Receive Same Threatening Letter, @CAIRNational Calls for Federal Probe https://t.co/PYYb1V5XWH #Islamophobia
— Race Forward (@RaceForward) 1 декабря 2016 г.
"Islamophobia has provided the presence of attacking a new enemy and channels discontent away from the elite, and the dominating systems as a form of manipulating preparation to impose more control over the broader populations. As a result, a police state which is very much already in place, is simply perpetuated to expand further and affect everyone in society," Grostoguel added.
The Panel members at the conference discussed in detail how they felt a combination of education, the legal system and specific counter-terrorism operations were further fuelling an irrational fear and self-censorship amongst citizens and thereby helping to facilitate worrying levels of police state powers.
As long as Britain is engaged in dirty colonial wars we can only expect dirty propaganda domestically #IslamophobiaConference
— IHRC (@ihrc) 10 декабря 2016 г.
Houria Bouteldja is an anti-racism activist who is based in France; she described the country as one of the most Islamophobic nations in Europe:
"Following the atrocious terrorist attacks, the government targeted entire families from just the Muslim communities who were based in the suburbs of Paris and across the country. The most worrying aspect was that the majority of the establishment, including the left-wing factions, did nothing about this and just let it happen," she told the conference.
Bouteldja spoke about the rising popularity of the likes of Marine Le Pen in France and the style of politics represented by Donald Trump in the US as being a frightening signal for everyone in the world, especially considering the overt anti-Muslim rhetoric expressed during their campaigns:
"But even more frightening on many levels is the weakness of the opposition, who are meant to fight against the rise of far-right politics, and just haven't done so adequately. We are seeing now that even the best political candidate choices in France from the radical left are Islamophobic, which is why a new progressive movement is needed, acting for the welfare of those in need of society representation." she said.
A member of the audience attending the conference commented on what she saw as a failure of democratic politics in the UK, where she felt a lack of accurate information and adequate choices impaired the Brexit vote. She claimed that this had divided the country on many levels, as opposed to being constructive in any way. In the same way, she felt the lack of adequate choice in the US elections had had a similar affect, which may have been part of an intended broader agenda.
We are dealing with a global project that is being coordinated by the Right and the extreme Right #IslamophobiaConference
— IHRC (@ihrc) 10 декабря 2016 г.
Sociology academic Ramon Grosfoguel provided his response:
"We don't know if the visible decline of Western-centric world control will cause to create a new progressive civilization in the future or whether the whole of humanity will simply be coerced into losing our way. We are living in a very challenging yet momentous moment in history and our collective actions now will determine the future of the world in a major way if we are to tackle the rise in hateful discourses. What is very much missing at the moment is a unifying voice of reason, and those in place to provide it are not doing a good enough job!"
