New report sheds light on Islamophobia in America

In its latest reports, the Al-Azhar Observatory for Combating Extremism highlighted the high rates of violence and extremism, as well as the steady increase in the phenomenon of Islamophobia and the escalation of hostility and hatred towards Islam and Muslims, which took the form of media campaigns that are almost systematic and hostile behaviors repeated on the ground.

The observatory mentioned that the term ‘Islamophobia’ reflects prejudice against Islam and Muslims, and suggests the permissibility of attacking individuals on the pretext of their affiliation to Islam.

However, the report saw that this hostile situation towards Muslims in the West is not the result of recent years only, but rather goes back even before the term. According to the report, it simply adopts an old, wrong and distorted image of Muslims, fueled at the present time by the rise of the extremists for their own goals and agendas, not to mention the exploitation of the media platforms to inflame feelings of hatred against Muslims in the West.
On the other hand, the Al-Azhar Observatory confirmed the role of attacks by extremist organizations that claim false affiliation with Islam, which in turn offends it and contributes to fueling the distorted stereotype about Muslims.

Also, Western media have exploited waves of immigration and asylum as a result of the turbulent security situation, to escalate against Muslims by raising fears.

The Western citizen has been affected by the decline in the number of job opportunities, the increase in the number of Muslims and the obliteration of Western identity over time. Therefore, it was not surprising that the demands to remove the veil of Muslim women were repeated, not to mention the cases of verbal and physical assault on Muslim women, the assault on Islamic places of worship and harassment of worshipers, discrimination in the workplace, and prejudice in general against Muslims.
According to a recent report by Voice of America on the state of Islamophobia, current US President Joe Biden adopts a more moderate rhetoric toward Muslims compared to his predecessor, Donald Trump, who said in 2016: “I think Islam hates us.”
“Muslims are making our nation stronger every day, even as they still face real challenges and threats in our society, including targeted violence and Islamophobia,” Biden said.
The shift comes at a time when Muslims in the United States fear the rise in Islamophobia, with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) reporting an increase of 9% in the number of civil rights complaints it has received from Muslims in the United States since 2020.