Worsening trend

Spreading fear: A Palestinian mother and son walking inside the Al Aqsa Mosque complex in Jerusalem. The notion of Islamophobia as anti-Muslim sentiment in the West is also being broadened to include shifting attitudes in the Global South, with the term equally evoking incidents such as Israeli forces’ raids on the Al Aqsa. — AFP

A US Congressman recently introduced a resolution calling for the House of Representatives to recognise Islam as a major religion in an effort to foster more respect for Muslims within America. That this was needed is a tragic reminder of the global increase in Islamophobia. As a Muslim-majority state, Pakistan may consider these merely emotive external issues with little direct local relevance. But the domestic ramifications of global Islamophobia deserve attention.

There is no doubt that Islamophobia is a shocking and worsening global trend. The recent events in Sweden and Denmark recall the United Nation’s special rapporteur on religious freedom’s 2021 finding that Islamophobia had risen to epidemic proportions; for example, anti- Muslim incidents in the UK doubled between 2012 and 2021, and 30% of Americans surveyed in 2017 viewed Muslims negatively. In 2021, the UN was moved to observe the first International Day to Combat Islamophobia.