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General. the Multi-Polar World Today Is Increasingly Characterized By Lt Gen PR Kumar, PVSM, AVSM, RISING XENOPHOBIA VSM (Retd), former Director General AND ISLAMOPHOBIA of Military Operations. He continues IN EUROPE to write and talk on international and POINTERS FOR INDIA regional security and strategic issues. General. The multi-polar world today is increasingly characterized by authoritarian states/rulers/dictators, rising nationalism and religious fundamentalism, growing economic asymmetry, a thousand mutinies mainly regional but with regional and global power interventions making the situation worse, chronic instability like in Middle East, Afghanistan, and an increasing confrontationist clash between the democratic liberal world order and illiberal, non-conformist nations/regimes who want to follow their own pathways. Nations are compelled to constantly engage in 24X7 internal and external strategic balancing in a continuous phase of cooperation, competition, confrontation or even conflict if national aspirations are threatened. This transformation is fed by internal and external societal/cultural/historical/religious strife. Europe which was historically built on a shared belief in democracy, individual freedom, commitment to human rights, gender equality, freedom of speech and importantly religion, and right to migration/asylum has also been affected by the changing world. There was a time when Muslim scientists, astronomers, surgeons, and mathematicians were at the cutting edge of their disciplines. Muslims were then seen as representing a powerful, sophisticated, and rich world 2 civilization. Islamic mathematicians such as Al-Khwarizmi, Avicenna and Jamshīd al-Kāshī made advances in algebra, trigonometry, geometry and Arabic numerals. Islamic doctors described diseases like smallpox and measles, and challenged classical Greek medical theory. Today, ironically, Muslims are seen as destitute refugees escaping mad and autocratic Muslim rulersi. In this guise it is understandable that Europeans will not see Islam as part of European civilization. Therefore,it is necessary they peep into their own history, when Muslims were very much part of European culture and history, and impacted the Renaissance, Scientific Revolution, and Enlightenment. While many people talk of a “Judeo-Christian” Europe, the fact is that it is the Judeo, Christian, and Islamic religions, i.e. the Abrahamic faiths, that came together, while engaging with Greek philosophy, to create and nourish what we now know as European civilization.Chancellor Merkel’s welcoming of some million migrants was an act of compassion for which the world, have applauded her.The friction between a Europe that wishes to preserve its historic identity, and newcomers who wish to escape their own countries and move to Europeis real, not a delusion. There is unfortunately an alarming rise in xenophobia in which islamophobia is the pivotal constituent in Europe. At the outset, comprehensive statistical inputs indicate that contrary to presumptions and assumptions which a nationalist/original citizen feels/perceives the immigrants (from past and present wave of migrations in last 5/6 years) have indeed integrated with European nations well. Definition: Xenophobia and Islamophobia. Xenophobia is ‘dislike of or prejudice against people from other countries’ and Islamophobia is ‘unreasonable dislike/hatred or fear of, and prejudice against, Muslim or Islam. Many experts feel that the real danger to European unity and future, is neither economy, history, nationalism, or extreme political affiliations but rising xenophobia in which Islamophobia is the overriding factor.We have become accustomed to the word Islamophobia, but the “phobia” part softens the meaning as if it was a medical condition deserving of tolerance. EU legislation classifies anti-Muslim as racism, which throws up its ominous characteristic starkly. Racism is not a temporary or transitional phenomenon; it is a social pandemic that burrows into the structures of society, infiltrating and disintegrating all areas of life. Another popular term 3 commonly spoken today is ‘Political Islam’. Political Islam is any interpretation of Islam as a source of political identity and action. It can refer to a wide range of individuals and/or groups who advocate the formation of state and society according to their understanding of Islamic principles. This is not strictly applicable in Europe, at least for the present. The Why. Common factors that trigger xenophobia in general are differences in cultural and social perception, and the rejection of any alterations within the social environment and a lack of education.This has got cemented by highly publicized Islamic fundamentalism and dramatic visuals of terrorism globally, which unfortunately has cost many lives. Without pulling punches, another main cause is the Politicians' effectii;experts of behavioral sciences and international relations accept that politicians have a clear effect on the people, urging them to participate in xenophobic movements while fueling their ideologies with hateful rhetoric.“Politicians affect society. The stronger their words, the more effect they have, as they polarize people,” said Özdemir (Mahinur Özdemir), former member of the Belgian parliament). Soytekin (Serkan Soytekin), the press secretary of the DENK Party, first political party in the Netherlands established by migrants) endorses it and says “For instance, in Holland I suffer the same problems as my neighbor, but they create an artificial difference between us based on race and religion,”. He adds “Our first aim is to make people recognize the fact that there is xenophobia; then, to find the main causes of this issue and see if there are enough measures against it,” European History of Migrants Assimilation. Europe has historically been able to cope well with large influxes of refugees. Throughout the Cold War, for example, millions of people moved from Eastern to Western Europe, fleeing communism. Europe then resettled hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese refugees in the 1980s and 1990s. It even took large numbers of migrants from Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s, including many Muslims, but this was before Islam became politically toxic. There has been far greater political skepticism toward those fleeing conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, and now Syria. Concurrently, much of the Muslim world seems to be turning away from the liberal values that have defined Europe since 1945. A very visible change can be seen in Turkey, once a candidate for entry into 4 the European Union, now an increasingly authoritarian and religiously chauvinist state. Interestingly, Europe of 44/51 (7 transcontinental nations) nations shares responsibility for a smaller number of refugees than is currently in Lebanon alone? Ironically, ALL European countries without exception desperately need immigrant labour. The elephant in the roomiii is an underlying Islamophobia. The simple fact is that European member states don’t really want Muslim immigrants. The liberal political elites of western Europe have steered clear of admitting that the biggest single barrier to coherent asylum and immigration policies is public anxiety about Islam. The anti-Muslim bias is omnipresent not only geographically but also across the political spectrum. The right, the centre and the left; everyone seems to hold a grudge, although for different reasons. Stereotyping Islam/Muslims. Broad and overlapping categories within Islam/Muslims are available:- One source classifies them under three categories. Literalist Islam; those Muslims who believe that to be a good Muslim should mean to adhere to the letter and spirit of Islamic law; the mystics, those who believe in a warm, inclusive embrace of humanity which reflects the love of the divine for all creation; and finally,the modernists, those who believe in balancing faith with modernity. Those in this final category believed that modernity, with its characteristics of democracy and accountability, and Islam were compatible. It is this category that is under threat directly from the literalists.It is the failure of the modernist category that creates a backlashand gives space for the emergence of the Taliban, ISIS, and so on. Another method is to view them as “contextualistsiv”, who believe that the policies and practices of Islamist movements are driven less by ideology than by events, and are reactive and adaptive.The groups’ main goal is to survive as coherent organizations and political actors. And their use of religious rhetoric is often little more than “Muslim-speak”. Whereas the “the essentialist”, view holds that Islamists are fundamentally ideological and that any concessions they make to secularist principles or institutions are purely tactical: their participation in 5 electoral politics hardly precludes them from calling for violent jihad, as well. In other words, Islamists see the ballot box as little more than a path to power; once there, they would replace democracy with theocracy. The mistake could be in stereotyping/characterizing peoplewho come from across the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asiaas “Muslims” rather than as immigrants fromdifferent ethnicities or nationalities. Many Muslims actually wish to escape from being categorized as fundamentalist/too religious. In each European country the relationship of the Muslim minority to the host country is different and depends on the historical relationship with their country of origin and the circumstances of their arrival. After 9/11,especially in the US and Europe
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