[Order Michael Finch’s new book, A Time to Stand: HERE. Prof. Jason Hill calls it “an aesthetic and political tour de force.”]
The term Islamophobia is often heard these days. It was coined by Muslims themselves, especially those who identify as liberal. By it they mean an irrational and extreme fear of Islam in Western societies. Many Muslims argue that this fear is the result of Jewish propaganda against them, once again framing it as a “Jewish conspiracy,” something they have made a habit of doing.
To counter the charge that Islam is a religion of terrorism and violence, Muslims frequently point to examples of relatively peaceful countries, particularly secular states like Albania and Malaysia. But they deliberately ignore the Taliban, who until recently ruled Afghanistan and treated the Afghan people worse than animals, and who are once again resurgent.
They also remain silent about other regimes similar to the Taliban. Even if these governments are not as thorough in enforcing Islamic law, the Taliban are seen as practicing a “pure and uncorrupted” version of Islam. Yet countries like Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Somalia’s Islamic courts are not far behind. In Afghanistan, women are banned from schools and jobs; in Iran, they are beaten or jailed for removing the hijab; in Somalia, most girls undergo forced genital mutilation; and in Sudan, women have long faced flogging and arrests for “indecent dress. In Pakistan, some of the worst abuses carried out in the name of Islam include the use of blasphemy laws to persecute innocent Christians, targeted attacks on religious minorities, suicide bombings by jihadis groups, and forced conversions, honor killings of women.
In reality, Islamophobia is itself an Islamic propaganda tool, not a Jewish conspiracy as Muslims claim. What the West calls Islamophobia is actually an awakening to the threat that Islam poses in developed societies.
Before 9/11, the West regarded Islam as just another monotheistic religion. Some likened it to a harsher European version of Christianity; others assumed Muslims were harmless idol worshippers. Most people, however, knew little about Islam and paid it no real attention. Life went on as usual. The West was, in effect, asleep. Britain, in the name of human rights, democracy, and personal freedom, even gave asylum to known Jihadis such as Abu Hamza al-Masri and Saudi Arabia’s prominent Takfiri Mullah Saad al-Faqih, who opposed the existing Saudi system not because it was too harsh, but because he wanted an even stricter application of Islamic law.
The 9/11 attacks delivered a brutal shock to both East and West. Thousands of innocent American deaths forced them to wake up. What was most striking was that many Muslims celebrated. They took to the streets dancing, handing out sweets. In Palestine and Pakistan, people openly rejoiced over the attacks. Even in my own city, I saw Muslims celebrating the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers and heard them calling it a “victory for Islam.”
From that moment, the West’s relationship with Islam changed. People rushed to buy Qurans to learn what this religion really taught. Media outlets began producing reports to raise awareness of Islamic teachings such as beheading, amputations, flogging, the abuse of women, and other forms of brutality in the name of Islam.
The message was clear: so where is the irrational fear in all this?
In 2005 The furious response of Muslims to the Muhammad cartoons only added fuel to the fire. (Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten) It drove home to the West the seriousness of the danger posed by Islam. As the West came to see its values of freedom, equality, and liberalism threatened by an Islamic monster, even Islam’s defenders began to fear for their own survival. The last fig leaf covering their shame had slipped away, leaving them to accuse the West of “unnecessary fear” of Islam.
For the foreseeable future, perhaps even the next hundred years, Islam will remain humanity’s greatest threat. Most Muslims are educationally and intellectually unprepared for the modern world. This is largely because in many Islamic countries, the education system is controlled by jihadis who use it to brainwash children and pass their poison on to the next generation.