‘Seen as less human’: Why has Islamophobia surged amid Israel’s Gaza war?

Hate crimes and complaints are at record levels. Al Jazeera speaks to Professor John Esposito to better understand why.

Hate crimes against Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim in the United Kingdom are up by 140 percent compared with this time last year, according to British police.

The United Kingdom anti-Islamophobia organisation Tell MAMA has received a sevenfold increase in reports of Islamophobia since October 7, when Hamas fighters attacked southern Israel, killing 1,139 people and taking 240 others captive, including women and children. Since then, more than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, including at least 8,000 children, according to health officials in the enclave.

In the United States, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim civil rights group, said it had received 2,171 complaints of Islamophobia and anti-Arab bias since October 7, a 172 percent increase since the previous year.

Last month three men were shot in Vermont, and around the same period, Stuart Seldowitz, a former adviser to President Barak Obama, was captured on video taunting and threatening a fast food vendor in Manhattan with Islamophobic abuse.

While the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has a lengthier definition of Islamophobia (PDF), the UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims uses the following definition: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.”