Muslims vulnerable to racism

Tackling racism is an extremely complex issue.

It is not always simply a case of whether the crime was racist ‘yes’ or ‘no’ but can include multifarious reasons why one was targeted, including skin colour, religion, gender and migrant status. These operate at times in isolation but are sometimes intersect. Religion is one area where discrimination and racist crime can meet, making those most clearly associated with a given faith a higher likelihood of being targeted. This is true of Sikhs, Jews and Muslims to name just three.

The approximately 23m Muslims in Europe are particularly vulnerable to racism aka Islamophobia: a form of racism that operates on negative stereotypical imagery of Muslims and Islam. This is the result of historical prejudices, the so-called ‘war on terror’ and State policies that single out Muslims as a security threat. Ireland is no different as on-going research on Islamophobia in Ireland is revealing.