A Legitimate Response of Muslims towards Islamophobia

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation is a vocal inter-governmental organization of Muslim member states. It sets its own policy agenda and it established an Islamophobia Observatory in 2007 in its Directorate of Cultural, Social, and Family Affairs. The observatory works in the constituency of Cultural Affairs Department. It monitors and publishes the magnitude and state of Islamophobia observed across the world. Since 2007, it has published several observatory reports, monthly bulletins, and research articles in OIC journals on key incidents of discrimination, hate crimes, and stigmatization of Muslims as intolerant, radicals, violent, and terrorists across the world, particularly in the three continents of Europe, North America, and Australia. This research paper is based on the content analysis of the annual reports of Islamophobia Observatory, which has been exercised independently to observe the role of OIC to address Islamophobia as a legitimate response of the Muslim world. This study highlights the fact that Islamophobia Observatory has presented its every observatory report to the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers (ICFM) of OIC member states, which has responded to the issue at various levels. OIC is also addressing this issue at global level. Therefore, OIC has been successful in making Islamophobia a part of international discourse of human rights. Now, it is known as a social evil and its stakeholders have started mitigating it through proper institutional coordination at all levels.

kinds of phobia, Islamophobia is not possessed by individuals only; rather it is possessed by a large section of the host population. 1 In fact, it is not a new phenomenon. It emerged a few decades ago at the end of Cold War in Eastern Europe, Caucasus and to some extent in Central Asian region as an antagonistic force to prevent Muslims to preserve and promote their Islamic identity and to express their right of self-determination. Resultantly, every newly liberated state from Union of Soviet Socialist Republics had to face severe bloodshed, multilateral waves of ethnic cleansing and hate crimes towards Muslims. Later, some so-called scholars and orientalists presented and propagated their false premise as a clash of civilizations. Consequently, they unilaterally demonized Muslims and Islam as the future enemy of Western civilization. Samuel P. Huntington wrote, that Western civilization will face Islam as a constant threat in future rather than the temporary threat from Islamic fundamentalism. Similarly, Vincent Geisser said that Islamophobia is not a manifestation of historical rivalry since Crusade, rather it is pure 'anti-Muslim racism.' 2 Historically, the term Islamophobia appeared for the first time in an official report of Runnymede Trust in 1997, which coded the discriminatory attitude of White Anglo-Saxon Protestants of British with their Muslim fellow citizens. It must be noted that it did not discover the phenomenon, but gave it a name which gained currency rapidly. 3 Currently, it is associated with a known vocabulary of offensive, hurting, discriminating, hateful, inciting, stereotyping, provocative, insulting, defaming, and denigrating expressions of Muslims and Islam. 4 According to the observations of Islamophobia Observatory of OIC, 5 Islamophobia has four major expressions, Violence (physical assault, verbal abuse, 1 Islamophobia Observatory, "8 th OIC Observatory Report on Islamophobia" (Kuwait: Organization of Islamic Cooperation, 2015), 1-71, https://www.oicoci.org/upload/islamophobia/2015/en/reports/8th_Ob_Rep_Islamophobia_Final.pdf Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) was formulated in September 25, 1969 to protect collective interest of Muslim Ummah. Later, in 38 th conference (2011) of ICFM of OIC member states at Republic of Kazakhstan, the logo and official name of the organization was amended and fixed as Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). It is one of the world's second largest intergovernmental organization, which has 57 Muslim majority member states. It focuses on international peace, security and harmony. Its charter shares its aims as; to recognize the right of self-determination, territorial integrity; to give input and participate at global intergovernmental forums to assist for formulation of inclusive global policies and to take decisions through respecting UN Charter and international laws; vandalizing of property), Prejudice (in the mass media and social media and other kinds of conversations), Discrimination (at work place and departments of social services) and Exclusion (from employment, politics and government, and from other spheres of national life). 6

Realization of Islamophobia by OIC
OIC realized the threat of Islamophobia and passed recommendations to take initiative to address the issue at institutional level. Later, it conducted its 3 rd Extraordinary Islamic Summit at Mecca and adopted its Ten-Years Program of Action in 2005. Here, it was decided to take measures to mitigate the issue. 7 It also formed Islamophobia Observatory to estimate the magnitude of Islamophobia all over the world. OIC took another initiative to establish a technical body to detect and block the blasphemous and Islamophobic content on the Internet. It is called Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT). It was established by the resolution passed in the ICFM of OIC in 2009. 8 While addressing the 42 nd Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers (ICFM) of OIC member states, he described Islamophobia as, it is a regrettable fact that manifestations and incidents of hostile, defamatory, discriminatory, xenophobic and racist discourse and actions against Muslims especially in the West is still on the increase in their scope and intensity…Islamophobia is also manifested through intolerance, discrimination and adverse political, media and even academic public discourse…Islamophobia is mainly based on radicalization and demonization of a religion and its followers. As such, Islamophobia is a direct and clear assault on the human rights and dignity of Muslims. 9 In his special message to the Journal of OIC, he expressed his concern that Islamophobia was one of the biggest security threats to the world, which carried a momentous magnitude to prematurely hurt, discriminate and defame Muslims and Islam. He mentioned that violent acts of individuals were being projected as a manifestation of collective response of all Muslims in the world, who firmly believed to promote Islamic model of economics; to work for Palestine cause; to take stand against defamation of religion particularly for Islam through dialogues and debates etc. Organization of Islamic in universal and comprehensive message and principles of Islam, such as respect, tolerance, freedom and peace for all. So, a universal community of Muslims cannot be associated with extremism and terrorism at all. He said that the undefined boundaries of freedom of expression had violated the basic human rights through making caricatures of sacred personalities. It had offended the faith of Muslims and previously defined code of ethics of journalism.
He mentioned that Western school of thought and orientalists should revisit their petite understanding of Islam, since they have built their perceptions about Muslims and Islam on very weak foundations. He assured that OIC will play its key role as a legitimate source for peace and harmony to draw down the magnitude of this "unholy campaign" of ill minded people against Muslims and Islam. He highlighted that OIC had taken up this issue as its policy agenda to spread awareness about Islamophobia at UN and other effective forums in the world. He further highlighted that he personally had made this issue a part of his speeches and points of negotiations at 62 th session of General Assembly of United Nations, other intergovernmental forums including leading think thanks of US, West and rest of the world. In his visit to USA, he visited and spoke in academic and professional research institutions 10 about the role of media to bridge the gap between East and West. He shared his views about Islamophobia and the role of media in launching and promoting it.
He emphasized that this phenomenon had existed before the incident of 9/11, but a sensational increase had been observed after the incident, which indiscriminately and abruptly demonized a known peaceful majority of Muslims as perpetrators of it. As a result, international media followed the same discourse and started a global campaign against Muslims and Islam. Therefore, this was the right time to realize the fact that we were fighting against either innocents or with the culprits. 11 In his address to the ICFM of OIC, he mentioned that OIC had convinced the UN and its relevant agencies to play their key role to eradicate Islamophobia through international understanding (passing resolutions and organizing conventions) and legislation. He mentioned that we must not forget our role to address this issue at all levels and at all forums, which we frequently or rarely visited. 12 He addressed the 6 th Islamic Conference of Culture Ministers and reinforced his commitment to harness all available resources to counter the phenomenon of 10 Islamophobia. 13 In his address at Lisbon, he stated that OIC is amongst the biggest forums in the world, which organized interfaith and inter-cultural dialogues. 14 General Secretory, Ambassadorial Group to Geneva of OIC and UN Commission for Human Rights (upon the report of OIC) condemned the political campaign of Swiss People's Party to ban Scarf and Minaret of mosques of Muslims in Switzerland. OIC convinced the target institutions to declare this development as an attack on fundamental human rights and freedom of practicing religion. 15 He further noted that Muslims living in North America and Western Europe were facing identity crisis. There is no doubt that mass media, biased scholarship and unstructured sense of historical rivalry had made the public in them narrow minded towards Muslims. He mentioned that Islamophobia cannot be prematurely generalized in the West and America at all, because there was an institutional process and sincere or human-rights loving people who took stand against such subversive propaganda, but the momentum of their good manifestation remains inferior to the magnitude of Islamophobia. 16 It must be noted that Mass Media is not only the launching pad of Islamophobia, but Social Media is the most effective tool of this phenomenon, which is very hard to monitor and block, as governments of UAE, Pakistan and Indonesia blocked Youtube.com in protest against the presence of blasphemous videos, but the problem and significance of the crisis was not realized by the West and America and they failed to respect Islam and preserve the basic human rights of Muslims. 17 In 37 th session of ICFM, the participants observed that the reporting of cases of Islamophobia all over the world. They were astonished by the fact that local governments are ineffective to solve their social issues for certain communities. They reinforced their commitment to do more in this regard. 18 The Secretary General of OIC shared his observations with the same participants that the right wing political parties in Europe are the real cause of Islamophobia. He mentioned that he 13 Prof. Ekmeledin Ihsanoğlu, "6 th Islamic Conference of Culture Ministers Adopt Action Plan for Joint Islamic Cultural Action," OIC Journal (Organization of Islamic Conference). no. 12, According to the report of 'Council of American-Islamic Relations,' Islamophobia and ideological violence against Muslims is not only manifested by the religious community, but it is also harnessed by well-educated secular and liberal social segments of host society for their purposes. Even law enforcement agencies are not far behind in this social crime. 20 The advisor to the Secretary General of OIC presented his views that Muslim world is at a historical juncture, where economic failure, bad governance, foreign occupation, leadership crisis and Islamophobia are at their peak to disturb its social order with their collective force. 21 Therefore, OIC is convinced that contemporary international political, diplomatic and mass media narrative is composed of subversive nomenclature against Muslims and Islam (such as Islamic terrorism; Islamic fundamentalism; Islamic extremism; Islamic fascism etc.), which has directed the attention of international community from shared goals of global peace, harmony and human development to the baseless propaganda which isagainst a multicultural majority population of Muslims. 22

Islamophobia Observatory of OIC
General Secretory of OIC addressed the 33 rd session of ICFM of OIC member states, where he stated that OIC has convinced European Union (EU) and United Nations (UN) to issue a joint statement for international mass media to follow moral values to stop spreading hatred against religious beliefs of others particularly of Muslims. He discussed a successful plan to establish an Islamophobia Observatory in the General Secretariat of OIC (Jeddah) to both monitor and document all of the identified activities against Muslims and Islam. He further added that the were seriously observing this issue since many years and have taken onboard United Nations' Commission for Human Rights, General Assembly of United Nations, and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization 19 "Ihsanoglu suggests evolving an Islamic plan for interaction with the West on Islamophobia," OIC Journal (Organization of Islamic Conference). no. 14 (2010):17.

Observations of Islamophobia Observatory
Islamophobia Observatory publishes monthly bulletins and annual reports since 2008. These annual reports are written on the basis of observations taken from monthly bulletins, which are made conversant of all observed cases of Islamophobia all over the world. This study is limited to organize a content analysis of the annual reports of Islamophobia Observatory only, which is comprehensively conversant of actors and reasons of Islamophobia in certain parts of the world and how OIC has played its role to develop a legitimate voice of Muslim world to mitigate the phenomenon.

Actors of Islamophobia
The phenomenon of Islamophobia can be observed in almost every non-Muslim country, but Europe, North America and Australia are leading in this regard, where leftists and rightists both possess it. These individuals and groups (including organizations) belong to various walks of life in those countries. Therefore, the following information contains high profile cases and incidents of Islamophobia as • US troops burnt Holy Qur'ān in Afghanistan.
• A blasphemous film 'The Innocence of Muslims' was uploaded at Youtube.
• English Defense League and Danish Defense League organized anti-Muslim protests and did propaganda through social media respectively. • Anti-Muslim blogs 35 were created to contribute in Islamophobia.
• Far-right political parties 36 exposed their high level of Islamophobia.
• Center for American Progress exposed some anti-Muslim and anti-Islam propagandists' organizations 37 and their financiers 38 in America.  • Islamophobia got a significant magnitude in Western society because of refugee crisis, discourse of Trump in his election campaign and terrorist attacks in Europe. • Some new trends and magnitude of Islamophobia have been observed as significant in Myanmar, India, Australia and Thailand. • 'Pew Research Center' and other reliable polling agencies have concluded that Islamophobia is not rising only in Western countries, but also in non-Western countries. • Rise of ISIS and civil wars in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan had contributed a lot in the rise of Islamophobia. • Various banned and exposed propagandist organizations of anti-Islam are working with their full potential in the host communities of Islamophobia. 44

Reasons of Islamophobia
There are many reasons behind Islamophobia, which vary from country to country and society to society, but there are some common points of references that are counted as reasons of Islamophobia particularly in the West. Firstly, Muslims and Islam are narrowly considered as static and unresponsive to social change. Secondly, Islam is known as a monolithic religion, which negates the fundamental 43 Islamophobia Observatory, "8 th OIC Observatory Report on Islamophobia," 1-71. 44 Islamophobia Observatory, "9 th OIC Observatory Report on Islamophobia," (Tashkent: Organization of Islamic Cooperation, 2016), 1-134, https://www.oicoci.org/upload/islamophobia/2016/9th_islamophobia_annual_report_en.pdf authenticity of religious texts of other religions. Thirdly, the West shows a strong hesitation in considering Islam as a progressive religion. It (West) considers Islam as an outdated and inferior religion on earth. Fourthly, it considers Islam as the strongest opponent of science among other religions in the world. Fifthly, Islamophobia is a manifestation of a population to exclude Muslims and Islam from their host society.
According to observations of Islamophobia Observatory, the following reasons of Islamophobia having been observed as significant, • Lack of knowledge and understanding about Islam is the prime reason behind Islamophobia. Therefore, the popular propaganda wins that Islam rose through sword, which further preaches hate to non-believers and stands to challenge the modern and Western way of life. • Misrepresentation of Muslim societies and their contemporary state of victimization in the American War on Terror and rising level of extremism is contributing to Islamophobia. • Exploitation of the right of freedom of expression is also contributing to the phenomenon, when mass media in non-Muslim world (particularly in West) does not discriminate between terrorists and victims of terrorism in Muslim world. Therefore, powerful propaganda of this mind set is contributing to Islamophobia. • Inciting behavior of some individuals, groups, organizations and other entities to promote ethnic violence is significantly contributing in the rise of the target phenomenon. realization to mitigate it effectively. Its target population of address mostly consists of leadership and representatives of inter-governmental originations, states and government officials, civil society, media, educational elite and various stakeholders including those from host population of Islamophobia. The following information has been organized to highlight some high profile developments to mitigate Islamophobia, as those were mentioned in the annual reports of Islamophobia Observatory since 2008-2016. • Prime Minister of Canada praised Muslims and Islam and criticized Islamophobia.
• Local unbiased activists have started counter Islamophobia campaigns at personal, group and organizational levels in host societies of Islamophobia. • Muslims also have started to practice their legal rights through approaching judiciary, law enforcement agencies and engaging their local well-wishers in host societies of Islamophobia. 55

International Declarations and Commitments Towards Islamophobia
OIC has precedence in this regard that it highlighted the phenomenon of Islamophobia timely and passed a numbers of resolutions and declarations from its forums for commitment, awareness, and countering it effectively. 56 At the same time, it has worked with other intergovernmental organizations and various stakeholders to address it in their own constituencies in host regions of Islamophobia.
• OIC took initiative and issued (2006)  had convinced international community to realize this issue as a violation of basic human rights of Muslims.
The rising trends of Islamophobia show that European governments and to some extent their media, educational institutions, civil society and intellectual scholarship are either not capable to tackle the phenomenon or they are intentionally hesitant to counter it on a massive scale, as its magnitude have been observed as increasing rather than decreasing. Hence, comprehensive and sincere efforts (declarations and commitments) of the international community are being awaited for implementation in the host communities of Islamophobia.

Way Forward
In host regions of Islamophobia following steps are suggested to be taken: • Members and representatives of Muslim community should realize their primary concerns about Islamophobia and consult with the relevant people, institutions and public bodies in Islamophobic societies to address their matters through public administration, legislation and policy making process rather than just individual response. • Members of Muslim community (both collectively and individually) should file their concerns into court of law and at other effective forums to probe, convict and reduce the momentum of Islamophobia, • Host countries of Islamophobia should adopt national plans of actions for eradicating Islamophobic preaches, particularly regulating the media groups and organizations, • Publication and dissemination of any kind of Islamophobic content should be realized as separate from freedom of expression. So, its offenders must be detained as violating of basic human rights. • Muslims should present the real message and picture of Islam, which is being defamed and distorted since many decades. • Regional study centers (Middle Eastern, European, Oriental etc.), institutes and think thanks including NGOs should promote harmony, cohesion and inclusiveness in their literature and schools of thought to magnify and signify the cleavages and fault-lines on ethnic basis, which ultimately lead to ethnic violence, hate and violations of basic human rights since Islamophobia is one manifestations of this phenomenon. • Global institutions for justice, peace and reconciliation should be functional and play their impartial role to solve international security crises in Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, Eastern Europe, Caucasia and other frozen conflicts in the world such as Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir and Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria etc. which cause Islamophobia and perpetual conflict in the world.