tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/tackling-islamophobia-107729/articlesTackling Islamophobia – The Conversation2024-02-01T23:03:34Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2197862024-02-01T23:03:34Z2024-02-01T23:03:34ZGirls in hijab experience overlapping forms of racial and gendered violence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570251/original/file-20240118-27-ltadts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=308%2C625%2C5251%2C3075&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Violence against girls who wear hijabs is often situated in structural oppression, including gendered Islamophobia and white supremacy.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/girls-in-hijab-experience-overlapping-forms-of-racial-and-gendered-violence" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p><a href="https://worldhijabday.com/">World Hijab Day</a> recognizes the millions of Muslim women and girls who wear the traditional Islamic headscarf.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/26/europe/un-hijab-olympics-intl/index.html">Around the world</a>, Muslim girls in hijab are experiencing unique forms and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/islamophobia-canada-health-care-muslim-1.6792148">heightened rates</a> of gender and race-based <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9549134/ttc-islamophobia-nccm-police-toronto/">violence and discrimination</a>. Overt violence against girls and women in hijab have captured global attention, evidenced most recently in the violent Canadian attacks on <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/community-groups-join-calls-for-further-action-in-attack-on-two-women-1.5839402">women in hijabs in Alberta</a> and the horrific <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/it-s-been-6-months-since-members-of-the-afzaal-family-in-london-ont-were-killed-what-s-changed-1.6274751">murders of the Afzaal family in London, Ont.</a></p>
<p>Violence against hijabi girls is often situated in structural oppression, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10665680600788503">gendered Islamophobia</a> and white supremacy. Understanding the underpinnings of this violence is key to imagining more just and equitable futures for girls and young women in hijab.</p>
<h2>Islamophobia</h2>
<p>The term Islamophobia has often been used and understood in different ways. While often used interchangeably, some have argued that the term anti-Muslim racism, rather than the term Islamophobia, better encapsulates the systemic nature of anti-Muslim hate and violence.</p>
<p>Sociologist and Muslim studies scholar Jasmin Zine <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/48696287">has outlined how Islamophobia in Canada is comprised of systemic oppressive networks</a> and industries that are both fueled by and fuel anti-Muslim racism. Zine explains that an “industry behind purveying anti-Muslim hate” distinguishes Islamophobia from other forms of oppression.</p>
<p>According to Zine, this well-funded, lucrative and often transnational industry is comprised of media outlets, political figures and donors, white nationalist groups, think tanks, influencers and ideologues that support and engage in “activities that demonize and marginalize Islam and Muslims in Canada.”</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568512/original/file-20240109-25-pd0nip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C44%2C6000%2C3943&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A young girl in a pink hijab watches a sunset" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568512/original/file-20240109-25-pd0nip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C44%2C6000%2C3943&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568512/original/file-20240109-25-pd0nip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568512/original/file-20240109-25-pd0nip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568512/original/file-20240109-25-pd0nip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568512/original/file-20240109-25-pd0nip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568512/original/file-20240109-25-pd0nip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568512/original/file-20240109-25-pd0nip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Understanding the underpinnings of violence is key to creating more just and equitable futures for girls and young women in hijab.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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<h2>Gendered Islamophobia</h2>
<p>Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism is part of the fabric of institutions. Critics of laws such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/cjwl.32.1.05">Bill 21 in Québec</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2013.738821">similar measures in France</a> have argued that <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/muslim-women-most-affected-by-quebec-s-secularism-law-court-of-appeal-hears-1.6644377">Muslim women who wear the hijab are most affected</a>. These measures reflect narratives that <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674088269">position Muslim girls and women as oppressed victims</a> in need of rescue, as well as <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/159783/orientalism-by-edward-w-said/9780394740676">Orientalist tropes</a> in the form of the <a href="https://assertjournal.com/index.php/assert/article/view/31/62">“save us from the Muslim girl” narratives</a>.</p>
<p>As Muslim women in hijab, we grieve horrific violence alongside our communities. Violent attacks highlight how anti-Muslim racism is often situated at a nexus of anti-Black racism, xenophobia, white supremacy and patriarchy. </p>
<p>We know that anti-Muslim violence is often aimed at girls and women in hijab. Yet, academic literature on hijabi girlhood is relatively scarce. Two years ago, we put out <a href="http://journals.berghahnbooks.com/_uploads/ghs/GHS_cfp_TheGirlInTheHijab.pdf">a call to the international academic community</a> seeking papers and creative submissions on the experiences of girls and young women in hijabs.</p>
<h2>The girl in the hijab</h2>
<p>Two years later, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3167/ghs.2023.160302">our new special issue</a>, called <em>The Girl in the Hijab</em>, has now been published in the international journal <em>Girlhood Studies</em>. It comes at a time when anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and <a href="https://www.canarablaw.org/s/Anti-Palestinian-Racism-Naming-Framing-and-Manifestations.pdf">anti-Palestinian racism</a> are on <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/muslim-groups-report-skyrocketing-number-of-islamophobic-incidents-across-canada">the rise around the country</a> and around the world.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/girlhood-studies/16/3/girlhood-studies.16.issue-3.xml">The special issue</a> includes academic articles written by mostly Muslim women and creative works produced by hijab-wearing girls themselves. Both types of work provide insight into the current global landscape of hijabi girl experiences. </p>
<p>Cultural politics lecturer <a href="https://doi.org/10.3167/ghs.2023.160303">Noha Beydoun explores the events surrounding the donning of the American flag as a method of protest</a>. She finds that this phenomenon gained popularity because it worked to conceal complicated U.S. histories regarding Muslim immigration and broader imperial interests. Beydoun’s analysis evidences that the “American flag as hijab for girls and women reinforces the larger constructs it seeks to resist.”</p>
<p>Gender studies professor Ana Carolina Antunes highlights <a href="https://doi.org/10.3167/ghs.2023.160305">how unconscious bias and microaggressions hinder a positive sense of belonging among hijab-wearing students and impacts their academic success</a>. This study also reveals that anti-Muslim sentiment in schools affects the everyday experiences of Muslim girls, leading to disconnection from the school community. </p>
<p>Among the central themes in the special issue is <a href="https://assertjournal.com/index.php/assert/article/view/31/62">how women and girls resist gendered and Islamophobic discrimination in their everyday lives</a>. Hijabi girls resist oppressive narratives through their everyday actions and activist engagements. In Antunes’s study, girls asserted their right to occupy space in the educational environment.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/islamophobia-in-schools-how-teachers-and-communities-can-recognize-and-challenge-its-harms-162992">Islamophobia in schools: How teachers and communities can recognize and challenge its harms</a>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570252/original/file-20240118-20-old0n0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A girl in a black hijab with a handbag walks down a tree-lined path" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570252/original/file-20240118-20-old0n0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570252/original/file-20240118-20-old0n0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570252/original/file-20240118-20-old0n0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570252/original/file-20240118-20-old0n0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570252/original/file-20240118-20-old0n0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570252/original/file-20240118-20-old0n0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570252/original/file-20240118-20-old0n0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">For Muslim women, donning the hijab can be an act of resistance and resilience in the face of discrimination.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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<p>Clinical social workers Amilah Baksh and her mother, Bibi Baksh, provide insight into their <a href="https://doi.org/10.3167/ghs.2023.160306">lived experiences as Indo-Caribbean social workers and university educators</a>. In their article, they identify the hijab as a form of resistance and resilience in their personal and professional lives. In their words, “it was never the hijab that rendered us voiceless. It is Islamophobia.”</p>
<p>The special issue highlights how Muslim girls and women, racialized through donning hijab, continue to be at the forefront of the struggle against Islamophobia and anti-Muslim violence, even as we remain among the primary targets of that violence.</p>
<p>The articles in this special issue demonstrate the need for better policies, education and laws that consider the unique experiences of girls and women in hijab. To counter violence against girls and women in hijab, we must name and understand the complexities of anti-Muslim racism and gendered Islamophobia. </p>
<p>Critically, this must center the voices of girls and women in hijab, opening or widening spaces for girls and women in hijab to practise acts of resistance in ways that are not bound by colonial logics and respectability politics.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219786/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Salsabel Almanssori receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Muna Saleh receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Development Grant (2022-2024) for her research titled “A Narrative Inquiry into the Curriculum-Making Experiences of Palestinian Muslim Youth and Families in Alberta.”</span></em></p>Around the world, Muslim girls who wear hijabs are experiencing unique forms and heightened rates of gender and race-based violence.Salsabel Almanssori, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, University of WindsorMuna Saleh, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, Concordia University of EdmontonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1699372021-11-29T22:29:58Z2021-11-29T22:29:58ZSchools need to step up to address Islamophobia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433528/original/file-20211123-21-300cu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=445%2C50%2C4724%2C2959&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There are many ongoing silences and erasures around anti-Muslim hate and violence in education systems. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock) </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The inspiration for this article was born of frustration and heartache. It follows the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-vigil-london-muslim-family-attack-1.6058519">murders of four intergenerational members</a> of the Afzaal/Salman family that left a nine-year-old child injured and orphaned in London, Ont., on June 6, 2021. </p>
<p>It also follows ongoing injustice related to <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/bill-21-resulted-in-racism-towards-student-teachers-mcgill-research-finds">state-sanctioned racism of Bill 21 in Québec</a> and a rash of hate attacks in Alberta, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2021/07/04/they-only-call-it-a-hate-crime-after-you-get-killed-as-muslim-women-are-attacked-in-alberta-a-community-asks-can-canada-face-its-islamophobia-problem.html">most of them targeting Black Muslim women in hijab</a>. </p>
<p>This year <a href="https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/a-string-of-hate-motivated-attacks-muslim-women-in-edmonton-reveals-a-complicated-history">at least nine attacks in Edmonton were reported to police, seven of which resulted in criminal charges</a>.</p>
<p>There is ongoing silence and erasure when it comes to anti-Muslim hate and Islamophobia in the education systems we and our loved ones inhabit. </p>
<h2>Islamophobia: A form of racism</h2>
<p>Although there is no one static understanding or definition of Islamophobia, we recognize it as a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0896920514531606">form of racism, structural and individual, that is rooted in long histories of empire and colonization</a>. </p>
<p>The events of Sept. 11, 2001, in the United States have had deep, long-lasting reverberations for Muslims globally. While western narratives have framed Islam through the lens <a href="https://openlibrary.org/books/OL4740907M/Orientalism">of orientalism</a> for centuries, 9/11 triggered renewed forms of Islamophobia across sectors.</p>
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<img alt="A person holds a sign that says 'standing with Muslims against Islamophobia and racism'." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433330/original/file-20211123-21-10l7cdt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433330/original/file-20211123-21-10l7cdt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433330/original/file-20211123-21-10l7cdt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433330/original/file-20211123-21-10l7cdt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433330/original/file-20211123-21-10l7cdt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433330/original/file-20211123-21-10l7cdt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433330/original/file-20211123-21-10l7cdt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">People hold signs during a demonstration in Montréal in March 2017 in support of Parliament’s motion to condemn Islamophobia, systemic racism and religious discrimination.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes</span></span>
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<p>We should examine multiple dimensions of Islamophobia that build and shape <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-International-Handbook-of-Islamophobia/Zempi-Awan/p/book/9780367783914">realities of Muslim people through policy, social and economic structures and public representations</a> across institutions and around the world. These manifestations shape the representations of Muslims, and their embodied experience of “Muslimness” in Canada.</p>
<p>It’s important to consider Islamophobia not only in daily hate crimes but also in daily indignities, silencing and injuries to Muslims’ sense of self and well-being. </p>
<p>There are common ways that educators, boards, senior leadership and the policies and curricula they support maintain the reality of Islamophobia in schools. These “evasions” are ways of escaping or avoiding addressing Islamophobia that allow us to maintain a sense of innocence and goodness, while denying complicity in perpetuating harms against Muslims.</p>
<h2>Evasion 1: Excluding Islamophobia from discussions of racism</h2>
<p>One way schools avoid addressing Islamophobia is by <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/2/2/14452388/muslim-ban-immigration-order-islamophobia-racism-muslims-hate">neglecting to explicitly name and address it in larger discussions of racism</a>, xenophobia and oppression.</p>
<p>Common understandings of racism maintain narrow definitions of race as solely related to biology. But as sociologist Saher Selod explains, “racialization” is a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0896920513516022">process and act</a>. It is articulated and enforced through cultural, political or legal narratives. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0896920514531606">Islamophobia is an outcome of the racialization of Muslims</a> as an “other.” </p>
<p>While Islamophobia is a form of racism, it must also be understood that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/aeq.2001.32.4.399">Muslim students hold multiple identities</a>, including their socio-economic status, ethnicity and linguistic identity, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10665680600788503">as well as their</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243220932156">gender</a> and sexuality, along with other forms of <a href="http://tessellateinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Black-Muslims-in-Canada-Systematic-Review-FatimahJacksonBest.pdf">racialization</a>. As such, the specific way a Muslim student may experience Islamophobia is through the interaction of their multiple identities. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/celebrating-diversity-isnt-enough-schools-need-anti-racist-curriculum-140424">Celebrating diversity isn't enough: Schools need anti-racist curriculum</a>
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<p>Such interconnected aspects of identity are related to broader systems of oppression, and as education researcher George J. Sefa Dei notes, <a href="https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/anti-racism-education">anti-racist education should seek to respond to complex oppressions</a> through <a href="https://www.law.columbia.edu/news/archive/kimberle-crenshaw-intersectionality-more-two-decades-later">intersectional</a> analysis.</p>
<h2>Evasion 2: Asserting we have a ‘secular’ society</h2>
<p>The implicit belief that Canadians <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1220008">exist in a secular society with secular public institutions</a> is widespread. But the institutions of Canadian society, including our schools, were built and now operate as if being Christian is the norm. Mainstream educational institutions continue to marginalize <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2017/04/19/why-calls-for-secularism-in-education-is-a-facade-opinion.html">students (and their families) who are non-Christian as outside of national identity</a>. </p>
<p>Public school curricula occasionally teaches <em>about</em> a religion, but <a href="https://doi.org/10.18733/cpi29546">largely avoids discussion rooted in faith and spirituality as part of identity and lived experience</a>. Countering Islamophobia requires a critical examination <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/islam-in-the-hinterlands">of white supremacy, its Christian hegemony and racial power hierarchies</a>.</p>
<p>Educating about Islam can be valuable in countering misinformation, but is insufficient to challenge Islamophobia.</p>
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<img alt="A large crowd of people is seen marching on the street, next to a line of cars." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433325/original/file-20211123-21-1ffb1ly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433325/original/file-20211123-21-1ffb1ly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433325/original/file-20211123-21-1ffb1ly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433325/original/file-20211123-21-1ffb1ly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433325/original/file-20211123-21-1ffb1ly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433325/original/file-20211123-21-1ffb1ly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433325/original/file-20211123-21-1ffb1ly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Thousands of people march through the streets of London, Ont., on June 11, 2021, in a Multi-Faith March to End Hatred after four members of a Muslim family were killed in a hate crime.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Geoff Robins</span></span>
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<h2>Evasion 3: ‘We don’t have any Muslim students’</h2>
<p>Naming, addressing and dismantling Islamophobia does not require the presence of Muslims. The assumption of “no Muslims here” should also be held lightly, as some families choose not to disclose their faith identity for a myriad of reasons, including protecting their children from anticipated racial targeting. </p>
<p>While the presence of self-identified and identifiable Muslim students and staff may mean there is an increase in instances of explicit Islamophobia, their visible presence in a school isn’t a precondition for the commitment to recognize and address this form of racism.</p>
<h2>Evasion 4: ‘We have faith accommodations’</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/policy-preventing-discrimination-based-creed/9-duty-accommodate">Faith accommodations</a> can be viewed as an improvement from the explicit <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02589346.2013.765681">exclusion of Muslims from public spaces through claims of secularism</a>. But “accommodating” within existing structures won’t address the Islamophobia in curriculum, policy or institutional culture.</p>
<p>Faith accommodations are often approached as a procedure (at best) or sometimes as a nuisance to “integrate” minority students. Rarely are they viewed as <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/beyond-accommodation">an opportunity to build relationships, to learn together</a> or to transform schooling. </p>
<h2>Evasion 5: ‘We don’t know enough’</h2>
<p>Author and education scholar <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/622408/we-want-to-do-more-than-survive-by-bettina-love/">Bettina Love</a> writes that if people believe that teaching against racism is important, they will commit to doing the work — including unlearning, learning and not waiting to be taught by people within communities who experience different forms of intersecting violence. </p>
<p>Too often, Muslim students and colleagues are forced to become “ambassadors” of their faith tradition because the adults around them assert that they don’t know enough about Islam and Islamophobia.</p>
<h2>Evasion 6: Excusing Islamophobia as ‘free speech’</h2>
<p>Muslim scholars, feminists, theorists and clergy have long engaged in study, analysis, debate and critique in understanding Islamic scripture, practices and histories. As in all faith communities and traditions, there has always been and continues to be vibrant dialogue and reflection within Islam. Muslim communities hold a plethora of understandings and modes of religious practice. Insisting that Muslims homogeneously subscribe to a fictional singular (medieval) understanding of Islam is a cornerstone to Islamophobia. </p>
<p>Too often an invitation to debate “about Islam” and “Muslim life” in classrooms is informed by sources promoting this perspective. This results is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1757743818790276">Islamophobic targeting</a> and harassment — <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/03/29/515451746/muslim-schoolchildren-bullied-by-fellow-students-and-teachers">sometimes even led by or in the presence of teachers</a> — that is dismissed as “free speech.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People are 'standing against Islamophobia' signs" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433571/original/file-20211123-15-1tl8416.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433571/original/file-20211123-15-1tl8416.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433571/original/file-20211123-15-1tl8416.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433571/original/file-20211123-15-1tl8416.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433571/original/file-20211123-15-1tl8416.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433571/original/file-20211123-15-1tl8416.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433571/original/file-20211123-15-1tl8416.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People gather for a vigil in Toronto held for victims of the New Zealand terror attack in March 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>New stories urgently needed</h2>
<p>These evasions are just some of the ways Islamophobia is perpetuated through silences and omissions in school systems. Potential ways of living out different stories in school systems include:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Recognizing how Islamophobia is present, even when Muslim students and staff aren’t. Like other forms of racism, <a href="http://tessellateinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Examining-Islamophobia-in-Ontario-Public-Schools-1.pdf">Islamophobia is always operating in various structures, curricula, language and beliefs</a>.</p></li>
<li><p>Addressing and removing barriers to meaningful inclusion. Go beyond accommodating and move towards designing spaces and systems in ways <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/622408/we-want-to-do-more-than-survive-by-bettina-love">where every student feels they belong and matter</a>. This necessarily entails co-creating life-giving and sustaining spaces that affirm spirituality and faith, even when schools claim to be secular.</p></li>
<li><p>Teaching against Islamophobia needs to be explicit, purposeful and integrated in anti-racist work. We believe all educators have an ethical responsibility to work towards becoming co-conspirators and disrupt anti-Black, anti-Indigenous, Islamophobic, homophobic, transphobic, misogynistic and ableist systems. School systems cannot wait for this to happen organically. Anti-racist and anti-oppressive education must become a guiding ethic and expectation in all educational institutions.</p></li>
</ol>
<h2>Commit to doing the work</h2>
<p>In planning this article, we asked, “What will it take for education systems (and the people leading and within them) to finally take Islamophobia seriously?”</p>
<p>Too often, being Muslim is seen as being incompatible with public life in Canada. We want better for ourselves, our children and all children, youth, families, caregivers and educators who live and work within these systems.</p>
<p>Educators and school systems cannot continue to evade facing, interrupting and dismantling Islamophobia. They must step up and commit to doing the work.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169937/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Tackling Islamophobia as a form of racism even when Muslims aren’t visible is key.Nada Aoudeh, PhD Candidate, Education, York University, CanadaMuna Saleh, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, Concordia University of EdmontonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1629922021-08-09T15:04:09Z2021-08-09T15:04:09ZIslamophobia in schools: How teachers and communities can recognize and challenge its harms<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415015/original/file-20210806-17-18lqoxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=179%2C26%2C5811%2C3970&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Islamophobia shows itself not only in obvious hate acts, but in seemingly innocuous attitudes and assumptions.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Recent overt attacks against Muslims <a href="https://theconversation.com/muslim-family-killed-in-terror-attack-in-london-ontario-islamophobic-violence-surfaces-once-again-in-canada-162400">in London, Ont.,</a>, <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/8024358/hamilton-police-investigating-anti-muslim-hate-crime-in-ancaster/">Hamilton</a> and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/muslim-women-attacks-edmonton-1.6081152">Edmonton</a> have surfaced and exacerbated <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/3523535/hate-crimes-canada-muslim/">the fear that Canadian Muslims</a> have been living with for many years. </p>
<p>A few weeks ago, I porch-visited a friend. I was about to knock when her daughter opened the door and said she was off to have ice cream with her friend. She said “Goodbye!” and left her home without her hijab. I was heartbroken. Even though my friend lives in a part of Missisauga, Ont., <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2020/05/06/a-small-gesture-of-compassion-for-muslims-during-the-pandemic-unleashes-ugly-torrent-of-intolerance-in-mississauga.html">a densely Muslim-populated city</a> in Canada (also referred to by its Muslim residents tongue-in-cheek as “Muslim-sauga”), she and her three daughters do not feel safe.</p>
<p>They are afraid to be <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/13/why-are-muslim-women-living-in-fear-in-this-canadian-city">visibly Muslim</a> for fear of being identified and targeted for their religion. </p>
<p>I’m an <a href="https://doi.org/10.29173/assert16">anti-Islamophobia researcher</a> and educator focused mostly on Islamophobia in schools. My research suggests that Islamophobia is not only manifested as isolated incidents or overt attacks. Islamophobia shows up frequently in covert ways. </p>
<h2>Seemingly innocuous attitudes</h2>
<p>Here are five seemingly innocuous attitudes that educators and school communities can learn to spot and address.</p>
<p><strong>1. “I treat all students the same” or “I don’t see colour.”</strong> A comment I hear often from teachers and administrators is “I am not always aware of Muslim students as Muslims,” or “All students are the same,” or “I don’t see colour.” When I probe and ask more questions, I notice the fear of being perceived as an Islamophobe, or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-873X.2009.00463.x">harbouring Islamophobic sentiments</a> is camouflaged and wrapped up in such statements. <a href="https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-fair-is-not-equal/2019/11">Research shows</a> that treating students the same means that all students receive the same treatment irrespective of their needs. </p>
<p>To have a <a href="https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-educators-must-disrupt-colorblind-ideologies/2020/02">“colour-blind” approach</a> is rooted in the notion that being “different” is a deficit. Emphasizing “same treatment” and “colour-blind treatment” means covering implicit biases. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-curb-anti-black-racism-in-canadian-schools-150489">How to curb anti-Black racism in Canadian schools</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>2. “Muslims in Canada are more respectful and civilized than Muslims in other parts of the world.”</strong> In my doctoral research, I explored the experiences of Muslim students in an urban public high school in Ontario with a reputation of having a large Muslim student presence. I found that teachers generally have positive relationships with the Muslims in their school communities. Yet something strange happens when they process the all-too-often <a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814707326/arabs-and-muslims-in-the-media/">negative narratives</a> of Muslims in the media as suspicious, dangerous and backwards. </p>
<p>A teacher I interviewed for my research asserted that Muslims who live in Canada are very different from Muslims outside of Canada. Such views reflect and replicate what literary and cultural critic Edward Said identified as an <a href="https://www.sam-network.org/video/orientalism-as-a-tool-to-justify-colonialism-1-4">“orientalist” and colonial</a> narrative that living in the west (in this case, Canada) is “civilizing” Muslims.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Woman in hijab smiles and holds two pieces of fruit over her eyes like binoculars." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415024/original/file-20210806-19-5q57cd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415024/original/file-20210806-19-5q57cd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415024/original/file-20210806-19-5q57cd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415024/original/file-20210806-19-5q57cd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415024/original/file-20210806-19-5q57cd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415024/original/file-20210806-19-5q57cd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415024/original/file-20210806-19-5q57cd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The view that Muslims living in Canada or the West are somehow different than Muslims elsewhere reflects colonial attitudes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Pexels/Harun Benli)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>3. Muslim students are considered spokespersons for their religion.</strong> Just as <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/43133788">Muslim organizations are </a> expected to be first to condemn any terrorist attack, Muslim students also find themselves called upon to condemn attacks, defend their faith and speak on behalf of their faith: “Does Islam oppress women? What does Islam say about homosexuality? Why are ‘Muslim’ countries in such disarray?”</p>
<p>Similarly, one teacher concerned about student academic integrity asked me “… does the Qur’an say that cheating is OK? Because in most religions that is not right.” The teacher could not fathom that a student who was wearing a hijab could also cheat in their class. The pressure of representing an entire religion, in its best form, is a daunting task for an adult, let alone for a student.</p>
<p><strong>4. Divisive and dangerous Islamophobic narratives.</strong> Such narratives repeated in the media have a very strong hold in the societal psyche and <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/5301549/racism-poll-canada">negatively affect Muslims</a>.</p>
<p>Some of the very first questions any visible Muslim female student gets asked is “Did your husband/father force you <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-truths-about-the-hijab-that-need-to-be-told-63892">to wear hijab</a>? Is your father/husband <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.15365/joce.1003082013%22%22">strict or controlling</a>?” And irrespective of the answer, students feel that some teachers will not change their way of thinking no matter what evidence is presented. </p>
<p>Another example I encountered in my research is when a student spoke about his teacher. The student said the teacher “is fair in everything.” But when it comes to topics like Islam and terrorism, the teacher “holds on to his opinions…. Muslims in the class kept saying ‘this is not Islam,’ but I don’t think our message was received.”</p>
<p><strong>5. Speaking about Muslims as if they are not “Canadian.”</strong> This is part of viewing any practice outside of a white settler normative culture as not “Canadian.” Students are contending views, such as those of one teacher, in my interview, who claimed: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Parents [of the Muslim students] do not want to accept the norms of the Canadian culture.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The “norms” the teacher was referring to were white settler norms. </p>
<p>Students find themselves pressured to frequently profess their sense of belonging to Canada and assert their religious practices and beliefs are part and parcel of the Canadian mosaic. Similarly, when a 2016 <a href="https://www.environicsinstitute.org/projects/project-details/survey-of-muslims-in-canada-2016">survey of Muslims</a> by the Environics Institute was released, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/grenier-muslim-canadians-environics-1.3551591">media focussed on reporting</a> mainly about the sense of belonging and “Canadianness” of Muslims.</p>
<h2>Worried for Muslim students</h2>
<p>It is clear that <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781483385686.n15">classrooms and teachers are not insulated from these broader negative narratives and media points of view</a>. </p>
<p>I am worried for Muslim students navigating a system with embedded Islamophobic sentiments. Some young women are <a href="https://broadview.org/taking-off-the-hijab/">taking their hijabs off</a>; other Muslim students may struggle with <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3195968">academic disengagement</a>, <a href="https://cmha.ca/news/muslim-womens-mental-health-a-study">mental health issues</a>, difficulty <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/aeq.2001.32.4.399">reconciling their Muslim and Canadian identities</a> and <a href="http://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2021.1813">suicide, </a>to name just a few issues. </p>
<p>I am also worried that teachers, with their <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2018.1544551">work intensification</a>, do not know how to support their Muslim students.</p>
<h2>Get to know each other’s communities</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="People hold signs reading, 'United against Islamophobia.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415017/original/file-20210806-19-1ax6bem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415017/original/file-20210806-19-1ax6bem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=898&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415017/original/file-20210806-19-1ax6bem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=898&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415017/original/file-20210806-19-1ax6bem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=898&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415017/original/file-20210806-19-1ax6bem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1128&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415017/original/file-20210806-19-1ax6bem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1128&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415017/original/file-20210806-19-1ax6bem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1128&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When we know each other, we support one another. Here, people gather at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto after the New Zealand mosque shooting in March 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michael_Swan/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>As I was winding down that day, images of my friend’s daughter’s forced smile haunted me. I opened my Qur’an to find solace and comfort. I came across a verse I use frequently that <a href="https://theconversation.com/islams-anti-racist-message-from-the-7th-century-still-resonates-today-141575">Prophet Muhammad shared in a climate of racism 1,400 years ago</a>: “We have … made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another” <a href="https://quran.com/49/13?translations=43,19,101,85,84,21,20,17,95,22,18">(49:13)</a>.
This notion has served as one of the powerful takeaways in my workshops to teachers and faculty members about how to actively be an anti-racist. </p>
<p>Racist beliefs cannot find root in the minds and hearts of those who genuinely and frequently get to know each others’ communities. Knowing each other helps allow for the unlearning of <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/five-charts-that-show-what-systemic-racism-looks-like-in-canada-1.4970352?cid=ps%3A921">racist conditioning that we have been saturated</a> in. </p>
<p>When we know each other’s communities, we understand and we support one another. We <a href="https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/11/ibram-x-kendi-discusses-antiracism-in-education/">strive to be anti-racist</a>, and thus amass the force needed to dismantle systemic and institutionalized racism in our spheres of influence.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162992/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Asma Ahmed does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Racist and Islamophobic beliefs cannot find root in the minds and hearts of those who genuinely and frequently get to know each other’s communities.Asma Ahmed, Adjunct Professor, Department of Education, Niagara UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1648282021-07-21T15:37:59Z2021-07-21T15:37:59ZIslamophobia report reveals Scotland not quite as tolerant as it would like to think<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412424/original/file-20210721-27-1lweviz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C0%2C3909%2C2616&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/detail-mosque-609495011">Alexa Zari/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Scotland has always considered itself a society that is “<a href="https://www.gov.scot/publications/first-minister-eu-referendum-result/">open, inclusive and outward-looking</a>” according to its first minister, Nicola Sturgeon. But the nation’s popular and persistent belief that it <a href="https://www.luath.co.uk/politics-and-current-issues/no-problem-here-racism-in-scotland">does not</a> have a problem with racism has been contradicted by <a href="https://secureservercdn.net/160.153.137.40/13n.f55.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Islamophobia-public-inquiry-report-1.pdf">a study</a> by <a href="https://www.parliament.scot/get-involved/cross-party-groups/current-and-previous-cross-party-groups/2018/tackling-islamophobia">Tackling Islamophobia</a>, a cross-party group of the Scottish government. This starkly reveals that 75% of Muslims experienced <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/157082/islamophobia-understanding-anti-muslim-sentiment-west.aspx">Islamophobia</a> as a regular or everyday issue. </p>
<p>According to race think-tank the <a href="https://www.runnymedetrust.org/about.html">Runnymede Trust</a>, Islamophobia <a href="https://www.runnymedetrust.org/uploads/Islamophobia%20Report%202018-Part%201%20FINAL.pdf">is defined</a> as “hatred or fear of Muslims or of their politics or culture” and can include “any distinction, exclusion, or restriction towards, or preference against Muslims”. Non-Muslims also find themselves victims of Islamophobia when they are mistakenly identified as Muslims, an all-too-common experience for ethnic minorities in Scotland.</p>
<p>The report highlights that Muslim women are most likely to suffer from discrimination. The majority of respondents believe that Islamophobia is getting worse in Scotland, with Glasgow showing the highest levels. Mainstream print and broadcast media were seen to promote Islamophobia by the majority of the study’s respondents. Social media was also cited as an arena where Islamophobic attitudes are circulated in Scotland. However, Islamophobia in Scotland is most often experienced on the street in the form of verbal abuse.</p>
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<p>Muslims in Scotland have responded by changing their everyday habits in efforts to hide their Islamic identities. Some choose not to wear a headscarf or speak in a foreign language on public transport, for example. </p>
<h2>Scottish exceptionalism</h2>
<p>Scotland has largely escaped criticism in public debates on race and racism due to the commonly held attitude that there is no problem to discuss. Scottish political elites have helped to advance the narrative that Scotland is more collectivist in nature and places a higher value on social welfare, making it exceptional in this issue to other parts of the UK, including England.</p>
<p>These arguments have been used to promote a civic brand of Scottish nationalism which <a href="https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/171666/7/171666.pdf">has been successful</a> in gaining support from minority ethnic groups, including among young adults. While it is good that Scotland has an inclusive notion of citizenship, we should be wary of making broad generalisations about Scottish exceptionalism.</p>
<p>At the successful <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-57100259">Kenmure Street demonstration</a> in Glasgow in May – where protesters halted a UK government immigration raid on two Indian men at a flat – there were numerous anti-UK banners and proclamations of Scotland having a better attitude to race. The demonstration was a significant victory for community resistance, but using it to justify notions of exceptional Scottish tolerance and inclusion is misleading.</p>
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<p>There is some evidence to suggest that the Scottish public places a higher value on <a href="https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/the-new-sociology-of-scotland/book243306">social welfare</a>, and recent <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/c37d28xdn99t/scottish-parliament-election-2021">election results</a> highlight a preference to vote for centre-left political parties. It is also true that Scotland has a long history of worker-led <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/2678-a-people-s-history-of-scotland">social justice campaigns</a>. However, the extent to which Scotland is more open or inclusive to immigrants than other parts of the UK is often over emphasised. For example, survey evidence from <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2018/04/27/where-public-stands-immigration">YouGov</a> found that public attitudes towards immigration were largely similar north and south of the border. </p>
<p>In the Kenmure Street case, reporting on the news story focused on the hostile approach of the UK immigration services, which were seen to symbolise the cruelty of the Westminster establishment. <a href="https://www.snp.org/policies/pb-what-is-the-snp-s-policy-on-immigration/">Despite claims</a> that it would implement a “fair and humane asylum and refugee system”, the Scottish government has not been explicit about how it would regulate immigration should it be given the legislative powers to do so (immigration is a reserved matter for Westminster). It is not clear, for example, how it would process asylum claims or respond to failed claimants. So it is easy for the Scottish government to capitalise on this emotive issue in public campaigns and debates.</p>
<h2>What can be done?</h2>
<p>The Tackling Islamophobia report recommends that political and council leaders should be more vocal in addressing Islamophobia through a no-tolerance position. It advocates the inclusion of Muslims to public boards and senior positions. Additionally, it is suggested that Islamophobia be included in the existing <a href="https://www.gov.scot/publications/race-equality-framework-scotland-2016-2030/">Race Equality Framework</a>.</p>
<p>These formal improvements could help to pave the way for addressing the root causes of Islamophobia in Scotland. But it is equally important for the Scottish public to take heed of this report’s worrying findings and acknowledge that in reality, Scotland has a poor reputation when it comes to the treatment of some of its most vulnerable citizens. Proclamations of Scottish exceptionalism and “<a href="https://www.luath.co.uk/politics-and-current-issues/no-problem-here-racism-in-scotland">no problem here</a>” only hinder this process.</p>
<p>Evidence suggests that Scotland has a long way to go to live up to its perception of being open, inclusive and outward-looking, particularly for its Muslim population. The country needs to ditch its complacency and examine its efforts to combat discrimination, and consider how much it actually listens to its Muslim citizens and includes them at all levels of society. This starts with an acceptance of the cold hard facts, which may be a little difficult for some to hear.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164828/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marcus Nicolson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A recent study reveals that most Muslims believe Islamophobia is getting worse in Scotland - contradicting the country’s perception of itself as a tolerant nation.Marcus Nicolson, PhD Research Associate, Glasgow School for Business and Society, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow Caledonian UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.