Despite having the third largest Muslim population and being home to over 10% of the world’s Islamic population, India is still a hotspot for Islamophobia in Asia. Anyone living in India can attest to the rampant hatred that Muslims are subjected to at various degrees. Some of these acts are appallingly blatant, like the overwhelmingly hypocritical political response to the Tablighi Jamaat incident, which was labelled as “Corona Jihad’’ by government officials. Some instances, however, are more subtle, like Muslim women being asked if their hijabs are suffocating. These less obvious occurrences are frequently overlooked and rarely corrected, making this furtive form of discrimination all the more dangerous.
Although the term ‘Islamophobia’ is formally described as “an extreme fear of and hostility toward Islam and Muslims’’, I believe that it also refers to a subconscious, and often unspoken discrimination against Islam. The most alarming element of this sort of hatred against Muslims is that it could be unintentional. This means that you may not actively promote anti-Islamic sentiment, but still contribute to the mindset that allows Islamophobia to thrive. Think about it: How would you feel if a Muslim family moved in next door? How would you feel if a Muslim man moved in alone next door? How would you feel if there was a Muslim on your flight? If any of the questions above made you even a little uncomfortable, and you were surprised at your reaction, you are a product of the Islamophobic brainwashing of the country you live in. Why is it that in a so-called “secular’’ country like India, the subtle bias against Muslims exists all around us?
The answer to this is multifaceted and can be majorly attributed to the exposure we are all subjected to. This is true on a range of levels, all the way from your atheist family, to the laws passed by the people we elect into power.
At the smallest scale, Islamophobia is something we first grow up hearing about at the dinner table. No matter how educated or global-minded, I cannot think of a single person that can confidently say that they’ve never heard a family member speak about Islam in a discriminatory way. If you’ve been raised in an environment that conditions you to believe the worst about a certain group, your brain is automatically hardwired with a biased belief system from a young age.
But where does this collective, almost generationally inherited bias against Muslims stem from? At a larger scale, it can be traced back to the media. A prime example of the anti-Islamic brainwashing perpetrated by the media is coming to light with the rise of the pandemic. The image below, taken from a collection on Karvaan India, depicts how even the most performatively “neutral’’ news sources subtly add to society’s subconscious Islamophobia.
Headlined ‘Spike in number of COVID cases in Bangalore’, this article by New Indian Express uses a seemingly unrelated photo of a man offering Namaz as the cover image. At first glance you may not pay this very obvious anti-Muslim propaganda any mind. But this is far more dangerous than it may seem. Articles published by large new sources like these reach millions of people, who are now subconsciously associating the negative notion of the spreading virus with the Muslim population prayer ritual.
Lastly, at the most blaring level, Islamophobia is systemically rooted into our political structures. By placing power in the hands of India’s ruling party, BJP, our collective anti-Muslim mindset is on the rise. As reported by NDTV, the use of discriminatory slander against Muslims has seen nearly a 500% increase since the BJP government was elected into power. In 2016, Anantkumar Hegde, BJP’s Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, made a statement: “as long as there is Islam in the world, there will be terrorism. Until we uproot Islam, we can’t remove terrorism.” When comments like these, made by authorities we trust, are paired with laws like the banning of beef and Citizens Amendment Act, it plays a nationwide role in shaping our mindset toward Islam. But the problem is cyclic. The BJP government exploits the Islamophobia of Indian society to gain support and stay in power, thereby propagating further discrimination against Muslims and cultivating India’s collective hate.
Whether implicit or explicit, Islamophobia needs to see a decline. India’s anti-Islamic sentiments are further reflected by western countries fear of Muslims and association of the religion with acts of terrorism. How can we preach equality, justice and human rights when over 1.8 billion people struggle with discrimination, even in “diverse’’ India?