[News] Islamophobia’s Five Zones

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<https://medium.com/@Prof.hatembazian/islamophobia-five-zones-ed504b8a9766>
Islamophobia’s Five Zones
Prof. Hatem Bazian - March 31, 2022
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How to document and identify the different and multifaceted manifestation
of Islamophobia across the globe? Researchers working on Islamophobia
should not approach the subject matter in a one size fits all type of
research or analysis and must account for the complex and different nature
of the phenomenon in various settings and the forces that shape it in each.
The causes and manifestation in the US, Europe, India and China or even in
Muslim majority states are different and emerge from specific sets of
stimuli despite sharing in the animus directed at the Muslim subject.

I propose a five zone framework to account for the various manifestation of
Islamophobia across the globe, while also keeping in mind that specific
features might be shared across all zones. The key factor to examine in
these five zones is articulation of state policies toward the Muslim
subject and how it is implemented. Here, I must caution the reader from
thinking that the prevalence of this key factor considered in the
demarcation means the absence of other elements. Take for example the
Muslim immigration-refugee factor, which cuts across may of the zones but
it has been mobilized as the key factor in US and Europe while pushing
White supremacist replacement theory.

*Zone One*, United States, English Speaking parts of Canada, Australia, New
Zealand, UK and parts of Western Europe that does not attempt to regulate
modes of religious observance, food consumption or clothing. This zone tend
to focus on “terrorism” and Countering/Preventing Violent Extremism (CVE)
discourses with the surveillance, preemptive prosecution, material support,
entrapment cases and use of informants or infiltration to govern and
control Muslim communities. “Good” Muslims are “welcomed” into civil
society circles as long as they are committed to identifying and distancing
themselves from the “bad” Muslims, who happen to oppose interventionist and
violent policies directed at Muslim majority states. Muslims are included
with their clothing, hijab, religious observances and food items but are
excluded on the basis of the ideas, policy critiques and epistemological
worldview.

*Zone Two*, France, Austria, and Canada-Quebec Province, Netherlands, and
Belgium. Islamophobia in this zone witnesses government efforts at defining
Islam itself, controlling Muslim institutions and governing individual
Muslim bodies and spaces of communities. We do find practices from Zone one
utilized in Zone two and the whole umbrella of fighting the war on terror
is deployed, however these countries are engaged in “civilizational
transformation” project in such a way that Islam itself is the subject of
the Islamophobic practices. The archetype of this Zone is current French
government policies and the attempt to fashion “French Islam” as a
distinctive practice that is different than the Maghreb or Turkish Islam
that, in the view of Macron and others, is not susceptible or can be said
to be impossible to be French to the core. Islam itself is the site of
Islamophobic discourse and every element of asserting Muslim agency is
problematized by the state and its far reaching infrastructure.

*Zone Three*, Arab and Muslim Majority States. The list of states includes
most of the OIC members who each deploy a version of state crafted Islam
and anyone and any group that does not adhere to it is labeled terrorist
and subject to prison, violence and total elimination. The basic framework
is identification of “good” Islam (the one represented by the state and its
elites) and the “bad” Islam (the one represented by opposition or taking a
different approach to Islam). The good Islam-Bad Islam binary is employed
across OIC member states to varying degrees and all the tools used in Zone
one and two maybe utilized but the goal is to have an Islam that affirms
the unconditional power of the state including total power to eliminate any
and all opposition. Disagreeing with the government is terrorism that
brings with it long prison sentences and more often than not executions.
What is unique about this Zone is the affirmation of Islam as a source of
guidance for the society and leaning on state religious authorities to
instrumentalize “fatwa” (religious legal opinion) to support state
exclusion or inclusion. Islam is what the state says it is and any
divergence from it is a form of terrorism.

*Zone Four*, The Genocide Zone. The list of states includes China, Bosnia,
India, Kashmir, Myanmar and Palestine. In this zone Islamophobia manifest
itself in efforts to eliminate in part or transfer out Muslim populations
from each of the countries listed. Again, the tools and arguments might
utilize those that are listed in Zone one, two and three but the
distinction in here is that the Muslim population is the subject of
governments efforts directed at or planning for a genocide as well as
transfer out. The genocide can take many forms including cultural,
epistemological, sexual violence including rape, linguistic, prison
“educational” camps, inferior citizenship and legal status, ethnic
cleansing, and out right murder. Governments posit that Muslim religious
and cultural difference is a threat to the national identity and utilize
historical materials and myths to affirm the need to commit genocide and
transfer Muslims out of the country.

*Zone Five*, The Social Media Zone. The Social Media Zone is transnational,
non-governmental, pervasive and, in reality, is ground zero for all
conspiracy theories and demonization of the Muslim subject. The replacement
theory pushed by White Supremacist in Europe, Love Jihad promoted in India,
and Creeping Sharia in the US are all pushed against Muslims in the social
media space, then make their way into mainstream media outlets and
political rhetoric. Companies like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube
among others have made it possible to spread the most outrageous false
claims about Islam and Muslims, as well as facilitating instances of open
calls to violence. The content is instantaneous, which often leads to
violent mobs acting upon it within a framework that increasingly is stoking
segments within the society against Muslims in the hope of consolidating
and winning political power. Also, the social media space has become a
massive arena for intelligence, data collection and surveillance of
Muslims, as well as its use to systemically target them in governmental run
operations. The current social media algorithm is Islamophobically
fine-tuned to permitting and amplifying anti-Muslim bigoted discourses.
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