Speaking to the Lusa agency about the rise of Islamophobia almost a month after the conflict between Israel and Hamas, analyst Philippe Pathe Duarte said, in parallel, “security, rhetoric and debate, security, migration and Islam”.
“Given the rhetorical and argumentative link between security, migration and Islam, Islamophobia is also on the rise and on the rise in Western countries,” said the academic from the Nova School of Law in Portugal.
“On the other hand, related to this Islamophobia, there are some difficulties in integrating immigrants from Islamic countries. Not only the difficulty in our role in this integration, but also a kind of ‘self-ghettoization’ of these same communities,” he added.
The same reasoning was demonstrated by Joao Henriques, vice-president of the Organization of Islamic World Monitoring (OMI), who argued that the phenomenon has already led many governments to take measures to combat Islamophobia through anti-hate crime legislation. Combating Islamophobia and preventing hateful behavior based on conducting public awareness campaigns about Muslims and Islam aimed at dispelling negative myths and misconceptions.
“Islamophobia is associated with negative prejudices against Muslims and Islam, based on the claim that this religion called Islam is an inferior religion and threatens not only the dominant values of Western society but also the physical integrity of citizens”, he continued in Lusa’s statements.
In the West, Islamic religion, tradition and culture “are seen as a real threat to their values, to the values of the West, that is, to the values of Europe, America,” explained Joa Henriques. “may equally affect non-Muslims on the basis of national or ethnic origin and colour”.
Furthermore, Islamophobia is understood as “fear, prejudice and hatred against Muslims” which leads to the incitement of hostile and intolerant behavior by Muslims through threats or intimidation.
To combat this phenomenon, Paté Duarte stressed that Islamophobia can be combated by criminalizing hate speech and calls to violence, and by raising awareness based on training, as is done with anti-Semitism.
“This training needs to be advanced, especially through structures that deal directly with this kind of discourse, institutional and public structures, or, for example, ‘the media,'” he said.
He argued that this should also be done to combat rising anti-Semitism in Western countries, mainly Europe and the United States.
“Anti-Semitism is growing in part because, I believe, there is structural anti-Semitism, particularly in the West and in Europe. Particularly in Europe, this structural anti-Semitism is evident on the far right, on the far left and on the far left. It is also evident in Islam,” He said.
“On the other hand, I believe that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism and, therefore, anti-Semitism is growing. Anti-Zionism is anti-Semitic in intent and effect because it uses anti-Semitic rhetoric. It disenfranchises, demonizes, belittles, or punishes all Jews or those who feel any connection to Israel. “, he concluded.
In the same article, Jono Henriques considered anti-Semitism to be one of the main problems facing societies today, “although it is one of the oldest hatreds in the world, dating back to biblical times”, defining it as “a prejudice or hostility”. The Jewish people because, according to their enemies, they are generally regarded as harmful to society.”