Final Text of Imam Dr Abduljalil Sajid's Paper at OSCE Cordoba 9 June 2005
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Final Text of Imam Dr Abduljalil Sajid’s paper at OSCE Cordoba 9 June 2005 http://www.osce.org/item/9735.html Full Text of Paper By Imam Dr Abduljalil Sajid, Chairman Muslim Council for Religious and Racial Harmony UK, "Islamophobia: A new word for an old fear" - English (PDF) http://www.osce.org/documents/cio/2005/06/15198_en.pdf “Fighting intolerance and discrimination against Muslims - Islamophobia: facilitating integration and respecting cultural diversity: Islamophobia: A new word for an old fear” OSCE CONFERENCE ON ANTI-SEMITISM AND ON OTHER FORMS OF INTOLERANCE Cordoba, 8 and 9 June 2005 Session 4: Fighting intolerance and discrimination against Muslims - Islamophobia: facilitating integration and respecting cultural diversity Islamophobia: A new word for an old fear By Imam Dr Abduljalil Sajid Chairman Muslim Council for Religious and Racial Harmony UK 8 Caburn Road Hove BN3 6EF (UK) Tel: 01273 722438 FAX: 01273 326051 Mobile: 07971861972 Email: [email protected], [email protected] Bismillah Hir Rahma Nir Rahim (I begin with name of God the Most Kind the Most Merciful). I greet you with the greetings of Islam (Assalamu Alaykum wa Rahmatullah wa Barakathu (May God’s blessing and peace be with us all.) "And they ill-treated them (Believers) for no other reason except that they believed in Allah" (Al-Quran 85-8) A PRIZE-WINNING writer specialising in Islamic affairs says Islamophobia is “the new anti-Semitism” in Britain. William Dalrymple, whose book White Mughals won awards last year for its depiction of a British-Muslim love affair in 18th-century India, said: “Just as Islam has replaced Judaism as the second religion in this country, so I believe it is becoming very clear that Islamophobia is replacing anti-Semitism as the principle expression of bigotry in this country.” (See: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,175-1225486,00.html) 1 I am honoured -- and deeply humbled -- to be invited to speak to you this afternoon on the very important and timely topic of Fighting intolerance and discrimination against Muslims - Islamophobia: facilitating integration and respecting cultural diversity At the very out set I brought greetings of Iqbal Sacraine Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB the most representative body of British Muslim). MCB messages are enclosed at the last Appendix. I have brought some printed information about MCB - However, one can easily look at MCB website www.mcb.org.uk) I have pleasure to introduce you Mr Khalid Sofi an official delegate from MCB to this conference who is chairman of MCB legal Committee. I am very grateful to Spanish Government who invited me as their guest and to the British Government who included me as a member of their official Delegation. It is a great honour for me to be here in the city of Cordoba – the centre of Multi-faith and multi-cultures for centuries until 1492 when peaceful co-existence was forcefully denied. It is a great symbol of hope when the representatives of 55 world countries are meeting in Cordoba for two days and talking about practical measures for fighting intolerance and discrimination at all levels against all sections of their communities. The fact is that Islamophobia has replaced anti-Semitism as the new sharp end of racist issues in the world today. Last year at OSCE I said “Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia are two sides of the same coin” and it is an evil plague of Europe which is full of hate and re-emerged during recent years. After the September 11, attacks in the United States in 2001, the EU asked its then 15- member countries to compile reports on what effect the attacks had had on their Muslim communities. The European Monitoring Centre (EUMC) (2002) compiles these reports and all concluded that "hatred against Muslims and crimes against Muslims increased tremendously” Last year Open Society has produced reports on the situation of Muslims in major European counties and gave shocking conclusions of rise of hate crime against Muslims. Anti-Semitism Hatred against Jews (best known as Anti-Semitism) has been since past two thousand years however, hostility towards Islam and Muslims has been a feature of European societies since the eighth century of the Common Era. It has taken different forms, however, at different times and has fulfilled a variety of functions. For example, the hostility in Spain in the fifteenth century was not the same as the hostility that had been expressed and mobilised in the Crusades. Nor was the hostility during the time of the Ottoman Empire or that which was prevalent throughout the age of empires and colonialism.1 It may be more apt to speak of ‘Islamophobias’ rather than of a single phenomenon. Each version of Islamophobia has its own features as well as similarities with, and borrowings from, other versions. 1 See for example Noorad (2002), Sardar and Davies (2002), Halliday (2002) and Said (1987). 2 A key factor since the1960s is the presence of some Forty million Muslim people in European countries and they are not going anywhere. They are going to stay. Another is the increased economic leverage on the world stage of oil-rich countries, many of which are Muslim in their culture and traditions. A third is the abuse of human rights by repressive regimes that claim to be motivated and justified by Muslim beliefs. A fourth is the emergence of political movements that similarly claim to be motivated by Islam and that use terrorist tactics to achieve their aims. The word Islamophobia was first used in print in 1991 and was defined in the 1997 Runnymede Trust report as ‘unfounded hostility towards Islam, and therefore fear or dislike of all or most Muslims’. The term Islamophobia refers to unfounded hostility and fear towards Islam. It refers also to the practical consequences of such hostility in unfair discrimination, prejudice and less favourable treatment against Muslim individuals and communities, and to the exclusion of Muslims from mainstream political and social affair. The word ‘Islamophobia’ has been coined because there is a new reality which needs naming – anti-Muslim prejudice has grown so considerably and so rapidly in recent years that a new item in the vocabulary is needed so that it can be identified and acted against. In other European Union countries it is customary to use the phrase ‘racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism’ as a way of summarising the issues to be addressed. The phrase is cumbersome and is unlikely to be widely used in Britain. Anti-Muslim racism Anti-Muslim racism has been a feature of European culture at least since the Crusades, but has taken different forms at different times. In modern Britain its manifestations include discrimination in recruitment and employment practices; high levels of attacks on mosques and on people wearing Muslim religious dress; widespread negative stereotypes in all sections of the press, including the broadsheets as well as the tabloids; bureaucratic obstruction or inertia in response to Muslim requests for greater cultural sensitivity in education and healthcare; and non-recognition of Muslims by the law of the land, since discrimination on grounds of religion or belief is not unlawful with exception of EU Directive of 27 Nov 2000 which has been enacted in British domestic laws since 2 December 2003 only in the area of employment. Further, many or most anti-racist organisations and campaigns appear indifferent to the distinctive features of anti-Muslim racism, and to distinctive Muslim concerns about cultural sensitivity. Silence about anti-Muslim racism was particularly striking in relation to the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry report. ‘Where’s the Muslim,’ asked a headline in the Muslim magazine Q News, ‘in McPherson’s Black and White Britain?’ The magazine welcomed the report but described it as a two-edged sword: ‘As most of us are from visible minorities, we want racism to be firmly dealt with. But as victims of Islamophobia, we know that any attempts to tackle racism without also tackling Islamophobia will be futile … Much as Muslims want to confront racism, they have become disillusioned with an antiracism movement that refuses to combat Islamophobia and which, in many instances, is as oppressive as the establishment itself.’ An editorial in Muslim News commented that ‘the real litmus test of whether the lessons of the Lawrence tragedy have been learnt will be if … a Muslim youngster dies in an Islamophobic attack and his murder is not treated in the same way’. 3 When Islamophobia Commission issued a consultation paper, the Independent on Sunday (2 March 1997) ran a large headline in which we were accused of wishing to be ‘Islamically correct’. In a similar way there was a time in European history when a new word, anti-Semitism, was needed and coined to highlight the growing dangers of anti-Jewish hostility. The coining of a new word, and with it the identification of a growing danger, did not in that instance avert eventual tragedy. By the same token, the mere use of the new word ‘Islamophobia’ will not in itself prevent tragic conflict and waste. But, I believe, it can play a valuable part in the long endeavour of correcting perceptions and improving relationships. The term ‘Islamophobia’ The term ‘Islamophobia’ is not, admittedly, ideal, for it implies that one is merely talking about some sort of mental sickness or aberration. Some of the people quoted above do indeed sound as if they are mentally unstable. But the imagery, stereotypes and assumptions in their messages are widespread in western countries and are not systematically challenged by influence leaders. The writers quoted earlier, for example, are widely respected and are read with approval by millions of people.