by Izzah.
Many people will be wondering about the relevance of speaking about Islamophobia in the era of lockdown. Why even bring it up? I feel it's important to know that the ones managing the pandemic and beaming down on our television sets every other day have a reportedly murky Islamophobic past. It is well known that Boris Johnson has called Muslim women letterboxes (and like Trump seems to have a problem with women and minorities in general) but he has even gone as far as actually defending hatred of Muslims. Johnson has written Islamophobia is a "natural reaction" to Islam and that "Islam is the problem." If you are wondering how on earth he can say such things and become the leader of a country that protects minorities, then you are not alone. Another minister we see on our TV screens telling us what to do under lockdown is Mr Gove. It is very worrying when we hear ex-chair of the Conservative party, an insider such as Sayeeda Warsi warn us that Michael Gove believes that there is no such as a non-problematic Muslim.
I wonder if Michael Gove and Boris Johnson feel they have any credibility amongst those they have slandered when they look into the camera on the evening they update the nation on COVID-19 (at least they can't scapegoat Muslims on their bumbling handling of the pandemic). But one wonders if they really care at all.
Big words indeed coming from the ex-Chair of the party, surely she's a Baroness who really ought to know. When characters like these are in charge of the nation's health, can minorities really trust them?
I wonder if Michael Gove and Boris Johnson feel they have any credibility amongst those they have slandered when they look into the camera on the evening they update the nation on COVID-19 (at least they can't scapegoat Muslims on their bumbling handling of the pandemic). But one wonders if they really care at all. Johnson and Gove and many others will tell us they are not Islamophobes and even the Equalities watchdog has dropped a planned investigation into Islamophobia in the Conservative party. Yet judging by what they have written, in my opinion their words fit exactly within the definition of Islamophobia.
WHAT IS ISLAMOPHOBIA?
In a nutshell, "Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness."
It's not just England where the ruling class have odd conceptions about minorities. In India, only a few weeks after Islamophobic riots left many Muslims dead and more displaced, Time Magazine carried the title "It Was Already Dangerous to Be Muslim in India. Then Came the Coronavirus." Social media was awash with hashtags such as #CoronaJihad with mainstream Indian media being accused of stirring Islamophobia and calls to ban Muslims including horrific reports of Indian hospitals refusing to treat Muslims.
The fact remains however, that the first doctors to die of coronavirus in England were Muslims and a disproportionate number of Muslims and those of a minority background have died in England treating people on the front line. Whether this will filter down to the Islamophobes is another matter.
Most people don't know that the idea of inoculation against a disease was brought to Europe through a Muslim country. Lady Montagu noted that in Istanbul, the inhabitants had "beautiful skin" and she saw first hand how the Turks would inoculate against smallpox. It could be fair to see therefore that if it wasn't for her trip to a Muslim land, England would have taken far longer to eradicate small pox and who knows how many pandemics would have infected the Western world by now?
But Lady Montagu's experience is much more relevant to a wider point about Islamophobia. Boris Johnson has claimed the Muslims were unable to develop presses in Istanbul until the 19th Century. He contrasts this with a "Byzantine Constantinople" that “kept the candle of learning alight for a thousand years." Not only is Boris Johnson factually wrong, but he is parroting that Islamophobic message of Muslims being an uncivilised non-civilisation. Mr Johnson, it could well be that the way out of the present mess your government has placed the country in may well be the inoculation route inspired by Lady Montagu's visit to that "backward" Muslim Istanbul you despise so much.
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