Move over Desi politics and CAA protest; Islamophobia and migrants go global

 At a time when politics over 'religious minorities' and Muslims steal all limelight in India, a closer look at global level reveals that religion is certainly a new political tool and in many countries Islamophobia has come to stay.

Across Europe there is fear about Muslim migrants especially in the wake of millions of this war-hit community compelled to move out of Iraq and Syria.

In Germany, there have been several reports of clash between Muslims and non-Christians while in countries such as Italy, Hungary and Poland, it is the right wing parties which have captured power.

A section of right wing thinkers and leaders in India are now trying to list out the countries where 'double standards and discrimination' prevail against Muslims.

For example, in Italy, said one leader - the geographical position of Italy has  "fueled xenophobic rhetoric" ad politics dwelling with the "arrival of refugees" on its coasts as an invasion and out of control situations.

In Austria and Hungary too, right-wing parties have seized power.

According to a 2016 Eurostat survey, nearly 45 per cent of respondents in 28 countries including the UK, chose “immigration” as one of the two most important issues facing the EU. This was followed by terrorism at 32 per cent.

On this backdrop observers say, the populist backlash the hardliner and pro-Christian Law and Justice party in Poland. In Latin America it came in the form of the Pink Tide, a pro-Left politics that strays away from the neo-liberal economic model.

The economic slowdown is becoming the chief issue, it has been pointed out and it is also claimed that when in power the populists regime have more often failed to deliver.

"So now in many places we are seeing a revolt against the revolt, urban middle-class uprisings against the populists themselves" says columnist David Brooks in 'The New York Times'.

Yet again, the massacre of 50 Muslim devotees in two mosques in New Zealand last year only reflects the gravity of the issue as New Zealand has hardly about one per cent of its total population as Muslims.

The good old players are no exception. In the UK, the then British Prime Minister David Cameron had declared in 2015 that Britain was a Christian country.
In the US, President Donald Trump's campaign was also based on safe guarding the interest of White Christians.
In fact,  it was intriguing that a segment of white evangelicals had supported Donald Trump all along — even during the Republican primaries, when more logical evangelical candidates were still viable.

In 2017, after a year Trump was elected, nearly two-thirds of Muslim Americans said during surveys they are dissatisfied under Donald Trump and three-quarters said he was unfriendly toward Muslims in America.

On both of these counts, the Muslim opinion had undergone a reversal since 2011, when Barack Obama was president,

In electoral politics, religion is thus more than opium, it is actually a tool to garner votes.