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US fanning the flames of Islamophobia

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  • US fanning the flames of Islamophobia

    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.
    میں نےجو کیا وہ برا کیا،میں نے خود کو خود ہی تباہ کیا

    جو تجھے پسند ہو میرے رب،مجھے اس ادا کی تلاش ہے

    http://www.123muslim.com/discussion-...d-arround.html
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