There is irrationality in this popular imaging. We know that terrorism has no race, ethnicity and religion. There are Christian terrorists as there are Caucasian bombers. In fact, the data show that of the 427 deaths in the US as a result of terror attacks from 2009 to 2018, only 23.4 percent were due to Islamist extremists. The greater majority of 73.3 percent were perpetrated by right-wing white extremists most of whom are also Christians, while only 3.2 percent were from left-wing extremists. Basque separatists are Catholic; and so are the members of the Irish Republican Army. The Ulster Loyalists are mainly Protestant. The Tamil Tigers are mainly Hindu while the members of the 969 Movement in Myanmar are primarily Buddhists.
But for some reason, the image of terror as Islamic has stuck in the minds of many. And it is easy to fall into this unfair and irrational stereotyping. I remember a few months after 9-11, on my way back to Manila after attending a conference abroad, when I, as someone who vigorously resisted the irrational stereotyping of Muslims, nevertheless felt fear when I saw an Arab family board my plane. I had to recover my bearings, but also understood how it was easy for those who are not well-informed or in full control of their political opinions, and are operating on the basis of what they see on media, to succumb to the unfair and irrational characterization of Muslims as terrorists.
The Middle East has always been positioned for objectification by the Western gaze. Palestinian post-colonial scholar Edward Said labeled this as “Orientalism” which is a description of how the West has subordinated Middle Eastern culture or the “Orient” to the West’s “Occident” as inferior, primitive, irrational, lewd and violent, even dangerous. The Arab has always been caricatured in popular culture as either an ignorant comic character or a violently irrational thug in contrast to the West’s reason and civilization. The modern and contemporary incarnation of this representation found its most unfortunate imagery in what is unfairly perceived as an irrationally violent culture that produces people who would strap backpacks with bombs on their bodies and detonate this in crowded places. It is a place that breeds terrorists who would do so as they profess their undying faith by shouting in religious jubilation as they pull the trigger, or fire their weapons, to carry out their mission to inflict damage on infidels, non-believers and those they consider as enemies of Islam.
And the fear felt by those who decades earlier only saw Muslims on the warpath in movies starring Harrison Ford was magnified after 9-11, and even more so after terror attacks in London and Paris, and other European capitals. In Asia, such was seen in the deadly bombings in Bali, Jakarta, Bangkok and Manila. And Marawi was all it took for Filipinos to finally realize that the Islamic State was no longer just a nightmare from a distance, but is in fact the face of terror that has struck much closer to home.
The flames of global Islamophobia are further fanned by the massive influx of migrants from the Middle East now flowing into Europe and North America. This flow of refugees is driven by the political turmoil that attends failing Arab states, from Syria to Lebanon to Iraq. It is tragic that this humanitarian crisis of what can be imaged as a modern-day Exodus of people seeking refuge in the West could now be seen as a form of invasion that threatens the security of their host countries. But it is not at all surprising. What all the citizens of Europe and North America just had to remind themselves to end up with this conclusion is that these migrant refugees are of the same race and religion as the ones who bombed London, Paris and New York. Reason can always take a leave when fear turns to hatred.
And so we see the re-emergence of white nationalism, of the kind that Adolf Hitler celebrated and installed. We see leaders like Donald Trump whipping up hatred towards the Islamic ‘other,’ using this as one of the justifications for erecting his wall from sea to shining sea on the Mexican border, even as he deploys the kind of rhetoric that inspires bigotry and hatred. It is a rhetoric that inspired Brenton Harrison Tarrant, the 28-year-old Australian who brutally murdered in cold blood 50 Muslims worshipping in two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. Tarrant even mentions Trump in his manifesto where he detailed his anti-immigration Islamophobia as a warrant for what he thought was a defense of white culture from Muslim invaders. It is easy to see Trump’s imprint on the text, even as he refuses to acknowledge it as he also refuses to admit that there is a growing global threat from right-wing white nationalism.
Here at home, we can rest with the thought that there is very little anti-Muslim backlash despite Abu Sayyaf, Maute and Marawi. In fact, we have even just strengthened the political rights of Muslims through the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. And we have a President who trains his violent rhetoric not towards Muslim terrorists but towards Catholic priests on whom he recently wished death, another kind of irrationality, but irrationality still.
https://www.manilatimes.net/islamophobia-and-irrationality/527860/
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