Anti-Muslim Racism explained
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I liked Arun Kundnani’s critical analysis of British politics because in it he explains clearly how systematic/institutional racism is created and sustained. He also provides refutation to some of the arguments the British government has given when it comes to immigration, ethnic minorities, asylum seekers and other groups of racialized individuals. He gives the example of anti-Muslim racism. We have talked about anti-Muslim racism earlier in the course and with Kundnani article (and his conference at Concordia) I understand better what this ‘’concept’’ means. In the text, he gives a great example of how anti-Muslim racism can look like in the UK
…to be ‘Muslim’ in the ‘war on terror’ is to belong to a group with common origins, a shared culture and a monolithic identity that can be held collectively responsible for terrorism, segregation and the failure of multicultural Britain. The ‘Muslim community’ becomes, effectively, an ethnicity rather than a group sharing a religion. Politicians and journalists often confuse religious and ethnic categories by referring to relations between ‘Muslims’ and ‘whites’, as if one is the opposite of the other. (Kundnani, 126)
He also mentions that politicians talk about integrationism as the only way multiculturalism could work, but integrationism is actually a way of saying to immigrants that they should not be melancholic about their culture, they should ‘’forget’’ it, ‘’erase’’ it and instead adopt the ‘’British values’’ and ‘’British way of life’’. Integrationism is a way for the authorities to not really invest in programs or create legislation to invite immigrants to be part of the community but rather, integrationism is a political ideology that wants immigrants to erase their culture to fit in the restrictive and homogenous ‘’myth’’ of Britishness (Kundnani, 140). Integrationist also claim that the assimilation of immigrants to ‘’the British way of life’’ is the best way to solve the ‘’ racism situation’’ (Kundnani, 134). In reality, assimilation of the immigrants it’s just to way for England to avoid questioning and admitting it’s institutional racism, and more particularly anti-Muslim racism.