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Why do some Americans and Westerners hate Arabs and Muslims, & feel prejudice & discriminate against them
Humanist and Secular Muslims
Responding to Hate against Muslims: Over 200 internal web pages of articles, resources, and insights
Why do some Americans and other westerners hate Muslims and Arabs?
Hesham M. Sabry
Updated December 15, 2008
Various forms of expression of hate in the west against Muslims and Arabs have been going on from decades before 9/11 and continue unabated today for
three major reasons, very briefly:
1- Racism still afflicting some western closed minds;
2- Christians viewing Islam as a competing religion; and,
3- Particularly in America, the Middle East conflict between Israel and the Arabs.
Those same factors have been the reason for hate against Muslims and Arabs from long before terrorism ever came into the picture. And the first two of those three have been the reason for that hate from long before the Middle East conflict came into the picture.
But before we discuss the matter any further, we need to always keep in mind that the palpable hate that Muslims experience comes from literally a minute number of individuals or groups who are either very vocal or very influential in some way or the other. The hate which is generally propagated either inadvertently and innocently, or deliberately through some western media is expressed almost entirely by those individuals or groups that are somehow associated with any or all of the above three factors. Therefore we need to be very cautious about generalising such hateful conduct to all westerners, or even large segments of them. The opposite is true, as all evidence strongly suggests. The influence and vocality of the haters are what give the impression that such hate is widespread beyond what it truly is. However, there is no denying that the influence of some of the most vocal haters has managed over time to induce those who at worst were previously latent haters to come out.
Terrorism's role in the hatred
As for terrorism and its relation to generating hate for Muslims, it is very clear that its influence on hate barely registers, not even with relatives of victims of terrorism.
Terrorism leads to fear, suspicion, worry, but rarely hate in ordinarily non-racist, non-hateful persons, who correctly and fairly attribute violence to the violent individuals or groups who commit it, not to whole segments of humanity.
That's in stark contrast to racists who won't miss an opportunity to generalise very specific violence to whole segments of humanity that they hate.
So we need to clearly distinguish between the justifiable fear, suspicion, and/or anxiety that terrorism generates and has generated in non-haters in the West who "worry" about, and "fear", rather than "hate" Islam, and the indiscriminate haters whose hate arises from the three earlier-mentioned factors.
That's why the hatred we see directed at Muslims and Islam is not due to evil in Islam and Muslims, but evil in the haters of Muslims and Islam in the West, as the three points clearly indicate, while the anxiety, suspicion, and fear of Muslims and Islam is the result of evil committed by Muslims (or at least, some who call themselves "Muslim"). The former is unjustified and unacceptable, the latter justified and understandable.
The influence of negative stereotypes in eliciting hate
Very briefly - since this is not the place to discuss the issues involved in detail - no matter what negative images are propagated about some group, no matter their veracity or fallaciousness, people who aren't prejudiced will not attribute the wrongs to a whole people (i.e. race, religion, nationality, etc.).
To illustrate, only racists would attribute the pervasive and widespread Catholic priest pedophilia scandal to the Catholic clergy in general, let alone to all Catholics, or worst yet, to all Christians and Christianity, even though those are not lay persons, but men of God representing the very essence of Christianity. Intelligent, unprejudiced people attribute the wrongs, no matter how pervasive and global, to corrupt and pervert individuals.
Likewise, when haters propagate hate against Muslims based on wrongs committed by some Muslims, rational unprejudiced people will never let that affect their view of all Muslims or encourage them to hate all Muslims or Islam. So the excuse that Muslims do this or that wrong (other than terrorism) is also no excuse. Those who are non-racists, unprejudiced to start with will still not generalise wrongs to whole groups, nor use those wrongs as an excuse to either hate those groups or promote hate against them.
So to be very clear here, hate for whole groups emanates not from the actions of some members of the accused groups, but from the hateful, prejudiced attitudes of some members of the haters' group.
Islamophobia versus Hate
Islamophobia - used incorrectly most of the time - represents fear of Islam (phobia = fear) which is the case of those westerners and others who fear Muslims because of terrorism. But those who hate Muslims and Arabs collectively from long before terrorism ever was in the picture, and irrespective of any real factors, are not experiencing "Islamophobia", but anti-Semitic-like attitudes and mindsets.
Anti-Semitism is the hatred of Jews - all Jews - simply because they are Jews, and that is racism. And anti-Islam is hatred of Muslims - all Muslims - simply because they are Muslim. It makes no difference that a Muslim has not committed any wrong, or is as peaceful and law-abiding as can be, as well as good in every other manner of the word. It suffices that his or her label is "Muslim" to be hated, good, bad, or whatever, makes no difference whatsoever. The very label "Muslim" suffices to generate hate in the racists and haters in the west. Those people are "racists" not "Islamophobes".
However, it appears that the term "Islamophobia" has taken root, and is now used to represent both hatred and fear of Islam, more the former than the latter, which is an inaccurate usage of the term. But for the sake of convenience and due to the lack of a better term (anti-Islamism, for example, denotes a totally different meaning), it has become the term of choice when addressing gratuitous anti-Semitic-like hatred of Muslims.
Racism versus prejudice versus bigotry
Racism, as many often point out when someone speaks of "racism against Muslims", is hating members of another "race", not another faith. However, that criticism of the word's usage is frivolous and unjustified. "Racism" has long been used - if erroneously - to speak of those who hate those who are different from themselves. Indeed, it is often even used in describing hate against gays (homosexuals). Prejudice is the more accurate term, since it is defined as hate of those different than oneself in any way, religious, racial, or otherwise.
"Racist" is often the term of choice in situations were a more powerful connotation of prejudice is needed, required, or implied. Being "racist" is generally viewed as more negative, more hateful, than being "prejudiced". It connotes "hate" more strongly than "prejudice".
"Bigotry" and "bigots", which are less commonly used terms, imply intolerance of differences, changes, new ideas or customs, etc. Though the words sound harsh, they really lean more toward intolerance than hate. Intolerance is often accompanied by hate, and holding intolerant attitudes for long periods of time eventually transforms into hate of the racist and prejudiced kind.
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For a detailed discussion of the above three "reasons" tied in with racism against blacks in America, the Zionist lobby, etc., read:
American madrassas
How do we detect and identify hatemongers in the media from legitimate commentators and critics? Read:
Describing, identifying, and spotting Hate Speech against Muslims, and distinguishing it from objective criticism.
Note: For the above mentioned reasons we rarely use the term "Islamophobia" (fear of Islam) on this web site except for the convenience of those who confuse hate with fear, or because its use is very prevalent now, even in official circles such as European bodies that study and look into "Islamophobia", for example.
We reluctantly used it as part of the title of our "Hate Speech" page to make it easier for those searching for what they call "Islamophobia" to find our hate speech web page, which deals with what they're searching for.
You can read much more on those issues in our dozens of HaSM articles.
Other HaSM articles on the topic of hate for Muslims and Arabs
American Madrassas
"....in America, well beyond the audience that any school can garner, commentators in the media, who reach tens of millions of Americans of all ages, not only school children, are in some cases becoming increasingly the equivalent of those alleged hate propagating madrassas.
And then, ironically, it is those very same commentators who have the audacity to point fingers at some very isolated instances of such madrassas in one or two Muslim nations at most. Indeed, that audacity is more pronounced when one takes into account that, sadly, the culture of stereotyping minorities is very deeply entrenched right here in America, often in the madrassa that is "Hollywood".
Muslims Can't Understand the Hatred
A Jewish friend once told me that when someone who didn't know she was Jewish wondered why God brought the Jews the Holocaust, she didn't comment. "Where do you start from when faced with such racist ignorance" she thought.
Facts That Haters Hate Hearing
"...not once were the above facts brought to the public's attention, let alone emphasized. They're the kind of facts
hate-mongers hate hearing.
The Horrors the West Needs to Acknowledge
Why do Muslims emphasize and publicize, rather than sweep under the rug the hateful and ugly issues of hate speech and racism? For one thing, it's an ongoing problem and so it's not as if we're going to sweep the problem away and forget all about it. We would have to keep sweeping and sweeping.
A Record of hate expression
...some haters whose intolerance goes beyond simple statements to consistent, malicious campaigns propagating and promoting intolerance against Muslims for their personal gain, are not only racists, but also traitors to their nation, since hate destroys a society's stability, peace, and harmony.
Viewpoint: European tolerance only a veneer
Muslims have already suffered one genocide in Europe - as classified by the UN. Just over 10 years ago, again in the heart of Europe not in some remote jungle, some 8,000 Muslims were rounded up and massacred, Nazi-style, in Srebrenica, Bosnia. And that was only one of many massacres that they suffered at the time...
Hate incitement is the most dangerous weapon on earth, ahead of nuclear weapons. The Holocaust took 6 million innocent lives, and the Rwandan genocide almost 1 million, both by hate. And freedom of expression when abused transforms into such a weapon.
Racism is also a problem, not only integration
Racists will have us believe that once Muslims are fully integrated, they'll be "tolerated" and made to feel welcome. Not so fast.
The majority of European Jews looked, dressed, spoke, and were fully involved in the nations they lived in. They were even white skinned. But when the time came for tolerance, their integration, their great contributions to Europe's arts, science, and industry, did little for them...
This article at:
http://www.secularmuslims.com/whythehate.php
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Copyright 2005-2008, Humanist and Secular Muslims (HaSM), www.secularmuslims.com
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