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Religious and racial conflicts have been in vogue since people recognized and divided themselves into religions and began to implement their beliefs in the real world. At first, wars would be fought for different gods and goddesses, now they have intertwined with the ethnic, cultural, social and racial framework of society as well. As society progressed, modernized and raced towards success, religion began to get used as a soft tool to gain power. Moreover, religion was used as a manipulative agenda and used in international politics and organizations. Conflicts between communities and people living in different countries are largely targeted at religion. In the past and recent past, the world has not given way to religious discrimination and numerous people have lost their lives in the tussle between religious supremacy and their resistance towards their opponents. (Reychler).
History is riddled with examples of people waging religious wars in the same country or region. The examples from history range from the Buddhist versus Christians wars in Burma, the ongoing Israel versus Palestine wars in the disputed Arab territory, the wars in Ireland where the Catholics and Protestants have fought with each other over religious supremacy, wars in Lebanon where Muslim shites supported by Syria have fought with Muslim shites supported by Iran, in Sudan, where Muslims have fought against native religions, India and Pakistan, where Kashmir has been a disputed territory forever and wars have been fought to capture the disputed territory for the religious Muslim majority, in Iraq where the Sunni Muslims have fought with Shite Muslims, Yugoslavia (Croatia), where Serbian orthodox Christians have waged religious wars with Roman Catholic Christians and many other instances where religion has come between people and their beliefs and it has resisted them from living in harmony. (Reychler).
Out of the many examples of violence and hatred in the present day is that expressed through literature, cartoons, caricatures and hate speech. Where one set of people thinks that their beliefs are superior to the other, and they have the right to openly express their thoughts about the others’ belief, it creates a mess that cannot be cleaned up easily. This is given by the recent barbaric attack in Europe, Paris to be specific. The satirical French weekly newspaper office and killed eleven people in the office, injuring another eleven and leaving all of Europe in terror and chaos. (Kern).
The newspaper was one that had issued caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad of the Muslims and had associated them in a ribald manner, which had occurred to the Muslims as blasphemy against their religion and hurt their sentiments. The attacks were an attack on humanity, as called by the European press and it ignited an outrage amongst the French citizens who came on the streets protesting ‘Je Suis Charlie’ and hating against Muslims. Hating on Muslims was allegedly not the agenda for Charlie Hebdo, and the newspaper confessed they only expressed their thoughts about the Muslim Prophet and his preaching. They called it freedom of speech and thought and it was something that could not be controlled by the gun of an extremist. However, knowing that the paper caused considerable unrest in the Muslim world, it seemed to target the Muslims sentiments exactly. (Stanley).
Non-Muslims have had a history of disrespecting and over going the feelings that Muslims have for their religion and how they practice it. Perhaps it is non-compliance, and a general misunderstanding of religion that has led to such vile feelings towards them and their impression is not less than terrorists and extremists to the eyes of the world. Similarly, Muslims also cannot at times understand what Non-Muslims practice and how tolerance needs to be spread amongst the people of the world and the example of this is present in the form of ISIS. Where many theories exist regarding whether ISIS is a truly Muslim organization or a pseudo-Muslim organization with an ulterior agenda just more than that. ISIS is known to have wiped out or pressurize people of converting to Islam and have been involved in either converting Christians to Islam or killing them off to get rid of their generation. This is periodic killing or genocide of Christians all for religious intolerance or the establishment of a Muslim-only region and then trying to conquer the rest of the world through this very technique. (Taylor and Hugh).
It is this perception spread by the violence and anarchic situation in the Middle East that had damaged the image of Muslims everywhere in the whole world. The intolerance towards Muslims has been sparked higher due to ISIS. It is not just hatred towards religion; it is hatred towards a set of people that belong to that religion. It is seen that the garb of the Muslims has also become a source of the hatred towards them, and anyone who is wearing a turban on his head or has a beard is considered a Muslim. Consequently, people living in Europe and USA complained of being discriminated against only because of their appearance. Sikhs are people who, although are not Muslims, have a similar demeanor as Muslims wearing a turban on their heads and having beards. They are discriminated against in the society, at their workplace and even among
their acquaintances. Muslim females are required by their religion to adorn themselves in loose garments and to cover their heads and at times faces while they go out, hence it happened so in France itself that the veil law applied on ban on covering the face in all public places, be it helmets, headgears or the faces of females with a veil. It can be taken in a sense that this law was specifically made for the Muslim female women in order to marginalize them and to make them feel punished for covering their faces. (Dobson).
Europe has always been a place where Muslims and people of many races and nationalities and come and settled and many others have been living there for generations. It is wrong to consider that Muslims are only of one conservative category, and there is no other side to them. Muslims have lived in diversity in France itself, where one can fine people of very liberal views and at the same time there are people of staunch, conservative views that cannot be bent for them at any cost. The penetration of the Islamic State in parts of Europe can be called an outcome of the hatred towards Muslims and Charlie Hebdo’s incident can be taken as a sign that Muslims that are hated against can turn to revenge when they are oppressed or their religious sentiments are attacked. (Kern).
Racial prejudice is never a new matter for this world as it has been going on for centuries, and the only amendment made to the issue is based on a superficial level. The world has tried to overcome the problem yet it does exist, stronger than even in First World Countries and can prove a harmful thing for the world’s progress. In spite of Human Rights Laws and the role that the UN plays in amending the world and making it a more tolerable place, there is little ever done to make the world more peaceful. Since the 9/11 incident, racial hatred, and prejudice
has spiked up higher than ever and this has not only been the trend in the United States but it has even penetrated into Europe, especially the United Kingdom. It was reported in 2002, that the following the attack on 9/11 and the invasion of Afghanistan the amount of self-reported cases in Britain had gone up to a high level.
If looking at the issue through the Muslim population and discrimination against them, it is seen that they make up to 5.2% of the total population of England. Even then, Islam and the ideology related to Muslims is one of the biggest issues and hottest topics under discussion when it comes to Britain. Following their impression as terrorists and extremists who are undergoing some secret operation towards the Islamization of England, there have been efforts made to prevent Muslims from getting into the mainstream and getting seriously involved in any of the activities that lead them to getting positions of power in the English society. Many of the people coming to England are usually those that wish to have a better future for themselves and want to make a living in a progressive country. Muslim men faced the worst job discrimination where 76% of them were not given the jobs of the same offices that were being held by white men in the country. Their perception is that of Muslims being a threat and being disloyal to them hence it is a risk to employ them. The same discrimination is faced by Muslim women as compared to Bangladeshi or Indian women as it comes to jobs. Not only Muslims, but it is also the white and black people in England that have no religion, forced to face discrimination in the country because of their beliefs.
Immigration policies of UK are another issue. Immigration is an unpopular phenomenon in England in the present day, and it is disfavored due to the ideas of immigrants coming to the UK and bringing with them extremist and terrorist elements. According to the survey of 2013, the amount of immigration to the UK has reduced to a significant amount, almost 60% and the reasons are as vivid as can be. Three-quarters of Britons favor the reduction of immigration to the country, and they are pleased with the fact that there are already too many immigrants, and the country cannot support more (Blinder). The UN has its own policy regarding immigration and laws and although a country cannot prevent the other people from other nations, however, as every country has its own laws and system, little can be done to the US except for its policy of speech and reminding that everyone is equal and all should be treated alike. The UN has taken a global action plan to fight racism and gender discrimination in countries that it wishes to get implemented. The UN General Assembly signed a resolution to fight against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. Although, it stands against discrimination and that all people need to treat equally, there are many instances where people are discriminated even in the US and there is little action taken against them based on the excuse that they are probably a threat to the country or that they had other motives in mind and would possibly do harm to the nation. (Blinder).
Therefore, people in such situations are forced to live in their localized communities such as in the UK and in the smaller towns of Britain where they find common races and religious backgrounds and stick to each other even if they are hated against and cannot be favored by any group. This leads to their basic needs getting compromised at times, when they do not send their children to schools or they need to face financial problems due to lack of employment and hence miss out on all the opportunities they could have had, only if they were not discriminated against.
Therefore, racial and religious discrimination is a worldwide problem with little ever done to curb the dilemma and it is getting highly proliferated with the passage of time as little action is taken by the biggest organizations of the world that supposedly want to make the world more peaceful, yet it only becomes more destructive and hating.
Work Cited
Blinder, Scott. UK Public Opinion towards Immigration: Overall Attitudes and Level of Concern. The Migration Observatory. 2015. Web. 23 July 2015.
Dobson, Roger. British Muslims face worst job discrimination of any minority group, according to research. The Independent. 2013. Web. 23 July 2015.
Kern, Soeren. The Islamization of Britain in 2013. Gatestone Institute. 2013. Web. 23 July 2015.
Reychler, Luc. Religion and Conflict. The International Journal of Peace and Studies. 2013. Web. 23 July 2015.
Stanley, Tim. Charlie Hebdo Attack; Europe has a terrorism problem, not a Muslim Problem. The Telegraph. 2015. Web. 23 July 2015.
Taylor, Matthew, Muir, Hugh. Racism on Rise in Britain. The Guardian. 2014. Web. 23 July 2015.
