ISLAMOPHOBIA and THE COUNTER-TERRORISM STRATEGIES

De: Dr. Ergin Ergül

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

Islamophobia is a phenomenon about fear, hostility and hatred directed at Islam and Muslims, resulting in intolerance, rejection and discrimination towards Muslims in social life. Nowadays, this phenomenon, specifically originating from the Western Christian societies, is increasingly spreading out around the world. It seems that one of the main reasons of that is the fact that the cruel and inhuman acts of the terrorist organizations emerging in Islamic world especially after the 9/11 attacks and the terrorist attacks in Western countries carried out by those people coming from a Muslim country are wrongfully reflected and somewhat distorted in Western media and public opinion. However, it is not the Western countries but it is those Muslims who are incomparably the biggest targets and victims of those terrorist organizations and their cruel acts in their own countries, resulting in loss of lives and devastation. Another aspect of that suffering is that, since Islam and Muslims are associated with terrorism, Muslims who have been residing in Western countries as a legal citizen or immigrant for years are suffering from Islamophobic acts that almost seem like acts of counter-terrorism. There are various strategies prepared to counter terrorism at international and national level. It would be useful to know how those strategies, directly or indirectly, address Islamophobia. The aim of this article is to discuss the role of terrorism in spreading out the phenomenon of Islamophobia, by explaining two aspects of suffering, and to analyze the relationship between counter-terrorism policies and Islamophobia.