Muslims as Victims of Security Dilemma in the West

Abstract

Islam is the second largest religion after Christianity in the world, and Muslims are the fastest-growing ethnocultural minority communities in the Western world. However, Muslims, especially living in Western countries, have increasingly become the victim of a contemporary form of racism and xenophobia—that is Islamophobia. Survey reports conducted across Western nations have underlined the fact that a significant number of respondents are critical of the Muslim minority community and that this negative trend poses a challenge for these Muslim minorities’ ethnocultural freedom and equality. Today, mainstream Muslims in the West are victims of both Islamic State of Iraq and Syria-like terrorism and Islamophobics. Within this context, this study analyses the causal relationship between the West’s sense of insecurity and Islamophobia through the lens of the realist concept of security dilemma using a qualitative approach.

Notes

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2 John Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, New York: Norton, 2001.

3 Joyce Kaufman, Introduction to International Relations: Theory and Practice, Toronto: Rowman & Littlefield Publication, 2013.

4 Ibid.

5 Ibid.

6 Barry Posen, “The Security Dilemma and Ethnic Conflict”, Survival, Vol. 35, No. 1, Spring, 1993, pp. 27–47.

7 Ibid.

8 Barbara Walter and Jack Snyder, Civil Wars, Insecurity and Intervention, New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.

9 J. Snyder and R. Jervis, “Civil War and the Security Dilemma”, in Civil Wars, Insecurity and Intervention, ed. B. F. Walter and J. Snyder, New York: Columbia University, 1999, pp. 15–37.

10 Ibid.

11 Chaim Kaufmann, “When All Else Fails: Ethnic Population Transfers and Partitions in the Twentieth Century”, International Security, Vol. 23, No. 2, Spring, 1998, pp. 120–156.

12 R. J. P. de Figueiredo and B. R. Weinsgat, “The Rationality of Fear: Political Opportunism and Ethnic Conflict”, in Civil Wars, Insecurity and Intervention, ed. B. F. Walter and J. Snyder, New York: Columbia University, pp. 261–302.

13 Ibid.

14 Ali Khan, A Theory of International Terrorism: Understanding Islamic Militancy, Leiden: Martinus Nichoff Publishers, 2006.

15 The Ku Klux Klan, with its long history of violence, is the most infamous—and oldest—of American hate groups. See, https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/ku-klux-klan (accessed 23 June 2017).

16 The Aum Shinrikyo (Supreme Truth) was founded in 1987 by Shoko Asahara, a 40-year old legally blind former yoga teacher. See, https://fas.org/irp/congress/1995_rpt/aum/part03.htm (accessed 23 June 2017).

17 Zionist extremist organization in Palestine, founded in 1940 by Avraham Stern (1907–1942) after a split in the right-wing underground movement. See, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Stern-Gang (accessed 23 June 2017).

18 Walter Laqueur, History of Terrorism, New Brunswick: Transaction Publisher, 2001.

19 Ibid.

20 See, J. Weinzierl, “Terrorism: Its Origian and History”, in Understanding Terrorism: Threats in an Uncertain World, ed. A. A. Nyatepe-Coo and D. Zeisler-Vralsted, Uppersaddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2004, pp. 29–48.

21 “Assasins” a mid-sixteenth-century word derived from the Arabic word ḥašīšī, which means hashish-eater.

22 Philip Purpura, Terrorism and Homeland Security: An Introduction with Applications, Burlington: Elseiver, 2007.

23 Tedd Gurr, Political Terrorism: Historical Antecedents and Contemporary Trends, Newbury Park: Sage, 1989.

24 Ibid.

25 H. Siddiqui, “How Harperites Play Their Divisive Anti-Muslim Games: Siddiqui”, March 11, 2015, https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2015/03/11/how-harperites-play-their-divisive-anti-muslim-games-siddiqui.html (accessed 18 September 2016).

26 Ibid.

27 Posen, “The Security Dilemma and Ethnic Conflict”, op. cit.

28 Jose Zuquete, “The European Extreme-Right and Islam: New Directions?”, Journal of Political Ideologies, Vol. 13, No. 3, 2008, pp. 321–344.

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31 Tahir Abbas, “After 9/11: British South Asian Muslims, Islamophobia, Multiculturalism, and the State”, American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, Vol. 21, No. 3, Summer, 2004, pp. 26–49.

32 Snyder and Jervis, “Civil War and the Security Dilemma”, op. cit.

33 John Zubrzycki, “Does Australia’'s New Anti-Terrorism Legislation Go Too Far?” The Christian Science Monitor, June 25, 2015, http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2015/0625/Does-Australia-s-new-anti-terrorism-legislation-go-too-far (accessed 18 June 2017).

34 Michael Safi and Nick Evershed, “Three-quarters of Muslim Australians Feel They Are Unfairly Targeted by Terror Laws, Study Reveals”, The Guardian, March 15, 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/16/three-quarters-of-muslim-australians-feel-they-are-unfairly-targeted-by-terror-laws-study-reveals (accessed 18 June 2017).

35 Ziyaad Mia, “Terrorizing the Rule of Law”, National Journal of Constitutional Law, Vol. 14, No. 1, Winter, 2002, pp. 125–152.

36 Alexandra Dosman, “For the Record: Designating Listed Entities for the Purposes of Terrorist Financing Offences at Canadian Law”, University of Toronto Faculty Law Review, Vol. 62, 2004, pp. 1–28.

37 “New Study Highlights Discrimination in Use of Anti-Terror Laws.” Institute of Race Relations RSS, September 2, 2004, http://www.irr.org.uk/news/new-study-highlights-discrimination-in-use-of-anti-terror-laws/ (accessed 18 June 2017).

38 Christopher Allen and Jorgen Nielsen, “Summary Report on Islamophobia in the EU After 11 September 2001”, The European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, Spring, 2002, pp. 1–52. http://www.fra.europa.eu/fraWebsite/attachments/Synthesis-report_en.pdf (accessed 8 December 2015).

39 Ibid.

40 de Figueiredo and Weinsgat, “The Rationality of Fear”, op. cit.

41 Fariha Naqvi-Mohamed, “I Took My Family to the Movies and Got Called a ‘F-ing Terrorist’”, The Huffington Post, January 23, 2014, http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/fariha-naqvimohamed/racism-muslims-canada_b_4214494.html (accessed 18 June 2017).

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43 http://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/ar2002_p1-en.pdf (accessed 9 September 2016).

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47 AnneClaire Stapleton and Brynn Gingras, “Family: Son Killed by Neighbor Who Called Him ‘Dirty Arab’”, CNN, August 17, 2016, http://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/16/us/tulsa-arab-american-shooting-trnd (accessed 18 June 2017).

48 News Staff, “Muslim Woman Attacked Outside of Her Children’'s School in Flemingdon Park”, CityNews, November 17, 2015, http://www.citynews.ca/2015/11/16/muslim-woman-attacked-outside-childrens-school-flemingdon-park (accessed 18 June 2017).

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50 Scott Poynting, “The Resistible Rise of Islamophobia Anti-Muslim Racism in the UK and Australia Before 11 September 2001”, Journal of Sociology, Vol. 43, No. 1, Spring, 2002, pp. 61–86.

51 http://www.oicoci.org/oicv2/upload/islamophobia/2015/en/reports/8th_Ob_Rep_Islamophobia_Final.pdf (accessed 20 July 2016).