Professor Says Islamaphobia Is Emboldened By US Laws

Speaker 1: 00:00 This is KPBS mid day edition. I'm jade Hindman police are investigating a fire set at an Escondido Moscow late last month as arson and a hate crime. The mosque was defaced with graffiti that referenced the terrorist attacks at two mosques in New Zealand that killed 50 people. What is the root of these types of attacks? Our next guest says it's Islamophobia. Joining me is Khaled Beydoun, a professor at the University of Arkansas and the author of the book, American Islamophobia, understanding the roots and rise of fear. Welcome Khalid. Speaker 2: 00:33 Thanks so much for having me. Speaker 1: 00:35 So you say Islamophobia has been given to narrow a definition. How do you define what it is? Speaker 2: 00:41 So I define it as both state sponsored policies, specifically the laws and policies that have been enacted since the beginning of the war on terror, but also the private violence that's been unleashed by individuals, whether it be citizens, hatemongers, bigots. And that's the definition that the media's tendency to fixate on. My definition is broader and really, you know, takes into play what the government and governments even globally are doing with regard to policing Muslims. Speaker 1: 01:06 Talk to us about the interplay between those two types of Islamophobia. Speaker 2: 01:10 So the two types of Islamophobia you identify, our state sponsored or structural Islamophobia and the Islamophobia, uh, being unleashed by private actors, individual citizens and so forth. So the dynamic and interplay between the two is when the state effectively passes policy, like the travel ban or passes policy like counter radicalization, surveillance within Muslim communities. It's endorsing the idea that Muslims are a alien, suspicious class of people. It's, it's based on that very stereotype and effectively communicating to private individuals that they should actually partake in this broader project of policing, persecuting and punishing Muslims. So stay policy endorses and then emboldens the kind of violence that we see taken by private individuals. Speaker 1: 01:55 And let me ask you, you know, what is the difference between Islamophobia and racism or white supremacy? Speaker 2: 02:02 Yeah, so you know, I argue in my book that Islamophobia rises from white supremacy, the differences, Islamophobia, it's partly racialize. It's partly the idea that Muslims are this, you know, this thing stand alone prior racial group. But it's more than that. It's the idea that the faith, that the actual religion itself, uh, is encouraging or was inciting violence, DV and activity. And also the notion, um, that that specific Muslim youth can not be assimilated with Western values or American virtues. So it's, uh, it's partly a racial, but it's also civilizational and religious. Speaker 1: 02:36 And can you give us an example of how you believe Islamophobia has been endorsed and emboldened by the law? Speaker 2: 02:41 Oh yeah. There's a, you know, a myriad of examples starting. Um, you know, as soon as this country was created as a sovereign state all the way up to via the Muslim ban, right? The executive order that is signed by president Trump. This is an act of presidential power where the president was very clear about his views on Islam. You remember up in the, uh, during the campaign he tells Anderson Cooper that Islam hates us. He can flate Syrian refugees with Isis, a whole range of rhetoric condemning and vilifying Islam, which is driving that executive action, that presidential document banning Muslims coming in from six Muslim majority states from coming into the country is a classic example of state sponsored as long phobia. Speaker 1: 03:21 Can you see? So a lot of it's coming from the president, you think? Speaker 2: 03:24 Yeah. You know, much of it. You know, the, the easy thing with Trump is that he makes it very clear and vivid, um, you know, where he's coming from based on his rhetoric, but also previous administrations, the Bush administration, the Obama Administration as, um, partake in instructor will Islamophobia. So it's not unique to Trump. He's been the most brazen, but it's something that has definitely been the case with previous administrations as well. Speaker 1: 03:46 Right. Because you, you say that Islamophobia, uh, has much deeper roots than our current president. Speaker 2: 03:52 Oh, definitely. Yeah. I think that, um, you know, we can look to the Obama Administration for instance, which was lauded as a progressive administration establishing counter radicalization, policing a surveillance program that is seated and Muslim communities across the country, which I consider to be the most nefarious and destructive form of structural Islamophobia. The Bush administration in the wake of the nine 11 terror attacks enacted really strident policies like the Patriot Act, which enabled surveillance, enabled the freezing of bank accounts, pass a legislation, uh, NC, which was akin to a Muslim registry. What you, you know, which is what from calls it down. So we've had these policies based on this foundational presumption that expressions of Muslim identity are correlated, the terrorism being extended by previous administrations. And that's the baseline of Islamophobia. It's that presumption. Speaker 1: 04:45 And I want to talk more about that. You know, Ken Islamophobia be traced back to a misunderstanding of Islam. Speaker 2: 04:52 I think in part, I think part of it is based on misunderstanding and ignorance. And that's Kinda the, the classic sort of justification or response you hear about, you know, Islamophobia being talked about in the media discourses. But it's more than that. I think that there's a strategic misrepresentation. There's definitely intentional desires on the part of political gatekeepers. Think tanks, pundits, um, who know a lot about the religion, know a lot about the people, but they have vested interests in distorting the truth and perpetuating these myths about Islam and the Muslims, whether it be professional gain, whether it be financial gain, political gain. Much of it is intentional, malicious and strategic. Speaker 1: 05:32 Hmm. And as long, you know, is the fastest growing religion in the u s and those who practice the religion are a diverse group. Talk to us about that. Speaker 2: 05:40 Oh, exactly. It's the fastest growing religion in the faith. If you look at specific demographics, which are the fastest growing Muslim subsets, you have Latinos, which are the fastest growing, uh, Muslim subpopulation or subgroup in the country. White converts are escalating at a high rate. So at this moment of decline in religiosity in the United States, you have a, um, movement in the opposite direction with regards to the growth of the Muslim population. And if you look at demographics really closely, we tend to conflate Muslim identity with Arab or Middle Eastern identity. Um, but in fact, the biggest parality of Muslims today are African Americans, um, at roughly a third of the entire population. So all the demographics and statistics demonstrate that these myths and stereotypes about Muslims are in fact not true. Speaker 1: 06:24 All right. I've been speaking with a professor and the author of the book, American Islamophobia. Thank you Khalid. Thanks so much for having me. And you're listening to KPBS midday edition.