Review on Feim’s book “Islamophobia in Switzerland”

PREFACE

For centuries, ideas of race have been used to divide people. Usually constructed as the good and the bad, the superior and inferior, the intelligent and stupid. Processes of racialisation have also marked Muslims, identifying some as ‘good’ and others as ‘bad’ through binary, Islamophobic discourses found in government policy, the media and on our streets.
Jawaab’s work throughout the years has been important because Islamophobia lends itself to violence, marginalisation, exploitation and feelings of powerlessness. It impacts people and communities.
It impacts us all as our civil liberties are stripped down in the name of security, our working conditions worsen as Muslims struggle to find employment, and our streets become less safe because of Islamophobia and racial violence.
A decade ago, a group of young Muslims came together with religious leaders from the UK and Germany. We came to host the 12 cities network, made up of civil rights campaigners and young activists from 5 cities, London, St Gallen, Dortmund, Paris and Tbilisi. We convened a three-day conference bringing a range of people together. To share their challenges in their respective regions, how they have organised against racism, and how we could collectively build power to fight the scourge of racism. In 2013, our situation in the UK was that we were well over a decade into the fight against the so-called ‘war on terror’. There was a lot of discussion about security but it almost always focussed on Muslims.

This discourse went something like this: we need protection from Islamist terrorism. We need to monitor Muslim men who are supposedly vulnerable to Islamist extremism. We need Muslim women, especially mothers to keep an eye on their sons. Just in case. No doubt that countering all forms of extremism should be a government priority, it is their job to keep all of us safe.
However, this dangerous discourse helped to shape a highly charged, Islamophobic atmosphere, where Muslims were and still are being vilified, attacked, and even killed. Take Makram Ali, a 51-year-old man who was murdered by a white terrorist who ploughed his van into worshippers outside Finsbury Park Mosque in Ramadan 2017. Or the case of Muhsin Ahmad, an 81-year-old grandfather kicked to death by two white men, as he walked to prayers at a mosque in Rotherham in August 2016. Similarly, Mohammed Saleem, an 82-year-old man, was stabbed to death by a neo-Nazi as he walked home from the mosque in 2013.
I wish I could say things have changed since the last ten years of our gathering. Unfortunately not.
In March 2023 we heard about a man who has been charged with two counts of attempted murder, accused of setting two Muslim men on fire outside mosques in Birmingham and London.
The list is endless, documenting the way Muslim lives are shaped, and sometimes brought to an untimely end by the horrors of Islamophobia.

When we got together in Dortmund, we wanted to build our power of fighting Islamophobia. We wanted the participants to feel empowered enough to work through their experiences of Islamophobia in our safe spaces. We wanted Muslims to feel confident enough to use the skills they learned to challenge Islamophobia wherever they see it manifesting. By being in the space with leaders we want Muslims to be able to raise their voices as equals in society.
And today, ten years on, Feim Dragusha (a participant from the St Gallen delegation) is set to publish this journal in three different languages.
Although our experiences of Islamophobia, at that time shared similarities there were also differences. The one thing that united us was our conviction to carry on fighting for justice. And this paper is a testament to that.

Today we continue to fight for our Muslim identity and aspiration to be built on the foundations of equality, fairness and dignity.

Salaam and solidarity 3rd June 2023

Written by: Mr. Rizwan HUSSAIN
Founder and director of Jawaab