United Nations secretary-general’s recent statement expressing fears that “Islamophobia” in some parts of the world is fuelling terrorism, reflects the concerns voiced by Qatar time and again with regard to the global fight against the scourge.
Visiting Saudi Arabia on February 12, the head of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, said: “One of the things that fuel terrorism is the expression in some parts of the world of Islamophobic feelings and Islamophobic policies and Islamophobic hate speeches.
“This is the best support that Daesh can have to make its own propaganda,” Guterres said, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.
Guterres was apparently reacting to a recent spike in such sentiments which has buttressed the popularity of right wing politicians in some countries.
The UN chief was also echoing the fears expressed by some US senators following President Donald Trump’s Extreme Vetting Executive Order issued in late January. The order (aka Muslim ban), which has been suspended by a court, temporarily banned citizens of seven predominantly-Muslim countries from entering the US and permanently blocked refugees from Syria. 
US Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham said in a joint statement: “We fear this executive order will become a self-inflicted wound in the fight against terrorism,” adding that Trump’s executive order “may do more to help terrorist recruitment than improve our security.”
Another Republican Senator, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, warned the Trump administration against “losing touch with reality…..If we send a signal to the Middle East that the US sees all Muslims as jihadis, the terrorist recruiters win by telling kids that America is banning Muslims and that this is America versus one religion.”
Yet, this is the reality that Qatar has been warning about all along, the reality that some Western politicians are finally waking up to, the reality that the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guetrres spelt out in Saudi Arabia.
At every given opportunity in various forums, Qatar has voiced its concerns regarding the rise in anti-Muslim sentiment and the spread of Islamophobia, and stressed that policies based on ‘fear of Muslims’ feed the narrative of militant organisations such as the Islamic State.
Qatar has always rejected any attempt to point finger at a certain religion or race as being violently extremist or terrorist. It has rejected attempts to associate extremism with a certain faith as seen in Islamophobia. Just yesterday, addressing a United Nations meeting on counter-terrorism efforts, Qatari Foreign Minister’s special envoy on counter-terrorism and disputes’ settlements Dr Mutlaq bin Majed al-Qahtani warned against linking violence and terrorism with religion or beliefs and ideologies. He expressed regret at the increased tendency of linking terrorism and extremism to a religion.  
So, what is the fundamental reason for Islamophobia? None other than HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, has eloquently explained the root cause of Islamophobia.
Cautioning people against viewing Muslims through the narrow prism of religion, Sheikha Moza told a gathering at St Antony’s College at the University of Oxford on May 26, 2015: “Alongside a genuine interest in Islamic civilisation, there exists a fear of real, living Muslims. For example, a Muslim is first and foremost identified as a Muslim, rather than simply a human being. Whether they are Pakistani, Malaysian, Senegalese, or even British-born, their multiple identities are levelled under a constructed monolith of Islam.
“Let me remind you, however, that Islam has never been monolithical, but has from the start been a vast container for diverse cultures and ethnicities. The homogenisation of Muslims into a fearful and unknowable ‘other’, separate from the beauty and nobility of Islam and its civilisation, is at the root of Muslim-phobia.”
Sheikha Moza’s words are more relevant today than ever before and, coupled with UN secretary-general’s recent observations about Islamophobia, should serve as a guide for all right-thinking people.