As we know that Islam is a religion of peace and Islam does not spread hatred among creatures in this world. For all Muslims, who are firmly holding the Islamic teaching in their lives believe that Islam is a religion that demands for good moral behaviors and ethics. Furthermore, Islam emphasizes to do good deeds and prohibit from doing what Allah has forbidden and Islam also a religion that teaches us to master oneself before one seeks to influence others. Besides Islam also promotes peace and kindness as mentioned in the Quran “ Indeed, Allah enjoins justice, and the doing of good to others; and giving like kindred; and forbids indecency, and manifest evil, and wrongful transgression. He admonished you that you may take heed. However, we are currently living in the era which the non-Muslims believe that Islam is a religion that promotes violence and fear. Islamophobia designates the irrational fear of Islam that leads people to make blanket judgments accusing all Muslims around the world of committing the same murderous fantasies that Muslim extremists express and act upon.
When the issue of Islamophobia arose around the world, some researches has already been made. All researchers decided to know deeply about what Islamophobia really is. According to Abdul Rashid Moten, Islamophobia and Extremism reinforce each other and two terms are alike in their hatred of other. Islamophobia is akin to extremism whose believers or practitioners provoke reactions from Muslims leading to an inflationary spiral of violence. Furthermore, as proven in documentary and surveys, the rate of Islamophobia has a sharp increase year by year around the world. This numbers of people who fear of Islam keep increasing because it has been propagated by the media and the political leaders. The Medias use to show the bad sides of Islam and keep emphasizing that Islam is a religion of violence.
Besides, Islamophobia is also viewed as a neologism used to refer to an irrational fear or prejudice towards Muslims and the religion of Islam as it condemns Islam and its history as extremist, and regards Islam as a problem for the world. The “Islamophobia Observatory” at the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) stated Islamophobia as “an irrational or very powerful fear or dislike of Islam”. Its manifestations include prejudice, stereotyping, hostility, discriminatory treatment, denigration of the most sacred symbols of Islam and also non-recognition of Islam and Muslims by the law of the land.
The Runnymede Trust in its final report clearly stated the components of Islamophobia. According to The Commission on British Muslims, Islam is seen as monolithic bloc, immobile and unresponsive to change. Islam is seen as a religion who separates others and spreads hatred and fear. Besides, Muslims are seen as a terrorist, violent, aggressive and threatening and engaged in clash of civilizations and its cultures are viewed as wholly different from other. As to the west, Islam is a big danger and barbaric. They also believed that Islam is seen as a political ideology and is used as for military advantages. In the article written by John L. Esposito and Dalia Mogahed, Islamophobia was invented to describe a two-stranded form of racism- rooted in both the ‘different’ physical appearance of Muslims and also in an intolerance of their religion and cultural beliefs .
On the other hand, in the eyes of Christian, Islamophobia obviously has something to do with Islam and it illustrates something about the fear of Islam that grips many in the society. It is the fear factor that often develops a life of its own. In the other words, Islamophobia often has less to do with Islam but more to do with the fear. This reality is conventional among Christian’s believers despite what the faith teaches. As written in The New Testament, Jesus continually urged his followers to not fear. It is his most repeated exhortation and thus reveals something fundamental about the Christian faith.
However, when most of non-Muslims used to have the fear towards Islam, there was a contemporary scene was captured in United States of America. As the westerners believe that Islam is a religion of violence, some of the non-Muslims prudently came out to warn that Islam does not promote violence. They believed Islam is a great religion that preaches peace among people. They believed that people who murder the innocent to achieve political objectives are not religious people.