Is a Muslim Holocaust in the Making?
By Dr Ghulam M. Haniff
St. Cloud, Minnesota
Can a Muslim holocaust occur in America? Not likely but one never knows. It is an intriguing question raised in some circles. Historically, holocaust is unknown to Muslims. It is a part of European history though they keep on blaming the Muslims for all the violence. When I asked about holocaust one Muslim was blunt in his reply, “never heard of it” and “anyway history doesn’t mean a thing to me.”
Holocaust refers to the mass killing of a religious, ethnic or cultural group to the point of their extinction. The Serb Christian leader, Radovan Karadicz, tried to do exactly that to the Bosnian Muslims in the bloody war that lasted from 1991 to 1995 but failed to achieve his goal. However, nearly a quarter of million Bosnian Muslims were wiped out.
Holocaust came into focus with the mass killings of Muslims in Spain. Many fled and found refuge elsewhere. The Muslim population became extinct and remained that way until a few decades ago. By law Muslims were forbidden to be in Spain and building of mosques was prohibited until recently.
In contemporary America a tightly knit group of rightwing ideologues are taking steps for a similar outcome. They want to eliminate Muslims from their midst and are bent on emulating Radovan Karadicz. They are pursuing multiple strategies, such as: stopping Muslim immigration, outlawing Shari’a, picking up Muslims for detention and ultimately, branding them terrorists to be physically eliminated.
Through their relentless demonization of Muslims more than half of the American public has come to believe that Muslims have got to go.
This Islamophobic idea began to surface in the late eighties and early nineties with the publication of an article by Daniel Pipes, The Muslims are Coming! The Muslims are Coming!!, in which the author advocated stopping the immigration of Muslims. Two years later a video, The American Jihad, was made and shown to the national audience on PBS at prime time to brand the American Muslims as terrorists. Three years later the maker of the video published a book, The Militant Islam, labeling all American Muslim organizations as terroristic.
Since that time the demonization of the Muslims has vigorously snowballed. In the meantime the rightwing diehards have picked up more support for their cause. These include the Tea Party movements, several members of the Congress and potential presidential candidates.
The latest public opinion poll indicates that 51 percent of the American Muslims cannot be trusted. The law enforcement authorities, FBI, CIA, CHS and NYPD, have become very suspicious of Muslims. They have sent their agents to spy and pick up Muslims at mosques and Islamic Centers. The level of trust between the police and the Muslims has hit rock bottom.
The hatred of Islam or Islamophobia has now become a mainstream phenomenon. The construction of mosques particularly riles the public. In recent months neighbors have descended on the communities in Temecula, in CA, the Park51 in New York City, Murfreesboro, TN and other places to stop the construction of Islamic facilities underway.
The organizations called ACT! For America led by Brigit Gabriel, as well as Stop Islamization of America led by Pamela Geller, and several others active in “Islamophobic echo chamber” have redoubled their efforts to malign the Muslims.
According to a new report, Fear, Inc. and published by the Center For American Progress, the hate work of the above type is very well financed. During the period, 2001 to 2009, some $42 million dollars was raised from foundations to amplify fear and misinformation in their attempt to mislead the American public.
Consequently, Muslims have become so marginalized that they are weighed down by their own sense of powerlessness. No Congressperson or Senator or any other prominent political leader stands on their side, except for one. How much can one person do?
Islamophobia has caught on like wild fire. The “cottage industry” created by foundation money is busily airing its views on the media and providing “experts” to law enforcement agencies, churches, synagogues, universities and the military. Rep. Peter King (R-NY) for whom Islam is an anathema calls on them to testify at his hearings. They blame Islam and Muslims for everything that has ever gone wrong with the whites including Nazism, Hitler, Fascism, Karl Marx, Communism and so forth, too many to list.
One of their “experts” was recently interviewed by Cooper Anderson 360 on CNN and was openly caught that many of the things he said about his own background were simply not true. The most vicious crusade underway currently is to make Shari’a illegal. The bill to ban Shari’a has already been passed by 4 states and pending action in 16 others.
The objective of the Islam-haters is to take action in such a way that Muslims will either flee or renounce Islam as we know it. This is a much more sophisticated strategy than the one carried out in Germany and Bosnia. The message from the ruling establishment in America however is that violence will not be tolerated.
But one never knows.
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