mahussain3
Son of Aa'ishah(R.A)
Islamophobia is by Conditioning
The brutal attack on an imam last Friday has barely made the news and when Muslims try to highlight the incident on the internet they are inundated with accusations of "“victimhood", "complaining too much" and "not recognising the effect of terrorism by people who claim to be Muslims".
So let me start with the accusation that terrrorist attacks like that on Glasgow airport are the main cause of Islamophobia.
The fact that we did not see a backlash in the aftermath of that attack speaks volumes. Of course, the average man or woman in the street does become concerned and might even utter a few expletives in anger but there is big leap between simply being "concerned" and "taking the law into one's own hands". For this you need conditioning and it is here that the media plays a crucial role. By repeated and sustained barrages of anti-Muslim reporting, day after day, people tend to develop an irrational fear, i.e. phobia.
Contrast this with what happened during the IRA bombing campaign in the 1990s, including the Omagh bombings in 1998 (29 dead and 222 injured). Catholics were not stigmatised and treated as "guilty until proven innocent" in the media and so we did not witness violent attacks against Catholic priests, churches or homes.
As for the accusations of "victimhood" and "complaining too much", I think this is nothing more than adding insult to injury. What I find most annoying about this accusation is that many of the people who are accusing Muslims of "complaining too much" are themselves promoters - or remain very appreciative - of what the internationally acclaimed Jewish author Norman Finkelstein has dubbed the "Holocaust industry". He says:
"Since the late 1960s, there has developed a kind of Holocaust industry which has made a cult of the Nazi Holocaust. And the purpose of this industry is, in my view, ethnic aggrandisement - in particular, to deflect criticism of the State of Israel and to deflect criticism of Jews generally."
The point here is that somehow the Jewish community can maintain its right to complain for something that happened 60 years ago but Muslims dare not complain of suffering even as it happens.
When the Jewish community feel they are under attack, they can have all the media coverage on demand and even parliamentary reports whenever they feel like it, but when Muslims are under attack they must keep quiet. This is the worst form of inequality and abuse. Denying a victim the right to scream when in pain is savagery in its most inhumane form.
In addition to the conditioning of the masses that takes place in the media, there is also another level of conditioning that focuses on people who might not readily be influenced by the tabloids. These include politicians, church leaders and civil servants who are sent biased documents by organisations (e.g.MEMRI) and are encouraged to read books written by anti-Muslim writers.
For example, the British author Gisèle Littman aka Bat Ye’or who published several books arguing that Europe in being destroyed by Islam. Being the wife of a famous British historian - David Gerald Littman - her nonsensical theories of "Eurabia" and "dhimmitude" are taken seriously as informed opinions. I know for a fact that some priests and bishops in both the Catholic and Anglican Churches read her work.
I am therefore not surprised to see the private secretary to the Pope issuing warnings of the "Islamization of Europe" almost identical to Bat Ye’or (see The Pope's "Neo-Crusades"). I was also not surprised to have seen the Bishop of Rochester accusing Muslims of seeking both "victimhood and domination". He is also a fan of Bat Ye’or. In November last year, speaking about Muslims, he said:
"Their complaint often boils down to the position that it is always right to intervene when Muslims are victims...and always wrong when the Muslims are the oppressors or terrorists, as with the Taleban or in Iraq."
I do not know what went on in the mind of the "fundamentalist" Christian who attacked the Imam last Friday in London, but it would not be unreasonable to speculate that it was conditioning that led him to plan and execute this savage attack. If these trends continue unabated then I am afraid the future of Muslims in Europe, with every passing day, seems increasingly ominous.
The brutal attack on an imam last Friday has barely made the news and when Muslims try to highlight the incident on the internet they are inundated with accusations of "“victimhood", "complaining too much" and "not recognising the effect of terrorism by people who claim to be Muslims".
So let me start with the accusation that terrrorist attacks like that on Glasgow airport are the main cause of Islamophobia.
The fact that we did not see a backlash in the aftermath of that attack speaks volumes. Of course, the average man or woman in the street does become concerned and might even utter a few expletives in anger but there is big leap between simply being "concerned" and "taking the law into one's own hands". For this you need conditioning and it is here that the media plays a crucial role. By repeated and sustained barrages of anti-Muslim reporting, day after day, people tend to develop an irrational fear, i.e. phobia.
Contrast this with what happened during the IRA bombing campaign in the 1990s, including the Omagh bombings in 1998 (29 dead and 222 injured). Catholics were not stigmatised and treated as "guilty until proven innocent" in the media and so we did not witness violent attacks against Catholic priests, churches or homes.
As for the accusations of "victimhood" and "complaining too much", I think this is nothing more than adding insult to injury. What I find most annoying about this accusation is that many of the people who are accusing Muslims of "complaining too much" are themselves promoters - or remain very appreciative - of what the internationally acclaimed Jewish author Norman Finkelstein has dubbed the "Holocaust industry". He says:
"Since the late 1960s, there has developed a kind of Holocaust industry which has made a cult of the Nazi Holocaust. And the purpose of this industry is, in my view, ethnic aggrandisement - in particular, to deflect criticism of the State of Israel and to deflect criticism of Jews generally."
The point here is that somehow the Jewish community can maintain its right to complain for something that happened 60 years ago but Muslims dare not complain of suffering even as it happens.
When the Jewish community feel they are under attack, they can have all the media coverage on demand and even parliamentary reports whenever they feel like it, but when Muslims are under attack they must keep quiet. This is the worst form of inequality and abuse. Denying a victim the right to scream when in pain is savagery in its most inhumane form.
In addition to the conditioning of the masses that takes place in the media, there is also another level of conditioning that focuses on people who might not readily be influenced by the tabloids. These include politicians, church leaders and civil servants who are sent biased documents by organisations (e.g.MEMRI) and are encouraged to read books written by anti-Muslim writers.
For example, the British author Gisèle Littman aka Bat Ye’or who published several books arguing that Europe in being destroyed by Islam. Being the wife of a famous British historian - David Gerald Littman - her nonsensical theories of "Eurabia" and "dhimmitude" are taken seriously as informed opinions. I know for a fact that some priests and bishops in both the Catholic and Anglican Churches read her work.
I am therefore not surprised to see the private secretary to the Pope issuing warnings of the "Islamization of Europe" almost identical to Bat Ye’or (see The Pope's "Neo-Crusades"). I was also not surprised to have seen the Bishop of Rochester accusing Muslims of seeking both "victimhood and domination". He is also a fan of Bat Ye’or. In November last year, speaking about Muslims, he said:
"Their complaint often boils down to the position that it is always right to intervene when Muslims are victims...and always wrong when the Muslims are the oppressors or terrorists, as with the Taleban or in Iraq."
I do not know what went on in the mind of the "fundamentalist" Christian who attacked the Imam last Friday in London, but it would not be unreasonable to speculate that it was conditioning that led him to plan and execute this savage attack. If these trends continue unabated then I am afraid the future of Muslims in Europe, with every passing day, seems increasingly ominous.
