Between 7th – 9th January, France suffered its deadliest terrorist attack in over 50 years. The Charlie Hebdo shooting, and the ensuing hostage situations, were barbaric and inhumane. It is indisputable that no-one deserves to be murdered for journalistic work, satirical or otherwise. Equally, the killing of police officers and civilians was entirely unfounded. The global response to the attacks, largely one of mourning and outrage, was fitting. On 11th January, over 2 million people joined a rally to honour the victims in Paris – the largest in France since its liberation from Nazi occupation in 1944.
But, what has been lacking is coverage of the Islamophobic backlash that followed. French Muslim civilians feared for their safety after the attack, which was believed to have been motivated by Charlie Hebdo’s controversial depiction of the Prophet Mohammed – as American Muslims did after 9/11, or British Muslims did after 7/7 – and they were justified in this fear. Tell MAMA UK, an anti-Islamophobia group, published a infographic detailing 15 anti-Muslim attacks which had already taken place by 9th January. These attacks ranged from grenades being thrown at mosques to the assault of a 17-year-old of North African descent. While these are arguably small-scale in comparison to Charlie Hebdo, they’re symptomatic of a much wider problem both in France and across the globe. What is worrying is the relative silence on the issue, as opposed to the outpouring of articles on the attacks themselves.
On Saturday, media mogul Rupert Murdoch summed up in a tweet the outlook of many of those carrying out Islamophobic attacks in situations like these: that the general Muslim population is somehow responsible for the actions taken by extremists. Never mind the fact that many would argue that these extremists aren’t even a part of the religion, so far are they from the tolerance and respect that it promotes, Mr Murdoch claims that Muslims should in fact be charged with the responsibility of ending the terrorist threat.
Maybe most Moslems peaceful, but until they recognize and destroy their growing jihadist cancer they must be held responsible.
— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) January 10, 2015
While it seems ludicrous when stated as simply as that, the sad fact is that this is the logic which leads people to beat a pregnant woman, leading to her miscarriage; to force Muslim civilians off passenger flights; or to attack mosques, religious centres, and schools. It’s indicative of the state Islamophobia has reached that the hashtag #illridewithyou, where people offer to travel with Muslims who feel unsafe on public transport, trends after terrorist attacks. In what world do the actions of a few justify condemning an entire religion?
If another reason to protest Islamophobia were necessary, besides the fact that it is simply a form of racism, there’s the fact that it essentially plays into the hands of extremist groups. By attacking Muslims, by marginalising them and making them feel isolated and targeted, Islamophobes do the work of terrorist groups for them. Many of the terrorist attacks of the past decade have been justified by the attackers as vengeance for anti-Islamic sentiment or action from the West; Islamophobia can only add fuel to this fire. It could also add to the numbers of Muslims from the West becoming convinced to actively join terrorist groups, as this becomes more prevalent.
In short, Islamophobia is harmful both on a moral and logical level. It’s detrimental to a society we would hope is trying to move away from racism, not towards it, and on a strategic level does nothing to aid the prevention of future attacks. What’s more, while we can view it through the specific lens of a backlash to terrorist attacks, it’s clear that Islamophobia as a phenomenon feeds into a much larger spectrum of racial prejudice in the West. It is in everyone’s best interests to prevent its spread, and it’s important to speak out against it as well as against the victims’ murders. In the aftermath of attacks like this one, the focus should be on solidarity and tolerance, rather than on seeking ‘revenge’ by hurting more innocent people.
Words by Priya Bryant