: Health Hinge

Zoophobia or animal phobia may have one of two closely related meanings: a generic term for the class of specific phobias to particular animals,[1] or an irrational fear or even simply dislike of any non-human animals.

Examples of specific zoophobias would be entomophobias, such as a fear of spiders (arachnophobia), snakes (ophidiophobia) or bees (apiphobia). See the article at -phobia for the list of various phobias. Sigmund Freud mentioned that an animal phobia is one of the most frequent psychoneurotic diseases among children.[1]

Zoophobia should not be confused with sensible fear of dangerous or threatening animals, such as the fear of wild bears or venomous snakes.

South Africa has had continual problems with xenophobia, most infamously under apartheid rule by the white-minority led government during the twentieth century. Under apartheid, black South Africans were automatically second-class citizens, who could not vote, could not participate in the political affairs of the country, and were not allowed to access facilities and public places that were designated for white South African use only. The apartheid government of South Africa was belligerent to neighbouring African countries, occupying Namibia whose people demanded independence, supporting white-minority rule in the former Rhodesia (now called Zimbabwe) and waging war in Angola. Apartheid rule came to an end in the 1990s and South Africa’s new constitution committed the country to creating a multicultural South Africa in which blacks and whites could live in equality, but tensions between the races remain.

A new phenomenon in South Africa has been increasing xenophobia towards foreigners by South Africa’s black majority.[9] A series of attacks against foreigners in South African townships in May 2008. The attacks originated in the township of Alexandra, an impoverished suburb of Johannesburg. An influx of foreigners in recent years, most notably 2–4 million Zimbabweans[citation needed] (roughly a quarter of the population of Zimbabwe), has led to social tension. Poor local residents believe foreigners are in direct competition for jobs and living space, and many incidents of crime are also blamed on these foreigners. More than 60 foreigners were reportedly killed in the attacks with roads barricaded and police battling with the protesters. [10] Former South African President Thabo Mbeki has since called on the South African National Defence Force to help the SAPS (South African Police Service) to prevent any further killings of immigrants. Xenophobic violence also spread to the Western Cape in Du Noon in Milnerton with hundreds of terrified foreigners forced to run for their lives. [11]

The Middle East is subject to multiple disputes along religious and ethnic lines which have involved xenophobia, especially in Egypt, Israel, the Palestinian National Authority, Cyprus, Lebanon, and Iraq. In Israel and the Palestinian National Authority, continuous violence between Jews and Arabs over disputed territory has created xenophobic sentiment amongst the two sides as well as in many Muslim countries towards Israel. On the island of Cyprus, the land is divided between Greeks and Turks who both have claims on the island. Civil violence has occurred in Cyprus between Greeks and Turks.[citation needed] In Lebanon, xenophobia has increased towards Palestinian Arab refugees who a number of Lebanese see as causing instability in their country. In Iraq, religious and ethnic tensions have exploded since the Iraq War began in 2003. Religious sectarian violence exists, as Shi’ite and Sunni Muslims have engaged in violent attacks on each other, while in the north, ethnic tensions are high between the Kurds and Arabs in northern Iraq and Turks in neighboring Turkey. The Assyrians, a Christian minority, suffer persecutions from Arabs, Kurds and Turks.

In Dominican Republic, according to Amnesty International, the United Nations, and The Human Rights Watch, physical attacks against Haitians have increased since 1992 and reports of the lynching of Haitians surfaced as late as 2006. [4] Homes of suspected Haitians are sometimes burned to the ground and police roundups of “Haitian looking” people are conducted on a regular basis. According to another New York Times report in 2004, grandchildren and great grandchildren of Haitians are denied birth certificates, medical care, education and social services because of their race and decendancy.[5] [6] [7] [8] In 2007 the United Nations found “profound and entrenched” racism at all levels of Dominican society, including within families. [8] [9]

From 1641 to 1853, Japan had a policy of exclusion of virtually all foreigners (not merely an avoidance of foreign relations or isolationism), known as ‘national closure’, or sakoku. In the early 19th century, Mito scholars advocated j?i, the forceful expulsion of ‘barbarians’, though almost none existed. By the middle of the 19th century, with outside pressure mounting, some Japanese scholars and leaders tied ‘Western Learning’ and ‘Nativist Studies’ (kokugaku) to a goal of nation building.[2] Nihonjinron, a widely popular type of nonfiction literature emerging in the second half of the 20th century, has been described as xenophobic.[3]

Southeastern Europe Balkans and Balkanisation has been subject to degrees of xenophobia for many years and heighted xenophobia during the 20th century to present. Religious and ethnic divisions have caused antagonistic relations between the peoples of Southeastern Europe. The creation of Yugoslavia in 1918 led to escalating ethnic and religious rivalries and violence which fully exploded in World War II, when the Axis Powers backed xenophobic nationalist forces in Croatia to form an independent Croatian state which proceeded to persecute and kill hundreds of thousands of Serbs and Jews. Xenophobic nationalism amongst Serbs rose in response leading to ethnic violence against Croats and other ethnicities which Serb nationalists deemed as complicit with the destruction of Yugoslavia, such as Bosniaks and Albanians. These extreme nationalist forces were contained under the authoritarian rule of Communist dictator Joseph Broz Tito who repressed ethnic nationalism in Yugoslavia until his death in 1980. As the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia collapsed in the 1990s, xenophobic views between ethnicities who were rivals over territory began to develop. Atrocities, ethnic cleansing and genocide occurred during the Yugoslav wars between these ethnic groups, with the most atrocities being committed by military and paramilitary forces of the largest and most well-armed ethnic faction, the Serbs.[citation needed] Serb nationalists committed atrocities as acts of revenge for long-standing historical rivalries and disputes against Croats, Bosniaks, and Albanians who they claimed were occupying Serb lands and had to be ethnically cleansed. Bosniaks, Croats and Albanians also committed atrocities against Serbs. Since the collapse of Yugoslavia, ethnic Albanians, Bosniaks, and Croats typically have a negative and sometimes hostile outlook on Serbs,[citation needed] whose armed forces fought wars to keep Serbs united with Serbia and committed atrocities against all these groups. In turn, the primary rival to the Serb ultranationalists were Croat ultranationalists who saw Serbs as occupying Croatian lands and saw the Bosniak people as Muslim Croats who should be assimilated into Croatian culture, those who refused faced violence. Croatia has been effectively ethnically cleansed of Serbs. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the number of serious and large scale atrocities there caused the United Nations to intervene and push for the internal partition of Bosnia & Herzegovina into a Serb Republic (Republika Srpska) and a Bosniak-Croat federation (Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina). In turn, Serbs have an especially negative outlook on ethnic Albanians, Bosniaks, and Croats.[citation needed]

The United Nations special rapporteur on racism, Doudou Diène, has observed that Switzerland suffers from racism, discrimination and xenophobia. The UN envoy explained that although the Swiss authorities recognised the existence of racism and xenophobia, they did not view the problem as being serious. Diène pointed out that representatives of minority communities said they experienced serious racism and discrimination.[1] - [2] [3] - More than half of the Swiss population are xenophobic [4] and two thirds want foreigners to be better integrated, according to a survey published in June 2006 which measures the development of xenophobic and rightwing extremist attitudes. This first type of data, which was not uncontroversial, tends to support observations made by anti-racist institutions, as well as outside observers.[5] Nevertheless, Switzerland has the highest immigrant population of any European country with more than one and a half million residents, as 23% of its 7.5 million residents are foreign-born.[6] And the foreign population permanently resident in Switzerland have also been raised in 2008 (by 5%).[7]

In Northern and Northwestern Europe, a variety of xenophobic trends have occurred throughout its history. These xenophobic trends have largely been focused towards a xenophobia that has reflected macro-historical trends, such as between people from Northern Europe and Southern Europe, between Catholics and Protestants and anti-semitism against persons of Jewish identity.

The worst era of xenophobia in this area and in Europe as a whole was during the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler in Germany which committed mass-persecution and genocide of Jews, Roma, Slavs, homosexuals, and various other minorities as well as political opponents. By the Nuremberg Laws, German born persons of Jewish faith were no longer able to retain German citizenship and were forced to fly flags representing their Jewish identity. Over six million Jews, most of whom were from countries outside of Germany, were deliberately murdered in a pre-meditated attempt to destroy the Jewish race. During the Nazi invasion of Russia, over twenty million Russian Slavs also died, representing a pitiless attitude to those that the Nazi doctrine deemed as only worthy of existing as German slaves.

During the past fifty years, most Northern European countries have experienced both European and non European immigration to an extent that in France today, only about half of the population is descended from its 19th century sires, with the trend existing to a lesser effect in other countries like Britain and Germany, causing some displacement to the indigenous inhabitants. This has resulted in a resurgence of xenophobic nationalism at the political level in countries like Germany and France towards minorities which both countrys’ governments have set out to oppose. In Germany, xenophobia and neo-nazism has risen in response to increased immigration to Germany by among others, Turkish immigrants. In France, a history of xenophobia towards France’s Muslim population, almost all of whom are either first or second generation immigrants, has existed for sometime, with political parties like the National Front campaigning on xenophobic views towards Muslim people in France.

Xenophobia has been exhibited across the whole Europe by its various cultures and nationalities, both against non-Europeans and other Europeans.[citation needed]

In Europe there is growing trend on anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim sentiment. In Western Europe, the less educated, those over 50, and those with opinions on the political right tend to have negative opinions of both Muslims and Jews.[1]

In Canada’s western-most province of British Columbia, there has been a history of xenophobia towards people of Asian descent living there. In the late 19th century to the mid 20th century, people of Asian descent were considered savage and uncivilized people and racial violence occurred against members of the Chinese, Japanese, and Sikh communities during that time. For some time in Canada in the early twentieth century, a Chinese Head Tax existed, which was a discriminatory policy which forced Chinese immigrants to pay a fee in order to enter the country, which other immigrants did not have to do. In World War II, both Canada and the United States interned citizens of Japanese-descent as Japan was associated with the Axis Powers. Japanese were displayed as a vile and dangerous people in government propaganda. Japanese-American and Japanese-Canadian property was confiscated and not returned by Canadian and American authorities.