Istanbul / Nisa Efendioglu / Anadolu

** Professor Salman Sayyid, in an interview with Anadolu:

- Islamophobia is a political project, not individual hatred, and an organized phenomenon aimed at preventing Muslims from expressing their identity

- Its logic ends in genocide, as it begins with daily discrimination and ends with crimes such as Bosnia, Arakan, and East Turkistan

- It is a form of racism, not resolved by introducing Islam or interfaith dialogue, but requires political and institutional confrontation

- Some of the most prominent Islamophobes are Muslims; religious affiliation does not immunize against adopting a discourse hostile to Islamic identity

- Confronting it requires building community networks, and is linked to the struggle for Palestine and a review of the "neoliberal" system

Islamophobia, or hostility towards Muslims, is a phenomenon of a political and institutional nature, linked to racism and ethnic nationalism. The danger of its logic lies in that it leads to genocide, which necessitates the need to confront it in a collective and organized manner.

Professor Salman Sayyid, Chair (Professor) of Postcolonial Thought and Social Theory at the British University of Leeds, discusses the phenomenon of Islamophobia in an interview with Anadolu.

He affirms that it is not limited to mere prejudice or hatred at the individual level, but represents a political project aimed at preventing Muslims from expressing their religious identity and presence in the public sphere.

Sayyid explains that "Islamophobia extends from small daily assaults to institutional discrimination, and its ultimate logic is genocide."

He warned that discussions of Islamophobia are often limited to incidents of attacks on veiled women or individual cases of discrimination, which obscures the nature of the phenomenon as a much broader political and ideological system.

** Not just hatred

Sayyid stresses that reducing Islamophobia to attitudes of people with hostile feelings towards Muslims is a "misleading understanding," affirming the need to view it from a political and institutional perspective.

He explains that Muslim employees, even those working at airport checkpoints, may interact with travelers with beards or veiled women according to behavioral patterns acquired from institutional training, not out of personal hatred.

He adds: "These people do not hate Muslims, but they are part of an institutional structure they may not be aware of."

He believes that the essence of Islamophobia is based on considering Islamic identity as a "danger" that should be restricted.

He considers that "the real question can be summarized as: Can a Muslim express himself as a Muslim? Islamophobia specifically seeks to prevent that."

** Logic of genocide

Sayyid says that many view Islamophobia as just a "minor annoyance," while in reality it has a logic that begins with daily assaults and institutional discrimination and may end in genocide.

He explains: "Look at Bosnia, Chechnya, East Turkistan, Kashmir, and Arakan. In many of these cases, people were subjected to genocide because of their Islamic identity."

He points out that the Palestinian issue is no longer just a regional issue, but has become a global symbol where the memory of anti-colonial peoples intersects.

In this context, he discussed the concept of "Palestinization," explaining that it carries two different connotations: from a colonial perspective, it means stripping a people of their value and turning them into an entity lacking political agency, as with the Palestinian people and their suffering from hostile Israeli policies, while from an anti-colonial perspective, it represents a symbol of resistance and liberation.

In 1948, Israel was established on Palestinian lands occupied by armed Zionist gangs, which committed massacres and displaced at least 750,000 Palestinians. Then in 1967, it occupied the remaining territories and refuses to withdraw from them and to allow the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, contrary to international legitimacy resolutions.

During the genocide being committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip since October 8, 2023, more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 173,000 injured, along with widespread destruction affecting about 90% of civilian infrastructure.

Since the first day of the war, Israel has escalated its hostile and racist rhetoric against Palestinians, in a way that sought to dehumanize them and establish justification for killing them without accountability from a world that boasts of human rights.

** Muslim Islamophobes

Contrary to common belief, "Islamophobia is not exclusive to non-Muslims," and in this regard, Sayyid believes that belonging to Islam does not automatically immunize one from adopting a discourse hostile to Muslims.

He says: "It is important to acknowledge that some of the most prominent Islamophobes are Muslims. I do not say that positively, but the belief that a Muslim cannot be hostile to Muslims is a misconception."

** Deep racist structure

Sayyid affirms that one of the reasons for the global rise of Islamophobia is that the efforts to confront it have remained scattered, weak, and unorganized, adding that many initiatives have misdiagnosed the problem.

He adds: "When you talk to Islamic institutions or countries about Islamophobia, the response is often: Let's introduce people to Islam or promote interfaith dialogue."

He believes that the problem is not due to a lack of knowledge, but to a deeper racist structure, indicating that Islamophobia cannot be properly understood except as a form of racism.

He notes that "racism does not arise because people do not know a particular society well enough, so Islamophobia cannot be explained by ignorance alone."

He points out that the rise of ethnic nationalism is always coupled with a rise in hostility towards Muslims, adding: "Confronting ethnic nationalism also means confronting Islamophobia."

He also stresses that this confrontation requires a political decision, noting that countries with more accountable systems usually allow solidarity events with Palestine, while other countries even prohibit raising the Palestinian flag.

** A language governing global politics

Sayyid says that Islamophobia has entered a new phase in recent years, no longer just a pattern of discrimination limited to certain countries, but has become one of the basic languages governing global politics.

He adds: "The dangers of Islamophobia have begun to appear before the entire world, and confronting it must be collective, not individual."

He affirms that the Palestinian issue is part of this confrontation, pointing out that confronting Islamophobia also requires rejecting the subjugation of Palestinians, opposing ethnic nationalism, thinking beyond the boundaries of the nation-state, and reconsidering the neoliberal system.

He cites the protests that ousted former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in July 2024, where protesters raised the Palestinian flag alongside their country's flag, adding: "People see in Palestine the future of Muslims on a global level."

** Between hope and challenges

But Sayyid, despite the overwhelming negatives, expresses optimism about Muslim youth regaining confidence in their identity, while at the same time affirming that some indicators are heading towards worse, while other aspects are witnessing positive developments.

He says that twenty years ago it would not have been possible to hold such a dialogue in Istanbul, considering that the city hosting a forum for postcolonial thought today represents an important development.

He added that the 1960s saw expectations of the demise of Islam within two or three decades, but reality proved the opposite.