US fanning the flames of Islamophobia
Far too much publicity has already been given
to the threat made by a pastor of a tiny US
cult church to burn copies of the Qur’an. The
provocative act by an obscure individual was
blown out of proportion by media frenzy.
Virtually overnight, Rev Terry Jones, who
left Germany under a cloud of accusations and
his 50 followers at the Dove World Outreach
Center, became an international sensation.
Book burning, including of sacred religious
texts, is nothing new. But the question must
be asked: why the contemptible episode was
given headline-grabbing attention around the
world, leading to rioting and even deaths.
The incitement of Jones is representative of
the deep malaise of Islamophobia that has
been orchestrated by the misguided and ill-
conceived ‘war on terrorism’ and linking this
to Islam, or what the politicians and the
media would call “twisted form of Islam”,
“extremist Islam” “the extreme form of
Islam”, “the Islamic terrorist” or the more
nuanced form, “Islamist terrorists”. The
consequence has been to demonise the religion
of 20% of the world’s population, with the
consequence that there is an increase in
assaults on Muslims, attacks on mosques and
the publication of outrageous cartoons. The
second wave has targeted Islamic symbols,
extending to ever encroaching bans on their
dress and places of worship.
Muslims in the US are living in fear of the
hatred that has been caused by the ‘war on
terror’ and more so since the campaign
against building of Muslim cultural centre
two blocks away from Ground Zero and the
threat of burning of the Qur’an accompanied
by the Islamophobic tirades. We have
therefore published a sample of the
increasing number of Islamophobic attacks
across the US in this issue of the newspaper.
Jones has been seeking media attention since
being expelled from the German Evangelical
Alliance for being a Christian Fundamentalist
two years ago, resorting to even printing T-
shirts for schoolchildren with ‘Islam is of
the Devil’ on the back. Although he
eventually dropped his threat timed to
coincide with the 9th anniversary of 9/11,
the publicity generated led to a series of
copycat burnings and desecrations of the
Qur’an across the US, including outside the
White House.
The British media is already responsible for
giving grossly disproportionate attention to
unrepresentative and dubious Muslim
characters and organizations. The tabloid
press as well as some more up-market
newspapers are also not unknown to indulge in
sensationalist and often bizarre stories that
dwell upon discrediting Muslims and Islam.
But perhaps the chief culprits of fanning the
flames of Islamophobia are politicians and
government policies. Whichever way it is
worded, the ‘war on terrorism’ has been
perceived to be targeted against Islam and
its more than one billion followers. Like
during the medieval era, it is the religion
of Islam that is being erroneously blamed as
the cause of extremism and terrorism, whether
or not it is presented and packaged as being
just perverted form or extremist elements.
The consequence has been to tarnish all
Muslims with the same brush and demonise
their religion, Islam.
Interestingly, every politician in the West
and every journalist and media outlet, has
been careful to emphasise that Pastor Jones
does not represent the majority of the
Christians or Americans and that he is a
lunatic fringe. No one has uttered that he is
following a twisted form of Christianity.
However, when it comes to the lunatic fringe
in the Muslim world everyone is tarnished
with one brush by blaming the religion. One
only needs to see counter terrorism policies
in the UK and also in the rest of the Western
world where the target has been Islam, imams,
mosques, Muslim ‘chaplains’ in prisons,
university campuses and hospitals. Even
toddlers have not been spared. Counter
terrorism measures in nurseries, schools and
universities targeting ONLY Muslim pupils. No
area of the life of Muslim has been spared
not even sport, sport centres and gyms.
It was notable in the intervention of US
President Barack Obama over the book burning
that his appeal was directed at fears that
the stunt could “greatly endanger our young
men and women in uniform who are in Iraq, who
are in Afghanistan.” It was the act itself
that should have been condemned and he should
have empathised with the hurt that 1.5
billion Muslims would feel if the Qur’an was
burnt. Even Nato and US Commander, Gen David
Petraeus, issued a statement a day after 500
demonstrated in Kabul against the proposed
burning of the Qur’an, that the latter could
provoke violent retaliation against US troops
– with no concern about the 1.5 billion
Muslims. In her denouncement that the planned
Florida event was “plainly disrespectful –
even abhorrent”, German Chancellor Angela
Merkel was ironically in the same breath
honouring the Islamophobic Danish cartoonist
Kurt Westergaard, who similarly provoked
worldwide outrage in the Muslim world by his
cartoon of the Prophet.
It is time to start to repair some of the
damage done and prevent incidents like the
Qur’an burning occurring again by changing
our discourse about the threat of terrorism.
The primary reason is about politics, our
foreign and domestic policies against Muslims
and not religion. The Pastor said the reason
why he was burning the Qur’an was because it
was the source of evil and terrorism; the
reason why many in the US do not want the
Muslim cultural centre or what they perceive
it to be a mosque near Ground Zero, is
because they believe the mosque (and
therefore Islam) was responsible for the
terrorist attacks in New York. If the Islamic
cultural centre is not built in its current
location two blocks away from Ground Zero, it
would be a vindication to those who believe
that Islam is the source of terrorism and
extremism and to those who believe that the
‘war on terrorism’ is the war against Islam.
Far too much publicity has already been given
to the threat made by a pastor of a tiny US
cult church to burn copies of the Qur’an. The
provocative act by an obscure individual was
blown out of proportion by media frenzy.
Virtually overnight, Rev Terry Jones, who
left Germany under a cloud of accusations and
his 50 followers at the Dove World Outreach
Center, became an international sensation.
Book burning, including of sacred religious
texts, is nothing new. But the question must
be asked: why the contemptible episode was
given headline-grabbing attention around the
world, leading to rioting and even deaths.
The incitement of Jones is representative of
the deep malaise of Islamophobia that has
been orchestrated by the misguided and ill-
conceived ‘war on terrorism’ and linking this
to Islam, or what the politicians and the
media would call “twisted form of Islam”,
“extremist Islam” “the extreme form of
Islam”, “the Islamic terrorist” or the more
nuanced form, “Islamist terrorists”. The
consequence has been to demonise the religion
of 20% of the world’s population, with the
consequence that there is an increase in
assaults on Muslims, attacks on mosques and
the publication of outrageous cartoons. The
second wave has targeted Islamic symbols,
extending to ever encroaching bans on their
dress and places of worship.
Muslims in the US are living in fear of the
hatred that has been caused by the ‘war on
terror’ and more so since the campaign
against building of Muslim cultural centre
two blocks away from Ground Zero and the
threat of burning of the Qur’an accompanied
by the Islamophobic tirades. We have
therefore published a sample of the
increasing number of Islamophobic attacks
across the US in this issue of the newspaper.
Jones has been seeking media attention since
being expelled from the German Evangelical
Alliance for being a Christian Fundamentalist
two years ago, resorting to even printing T-
shirts for schoolchildren with ‘Islam is of
the Devil’ on the back. Although he
eventually dropped his threat timed to
coincide with the 9th anniversary of 9/11,
the publicity generated led to a series of
copycat burnings and desecrations of the
Qur’an across the US, including outside the
White House.
The British media is already responsible for
giving grossly disproportionate attention to
unrepresentative and dubious Muslim
characters and organizations. The tabloid
press as well as some more up-market
newspapers are also not unknown to indulge in
sensationalist and often bizarre stories that
dwell upon discrediting Muslims and Islam.
But perhaps the chief culprits of fanning the
flames of Islamophobia are politicians and
government policies. Whichever way it is
worded, the ‘war on terrorism’ has been
perceived to be targeted against Islam and
its more than one billion followers. Like
during the medieval era, it is the religion
of Islam that is being erroneously blamed as
the cause of extremism and terrorism, whether
or not it is presented and packaged as being
just perverted form or extremist elements.
The consequence has been to tarnish all
Muslims with the same brush and demonise
their religion, Islam.
Interestingly, every politician in the West
and every journalist and media outlet, has
been careful to emphasise that Pastor Jones
does not represent the majority of the
Christians or Americans and that he is a
lunatic fringe. No one has uttered that he is
following a twisted form of Christianity.
However, when it comes to the lunatic fringe
in the Muslim world everyone is tarnished
with one brush by blaming the religion. One
only needs to see counter terrorism policies
in the UK and also in the rest of the Western
world where the target has been Islam, imams,
mosques, Muslim ‘chaplains’ in prisons,
university campuses and hospitals. Even
toddlers have not been spared. Counter
terrorism measures in nurseries, schools and
universities targeting ONLY Muslim pupils. No
area of the life of Muslim has been spared
not even sport, sport centres and gyms.
It was notable in the intervention of US
President Barack Obama over the book burning
that his appeal was directed at fears that
the stunt could “greatly endanger our young
men and women in uniform who are in Iraq, who
are in Afghanistan.” It was the act itself
that should have been condemned and he should
have empathised with the hurt that 1.5
billion Muslims would feel if the Qur’an was
burnt. Even Nato and US Commander, Gen David
Petraeus, issued a statement a day after 500
demonstrated in Kabul against the proposed
burning of the Qur’an, that the latter could
provoke violent retaliation against US troops
– with no concern about the 1.5 billion
Muslims. In her denouncement that the planned
Florida event was “plainly disrespectful –
even abhorrent”, German Chancellor Angela
Merkel was ironically in the same breath
honouring the Islamophobic Danish cartoonist
Kurt Westergaard, who similarly provoked
worldwide outrage in the Muslim world by his
cartoon of the Prophet.
It is time to start to repair some of the
damage done and prevent incidents like the
Qur’an burning occurring again by changing
our discourse about the threat of terrorism.
The primary reason is about politics, our
foreign and domestic policies against Muslims
and not religion. The Pastor said the reason
why he was burning the Qur’an was because it
was the source of evil and terrorism; the
reason why many in the US do not want the
Muslim cultural centre or what they perceive
it to be a mosque near Ground Zero, is
because they believe the mosque (and
therefore Islam) was responsible for the
terrorist attacks in New York. If the Islamic
cultural centre is not built in its current
location two blocks away from Ground Zero, it
would be a vindication to those who believe
that Islam is the source of terrorism and
extremism and to those who believe that the
‘war on terrorism’ is the war against Islam.