Islamophobia must be stopped at all costs

Sarah Elgohary                                                                        Islamophobia and Syrian Refugees Paper assignment 4                            10/2/16

Literature Review                            Sociology 191

Professor Niedit

    The Syrian refugee crisis is a direct consequence of the Syrian Civil War. Because our very polarized political parties some in the U.S. do not believe that the U.S. should play much of a role in helping refugees directly or indirectly.  Even though, helping Syrian refugees is not the ultimate goal the of the U.S government because Congress is extremely divided on this issue, the only way to solve this humanitarian crisis is if western nations and the world, come together regardless of their differences  to help Syrian refugees. As a result, objective approach to ending this crisis finding refugees.solutions that are created by a worldwide collaboration of countries sponsored by the United Nations. In order to find solutions to the Syrian refugee crisis, Islamophobia, must be overcome. Even though, Islamophobia is not the direct cause of the Syrian refugee crisis, it is still a strong barrier to fixing this social problem. With an increase in Islamophobia, and an irrational belief that all Muslims and refugees are terrorists many politicians, especially Republicans, wish to stop accepting Syrian refugees into the United States. This racist action is simply based on the stereotype that all Muslims are radical extremists like ISIS, which is a politically motivated organization of radicals who justify killing their own kind. In order to cure Islamophobia, people need become educated about to have a cultural education of the Muslim religion and its actual teachings. “Real Muslims” “practice the peaceful religion of Islam and renounce the violent practices of radical extremism.  If people could address and recognize their Islamophobia, there would be no reason for people to fear Syrian refugees and stop them from coming to the United States. 

There have been many studies on the political, social and economic status of Syrian refugees who have been living in countries such as Egypt, Lebanon, and Jordan since the beginning of the Syrian civil Civil war War in 2011. These studies include a study by Susan Bartels and Kathleen Hamil; this study found that 500,000 refugee children are now living in Lebanon for more than 10 days in November 2013 (Bartels & Hamil, 2015). The researchers reported two main findings in this study. First of all, parents must decide if they should send their children to work in potentially dangerous environments in order to support the family or if they should send them to school. However, even families who want to send their children  to school have very limited opportunities or resources, if any, to find a school to attend. The lack of opportunity and education for the children resulted results in a second finding for Bartles and Hamil. Bartels and Hamil found that these constraints and limitations deprive children of adequate food, education, health care, and play. As a result, many Syrian refugee children have suffered both short- and long-term physical and psychosocial development issues. (Bartels & Hamil, 2015). 

This finding is significant because it shows that the safety and well-being of Syrian refugees is compromised. Furthermore, these findings show the internal and external struggles that Syrian refugees face, shedding light on the complicated dimensions of the Refugee refugee crisis that western society has never witnessed acknowledged? or took taken? into consideration. This is why the refugee crisis is now a serious global phenomenon that has not only affected Syria, but the entire world. Western countries must expand their constrained perspectives on the Syrian refugee crisis and realize that they might be refugees’ only chance at survival.

Another study conducted in January 2014, by Claude Bruderlein at Harvard University looked at wider refugee problems caused by the conflict in Syria.  The study found 4 produced four main findings . First, despite the fact that most people believe Syrian refugees live in camps they actually live in urban settings. In fact, in? the five most popular host countries (Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt and Jordan), where Syrian refugees live, the number of refugees living in non-camp settings is expected to rise from 81% in 2013 to 84% in 2014. It is important to make mention that Bruderlein was indeed correct in her prediction since the Syrian Refugee refugee population has increased since 2013 This seems to refer to an increase in the absolute number of refugees? (Bruderlein, 2015). The second finding was the fact that Syrian refugees prefer to live in urban settings, as a result, the registered refugee population of Jordan’s Za’atari camp declined by almost 40% between April and December 2013. However, the Za’atari camp received an additional new? 100,000 refugees during the same time. The third finding is the fact that many Syrian refugees are willing to make significant sacrifices to leave camps. This is due to the , as the safety of some of Syrian refugees is in jeopardy because of owing many owe? a significant amount of debt to smugglers. According to a survey by CARE International, more than 50% of participating refugee households living outside Jordanian camps reported incurring debts to smugglers of between 75 and 1,500 Jordanian dinars (roughly $105 to $2,115 U.S.) (Bruderlein, 2015). The debt? last finding is due to the fact there is a limited supply of houses and economic opportunities for Syrian refugees, and they are forced to live with many people in unsuitable settlements such as tents, chicken coops, and garages. These overcrowded informal settlements lack basic amenities, such as electricity, heating, and access to water (Bruderlein, 2015). 

These findings are similar to the first study and both studies bring me to the same conclusion. That despite the fact that there has been humanitarian involvement in Syria by the United Nations; , these efforts are inadequate to the scale of the crisisnot enough, we need to come together to create solutions for refugee crisis. Therefore, the refugee crisis requires the implementation of innovative programs and policies to address the short- and long-term needs of refugees and host communities, which are essential to the long-term stability of the Middle East. 

In order to understand how Syrian refugees became a social problem we need to go back and analyze the meaning of Islamophobia. Islamophobia is the reason why the majority of the Republican Party is not letting Syrian refugees come to the United States. As a result, people need to realize that having Islamophobia does not mean people are afraid of the Muslim race or the religion of Islam. In fact, real Islamophobia is the fear of terrorists and radical extremists like ISIS may be justified, independent of intolerance of anti-Muslim sentiment generally, based upon the ISIS’s violent acts, expansionism, and intolerance. People have false misconceptions surrounding the Islamic religion as an ideology. They have come to believe that all Islamic people support killing their own kind and innocent people for no reason. Instead, people need to have a cultural education of the Muslim religion and its actual teachings because “Real Muslims “practice the peaceful religion of Islam and renounce the violent practices of radical extremism.  Muslims make up so many diverse ethnicities, but there are many similarities between Islamophobia and racism. Islamophobia leads to many of elements of f racism, such as stereotyping, prejudice, discrimination and persecution.

A study by Amir Saeed, (2015) emphasizes the rise of Islamophobia in Britain, and the media’s contributions to the increaseit. The study shows that because of Islamophobia in the media, the public assumes that the Muslim population is radicalizing. As a result, people who used to be identified with a place of origin, or even as ‘people of color’ have become recognized by their assumed religion. For example, this notion is most evident by the racist stereotype of the ‘Pa the Ki’ therefore, the author makes point about how the racial category of pa the ki is used to identify a person from Pakistan ’in Britain.  Despite these pejorative stereotypes, having, poor stereotypes as Muslims British Muslims want to identify themselves as British. Furthermore, after the events of 9/11 and the beginning of the so-called War on Terror, it is now British Muslims who are identified as a group of potentially ‘false nationals’ and systematically constructed as the other (Amir 2015). The author makes an important point about how the representation of Islam and Muslims in the media is extremely negative, especially for British Muslims. These voices in the media and by politicians are from all sides and we have to make more strenuous efforts to ‘integrate’ British Muslims into British society, and reassert their loyalty to the British state in a manner that no non-Muslim anti-war group would ever be instructed (Amir 2015). This study is important because it shows that the media in Britain and world  makes negative portrayals of ethnic minorities as the ‘other ’category of people and as a result, they are portrayed as alien outsiders to the ‘British way of life .This negative representation of British Muslims and other ethnic minorities originates in ideological thought (Orientalism) and recreates itself in a ‘new form of racist’ thinking (Islamophobia).Therefore this system of thought suggests that British Muslims (regardless of citizenship) are still tied to ‘foreign’ culture of Islam. The study proves how important the role of the media in representing Muslims and the portrayal of religion of Islam is crucial to how British Muslims are treated as British citizens (Amir 2015).

The rise of islamophobia Islamophobia as a consequence of the refugee crisis is highlighted in a study by Enes Bayrakli and Farid Hafez that was conducted in 2014.There were two major findings that resulted from this study; firstly, islamophobia exists without Muslims or the religion of Islam and it gives insight into the preconceived notions of the anti-Muslim racists (Bayrakli, Hafez, 2015). For example, in countries like Hungary, Finland, Lithuania, or Latvia, where only a small number of Muslims live, Islamophobia functions as a successful agent used to mobilize people (Bayrakli, Hafez, 2015). As a result, not only do a majority of people significantly overestimate the country's Muslim population and although, but Muslims, who have not committed any violent acts in most countries, they are still often labeled as violent radical extremists and all Muslims, including innocent Syrian refugees, are stereotyped as terrorists. In addition, the fact that Islamophobia was used as a fear mongering tactic after the attacks in Paris, has led to the debates on Islam and Muslims throughout the West and it also led to a new increase in concerns about letting Syrian refugees enter the United States and Europe. The study also discussed how former Secretary of State László L. Simon, urged Hungarians to return to their Christian spirituality and make more babies in order to counter the negative cultural effects of mass migration. The secretary propagated the message that the ‘impending victory of Islamic parties imposing polygamy was destroying the remainder of European culture’. This strong Islamophobia  expression of Islamophobia is not restricted to the extreme right. In fact, the refugee- migration- has become increasingly associated with Islamic terrorism and it has become the standard argument justifying a number of Islamophobia domestic and international measures. For example, the social democratic? Czech President Milos Zeman claimed the influx of refugees into Europe was masterminded by Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood as “an organized invasion” to “gradually control Europe” (Herranz 2015).

These findings are significant because not only do they show the consequences and connection between Islamophobia and the refugee crisis, but they also prove that without such high widespread? Islamophobia in western countries, there would be less fear of letting Syrian refugees into the U.S and Europe. This study also demonstrates how dangerous Islamophobia is, and the fact that Islamophobia poses a great risk to the democratic foundations of the United States and other western nations. In addition, racist attitudes towards Muslims also jeopardize social peace as well as the coexistence of different cultures throughout the world. Therefore, both civil society and states have to work together to acknowledge the seriousness of this issue and develop concrete policies to counter Islamophobia. People in western nations should be educated by qualified personnel in regards to combating negative perceptions of Muslims. In addition, Muslim civil society has to be empowered with information to help combat Islamophobia, especially in the direction of how Islamophobia is created in western nations.

Western countries need to understand and define Islamophobia and the roots of this type of racism to fix the refugee crisis. Unfortunately, the reason why the Syrian refugee problem still exists is because most Western societies only react and pay attention to a problem when celebrities make a statement about an issue, rather than their government. This is shown in the United States when president President Obama wanted to let in refugees and the issue was not taken seriously until mentioned by Alicia Keys, a famous singer. Therefore, people continue to struggle with Islamophobia because they do not address it.

Works  Cited

Bartels, Susan; Hamil, Kathleen. University Harvard .’’The Syrian refugee crisis: New research on a problem of historic proportions - Journalist's Resource. (2015, June 22). Retrieved October 02, 2016, from http://journalistsresource.org/studies/international/conflicts/syrian-refugee-problem-expanding-crisis-historical-proportions

Herranz, a. c. Islamophobia in. European Islamophobia report, 465.

Saeed, Amir (2015) Racism and Islamophobia: A Personal Perspective. Identity papers: A journal of British and Irish studies, 1 (1). pp. 15-31. ISSN 2058-6205

Selby, J. A., & Beaman, L. G. (2016). Re-posing the “Muslim Question”. Critical Research on Religion, 2050303216630541.

University, H. (2014, January). Running Out Of Time: Survival of Syrian Refugee Children in Lebanon. Retrieved October 02, 2016, fromhttp://reliefweb.int/report/lebanon/running-out-time-survival-syrian-refugee-children-lebanon