"There is a new wave of Islamophobia," professor Yasin Aktay warns. A two-day conference in Qatar on Islamophobia between Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 focused on the issue that goes beyond the West and is occasionally seen in the Muslim world itself.

The academics commented on the issue on the sidelines of the conference, held under the theme "Global Histories and Practices of Islamophobia" in Doha. The event, co-organized by Georgetown University Qatar, underscored the importance of relentless scholarship, dialogue, collaborative efforts and solidarity to dismantle harmful prejudice, bias and discrimination.

Islamophobia is form of racism

Speaking during a panel titled "Intellectual Roots of Islamophobia," Dr. Salman Sayyid, professor in Rhetoric and Decolonial Thought, University of Leeds, also argued that there is nothing rational about Islamophobia, but rather, it is one of the oldest forms of racism. Linked to power relations, it is often marked by the idea that Muslims cannot be contained in the nation-state.

"Islamophobia is a type of racialized governance that governs expressions of Muslimness, though you don’t have to be Muslim to be subject to Islamophobia. You just have to be Muslim adjacent or confused for being a Muslim." He argued that undoing Islamophobia requires not simply recognizing its intellectual roots but also preserving and cultivating Muslim identity in all its expressions.

With a focus on "Qatar, the World Cup, and Islamophobia," a panel of senior journalists and academics analyzed the negative patterns of Western media coverage with the swell of Islamophobic attitudes and colonial stereotypes before and during the mega-event.

Yasin Aktay, a sociology scholar who is a member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA), acknowledges that the rising rate of Islamophobia-related violence and state-level Islamophobia indeed represents a new wave, though such waves "have not been uncommon throughout history."

"Hostility toward Islam has been an important factor in forming European identity since the Crusades. It can be traced back to the Muslim conquest of Andalusia. Islamophobia has two angles. One is related to public sentiment, but Islamophobia is not simply a product of this sentiment. State-backed ideologies steer this mindset. It is out of the question to say states have no role in guiding this issue.

"On the contrary, politicians play an important role in this matter. Unfortunately, they tap into (Islamophobia) to gain support easily. They believe they won’t pay a price for promoting Islamophobia," Aktay told Daily Sabah.

Aktay points out that the rising far-right in Europe found something new for them in Islamophobia. "We thought the Nazi experience would teach Europe a lesson and would show that racism, whether in the form of anti-Semitism or not, is evil. They developed a sensitive approach toward anti-Semitism and you’d think this sensitive approach would end racism in Europe. But we see they only learned a lesson about anti-Semitism and did nothing about racism toward Muslims," he said. Aktay underlined that the high number of Muslims in Europe has challenged Europe. "They are more visible and it is now a question of how you view ‘others.’ It is easy to boast a multicultural society when there are a few Muslims in it. You could talk about it only when their numbers are high and (your view toward them is positive). Currently, we see the number of Muslims in Europe is proportionate to the degree of tolerance toward Muslims. By not preventing Islamophobic attacks, Europe lost in this test (of tolerance)," Aktay says.

Dr. Safwan Masri, dean of Georgetown University Qatar, said Islamophobia has been around for a thousand years. "It has been around since the time of Medieval Europe coming into contact with this part of the world. The cradle of civilization, Baghdad, and the great works and great translations that emanated here, and that was the first exposure to Muslims and the Muslim world. We really experience forms of Islamophobia since that time and certainly with the rise of European empires and the domination and power domination of part of this world, and it’s been something that is going on," Masri says.

He underlines the need to distinguish between "individual acts" and "state-sanctioned" forms of the phenomenon. He gives the example of the Quran burning in Sweden, which can be combated by calling it out and raising awareness about Islam and Muslim values. The abaya ban in France is a different case, according to Masri, an example of state-sanctioned Islamophobia.

Masri said that violence in Myanmar toward Rohingya Muslims and violence in China and India are not new forms of Islamophobia, but they represent an escalation of the trend.

Islamophobia in Muslim world

Another lurking threat is Islamophobia in the Muslim world. Aktay said Türkiye experienced this for years. "If there is a headscarf ban, there is Islamophobia," he said, referring to the now-defunct ban on headscarf-wearing girls and women from attending school or work in the public sector. "It is also Islamophobia if you want people deprived of religious education. There has been a certain circle desiring this and they are still there. It cannot be said for certain that Islamophobia ended in Türkiye. It sometimes rears its head. But we are spared from that approach which views a headscarf as a symbol of backwardness and a political symbol," he noted.

On Islamophobia in Muslim countries, Aktay said they also have a serious rate of Islamophobic discourse. "As a matter of fact, this is what encourages Islamophobia in the world. Unfortunately, Islamic countries are almost in a race to portray the faith as something to be feared. (Regimes) demonize their dissidents, charging them with politicizing Islam. Countries blame each other. They help circulate this in the world. It feeds a mindset seeing Islam, which is a religion that should be viewed as a blessing for humanity, as a religion that threatens humanity," he said.

Masri said the fight against Islamophobia in Muslim countries is not easy and needs a multifaceted approach. Similarly, roles are varied for each actor to play in combating Islamophobia.

"If we look at, for example, at how anti-Semitism is formed around the world. It happens on many different fronts and by the way, not everyone agrees on strategies to combat it. I think similarly with Islamophobia, there is the role of the media, there is the role of the universities, there is the role of the state to combat it and there is the role of the individuals to call it out and stand up against incidents of Islamophobia. Take France, for example. (The ban on Muslim women’s dress abaya) is something where states can make statements and take action. They can tell a country like France that it is not OK to marginalize and target 2 billion people," he said. Similarly, Masri said countries should take action against the Modi government in India, where more than 200 million Muslims comprise the largest minority and are targets of Islamophobia. "There are sanctions to be imposed on India, not only traditional economic sanctions but sanctions, for instance, in political deals," he said.

"Targeting Islamophobia should be the priority on the agenda of world leaders and particularly the leaders of the Muslim world," Masri stated.

Thought-provoking discussions over the two days explored how anti-Muslim bias affects the lived experiences of Muslim communities around the world, the role of media in constructing Islamophobic narratives, and the impact of those narratives on public attitudes and policies that have real effects on people’s lives. Speakers highlighted the need to undo these narratives and bring new best practices, guidelines and standards while deepening Muslim representation in the media.

Masri said their conference achieved more than it aimed.

"The idea behind this conference was to bring together the experts, whether academic or not, to engage in a dialogue, to create an opportunity to further understanding of this phenomenon of Islamophobia, to understand its roots, to understand its history, to understand its global context to be able to agree on strategies for combating it. I think this conference did all that and it informed thinking and it really shed the light on the responsibilities that we all have individually and collectively to combat Islamophobia," he said.