2. Demonstrating an awareness of key sociological issues in relation to the essay question.

Answers:

Introduction

Islamophobia is termed as fear or dislike for the religion Islam specially in the form of political force or the prejudices which are carrying towards the religion of Muslim. The term has been used first in the early century of 20^th. This introduction of the term is being justified by the assessment of the report that the prejudices for the anti Muslim is growing at a considerable rate in the coming years that in the vocabulary, a new item is needed. The causes for Islamophobia is being detected after the attack of September 11, however other commentators have proceeded with increasing in the number of Muslims in United States and the European Union. However, several scholars on the other hand several scholars consider Islamophobia as new type of racism or xenophobia. An article based on the journal of Sociology stated that Islamophobia is regarded as an anti-Muslim racism (Bernasconi 2016). It has been revealed in the books of Deepa Kumar have put forwarded their arguments that the creation for the fear towards Islam has also encouraged the development of the bigotry of racism. In the same way John Denham have drawn similarity between the anti-Semitism and islamophobia during the modern days. By taking this debate and controversy into consideration, it is therefore need to take into account the other applications of theories and concepts while defining Islamophobia in the terms of racism.  

Discussion

Others have questioned about the assumed relationship between the racism and islamophobia The researchers and the academic people are still
waging their debates about the legitimacy of the term islamophobia and its relation with racism as well how it is related to the terms anti-muslimness and anti-semitism. Erdenir on the other hand finds that there is no popular opinion and content of the term and its link up with racism. Shylock after reviewing the term across the national borders as well reaches the similar conclusion. Certain scholars after viewing and judging the term Islamophobia and racism came to conclusion that two terms are not completely overlapping on each other (Bernasconi 2016). Diane Frost on the other hand gives the definition of Islamophobia as the feeling of anti-muslim and the violence which depends upon the religion or race or religion. Islamophobia is regarded as the to target people who are having the names of the muslims or they are carrying the look who is associated with the Muslims. According to the write up of Alan Johnson, the phobia for Islam at times can never be more than racism or xenophobia which are disguised in the religious terms. The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance gives definition to Islamophobia is regarded as the fear from the superstitious point of view which is carried towards the religion Islam and the aspects which are related to them (Taras 2013). Against this background, it is important to discuss certain theories which would prove try to relate islamophobia with racism.

Critical race theory is an idea, which has been developed away from the new concept, and it is not regarded as something which has been materialized fast. This theory being an important event which looks upon the multiculturalism and has pointed out that the people who are not Muslims are always being at conflict with each other and this is something, which is embed in the human beings. There is always a conflicting hostility towards this religion Islam and that of conflict with the Muslims (Delgado and Stefancic 2017). According to Feldman, this critical race theory elaborates how islamophobia has given a clear reaction of the repressed people in the United Kingdom. From the critical race theory’s view, the idea that the West needs always to have their opposition and that is why Islam seems to have become enemy, which is according to the theorists of crtical theory, the idea about the west has utilized Islam as a route for escapism for the Islamophobia to exist (Harris et al 2012). From the perspective of this theory, the muslims are witnessing the prejudices which is general give shape to the sociology, which has been established by the West, which further has come up with the ideology of Islamophobia (Delgado and Stefancic 2017). The perspective of Muslims in the media has further elaborated the Muslims are socially and politically inept within the framework of the society. However, with the growth of Arab Spring and ISIS and other muslim terrorism states that the notion of fundamentalism which has been spread on the basis of national and international supports that islam is not a religion of peace. This is further being emphasized by this theory that by being a muslim and carrying an identification that there is an existence of commonality between the islam and terrorism (Ladson 2013). According to critical race theorists that Muslims do carry grievances and this should be further addressed by the West (Hawkins et al. 2016). Within the framework of the western society, employment, immigration, racial prejudices, violence and anti-immigration are all linked with the religion Islam. Islamophobia is like imperialism which has been utilized by the state to make the elites and national states to remain silence. The West kept on arguing that Islam being the discursive, political and protest and it has been further argued that political power supports Islam, which has to be less vocal in a society belonging to West (Ladson 2013).

There are number of associations with the religion Islam, which are being taken into account as the negative experiences by the Muslim. The muslims were the subject to continous victimization which is remaining as an experience based on negativity that is ranging from Muslim women who wear hijab to the men who kept beards (Crichlow 2013). In addition to this, the attack of 9/11 have constructed an increased level of fear and hatred and also gave birth to a lack of agreement amongst the Western countries. The most worrying thing about those, who believe in Islamophobia is that, they do not take into account their beliefs which is having the idea of racism but they are being viewed as defending the democracy and giving respect to the human rights having the view that Islam being a religion which is not compatible with the society’s habits. However, it has become important to consider what is causing Islamophobia. There were negative events such as 9.11 as already mentioned before and the rise of terrorism have encouraged the situations, which has help to develop the fear about the religion Islam. The racism is also being expressed through different drawings and writings, there were offensive cartoons are drawn by theorists to mock the religion, is to draw proximity with the racism. According to the theory, the government and media created a negative opinion globally, which has been coupled with the actions of terrorism all around the world by the individuals are inclined to create giving birth to detrimental and negative impacts on both Muslims and Islam, which has created an increased impact of negativity on all the religion (Crichlow 2013). The isolation and closing of islam within the framework of society has given birth to the abandoning for islam and opening the views to the concept Islamophobia. In addition to the this, terrorist attacks, the west is not supporting at all the concepts of Islam.

It has been discussed by the other theorists that, contemporary sentiment of the anti-muslim in Australia is being reproduced by the form of radicalization which incorporate the stereotypes of Islam, inferiority and the perceptions of threat as well as fantasies which the others do not belong or being remaining absent (Tyrer 2013). The authors do not consider these as racism based on color based, but they do represent certain form of characteristics that allow most of the people to accept the process of radicalization in relation to the islam religion. Firstly, the opinions of public explore the extent of Islamophobia in Australia and the connection between the perceptions of threats and the building for the alien ness and the otherness. The treatment of media has been negatively impacted on the Muslims of Australia (Tyrer 2013). It sponsors a wide spread Islamophobia, and being opposition to the development and building of mosques and they are being more restrictive to the policies of asylum seekers and also lies behind the racist violence and attacks from arson. Finally, the radicalization of the corruption of Islam is being a danger for the Muslims in Australia (Ozkirimli 2017).

The term of Islamophobia gives reflection of the largely not examined ingrained anxiousness, many Americans faced while taking into consideration the Muslim and cultures of Islam. Recently, America faced a domestic minority of muslims with whom the familiarity can be built up. During the hour of crisis, the resentments which are long simmering in nature  fear and suspicions have built in themselves. It has been stated by the authors here, how the print media and the political cartoons have mocked the Islamic religion and their prophet after the several terrorist attacks and how they have impacted on the mindset of the Muslim people. This resulted to the misunderstanding in the world of Muslim in general and these are the issues which are acting as an alarm call for the people of America.

According to Hussain, Yasmin (2012), The bombings in London were considered as an important event which has shaped the relationships between the non muslims and muslims in Britain. The authors through their qualitative interviews have come to a conclusion that due to these happenings have made the discourse of securitization and racialization is becoming tougher and this in further is interacting with the identifications of the Islamic discourses. This has separated the Muslims from most of the social gatherings, being subject to the form of racism, Muslims as well faced the attacks in the West Yorkshire.

Due to the recent happenings which is mainly followed by the September attack, the levels of indirect and implicit discrimination rose by the percentage of 82.6%. The current work demonstrates that the events in the world might affect not only the proper stereotypes of the minority groups of Muslim but also created prejudices towards the minorities. The results have suggested that affiliation towards religion may become a more meaningful predictor of the prejudices that ethnicity or race (Husain and Yasmin 2012). The scores on the General health care Questionnaires indicate that 36% of the participants are inclined to suffer mental form of health problems, with the important associations between the experiencing reports relating to a particular incident of the September 11^th and the indicative sources which are problematic in nature. The lack of empirical natured work, which is related to the discrimination of religion and its after effect, remains a matter for concerns.

According to Considine, in the year 2015, the incidents related to islamophobia incorporating the acts of violence and non- violence harassment rose. This resulted to racism and the Muslims group faced hostility from 2014-2015 and became one third of the muslims  and they are at the gun point as they are identified as Muslims (Garner and Selod 2015). From more than 1000 Hollywood movies, approximately 900 movies are built on the concept that Bearded and dark skinned Muslims are being presented in a negative manner. Only a few films are being depicted highlighting Muslims in Positive form. Therefore, this a kind of showing a nature of racialism undermining a particular religion of Islam.

In order to stop Islamophobia, the certain steps must be taken so that it should not be taken into consideration and its growing proximity to racism, the need for education is much needed for the people who are suffering from Islamophobia. They are needed to be taught that, all Muslims do not create danger and to top it one should treat each other as human beings. The non –muslims must stand up together against this probable racism and they need to speak out for the citizens who are considered Muslims or being identified as Muslims (Aneivas, Manchanda and Shilliam 2014). The government also on the other hand, must look deep into the matter about who are suffering from the daily racist attacks and they must come up with new policies to address these issues properly.

Conclusion

Therefore, to conclude, it can be stated that in this topic, the authors have debated about Islamophobia being a new racism. To align with this problem, the theory of critical race has been used to explain or elaborate on the side effects of Islamophobia and with its rise; this concept has been framed in the form of racism. Different other authors have also explained about the rise of racism against the Islamic religion out of Islamophobia and how it is impacted the mindset of the western people. In the end, the must recommendations have been given to state how the Islamophobia can be reduced through the government policies and basic mode of education. The issues are needed to addressed properly therefore in such cases. 

References

Anievas, A., Manchanda, N. and Shilliam, R. eds., 2014. Race and racism in international relations: Confronting the global colour line. Routledge.

Bernasconi, R., 2016. Islamophobia as Racism. Ethics and Environment. Éthique et environnement, 5, p.167.

Crichlow, W. ed., 2013. Race, identity, and representation in education. Routledge.

Delgado, R. and Stefancic, J., 2017. Critical race theory: An introduction. NYU Press.

Garner, S. and Selod, S., 2015. The racialization of Muslims: Empirical studies of Islamophobia. Critical Sociology, 41(1), pp.9-19.

Harris, A.P., Crenshaw, K., Gotanda, N., Peller, G. and Thomas, K., 2012. Critical race theory. International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences.

Hawkins, B.J., Carter-Francique, A.R. and Cooper, J.N., 2016. Critical Race Theory. Palgrave Macmillan.

Hussain, Y. and Bagguley, P., 2012. Securitized citizens: Islamophobia, racism and the 7/7 London bombings. The Sociological Review, 60(4), pp.715-734.

Ladson-Billings, G., 2013. Critical race theory—What it is not!. Palgrave Macmillan

Ozkirimli, U., 2017. Theories of nationalism: A critical introduction. Springer.

Taras, R., 2013. ‘Islamophobia never stands still’: race, religion, and culture. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 36(3), pp.417-433.

Tyrer, D., 2013. The politics of Islamophobia: Race, power and fantasy. PlutoPress.