The Islamophobia Industry: how US war on terror sowed seeds of Christchurch killings
- The US-led war on terror created an industry out of Islamophobia
- In doing so – as the slaying of 50 Muslim worshippers in New Zealand shows – it sowed the seeds for a terror of its own: white supremacy
Not only was this demonstrated in the gruesome video he live-streamed during his rampage, but – as if to avoid any doubt – he circulated to the world a manifesto in which he revelled in the “anti-Islamic motivation” behind the attacks. A “white genocide” was taking place, his diatribe went as he evoked the centuries-old battle of Islam versus the West.
This was Islamophobia stretched to its violent and bloody conclusion.
Some have claimed the attack was the inevitable next step from the anti-immigrant sentiments and populist politics that have swept much of the world in recent years, but in truth Islamophobia stretches further back.
The term was popularised in 1997, when the Runnymede Report properly identified its essence as an anti-Muslim racism found in Western societies. And while the term itself may be contested, there can be no doubt that far-right narratives of “Muslims taking over the West” are based on sinister motives rather than evidence – Muslims made up just 4.9 per cent of the population in Europe in 2016, and 1.1 per cent in the US in 2017. These narratives are intended to evoke fear.