Political and religious sources of Islamophobia
Political and Religious Sources of Islamophobia
Attacks on Britain’s 280,000 Jews and 2.5-7 million Muslims, including assault and harassment, have soared by more than 60 percent over the past year, London police statistics show.
The Metropolitan Police dealt with 483 anti-Jewish incidents in the 12 months between November 2014 and November 2015, marking a 62 percent increase over the same period last year. The London police also recorded a similar rise in anti-Muslim incidents, increasing by 64 percent over last year, for a total of 818 such attacks.
Meanwhile an American poll found that 82 percent of Americans place a higher priority on preserving the religious freedom of Christians than for other religious groups.
Solid majorities said it was extremely or very important for the U.S. to uphold religious freedom in general. However, the percentages varied when respondents were asked about specific religions, according to a 12/10-13, 2015 poll by The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
The 82 percent who said religious liberty protections were extremely or very important for Christians, dropped to: 71 percent for Jews; 67 percent for Mormons and 61 percent for Muslims.
But, when you look at American’s political loyalties in the survey: 88 percent of Republicans said it was important to protect the religious liberty of Christians, while only 60 percent said so for Muslims, a 28 point difference.
Democrats however, were slightly less concerned about religious freedom for Christians and slightly more concerned about protecting religious freedom for Muslims. Eighty-three percent of Democrats said religious freedom protections were important for Christians, while 67 percent said the same about Muslims, only a 16 point difference.
Thus, the gap between the two parties is large and growing. Also, although both Jews and Mormons are minorities; Jews, who are mostly Democrats, are much more favorable to protecting the religious rights of Muslims than Mormons, who are mostly Republicans.
A survey by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center released 12/15/15 found that a large majority of white evangelical Protestants, as well as smaller majorities of older Americans and those with less education, said Islam is more likely than other religions to encourage violence among its believers.
Overall, Americans split evenly on the question of whether Islam is more likely to encourage violence than other religions, with 46% saying it is more likely to do so and 45% saying it was not, the Pew poll found. That close division has been constant for most of the last decade in Pew polls. But the partisan divide on the issue has grown since George W. Bush was President, when those who identified with one of the two parties largely agreed on the issue.
Today, among Republicans, 68% call Islam more violent, Pew found, while among Democrats, only 30% did. Among people who identified themselves as conservative Republicans, 77% called Islam violent, while among self-identified liberal Democrats, 73% said it was no more violent than other religions.
Even among Americans younger than 30, about one-third say Islam is more likely to encourage violence, while among Americans older than 65, more than half do, Pew found. That is bad news.
And another poll released a month prior to Pew shows that a majority of Americans (56%, including even larger majorities in all the major Christian denominations) say the values of Islam are at odds with American values according to the Public Religion Research Institute’s annual American Values Survey (of 2,695 U.S. adults).
But not all American religious communities have the same views of Islam. Three large groups of Americans had a major increase in Islamophobia; and three smaller groups only had a small rise, or no rise at all.
The three groups of Americans having large numbers of people agreeing with the statement that the values of Islam are at odds with American values are:
white evangelical Protestants (up 14 points to 73 percent from 59 percent in 2011);
white mainline Protestants (up 16 points to 63 percent from 47 percent);
and Catholics (up 20 points to 61 percent from 41 percent).
The three groups that did not show a significant rise in Islamophobia are all American minorities: only 55 percent of black Protestants said Islamic values were incompatible with American values (up only 4 points from 51 percent) ; and among Jews and “nones,” people who claim no religious label, there was no rise at all, because statistically speaking a one point difference (to 42 percent from 41 percent) is well within the surveys margin of error.
Perhaps our religious and political leaders should help improve interfaith relations in 2016 by constantly repeating the important lesson taught by German Protestant theologian Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the cowardice of German intellectuals following the Nazis’ rise to power; and the subsequent purging of their chosen targets, group after group:
First they arrested Socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they arrested Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they arrested Jews, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me.
Or as it says in the Torah: “You are to have the same law for the foreigner and the native-born. I am the LORD your God.’” (Leviticus 24:22) and in the Qur’an: “To each of you We prescribed a law and a method. Had Allah willed, He would have made you one nation [united in religion], but [He intended] to test you in what He has given you; so race to [all that is] good. To Allah you will all return together, and He will [then] inform you concerning that over which you used to differ.” (5:48)
Rabbi Maller’s web site is: rabbimaller.com