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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://medium.com/@Prof.hatembazian/islamophobia-five-zones-ed504b8a9766">medium.com</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Islamophobia’s Five Zones<br></h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Prof. Hatem Bazian - March 31, 2022<br></div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div><p><img alt="" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/576/1*0o_Aq-ePlgeiHeOOIN7Lrg.gif" role="presentation" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="451" height="407"></p><p id="e7aa">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.</p><p id="gmail-a327">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.</p><p id="gmail-12e9"><strong>Zone One</strong>,
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.</p><div role="button" tabindex="0"><p><img alt="" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/700/1*7F0RYXTeIhbf26l4328rqw.png" role="presentation" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="451" height="385"></p></div><p id="gmail-6da2"><strong>Zone Two</strong>,
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.</p><div role="button" tabindex="0"><p></p></div><p id="gmail-8499"><strong>Zone Three</strong>,
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.</p><p id="gmail-60bc"><strong>Zone Four</strong>,
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.</p><div role="button" tabindex="0"><p><img alt="" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/700/1*Uq_GdTApOxEml6aKs76LiQ.jpeg" role="presentation" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="451" height="254"></p></div><p id="gmail-6b04"><strong>Zone Five</strong>,
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.</p><p><img alt="" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/672/1*JcdJ3s3L-VMj0zO4Qti3Bw.gif" role="presentation" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="442" height="451"></p></div></div></div>
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