Islamophobia: An Alternative Reality (op-ed)
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Somali-born woman’s rights activist, author of The Caged Virgin, Infidel, and Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now is a part of The Pittsburgh Speaker Series presented by Robert Morris University. Recently Hirsi Ali was offered, and then denied, an honorary degree from Brandeis University. The school was criticized for awarding the work of a “notorious Islamophobe”.
But what is Islamophobia?
In 1997 Islamophobia was defined by Runnymede (A think tank in Great Britain) as: Unfounded hostility toward Islam, therefore fear or dislike of all or most Muslims. The term was invented to categorize increased anti-Muslim sentiment, which characterized all Muslims as violent, as a new form of racism.
Hirsi Ali is often asked in interviews whether or not Islamophobia exists and, if so, the extent of its reality. She has stated that bigotry and racism exist, but believes the word is used as a weapon to silence critics. And some critics of Islam, that refuse to be silenced, have gone further and implied Islamophobia does not exist based on its usage.
But this is academic.
What if Islamophobia was stripped of all intellectualizing? And emphasis was placed on the root word (Islam) and the suffix (phobia) would the word define a different preexisting reality, one not discussed by the academics?
Islam is a religion with specific beliefs and practices, and phobia is an extreme or irrational fear, but in clinical psychology a phobia is a type of anxiety disorder, usually defined as a persistent fear of an object or situation in which the suffer commits to great lengths to avoid. In this construction Islamophobia could be defined as an extreme or irrational fear of Islamic practices. (This is not analogous with racism)
Who would develop a phobia of Islamic practices and react in ways described by clinical psychology? Maybe a woman who had the same experiences as Hirsi Ali, a woman born into a sect of Islam that practices female circumcision and arranged marriages, a woman that had her genitals cut as a child because of custom, a woman that endured gender restrictions and humiliation out of custom, and, finally, when marriage was forced on this same woman she fled.
Why did she run away? Was it because she stereotyped the selected husband as a violent Muslim? Or did she fear another unpleasant Islamic practice forced on her, one that possibly meant a life of involuntary servitude? If it’s the latter could this also be described as Islamophobia?
What happened to this woman? She was hunted by male family members, found, and returned to the forced marriage. (And her wedding night was more analogous to a rape than a honeymoon) Then what? We’ll never know unless she escapes like Hirsi Ali.
Some of Hirsi Ali’s critics said based on her childhood experiences (Notice they didn’t say trauma) they understand her hostility (Islamophobia), but she goes too far.
Maybe she does go too far according to an academic definition empty of human empathy, but if this is an alternative reality faced by hundreds of woman in a specific sect of Islam maybe she doesn’t go far enough. (Christopher Hitchens, author of God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, stated religion is child abuse)
Gordon Brown, former Prime Minister of United Kingdom, wrote “Girls and women around the world suffer unimaginable atrocities: forced marriages, rape, mutilation … A great challenge faces humankind: to match the abolition of slavery with the global emancipation of girls and women.” Understanding Islamophobia’s alternative reality, a dehumanization process beyond anti-male-Muslim sentiment, is a step toward this global emancipation.
First published in the New Pittsburgh Courier 5/20/15
But what is Islamophobia?
In 1997 Islamophobia was defined by Runnymede (A think tank in Great Britain) as: Unfounded hostility toward Islam, therefore fear or dislike of all or most Muslims. The term was invented to categorize increased anti-Muslim sentiment, which characterized all Muslims as violent, as a new form of racism.
Hirsi Ali is often asked in interviews whether or not Islamophobia exists and, if so, the extent of its reality. She has stated that bigotry and racism exist, but believes the word is used as a weapon to silence critics. And some critics of Islam, that refuse to be silenced, have gone further and implied Islamophobia does not exist based on its usage.
But this is academic.
What if Islamophobia was stripped of all intellectualizing? And emphasis was placed on the root word (Islam) and the suffix (phobia) would the word define a different preexisting reality, one not discussed by the academics?
Islam is a religion with specific beliefs and practices, and phobia is an extreme or irrational fear, but in clinical psychology a phobia is a type of anxiety disorder, usually defined as a persistent fear of an object or situation in which the suffer commits to great lengths to avoid. In this construction Islamophobia could be defined as an extreme or irrational fear of Islamic practices. (This is not analogous with racism)
Who would develop a phobia of Islamic practices and react in ways described by clinical psychology? Maybe a woman who had the same experiences as Hirsi Ali, a woman born into a sect of Islam that practices female circumcision and arranged marriages, a woman that had her genitals cut as a child because of custom, a woman that endured gender restrictions and humiliation out of custom, and, finally, when marriage was forced on this same woman she fled.
Why did she run away? Was it because she stereotyped the selected husband as a violent Muslim? Or did she fear another unpleasant Islamic practice forced on her, one that possibly meant a life of involuntary servitude? If it’s the latter could this also be described as Islamophobia?
What happened to this woman? She was hunted by male family members, found, and returned to the forced marriage. (And her wedding night was more analogous to a rape than a honeymoon) Then what? We’ll never know unless she escapes like Hirsi Ali.
Some of Hirsi Ali’s critics said based on her childhood experiences (Notice they didn’t say trauma) they understand her hostility (Islamophobia), but she goes too far.
Maybe she does go too far according to an academic definition empty of human empathy, but if this is an alternative reality faced by hundreds of woman in a specific sect of Islam maybe she doesn’t go far enough. (Christopher Hitchens, author of God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, stated religion is child abuse)
Gordon Brown, former Prime Minister of United Kingdom, wrote “Girls and women around the world suffer unimaginable atrocities: forced marriages, rape, mutilation … A great challenge faces humankind: to match the abolition of slavery with the global emancipation of girls and women.” Understanding Islamophobia’s alternative reality, a dehumanization process beyond anti-male-Muslim sentiment, is a step toward this global emancipation.
First published in the New Pittsburgh Courier 5/20/15
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