Islamophobia: Boundless Hatred
By Dr Ghulam M. Haniff
St Cloud, Minnesota
Relentless attacks on Islam have now become the norm in the mainstream American society. The current wave of Islam bashing nationwide emerged in opposition to the construction of an Islamic Center two blocks away from the Ground Zero.
A new word was coined, Islamophobia, to describe the phenomenon of unceasing fear and hatred of Islam. In its current manifestation Islamophobia is the persecution of Muslims not so much by the government but by individuals and their followers in the society. It is spearheaded by the persons unsure of their own faith and ignorant of the beliefs of others. They are usually ready to burn or to destroy or to bomb the sacred icons of those who believe in other religious traditions. They commit some of the most despicable acts in organized societies.
The pastor in Gainesville, Florida, acting on the world’s stage undoubtedly gave America a bad name as an intolerant land despite democracy. He may have contributed to the making of dozens of militants abroad ready to lay down their lives by targeting US facilities to avenge the insult.
Unfortunately, the latest CNN poll shows that 68 percent of the public is opposed to the construction of the Islamic Center in its present location while 29 percent favor it.
Tolerance of others remains an ideal to be achieved 234 years after the founding of the republic. The creation of a more perfect union, stated in the preamble to the constitution, is yet to be realized.
The opposition to the building of mosques has rapidly spread across the nation with fanatical groups springing up in protests from Murfreesboro, Tenn., Temecula, Calif., Hartford, Conn., Sheboygan, Wis., to Liberty, Long Island. Extremists of the Tea Party persuasion and the right-wing Republican Party fear Islam owing to their ignorance of the religion and their natural xenophobia. However, their assault on Islam is also designed to bring political gains in an election year. Muslims are seen as a dark complexioned people taking over of the country.
It is not unlike the hatred of the undocumented aliens, mostly Latinos of the Catholic faith, who are said to be taking over the nation. Or for that matter all non-whites living in America. The racial element is a powerful driving force.
Over the years pastors have convinced their followers that Islam will be wiped out and they have eagerly contributed to the sending of missionaries abroad to convert the heathens. However, they are increasingly seeing settlements of Muslims in their own neighborhoods, even in the Bible belt, such as Tennessee.
The objective behind the current wave of protests is to severely marginalize and discredit the Muslims so that they’ll remain disenfranchised. By constant persecution they hope that Muslims will pack up and leave and America will remain a Christian white nation. Perhaps, Latinos, Asians, Blacks and Native Indians will be taken care of later.
The present on-going wave of recriminations against Islam was spearheaded by two failed politicians of the extremist persuasion. One of them, Newt Gingrich, who declared before the national media that Islamic Center “would destroy the Western Civilization” and the other, Sarah Palin, told the national media that “Ground Zero is a hallowed ground.” They targeted the Muslim minority, a tiny, powerless and internally divided group, for special treatment.
It is reminiscent of another failed politician several decades ago who singled out a religious minority for special treatment and almost destroyed the world.
Until President Obama spoke out in favor of the Islamic Center and condemned the bigotry inherent in the opposition no major political leader had spoken out. Only Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York City, dared to strongly and eloquently favor the construction of the center.
Islamophobia has been going for over a thousand years. When Khalid bin Walid defeated the Byzantium army in 637 AD near the Yarmouk River the rulers of that empire could not understand how an upstart religion would muster so much power in so short a time. Subsequently, the Church in Rome took up the cause and attributed everything negative to Islam with several Popes directing the charge that eventually led to the Crusades, the conquest and massacres of Muslims in Iberia, the forced conversion and expulsion of Muslims from Spain, the de-Islamization of the Mediterranean and eventually the conquest and exploitation of the Muslim lands under Western colonialism. Unfortunately, colonial stranglehold continues to be sustained under a variety of pretexts to the present day.
The power of Islamophobia never waned throughout the history of Islamic-Western encounter except in times when the church was too weak to carry the mantle of hatred.
The Islam bashing industry of the recent vintage began with the publication of a fear-mongering article “The Muslims are coming! The Muslims are coming!” authored by Daniel Pipes in the conservative weekly, The National Review. It embodied the spirit of an anti-Russian movie “The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!”
The article derided the immigration of Muslims to the West by bluntly warning the Western European societies that “the massive immigration of brown-skinned peoples cooking strange foods and maintaining different standards of hygiene” will “bring exotic customs and attitudes, but Muslim customs are more troublesome than most.”
Just a few years later this model of hatred was outdone by Steve Emerson, who produced and distributed the notorious video “Jihad in America.” It was shown on PBS in 1994 with free copies to the members of the US Congress and others in the US political establishment.
The video connected Islam with terrorism and that theme was further explored in a vile book “Militant Islam” painting the entire Muslim community with the broad brush of terrorism. Later, Emerson even told the CBS News that Middle Easterners were responsible for the bombing of Oklahoma Murrah building. When the incident proved to be the work of others the issue of his credibility was raised.
These two individuals have done more than anybody else in contributing to the rise of Islamophobia in America. Today, there is a thriving anti-Muslim hate industry with a large number of people working to discredit Islam. It is said that there is no shortage of funds when it comes to linking Islam with terrorism.
At present, newspapers and CAIR mailings report almost every couple of days the incidences of hatred and violent acts against Muslims and Islamic properties.
For anyone with research interests there is substantial information on the Internet and hard copy publications on the topic of hatred towards Islam. This issue ought to be explored fully though no Muslim has done it to this point.
Shaykh Qardawi did write an article and even made a video but he is unlikely to carry much weight in this country owing to charges of terrorism leveled against him by Washington. He may be a very important person to the Muslims but his interpretation of the Qur’an and Sharia offends the American political establishment.
The postcolonial resurgence of Islam has truly worried the West. In Europe and America there is widespread belief that the “white race” is entitled to run the world given that they are racially pure and therefore superior, but the rise of the “coloreds” in China, India, Brazil, Indonesia and others, is turning that dream into a nightmare.
Islamophobia is driven by racism, bigotry and arrogance and not necessarily ignorance. There are numerous Islamophobes with respectable credentials involved in vitriol against Islam whom Edward Said characterized as the “Orientalists.”
