Islamophobia and the “West”

Political Affairs Magazine, March 6, 2007

Norman Markowitz

A recent article by Thomas Riggins dealt cogently and insightfully with the recent controversy over an anti-Muslim book, While Europe Slept, which received a finalist nomination for a National Book award. Riggins presented an accurate distinction between “radical Islam” and Islam as a religion, and highlighted the open racist politics of group which have campaigned on chauvinist political platforms (“Keep Sweden Swedish”) while claiming to defend the civil rights and liberties of women, other religious groups, and minorities threatened both by Muslim “terrorists” and by Muslim populations hostile to these values.

As the non-Marxist philosopher-athelete, Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra, said, “this is dejavu all over again.” Although the global political situation may be different, present-day anti-Muslim racism (broadly defined) not only bears a good deal of resemblance to the anti-Jewish racism or anti-Semitism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but some of the social economic factors are similar, as are the political forces exploiting and developing this racism.

In this essay, I will not dwell on the Marxist concept of religion as a manifestation of idealist philosophy, and its social role, which Tom dealt intelligently with. Rather I will look at how the relationship of longstanding hostilities rooted in religion to modern racist mass politics has functioned.

In that regard the comparison of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe to Western Europe, Great Britain and the U.S. a century ago can I think is fruitfully compared to the present-day immigration of Muslims, mostly from non European countries, to West Europe, Great Britain, and the United States.

East European Jewish immigrants were a visible part of a huge migration of Eastern and Southern European populations to the U.S. Britain, and other advanced capitalist countries, a migration created by the economic and political fallout from the rise of industrial capitalism and the huge inequalities which developed from its subjugation of non-industrial regions.

Continued . . .