Abstract
Islamophobia is a reality today that finds its manifestations at different levels of society and has been researched through diverse gendered, ethnic, and regional perspectives. The sensitivity of the topic has resulted in limited work around exploring consequences of Islamophobia on Muslim children. As religiously charged crimes against Muslims in the West continue to grow, Islamophobia has crept into the schools, classrooms, and playgrounds of many countries and needs to be recognized and effectively mitigated. Based in a child rights-based context, this chapter is a review of empirical literature that attempts to characterize and theorize Islamophobia to understand why and how it affects the lives of Muslim children. It accounts for varied Islamophobic experiences that children encounter in regions of North America and Europe. It is inferred that educational institution cannot be isolated from global incidents of Islamophobia and become sites for further propagating racist sentiments. The chapter ends with school social work model directed towards prevention and reduction of Islamophobia.
TopIntroduction And Rationale
Western liberal democracies in Northern America and Europe have been witness to ongoing demographic transitions of their population and a constant change of their socio-cultural milieu (Simon, 2008; Kunst, Tajamal, Sam, & Ulleberg, 2012; Voas & Fleischmann, 2012; Hunt, Layton & Prince, 2015). This racio-ethnic diversity and multicultural societal set up often becomes ground for social integration and cohesion (Larsen, 2013). But it has also resulted in subordination of minorities by agents of white hegemonic supremacy in these countries (Solorzano,1997). Over the decades, Western discourses on racialized minorities have changed their focus from ‘color’ to ‘race’ to ‘ethnicity’ to ‘religion’ in the current socio-political climate (Peach, 2005).
Critical race theorists explain how any form of racism has four dimensions; it has micro and macro components; it takes on institutional and individual forms; it has conscious and unconscious elements; and it has a cumulative impact on both the individual and group (Lawrence,1987; Solorzano,1997). The post 9/11 era has seen expression of all four dimensions in the rise of anti-Muslim racism in the Western world, exhibiting itself in the form of Islamophobia (Sirin & Balsano, 2007; Elkassem, Csiernik, Mantulak, Kayssi, Hussain, Lambert, & Choudhary, 2018).
Islamophobia implies having indiscriminate adverse and negative feelings towards Islam and followers of Islam i.e. Muslims. The term covers hostile feelings, discrimination, exclusion, fear, suspicion or anxiety directed towards Muslims adults and children alike (Runnymede Trust, 1997; Hassan & Martin, 2015). Islamophobia or anti-Muslim ideologies, actions and thought processes is a reality today, which finds manifestations at different levels of society (Bleich, 2011). The effect of Islamophobia has been explored through the voices and experiences of different gendered, ethnic and regional identities. However, due to the sensitivity of the topic, little work has been done around exploring Islamophobia and its consequences on Muslim children, especially in a contemporary global context. Like any other form of stigmatization and discrimination, Islamophobia also finds its effects and adversities in the life of children (Grewal, 2003). As religiously charged crimes against Muslims in the West continues to grow, Islamophobia has found its way into the schools of these countries (Bonet, 2011) and hence, needs to be accounted for, be recognized, and thereby effectively mitigated.
Child Rights and Islamophobia
The United Nation Convention on the Rights of a Child, 1989 provides a framework of ‘protection rights’, which particularly safeguards children from any form of harm, including macro or micro aggressions caused by Islamophobia. Article 2 talks about non-discrimination in extension of rights of the Convention to all children, whatever their race, religion or abilities; whatever they think or say, whatever type of family they come from. Article 19 of the Convention, further, states that the governments should ensure that children are properly cared for and protect them from physical and mental violence, abuse and neglect. Article 30 puts forward that minority or indigenous children have the right to learn about and practice their own culture, language and religion in a safe environment (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989). However, when seen through the lens of Islamophobia, all these protections, developmental and safety rights of a Muslim child in North America, Europe and elsewhere, are being blatantly compromised upon.
Based in similar rights-based context, this study is an attempt to understand theoretical frameworks, experiences and implications of why and how Islamophobia affects the life of Muslim children. It is based on an underlying assumption that adverse effects of Islamophobia can be appropriately undermined, if the concept is analyzed through the incidents of religious discrimination faced by Muslim children themselves.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Child-Led Research Methodology: Participatory process where children and young people, either with or without the support of adult facilitators, become a part of a child-centric topic of research. They can be involved in any one or more research steps of selecting the topic, designing the tools, collecting and analyzing data, and providing recommendations.
Religious Stereotype: A widely perceived; but fixed, general and oversimplified image of a person or a group of people; belonging to a particular religion.
Religious Bullying: Hostile behavior, coercion, threat and abuse perpetuated by an unequal power balance. One group becomes potential “perpetrators” and the other group becomes possible “recipients”/“victims” of bullying, as per their majority or minority religious group affiliation.
Exclusion: A process through which individuals belonging to a particular minority group are denied access to the prevailing social system; its rights, resources and privileges.
Islamophobia: Having indiscriminate negative feelings towards religious doctrine of Islam or the followers of Islam. The term covers hostile feelings and actions directed towards Muslims.
Micro-Aggressions: A statement or action that subtly, indirectly and often unconsciously expresses a prejudiced attitude against members of a marginalized group such as a racial, religious or ethnic minority.
School-Based Social Work: Intervention which provides psycho-social services to vulnerable children and adolescents in schools, by working with their parents, teachers, and peers.
Qualitative Meta-Synthesis: A systematic and rigorous review of literature, with an intent of synthesizing existing qualitative studies, to construct greater meaning through an interpretative process.
Resilience: The capability of recovering, bouncing back or adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress.
Eco-Systems: Environmental systems; containing different roles, norms and rules that function in congruence with each other, to shape human development. These systems include the micro system, the mesosystem, the exosystem, the macro system, and the chronosystem.