ISLAMOPHOBIA, MEDIA AND CIVIL RIGHTS - Priya Ray

ISLAMOPHOBIA, MEDIA AND CIVIL RIGHTS

A term that has existed over a century now, Islamophobia refers to the unfounded fear, hatred or prejudice held against Muslims and the communities who are often perceived to be Muslims..............

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION:

Yes it is nothing else but the fear that exists in our mind towards the Muslim community... Mattias Gardell, a Swedish scholar of comparative religion defines Islamophobia as "socially reproduced prejudices and aversion to Islam and Muslims, as well as actions and practices that attack, exclude or discriminate against persons on the basis that they are or perceived to be Muslim and be associated with Islam”. The image that we have perceived over the years is that Muslims are completely different from us...  Different? Ummm are they? Why because Muslim women wear the veil and burqa to avoid their modesty? Why because Muslim men carry long beard because they believe Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) had a beard? DO THESE THINGS ARE APPROPRIATE ENOUGH TO CALL THEM A TERROR INDEED? My question to you is who has created this difference???? The Almighty is one and for him every child is a saint he does not ask us to follow only Hinduism or Christianity but he says that everyone has a same path... what is written there in the Bible or Bhagavad Gita is exactly the same what is there in the Quran then who are we to say that Islamic community aims to terrorize people of the world. Who are we to hate the Muslim culture? Islamophobia is nothing but a sort of racism only where even the innocent people become prey for belonging to the Islamic community....

WHAT DO THE HOLY BOOKS EXPLAIN?

Let us see for the instance what all are written in our holy texts... Bhagavad Gita chapter 9 verse 29th:

Samo 'haḿ sarva-bhūteṣu

Na me dveṣyo 'sti na priyaḥ

Ye bhajanti tu māḿ bhaktyā

Mayi Te teṣu cāpy aham

It means: I envy no one, nor am I partial to anyone. I am equal to all. But whoever renders service unto me in devotion is a friend, is in me, and I am also a friend to him.

Bible Acts 17:26 Paul:

And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation

It means: he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place

The Noble Qur’an Juz 3 Surah 2.Al-Baqara ayat 186:

ۖ أُجِيبُ دَعْوَةَ الدَّاعِ إِذَا دَعَانِ

ۖ وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادِي عَنِّي فَإِنِّي قَرِيبٌ

فَلْيَسْتَجِيبُوا لِي وَلْيُؤْمِنُوا بِي لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْشُدُونَ

It means: And O beloved, when My bondsmen ask you about Me, then I am indeed near, accept the call of the caller when he calls upon Me; then they should obey My Commands and believe in Me, so that they may get the way.

When every holy text says that everyone is equal to god why do we create difference? Have we ever thought why do we possess this fearful feeling for them?

THE MARK OF COMMENCEMENT OF THE ISLAMOPHOBIA:

Let us now look upon the causes for Islamophobia and how and when it began....... it is believed that there has been an increase in resulting of Islamophobia since 9/11 attacks. I was looking out for the possible causes of Islamophobia about how and when it all started and when I began to search I found numbers of issues that might have been the reason...Lefty, a Christian quoted:

a) Islamic fundamentalists attacked us on 9/11

b) The Muslim population has largely enabled or at least ignored these people allowing them to have the power.                                                                                                   Yes, I've always wondered why the leaders of Islam have never demanded Osama and friends to cease and desist if they truly thought their religion was being hijacked.

But we cannot criticize the whole community because of those few people who aim to destruct the world. Islamophobia has been a part of western culture since the Crusades, with Saddam and Osama only the latest in a long line of Arab bogeymen. The real reason for the current spate of Islamophobia is the fact that Islam has been the fastest growing religion in the world and as such poses a threat to the West. This is happening in spite of widespread misconceptions and negative media portrayed of Islam. Prejudice against Islam in the West developed due to historic rivalry of Christianity against Islam. The defeat of Christians by the Muslims in Crusades was a big shock for the Christian world. These deep wounds are still so fresh in the Christian world today that the parents, media, politicians and teachers feel it a duty to nurture the feelings of prejudice against Islam in the hearts and minds of their young generations. It is actually the desire to take revenge and continue the battle with the Islamises. According to Runnymede Trust, Britain has become “an institutionally Islamophobic” society in which Muslims are demonized. According to Dr. Richard Stone, there is now renewed talk of a clash of civilizations, a new global cold war, and mounting concern that the already fragile foothold gained by Muslim communities in Britain is threatened by ignorance and intolerance. According to John Gieve of the Home office, Islamic extremism might be a “symptom of disaffection”. The same disaffection previously surfaced during the riots that shook Oldham and Bradford in 2001.

CIVIL RIGHTS:

Today, if you take a look at a newspaper or watch the news carefully, or if you even listen carefully to the voices on the streets you will find the current time for Muslims is disturbingly similar to other climates of discrimination. This past year alone, hate speech, vandalism, and assaults aimed against Muslims broke out around the country. Here a Muslim taxi-cab driver stabbed, here a Muslim construction worker beaten into a coma, here a Muslim woman wearing hijab attacked, here a mosque in Florida bombed, and sadly the list goes on. Muslims are feared in America even by important political figures, and it isn't always discreet, as is the case in my home state, where both Peter King, Republican House Representative and chairman of the House Defense Committee from Nassau County, and former New York City mayor Edward Koch, openly declare a cautious and suspicious sentiment towards all Muslims in America, holding public hearings to discuss the danger that Muslims pose to America. Even then, it isn't limited to the United States. There is violence, harassment, and political oppression all around the world. To even think that this is not a time of reflection and respect for Muslims is completely overlooking the fact that we are facing much the same kinds of struggles as the African Americans did then. And it is time that Muslims have their own civil rights movement.

In a way, the civil rights movement of the 60′s was not entirely successful in America. In a way, the world is due for another movement for social justice. However, in the last American civil rights movement it took an exemplary member of the oppressed community to show people the true value and base human spirit that connects them to each other. Some Muslims are either so scared or so indifferent that they even drift away from and reject their Muslim identity in order to avoid harassment or persecution instead of standing up and demanding fair coverage, fair treatment, and respect. There are some Muslims who do not speak out about harassment and violence against themselves or others in their communities because they are afraid of more violence, deportation, or because they don't want the media exposure on their families. The Muslim community is silenced both externally and internally.

HOW MEDIA WORSENED THE ISSUE:

We live in an era of extraordinary flux, when information can be accessed and disseminated at the speed of light in order to elevate mankind, to blow the whistle or to spark a revolution. Never has so much learning been available at just a click of mouse, and never has there been such overwhelming power wielded by those able to shape the messages we receive. But this flow of information hides an ugly reality. They say that,” the real reason for Islamophobia is because many Muslims are active terrorists. They kill people. Aren’t you watching the news?”  Exactly it is the media and no one else who is at real fault. The media portrayed Islam as negative people. “The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power because they control the minds of the masses.” - Malcolm X famous Muslim. So what has media done..?? Jews and Christian scholars, the so called Western Orientals have always tried to mispresent Islam in their writings. They have always tried to spread baseless lies against Islam in a very authentic and scholarly style, hiding their deep rooted hatred against Islam. They have called all efforts to restore pure Islam in Muslim countries as “fundamentalist movements” against modern-day material progress and economic development. According to Elizabeth Poole in the Encyclopedia of Race and Ethnic Studies, the media has been criticized for perpetrating Islamophobia. She cites a case study examining a sample of articles in the British press from between 1994 and 2004, which concluded that Muslim viewpoints were underrepresented and that issues involving Muslims usually depicted them in a negative light. Such portrayals, according to Poole, include the depiction of Islam and Muslims as a threat to Western security and values. Benn and Jawad write that hostility towards Islam and Muslims are "closely linked to media portrayals of Islam as barbaric, irrational, primitive and sexist." Egorova and Tudor cite European researchers in suggesting that expressions used in the media such as "Islamic terrorism", "Islamic bombs" and "violent Islam" have resulted in a negative perception of Islam. John E. Richardson's 2004 book (Mis)representing Islam: the racism and rhetoric of British broadsheet newspapers, criticized the British media for propagating negative stereotypes of Muslims and fuelling anti-Muslim prejudice Lacy O’Leary in the book “Islam at the cross road”: “history makes it clear however, that the legend of fanatical Muslims sweeping through the world and forcing Islam at the point of the sword upon conquered races is one of the most fantastically absurd myth that historians have ever repeated.” In the 20th century new images emerged, the fanatical terrorist, the stone-thrower and the suicide bomber. According to Lord Carey, there was a deep-rooted Islamophobia in Britain. There is a worrying ignorance of Muslim people and suspicion of their presence in the United Kingdom. It is assumed by many that Muslims wish to take over ‘our country and if we allow them to enter Britain in significant numbers they will in time make the country Islamic’. Monica Ali’s, who was de-educated by the British education system, portrays Bangladeshi Muslims in Brick Lane as backward, uneducated and unsophisticated. This is the main reason why her book was selected for Guardian First Book Award. The content of the book is a despicable insult to Bengali Muslims at home and abroad. The book can be compared to Salman Rushdie’s Stannic Verses. The combined forces of racial discrimination and Islamophobia have been awesome in the marginalisation and alienation of the Muslim community. Muslims made to feel like an enemy within by Islamophobic attitudes. Hardening prejudice against Islam is creating a disaffected underclass of young Muslims “time-bombs” likely to explode into violence, according to a recent report. For decades they have struggled in the face of discrimination in all walks of life.........

A NEW RAISE OF HOPE:

West is not based on Judio-Christian civilisation. This term should be abandoned to be replaced by Judio-Christian-Islamic civilisation. The new language should be used in all venues starting with media, academic statements by politicians, church leaders and Imams of Masjid. These are the words that define how we are related to each other’s. Throughout the modern history, Muslims have contributed for the Renaissance of Western culture and society. Islamic values are not only compatible with the western values they are almost identical. Islamic ideas helped shape the European West that produced the values cherished by the constitution’s framers. Western culture is in fact based on Muslim culture. The aim of education is to give the highest possible standard in order to advance spiritually, emotionally, technologically and economically. The early Muslim knew this and they were instrumental in giving the west much of the scientific knowledge that has once helped it to thrive.

Bernard Shah has claimed that the future religion of the West would be Islam and only Islam. Islamophobia is guiding Westerners towards that end. They study with open mind the Holy Quran and Islamic literature and poetry. Islam is a force fighting Imperialism. Look at the recent surveys and you will find that the greatest book of revolution is The Holy Quran and the greatest revolutionary of all times is Muhammad (peace be upon him). In USA numbers of universities, colleges and schools are offering Islamic Studies courses. It has been said that there is a possibility that in the near future half of native population would revert to Islam. SO ISLAMOPHOBIA IS INDEED A BLESSING IN DISGUISE.

 Now it’s completely up to you what views you owe for the Islamic community of the world??????

-Priya Ray

raypriya28@gmail.com