مطالب

According to some researchers (Hopkins, 2004a; Hopkins & Smith, 2008), there is a perception among certain Muslims that anti-Muslim racism is higher in areas where there is a high density of Muslim residents, such as Glasgow. In contrast, other Muslims may feel that Islamophobia is higher in places with fewer numbers of Muslim residents. Through an investigation of Muslims’ experiences of Islamophobia in major Scottish cities, this paper discusses the influence of the size of Muslim communities in experiencing Islamophobia[1]. It also examines the importance of other possible factors, such as socio-economic status and deprivation on Islamophobia. To this end, the experience and accounts of 33 Muslim participants in major Scottish cities (Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee) were documented and analyzed through qualitative methods. The findings of this paper suggest that Muslims’ individual and social aspects of life play a more important role on Islamophobia, as opposed to the size of their population in a certain area. More precisely, the analysis of Muslims who experienced Islamophobia suggests that Muslims’ identity and visibility, especially racial and religious signifiers such as skin color, beard or hijab, were crucial to their experiences of Islamophobia. [1]. This is compared, in another research (Author, 2015), to the experiences of 10 Muslim participants in small Scottish cities and towns (Falkirk, Dunfermline, East Kilbride and Stirling) where that the number of Muslims living in those areas is less than one percent of the local population (National Records of Scotland, 2013).

In accordance with human necessities and deep attention into security, research studies have today became an irrefutable necessity in this area. It is noted that traditional concepts of this important issue have changed, as a result of occurring various events in the past, particularly in the 20th century; so that security is no more limited to protecting human beings against individual and collective dangers. Because geopolitics is the science of studying power relations in the political arena, the main actors in this field are the national constituencies determining the international equilibrium. In this context, competition for power through the strengthening of development indicators among different countries has been taken into consideration, through the geopolitical weight and the bargaining power to increase national security and, of course, security. Therefore, this research pursues two goals in relation to security and geopolitics: First, an analytical approach, on the views of academics, from the 1980s to the 20th century and to achieve motivation for the study of its fundamental concepts and the effect of geopolitics on these issues. Second, geopolitical approaches to security, related to the beginning of the 1990's up until now; and their assumptions, with emphasizing on future and geo-strategy. In this research, it is emphasized that geographically disrupted governments lose their territorial integrity, which results in them not being able to redefine national symbols according to global accelerated developments and floating identities.