Türkiye leads Muslim nations in addressing Islamophobia

The fight against Islamophobia is long and arduous, but Muslim nations refuse to be browbeaten by ongoing assaults on their identity and faith.

Türkiye is spearheading the global diplomatic effort to counter the phenomenon that has caused a growing number of incidents involving discrimination, harassment and violence against Muslims around the world.

As a result of the diplomatic efforts by Türkiye and other countries like Pakistan and Malaysia, the United Nations declared March 15 as the International Day to Combat Islamophobia in 2022.

The day also marks five years since a gunman killed 51 Muslim worshippers and injured another 40 in terrorist attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.

“Islamophobia in its essence is a political problem. Together with some other Muslim countries, Türkiye has become the voice of Muslims on this issue,” says Turkish-German University Associate Professor Dr Enes Bayraklı, who is also the co-editor of the European Islamophobia Report.

He says the fact that Türkiye is vociferously condemning Islamophobia is particularly important because many of the Western leaders, especially in Europe, refrain from even mentioning this word.

“Naming the problem at the top diplomatic forums is really important to exert pressure on these (Western) governments to acknowledge the problem. They do not even recognise the problem,” he tells TRT World.

Geolocating hateful content

Statistics show Islamophobia is on the rise. The number of Quran-burning incidents increased from 15 in 2022 to a whopping 507 in 2023 in Western Europe. A majority of these incidents of Quran desecration took place in Denmark (447).

Similarly, the number of attacks on mosques in Europe doubled from 34 in 2022 to 68 in 2023, with Germany alone recording 52 such incidents.

A study published by the Islamic Council of Victoria, an Australia-based organisation, showed more than 3.7 million Islamophobic posts made on X, formerly Twitter, between August 2019 and August 2021. More concerning was the discovery that the social media platform removed only 14.8 percent of anti-Muslim posts after nearly a year.

About 86 percent of geolocated anti-Muslim posts originated from India, the United States and the United Kingdom, it showed.

Türkiye has condemned these incidents in the strongest terms.

“The increase and spread of hostility towards Islam along with international terrorism is worrying. These negative developments have reminded us again that we need more solidarity, more understanding of each other and tolerance,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a group of global leaders late last year.

Türkiye has led various initiatives at international forums like the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Council of Europe to combat Islamophobia.

For example, a resolution adopted by the United Nations in July last year condemned the burning of the Quran while defining such acts as “religious hatred.”

A separate resolution at the UN General Assembly condemned all acts of violence against holy books, terming them a violation of international law on July 25.

Bayrakli says the importance of Türkiye highlighting the issue of Islamophobia on international platforms can’t be overstated. Building global coalitions with countries like Pakistan and Malaysia that have been equally vocal on this issue is key, he says.

“Currently, many European countries don’t even register hate crimes of this sort. They don’t publish official data on this issue,” he says, adding that highlighting the issue at multilateral forums will raise awareness at the global level.

Farid Hafez, senior researcher at Georgetown University’s The Bridge Initiative, says economic and political pressure should be exerted on countries like France that have institutionalised Islamophobia.

Calling for the dismantling of what he calls the “Countering Violent Extremism (CVE)” infrastructure, Hafez says it has allowed for the strongest crackdown on Muslim civil society, which is fighting Islamophobia in the West.

“CVE as a concept is not only targeting violence, but has allowed several European nation-states to criminalise Muslim religion per se, from wearing the Hijab to having mosques,” he tells TRT World.

“Without (international) pressure, there won’t be any incentives for European governments to abandon their politics as usual,” he says.