"Fear Ignorance, Not Muslims"
Says the Editorial Board of New York Times
“Fear Ignorance, Not Muslims” is the courageous declaration of the Editorial Board of the New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/05/opinion/fear-ignorance-not-muslims.html?emc=edit_th_20151205&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=64792905. It states among other things that “Americans must guard against overreaction, and subdue the panicked reflex of distrust and hatred toward the Americans among us who are Muslims” … …..today the ignorance is being inflamed by know-nothings in the political sphere ……….Chief Downing said law enforcement needs the trust and cooperation of the majority of Muslims in the mainstream………but murderous gun rampages, an everyday occurrence in the United States, have been set off by workplace resentments, anti-abortion and anti-government zealotry, paranoia, suicidal megalomania, various other forms of sociopathy, and by no evident reasons at all”. The Board concludes “There is nothing wise — particularly from a law-enforcement and security perspective — about the urge to isolate and stigmatize Americans of any faith or heritage.”
Apart from this bold editorial of the New York Times, other prominent leaders including our President and past Secretary Hilary Clinton have come out very forcefully and clearly to dissociate ISIS and its activities from Muslims and Islam. It is our duty now and in our interest to support these leaders by our words and deeds.
We Muslims should respond responsibly and positively. Let us not go on the defensive mode after the San Bernardino massacre and shut ourselves into a state of denial ascribing whatever happened to the “CIA and the Zionist lobby”. I have already received an email from a group casting doubts about the tragic incident.
The first step is unqualified and unequivocal denunciation of ISIS following the lead of ISNA which has announced that “They are thugs and killers, part of a cult of death”. This should not be coupled with reference to Islamophobia or other genuine grievances that we have. This is not the occasion for it. Also it may sound as some sort of justification for the horrible atrocity.
Are we doing this? Does ISNA, quoted above represents the view of the consensus of Muslim Americans? I am afraid, I am not really sure. We Muslims have a long long list of genuine or perceived grievances against “them”, the “West” the “Americans”. It can be traced centuries back to the era of Western imperialism and colonialism. In our times it is primarily based on American Foreign Policy. As a Super Power, US has and will continue to come into conflict with many Muslim countries. We do not like it, rather hate it. The worst irritation to us is the persistent, unfair and blind support of US for the state of Israel to the detriment of the suffering of the beleaguered Palestinians. Here is the catch, though. We knew all this in our own countries before we decided to move over to US. Yet we were very keen and successful to come to this country, got educated here, got a job here with a successful comfortable life, grew up our children in healthy, liberal atmosphere with quality education. Applied and got citizenship of this country; took oath to be loyal to the Flag and the Constitution. The consequence is very natural. A dichotomy in our personality; a state of love and hate with our new country and identity. I am afraid this is responsible for a sense of inner and suppressed antipathy and animosity against “them, the West, US” in favour of the “Ummah”. So much so that many many of us have some sort of sympathy even for bodies like ISIS who bring nothing but disgrace and shame to our beautiful religion. Time and again, in discussions and articles “islamophobia” and the American behavior with Muslims in some part of the world is referred to when discussing the Paris or California attack. The underlying message is to dilute/explain/correlate/diminish/partly justify the horrors committed by ISIS.
Our competition and confrontation with the people of the Book started right at the birth of Islam. Initially we had the upper hand. We were powerful. We spread out, conquered and built a formidable empire. Intellectual stagnation followed. We were vanquished and governed. Since then the relationship between the two peoples has elements — slight, strong sometimes, very strong occasionally —- of fear and hate i.e. “phobia” for each other. Hence the talk of a “clash of civilizations”. I grew up listening to our Maulvis refer to the West as kuffars. It is a very wide spread belief amongst us that we cannot be friendly and social with the Christians and Jews based on very wrong interpretations of some ayahs of our Holy Text. However, the Holy Quran clearly and strictly orders us to be Fair and Just even to our enemies. Since it is a Devine injunction, it will be haram for a Muslim not to do so; not to be fair and just in all his/her dealings. I therefore suggest that the “Islamophobia” most of us often refer to is in fact a reciprocal phobia among the three cousins of the Abrahamic Faith.
However there is a great surge in this sentiment of phobia since the turn of the twenty first century. I would like to call it “Muslimophobia”. This is a new phenomena and a reaction to entirely new circumstances and therefore needs and entirely different type of approach from the age old “Islamophobia”. Terrorism is known for centuries in human history. However 9/11 gave it entirely different dimensions. Al Qaeda made it global and effective (This brings in another problem; many Muslims have reasons to refuse this story of Al Qaeda etc. We will deal with this issue at some other time. Bear with me in the meantime). Now ISIS has taken it to perfection. Its methods proved be too cruel and gruesome even for Al Qaeda. It is the first time that a terrorist organization has a significant territory under its control. It has succeeded in reaching the minds and hearts of individuals by its mastery of modern technology — social media, video messages, attractive and instructive websites — and unabashed brutality and barbarity. The lasting psychological and emotional impact on lots and lots of people, Europeans and Americans of all Faiths cannot be over emphasized. More importantly, ISIS has gone out of the way to bring out and emphasize that this is an Islamic movement and aims at restoring the glory of past Islam. It has usurped the label of Caliphate, has a self styled Leader of the Faithful, has our Shahada on its black flag and embarks on their nefarious actions with our most inspiring slogan of Allah-o-Akbar. It is quite natural therefore that ISIS has produced a lot of fear and hate i.e. phobia in Europe and America against the Western Muslims in their midst. Just as we do not want the non-Muslims to implicate Islam and all Muslims in the activities of ISIS, we should not think it is Islam when they, Europeans and Americans express fear and hate as a result of the activities of ISIS. Hence the highly intensified and vocalized phobia of the twenty first century against the Muslims in Europe and US is a fear of Muslim fellow citizens triggered by ISIS — a Muslimophobia. It is not a continuation of the mutual phobia that the the three Abrahamic faiths have been displaying with one another over the centuries. I feel this is a very important differentiation. Only on realizing this distinction, we can condemn ISIS completely and wholeheartedly without referring to our previous differences and grievances.
Our Deen is a very balanced religion and demands a strict sense of proportion from its followers. Are we matching up to the standards expected by Islam in the problem under discussion. Let us see, if the action and the reaction are commensurate? Compare the intensity and magnitude of the activities of the ISIS with the attitude of Americans and Europeans against us; the massacre of fourteen innocent lives and wounding of twenty one in a holiday party by their peer of five years against the shooting through the Quran, sneers and sarcasm, threatening calls and vandalizing mosques by the Americans. Secondly, h ave we noted the very clear rejection of this negative reaction by the leadership of the country, almost across the board. To clarify my point, let us change the playing field: killing of Muslims by non-Muslims in a Muslim majority country. Can you imagine the reaction if a single Muslim is killed by a non-Muslim under these circumstances? If you have any doubts let me give you an example. It is Malaysia, a moderate Muslim majority country. Christians are a minority but form forty per cent of the population. A few years ago, the Muslims objected to the use of the word “Allah” in Churches and demanded that the practice be stopped henceforth. By the way from the Islamic point of view it is a totally un-Islamic demand. The word Allah was used by pagans of Arabia much before the advent of Islam. Moreover our Holy Text clearly states to the un-believers that it is no use quibbling over the word Allah for HE is our God and your God. Anyhow this is not the only occasion when Muslims of our age act against the clear dictates of the Holy Quran. To continue the story, the government of the time supported the demand. Christians had to give in. But they appealed to the Supreme Court. After two years of deliberations, the Court delivered a decision upholding the right of Christians to use the word of Allah in their Churches. This was the action, perfectly justified and democratic, you will agree. Now note the reaction of Muslims in a Muslim majority country against a minority of forty per cent. Next day there were bomb attacks in six churches. Any action against the miscreants? None. Any condemnation by any leader or Muslim scholar? None reported in the source I have read. Here is the master stroke. The Prime Minister of the time is on record, when interviewed on TV (I heard the recording) trivializing the rampage as “….these are emotional issues”!
A couple of related issues need discussion. Insha Allah at a later date.
