Reducing all Muslim people to a singular, all-encompassing unit justifies inequality and discrimination and does not serve the emergence of an integrated society, writes Niall Crowley.
A man stands up in a Dublin bus, points at an Irish Muslim girl and shouts "terrorist". A middle-aged Arab Muslim man is beaten by neighbours and forced to leave his house. These are two Irish incidents detailed in the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia 2006 report on Islamophobia. There is, however, no data on the extent and nature of such incidents in Ireland.
The incidents occur in a European context where Muslim people are often victims of negative stereotyping and where many Muslim people face social exclusion, discrimination and limited opportunities for social advantage according to the European Monitoring Centre.
In such a context, it is necessary to identify and challenge any of the elements in the construction of hatred against Muslim people in Ireland.
"The art of constructing hatred takes the form of involving the magical power of some allegedly predominant identity that drowns out other affiliations and in a conveniently bellicose form can also overpower any human sympathy or natural kindness we may normally have," according to leading Indian academic Amartya Sen in his study Identity and Violence.
An article by Theodore Dalrymple in The Irish Times (July 13th) would appear to contain some of the elements involved in the construction of hatred as defined by Amartya Sen. He states that "no one can ever be quite sure whether a Muslim who appears polite and accommodating is not simultaneously contemplating mass murder".
He states that "the plain fact of the matter is that British society could get by perfectly well without the contribution even of moderate Muslims" and that the achievement "of the Islamists is to make discrimination against most Muslims who wish to enter Britain a perfectly rational policy".
He concludes by stating that "history is full of the most terrible examples of what happens when governments and peoples ascribe undesirable traits to minorities". Despite this, he goes on to state "yet it would also be folly to ignore sociological reality".
One key element in constructing hatred against Muslim people is to pose them in terms of a single, all-encompassing identity as "Muslims".
This effectively denies and ignores the diversity of identities and affiliations held by Muslim people. This diversity includes gender, ethnicity, religious affiliation, philosophical beliefs, nationality, political persuasion, secular tendencies, language and cultural tradition.
A second key element is to apply crude stereotypes. These negative stereotypes include posing Muslim people as violent, aggressive and threatening. Such stereotypes generate fear and suspicion and do not reflect the reality and diversity of Muslim people.
The third key element is to deny any shared humanity. The values held in common by different religious faiths are ignored. The interaction between and mutual influencing by religious faiths is denied.
These elements of the construction of hatred are evident in Theodore Dalrymple's article. These elements involve posing Muslim people as being in conflict. They diminish Muslim people to a singular, all-encompassing and all-determining stereotyped identity. These elements do not serve the emergence of an integrated society. They justify inequality and discrimination.
The development of an integrated society is necessary to achieve societal benefit from diversity alongside social cohesion. Such a society is based on the shared humanity of all groups, a rejection of stereotypes and an acknowledgment of diversity of groups and individuals. Such a society has a capacity to recognise and challenge any of the elements involving the construction of hatred.
An integrated society requires dialogue between majority and minority communities. This is a dialogue that can be mutually critical but must be based on an equality of status and standing. It is a dialogue that needs to go beyond interfaith dialogue and must include representation that reflects the diversity of identities and affiliations held by Muslim people.
This dialogue should establish what is required across the three strands of action necessary to create an integrated society that includes Muslim people. The first strand of action is to develop supports for Muslim people, in all their diversity, to adapt to and engage with the diversity of their wider society.
The second strand of action is to develop supports for the majority community to adapt to a context of religious diversity, to reject negative stereotypes and to acknowledge and engage with the diversity of Muslim people.
The third strand of action is foundational for the creation of an integrated society. This strand focuses on key organisations in Irish society and supports them to change their policies, procedures and practices so as to prevent discrimination on the religion ground, to make adjustments for the diversity of people they engage with and to promote equality for the full diversity of Muslim people.
Equality legislation has an important contribution to make in addressing some of the discrimination that arises on foot of attempts to construct such hatred. This challenge to discrimination also serves to deconstruct hatred.
The Employment Equality Acts prohibit discrimination in the workplace and in vocational training. The Equal Status Acts prohibit discrimination in the provision of goods and services, accommodation and education. Both Acts cover nine grounds including the ground of religion.
It is important that the equality legislation is kept under review to ensure its adequacy in addressing the impact of any construction of hatred against Muslim people. The Equality Authority has already made two key recommendations in this regard.
The Equal Status Acts should explicitly cover the functions of the State - in particular policing and immigration control. These are areas of statutory activity that are not immune to the impact of any construction of hatred against Muslim people and should therefore be an explicit focus in any protection against discrimination.
Requirements should be further developed under the equality legislation on employers and service providers to be proactive in taking steps to prevent discrimination, adjust for diversity and promote equality.
This is one important way to support the emergence of an integrated society and to ensure all organisations have some capacity and commitment to challenge, within their sphere of influence, any attempts to construct hatred against Muslim people.
Niall Crowley is chief executive officer of the Equality Authority