Justifying Islamophobia

2004 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Allen

Immediately prior to the events of 9/11, the United Nations (UN) officially recognized the proliferating climate of anti- Muslim and anti-Islamic prejudice, discrimination, and hatred –Islamophobia – as being as equally repellent and unwanted as anti-Semitism and other global discriminatory phenomena. The 9/11 tragedy, however, somewhat overshadowed this recognition, resulting in the continued proliferation of anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic sentiment and expression. This study explores how and why Islamophobia was manifested following 9/11, contextualizes how elite voices across British and European societies have considered Islamophobia to be fair and justified. In considering the wider findings of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia’s monitoring of Islamophobia, this study explores how “visual identifiers” have underpinned changes in attitude and reactions to Muslims across the fifteen European Union (EU) member nations at a largely pan-European level. The second section develops these ideas, analyzing three of the report’s primary themes – Muslim visuality, political landscapes (incorporating institutional political elites as well as grassroots politics), and the media – each one approached from the perspective of the United Kingdom. This study concludes by suggesting that 9/11 has made Islamophobia more acceptable, which has enabled its expressions, inferences, and manifestations to locate a newer and possibly more prevalent societal resonance and acceptability. Ultimately, this new development goes some way to justifying Islamophobia and negating the UN’s recognition of this problem.

2004 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Christopher Allen

Immediately prior to the events of 9/11, the United Nations (UN) officially recognized the proliferating climate of anti- Muslim and anti-Islamic prejudice, discrimination, and hatred –Islamophobia – as being as equally repellent and unwanted as anti-Semitism and other global discriminatory phenomena. The 9/11 tragedy, however, somewhat overshadowed this recognition, resulting in the continued proliferation of anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic sentiment and expression. This study explores how and why Islamophobia was manifested following 9/11, contextualizes how elite voices across British and European societies have considered Islamophobia to be fair and justified. In considering the wider findings of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia’s monitoring of Islamophobia, this study explores how “visual identifiers” have underpinned changes in attitude and reactions to Muslims across the fifteen European Union (EU) member nations at a largely pan-European level. The second section develops these ideas, analyzing three of the report’s primary themes – Muslim visuality, political landscapes (incorporating institutional political elites as well as grassroots politics), and the media – each one approached from the perspective of the United Kingdom. This study concludes by suggesting that 9/11 has made Islamophobia more acceptable, which has enabled its expressions, inferences, and manifestations to locate a newer and possibly more prevalent societal resonance and acceptability. Ultimately, this new development goes some way to justifying Islamophobia and negating the UN’s recognition of this problem.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Dwyer ◽  
Olivier Arifon

Based on literature review and interviews with journalists, we argue that the BRICS countries are constructing a collective vision, guided by logics of recognition and of transformation. The production of discourse reaches its high point during the BRICS leaders’ summits. To go beyond analysis of the discourse revealed in the media, this article examines projects, thereby aiming to qualify and label the justificatory discourses, in order to develop an understanding of intentions. The BRICS countries have become a reference point as the press increasingly makes comparisons between these countries. The notion of recognition, present in the political elites, also appears as a part of the public imagination and in the press. The leaders too seek transformation. The first official multilateral institution founded by the BRICS countries was the New Development Bank. Current efforts indicate the development of common scientific and technological research initiatives and official support for the establishment of an innovative BRICS Network University. Initiatives will appear as these countries try to consolidate their position.


2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pascual Pérez-Paredes ◽  
Pilar Aguado Jiménez ◽  
Purificación Sánchez Hernández

Research has shown that immigrants tend to be negatively constructed in the discourse of the media. In the context of the European Union (EU), British newspapers reportedly offer largely negative or partial constructions of these individuals. These representations contribute to jeopardizing the integration of this group of people, as their social construction reflects and influences the attitudes of EU citizens and the immigration policies. Our research examines the collocational profile of the lemma ‘migrant’ in the UK legislation and UK Administration informative texts from 2007 to 2011. While our results show that the UK Administration avoids an explicit negative construction of immigrants coming to the United Kingdom, we have found that they are partially constructed as a homogeneous, well-categorized group through an extremely limited set of lexical items that tend to prime their adscription to tiers. We argue that the representation of immigrants in the legislation points to the fact that UK laws and official information during the period 2007–2011 were more focused on legitimating the control over this group of individuals than on creating the conditions for better integration policies.


2005 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-102
Author(s):  
Zubeida Saloojee

This report is actually a comprehensive and highly informative two-partreport put out by the Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia,which was established by the Runneymede Trust in the United Kingdom in1996. In 1999, Dr. Richard Stone (vice chair of the Runneymede Trust) wasappointed chair of the commission.The first part details the issues and challenges Muslims face in Britain,while the second part focuses on the actions taken to deal with and combatIslamophobia. As a report, its applicability is limited to the socioeconomicand political conditions prevailing in Britain and, in particular, that country’surban areas. However, the substantial issues raised (namely, a broaderdiscussion of the concept of Islamophobia; the relationship of Islamophobiato racism; and whether racism as a concept ought to include intolerance,bias, stereotyping, and discrimination on the basis of religion) have a greaterresonance.The backdrop to the report consists of the events of 9/11 and the growingintolerance displayed in the media, governmental institutions, and societyat large toward Muslims, both individually and collectively. Centrally,the report asks how a secular society like Britain can provide a safe space,one that is free of discrimination, disrespect, and intolerance, in whichMuslims can observe and practice their faith. In addition, the authors alsoask two vitally important questions: “Why is the anti-racist movement soreluctant to address prejudice, hate, and discrimination based on religion?”and concomitantly: “Should Islamophobia be defined as a form of racism, inmuch the same [way] that anti-Semitism clearly is, and should the full forceof race relations legislation be brought to bear to defeat it?” ...


2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miklós Hajdu ◽  
Boróka Pápay ◽  
Zoltán Szántó ◽  
István János Tóth

The article presents and summarizes some results from extensive cross-national content analysis of media coverage of corruption. The authors examined a sample containing 12,742 articles published in France, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia and the United Kingdom from 2004 to 2013. A limited number of studies have been done thus far to reveal how the media deals with corruption cases in certain countries, and cross-national comparative analyses are exceedingly scarce. The core focus of the study is to reveal the significant differences in the corruption cases covered by the media according to the countries under analysis. We assume that some differences exist between the media coverage of corruption in the new and the old European Union member states and also that by classifying countries into groups based on their perception of the level of the corruption, some dissimilarities will be revealed between them. We conclude that the distinction between countries based on whether they are old or new European Union members does not wholly determine the nature of reporting on international or national corruption cases, for example, Italy was more similar to the old European Union member states in this sense. Considering the level of institutionalization of corruption cases, Italy appears to be more similar to the other old European Union members, but we should clarify that differences based on this feature of the cases are not clearly highlighted in the interaction model. However, if we use the variable perceptions of corruption to classify countries, we find that countries with a ‘cleaner’ environment (the United Kingdom, France) place more focus on reporting corruption cases in the international arena.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grzegorz Libor

To understand the Welsh in their political decisionsBrexit is one of the most important events that dominated the media discourse in 2017. The decision of the residents of the United Kingdom to leave the EU structures will certainly have not only serious economic consequences, but also political, social and cultural ones, both for the United Kingdom itself and for residents of countries that will stay in the European Union.While analysing the results of the referendum, which took place on 23rdJune 2016, it can be seen that the majority of voters in England and Wales voted in favour of leaving the European Union, while those in Scotland and Northern Ireland supported the United Kingdom remaining in the EU structures.The aim of the article is to explain why the majority of voters in Wales were in favour of the United Kingdom exit from the European Union and to indicate potential benefits or losses resulting from the decision taken. Zrozumieć Walijczyków w ich politycznych decyzjachBrexit jest jednym z tych wydarzeń, które zdominowały dyskurs medialny w 2017 roku. Decyzja mieszkańców Zjednoczonego Królestwa o opuszczeniu struktur unijnych będzie miała z pewnością poważne konsekwencje nie tylko ekonomiczne, o których mówi się najwięcej, ale również polityczne, społeczne i kulturowe, zarówno dla samego Zjednoczonego Królestwa, jak i mieszkańców państw, które pozostaną członkami Unii Europejskiej.Analizując wyniki referendum, do którego doszło 23 czerwca 2016 roku, dostrzec można, że za wyjściem z Unii Europejskiej opowiedziała się większość głosujących w Anglii i Walii, podczas gdy wyborcy w Szkocji oraz Irlandii Północnej optowali za pozostaniem Zjednoczonego Królestwa w strukturach unijnych.Celem artykułu jest próba wyjaśnienia, dlaczego większość głosujących na terenie Walii opowiedziała się za wyjściem Zjednoczonego Królestwa z Unii Europejskiej oraz wskazanie potencjalnych korzyści lub też strat wynikających z podjętej decyzji.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-151
Author(s):  
Andrea Circolo ◽  
Ondrej Hamuľák

Abstract The paper focuses on the very topical issue of conclusion of the membership of the State, namely the United Kingdom, in European integration structures. The ques­tion of termination of membership in European Communities and European Union has not been tackled for a long time in the sources of European law. With the adop­tion of the Treaty of Lisbon (2009), the institute of 'unilateral' withdrawal was intro­duced. It´s worth to say that exit clause was intended as symbolic in its nature, in fact underlining the status of Member States as sovereign entities. That is why this institute is very general and the legal regulation of the exercise of withdrawal contains many gaps. One of them is a question of absolute or relative nature of exiting from integration structures. Today’s “exit clause” (Art. 50 of Treaty on European Union) regulates only the termination of membership in the European Union and is silent on the impact of such a step on membership in the European Atomic Energy Community. The presented paper offers an analysis of different variations of the interpretation and solution of the problem. It´s based on the independent solution thesis and therefore rejects an automa­tism approach. The paper and topic is important and original especially because in the multitude of scholarly writings devoted to Brexit questions, vast majority of them deals with institutional questions, the interpretation of Art. 50 of Treaty on European Union; the constitutional matters at national UK level; future relation between EU and UK and political bargaining behind such as all that. The question of impact on withdrawal on Euratom membership is somehow underrepresented. Present paper attempts to fill this gap and accelerate the scholarly debate on this matter globally, because all consequences of Brexit already have and will definitely give rise to more world-wide effects.


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