A R C H I V E S
Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| ISLAMAPHOBIA & Anti-semitism |
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| jaihoon |
| 07/28/03 at 12:35:25 |
| BRITISH EXPERT: ISLAMAPHOBIA ACCEPTABLE FACE OF ANTI-SEMITISM SINCE 911 [press release sent to Jaihoon.com] London, 22/7/2003: A British journalist specializing in Middle Eastern affairs has identified Islamaphobia as the acceptable face of anti-Semitism in the West in a new book to be published in August 2003. Monal Seidan is the British author of the Muslim’s Guide to Islamaphobia, one of the few published works dealing with the disturbing trend of Western Islamaphobia that the author says has become institutionalized since 911. The author points out that human rights groups have already rung alarm bells about western Islamaphobia. Notable human rights officials such as Mary Robinson, previous U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, have deplored expressions of anti-Islamic, anti-Arab, and anti-Semitic sentiment that have been on the increase in the west following 911. Robinson called on the international community to combat the spread of Islamaphobia, which she defined as an obsessive fear of Islam, saying the phenomenon has spread mostly throughout the United States and Western Europe. The book by Seidan guides the reader through various previous and recent Islamaphobic case studies before using research by independent western experts to demonstrate the greatness of Islam, its civilizations and its immense contributions to the richness of the human experience. However, the British author does not stop there. Seidan also puts western secularism on “trial” for its crimes against humanity. “Far too little light has been shed on the demonic role secularism, or materialist philosophy as it is also known, played in the rise of cruel modern ideologies such as colonialism, racism, fascism, capitalism, communism and zionism all of which draw strength from the Darwinist materialist philosophy that views human beings as warring animals. Muslim’s Guide to Islamaphobia says Islamic communities need to become more active in countering not only the ignorance but also the arrogance of those who willfully propagate Islamaphobia. The book points out that the best defense is a good offence. Only by Muslim victims of Islamaphobia turning the tables on the West can a dramatic change occur in the intentional defamation of Islam and Muslims, as happened with African-Americans when they began their “black is beautiful” approach to institutional racist oppression in the USA. “Islam is the religion of over 20 percent of the human population spread across the globe and expressed through many cultures. Westerners must learn that Islam is not only not the enemy but is in fact the source of most of the west’s renaissance,” added Seidan. Recently, the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) demanded an apology from the rightwing U.S. magazine 'National Review' for suggesting that the United States should consider a nuclear attack on Mecca, Islam's holiest city, located in Saudi Arabia. "Lots of sentiment for nuking Mecca," Review editor Rich Lowry said in an online forum called 'The Corner'. Lowry said the likeliest sites for a U.S. nuclear first strike would be two countries with overwhelmingly Muslim populations: Iraq and Iran. "If we have clean enough bombs to assure a pinpoint damage area, Gaza City and Ramallah (in the Israeli-occupied territories) would also be on list," he added. In addition, another writer Anne Coulter in the 'National Review', suggested: "We should invade their (Muslim) countries, kill their leaders and convert them." Reverend Franklin Graham, whose father, Billy Graham, also is an evangelical preacher and has enjoyed full access to the White House since the 1950s, said last year that Islam "is a very evil and wicked religion". Graham the elder said similar things about Jews during a 1972 conversation with then President Richard Nixon, according to tapes released by the National Archives. He has since repudiated those comments. “Ideology is important. All good or evil actions begin as an idea in the human mind. Islam is the only ideology that preaches and practices a policy of serving justice even if it is not in an individual’s interest to do so. Modern secularism teaches and practices the opposite, and history demonstrates this, says the author of Muslim’s Guide to Islamaphobia. It is all too easy for the public to be swayed by heated emotion, hate and prejudice without serious study of cold historic facts. Modern humankind’s greatest challenge is to follow a method of critical independent thinking. With sophisticated tools such as propaganda and mass media we have witnessed in modern history how western countries have horrifically stereotyped entire races, nations and ethnic groups. After all it was Napoleon Bonaparte who identified a problem when he stated "authoritarian government required not to speak is silent, but representative government required to speak LIES with impunity." The book asks if western Islamaphobia represents the rise of the latest form of western neo-fascism. It questions how a global war against terrorism be fought with no agreed definition of what terrorism is or by attributing it to one community alone. Christianity, Judaism and secularism all have their own fair share of terrorist organizations most of which have targeted western citizens. The author notes that no satisfactory explanation has been given as to why western governments are eroding civil liberties in light of a single terrorist incident. Seidan says the world should be concerned about this new wave of western led prejudice and hate against the entire Islamic community as it brings back memories of secular democracies (plutocracies) upholding racist laws or segregating communities as witnessed by groups such as Australian Aborigines, Indian-Americans and African-Americans. Not to mention the disturbing events on Guantanamo Bay and the US mainland’s profiling of Arab-American citizens. Why does secular democracy always follow a pattern of racial discrimination? The book concludes that Secularism is a dangerous ideology causing more death and destruction in its short history than any other ideology. Darwin proposed that the 'fight for survival' also applied between human races. According to that claim, favored races' were victorious in the struggle. Favored races, in Darwin's view, were white Europeans. African or Asian races had lagged behind in the struggle for survival. Darwin went further, and suggested that these races would soon lose the 'struggle for survival' entirely, and thus disappear: At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the "civilized" races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace the "savage" races throughout the world," states Darwin in his book subtitled "The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life. The same Darwinism, whose un-scientific ideas are still being propagated by western schools as facts, are in fact the basis for secularism’s cruel view of humankind's co-existence. All this hate and prejudice against Islam, all this Islamaphobia, are we looking the next crime against humanity by a secular western power right in the face? The author believes the answer is yes unless some drastic measures are taken to combat Islamaphobia, the acceptable face of anti-Semitism in the West today. |
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