The sentiment of aversion and discrimination against Muslims became more and more severe after a series of Brussels terror attacks last March. Moreover, the number of aversion crimes against Muslims also increased. Ahmed, a Belgian boy from Morocco, heard a discriminative comment from his elementary school teacher. The young boy was scarred because his teacher said to him, “If you have a plan to install a bomb, please warn me first.”  Islamophobia refers to a feeling of aversion against Islam and the Muslims. The problem of Islamophobia is that the aversion is against not only the Islam extremists or the armed terrorists but also Muslims in general.
  As the terrorist acts committed by the Islam extremists and IS, the armed terrorists, have increased recently, Islamophobia has spread. In November, 2015, IS committed   simultaneous terror attacks at a restaurant, stadium, and theater in Paris. 150 people were killed by the terrorism. Also, last May, a bomb attack occurred in Manchester during Ariana Grande’s concert. Of course, there have been many terror acts before by   Islam extremists such as Al-Qaeda and Islam Sunni. However, the number of aversion crimes against Muslims drastically increased after IS committed terror attacks recently.
  Actually, the number of aversion crimes against Muslims has increased 6 to 8 times than before the French terror attack. In the case of England, the number of aversion crimes has increased by about 3 times after the Manchester terror attack. In Germany, the crimes by German ultranationalists who hate Islam and refugees increased. In addition, some local governments in France prohibited Muslim women from wearing a swimsuit called a burquini as a reaction to French attacks.
  Terrorism occurred in New York on September 11, 2001, and it was a direct cause of much Islamophobia. Endless terror attacks by IS seemed to justify the anti-immigration policies of the damaged countries. In the case of the United States, it became an ignition for Donald Trump to propose anti-immigration policies. The anti-immigration policies of Europe and the United States supported the extreme rightists of each country, and it prompted the spread of Islamophobia.
  Islamophobia has a problem in that the public regards Muslims unrelated to the armed terrorists as targets of hatred. The most important thing is that this hatred comes from the fear of terror attacks and not from racial or religious aspects. Mr. Lee, a student in the College of Engineering, said, “When I think of Muslims or Islam, words like ‘terror’ or ‘crime’ come to my mind first.” On the other hand, Lee Dong-hyo(’12, Dept. of Psychology) said, “Islamophobia seems to be a hasty generalization. It is an unpleasant situation where the good Muslims are discriminated against and suffer due to the Islam extremists. Islamophobia can be another form of racism, so we need to reject looking at Islam and the Muslims with a jaundiced eye.”
  Most cruel terror attacks were caused by Islam extremists and armed terrorists. Many innocent Muslims are discriminated against even if it is obviously not true that all Muslims commit terror attacks. Park Sang-hee, a professor in the Department of Psychology, said “There is no chance for the public to know the daily lives of Muslims. They have heard about a lot of violent incidents like terror attacks by the Islamic extremists through the media. These violent incidents caused people to generalize all Muslims. They are the main reasons why Islamophobia has formed.” He also said, “In order to solve the spreading of Islamophobia, people should try to understand the Muslims and Islam objectively. For this, not only the efforts of the public but also the media are needed to deliver a balanced cognition about the Muslims and Islam.”

By Min Byung-woo
bw38@cbnu.ac.kr