Al-Qaeda, Necessary for the Survival of Islamophobia
Fueledby extremism, Islamophobia is spreading in Europe
Whileinternational institutes confirm that Islamophobia is soaring in West and therecent activities of some right-wing parties in Europe is fueling that, givingthe verdict for murder of Swedish editor-in-chief and cartoonist by themysterious leader of al-Qaeda inIraqis worsening the condition forMuslims.
Inan audio filed aired on web and titled “va makaru va makarullah” (Theyplot and plan, and Allah too plans- Quranic passage) Abu Omar Al-Baghdadi, the obscure leader of Iraq branch of al-Qaeda offered a 100 thousand dollar reward for the head of the Swedish cartoonist who hadillustrated a picture of Prophet Muhammad a few days ago.
Inthis roughly 30-minute audio file, in addition to threatening Swedish firms andthe Yazidi religious minority and pledging to launch terrorist attacks inRamadan, Al-Baghdadi announced that anybody who slaughters Lars Vilks like a “lamb” will receive 50 thousand dollar extra. Announcing these rewards on theoutset of Ramadan, he also put up a 50 thousand dollar reward for the murder ofthe editor-in-chief of Nerikes Allehanda, the Swedish newspaper. The newspaperhad published Vilks’s illustrations.
Saysthis audio file: “We demand for the execution of Lars Vilks, the cartoonist whohas dared to insult our prophet and due to the start of thefelicitousmonth of Ramadan, we offer a 100 thousand dollar reward for anybody who killshim”.
Inresponse, Vilks believes that the matter of his cartoons which provoked theanger of Muslims has been exaggerated. Following these threats and in a phoneinterview with Associated Press, he hoped that Muslims, especially those livinginEuropeconsider the freedom of speech andseparate their way from al-Qaeda and its threats. But Olaf Johansson, theeditor-in-chief of Nerikes Allehanda has taken these threats serious anddemanded the Swedish police to protect him.
Inanother part of this audio file Al-Baghdadi has threatened to attack famousSwedish companies such as Ericsson, Scania, Volvo and Electrolux and underminethe economy of the country if the Swedish government does not close the NerikesAllehanda newspaper and officially apologize. Meanwhile, to tackle the crisistheSweden’s P.M., Frederik Reinfeldtinvited the ambassadors of 22 Muslim countries and while sympathizing with themfor their resentment, wanted them to consider that according to the law thegovernment can’t act against free media.
Islamophobia: The Most Serious Form of Discrimination in Today’sWorld
Therecent threats of Al-Baghdadi are aired when less that two weeks before, in aconference attended by 47 member countries of the U.N. Human Rights Council, representing the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) Pakistan envoy MasoudKhan condemned the Swedish cartoon and at the same time stated that a smallportion of extremist Muslims with their wrong deeds that don’t accord with thedoctrines of Islam, provide a pretext for international media to defame theentire Muslim world and the
religion itself and make believe that violence stemsfrom religious teachings.
Inthis conference which was held on prejudice and accusations that are pointedtowards individuals merely because of their religion, Masoud Khan described thedevelopment of Islamophobia in the West as “threatening” and stressed that OICwith 57 members representing the 1.3 billion Muslims of the world denounces anykind of terrorist act.
Alsohe mentioned that freedom of speech shouldn’t be used as a pretext to encourageor justify the Swedish cartoons or other instances such as advertisements inSwitzerland. In his opinion, thesewere in fact the outcomes of Islamophobia expansion in West, particularly inEurope.
Alsoin the conference Didou Diene, U.N’s Special Rapporteur in racial issues, racialdiscrimination, xenophobia and relevant forms of intolerance, reported onIslamophobia, particularly inEuropeandcondemned it. In his report, he also especially accused the rhetoric ofSwitzerland’s right-wing party, oneof the most popular parties in the country, of fueling religious hatred againstMuslims.
Herequested the party to remove the posters containing racial and religious slurfrom their electoral campaign. In these posters three white sheep are depictedwhich prevent a black sheep from joining their group and with a flashy font ithas been written: “For the Sake of Everybody’s Security”.
Dienestated: “Today, in the current situation, Islamophobia is the most serious formof discrimination and religious defamation”. According to Diene today politicalleaders, influential media and even Western intellectuals increasingly parallelIslam with violence and terrorism and some opportunist politicians are abusingthis situation to limit Muslims of Europe in practicing their rituals and alsoactivities such as constructing mosques inEurope.
Dienewho is a Senegalese lawyer, in his 21-pages report that was delivered to theHuman Rights Council of UN stressed that after 9/11 Islamophobia has growncontinuously. As he has written, today all around the world traditional democratparties have shifted towards xenophobic rhetoric and prevention of foreigners’ acceptance in the society. They know the ethnic and religious (especiallyimmigrant) minorities responsible for crimes and defects that are not at allrelated to them. InEuropeimmigrant Muslimsare especially singled out as the culprits.
Inthese conditions, the only result of al-Qaeda leader’s threats is blurring theharsh criticism pointed towardsEuropeandextremist right leaders of the continent. In fact with the news cover on thereward for the head of the Swedish journalist, Islamophobic behavior of someindividuals and parties became justified for people. In other words, once againal-Qaeda showed that intentionally or unintentionally it’s a building block ofthe system that is in harmony with radical anti-Islamic acts.
Islamophobia, Supplement to West’s Hegemony
Accordingto the BritishinstituteofRunnymedeTrust, Islamophobia is defined as: fear or hatredtowards Islam which results in fear or hatred towards Muslims and leads to theirmarginalization in economical and social life and daily contacts in communitiesthat the majority is non-Muslim. In world-scale this definition divides theglobe into Muslim world and non-Muslim world and matches with the politicaldivisions based on the theory of Clash of Civilizations
.
Onthe formation of Islamophobia, Sadeq Kharrazi, former ambassador of Iran inFrance believes that firstly it’s the product of the famous orientalists andIslamologists’ mentality and anti-Islamism and the formation of its roots goesback to many years before (though the term Islamophobia entered the politicaland social jargon since mid-1980’s
.
HoweverKharrazi stresses that this phenomenon expanded and escalated after the ColdWar. He believes that in the post-Cold War hegemonic system, existence of a newphobia to supplement hegemony is essential and Islamophobia was one of theoptions.
Accordingto Kharrazi, Islamophobia isin fact the complement of Islamic radicalism andhostility towards West in the vicious circle of terror which intends to form aWestern hegemony. In other words Islamophobia and radical Islam which isrootless but has a traditional and retrogressive point of view are both outcomesof one phenomenon and act for achieving the same goal
.
Thethreat of Islamophobia in Kharrazi’s opinion is that not only it confronts Islamwith Christianity and other religions, but it also confronts Islam with Islam. He emphasizes that this process has sped up after 9/11.
Infact, as individuals such as Masoud Khan and Diene have pointed out in theirspeech in the Human Rights Council of United Nations, media have had aneffective role is fueling Islamophobia after 11thof September. Bystudying the content of British media between 1994 and 2004, Elizabeth Pool, oneof the authors of the Encyclopedia of Racial and Ethnic Studies has found outthat media reflect Muslims and Islam’s point of view incompletely and theircoverage on Muslims and Islam related affairs is always accompanied with anegative attitude.
In her final conclusionPoolerecognizes media as one of the main causes ofIslamophobia formation.
Ina conference held on dialogue between Asian and European media at the first daysof September this year in Bonn, Germany, on the news about Muslim-relatedviolence which is aired in media, its relation with religion and its mediacoverage, Doctor Chandra Muzaffar, head of the Just International Institute andone of the best known Muslim intellectuals of south-east Asia stated that: “wesee several wars and clashes around the world today that have Muslims andChristians on each side, but we must recognize that these clashes have nothingto do with the teachings of these religions”.
AddedDoctor Muzaffar: “…take the bloody struggles inIraqforexample, on one hand is the invader and on the other hand resistance. It is alsotrue that the (American) invaders are mainly Christians and the ones who resistin any way are Muslims, but as we can’t say that invasion is a teaching ofChristianity –since Jesus Christ was against Rome’s dominance over othernations, like his homeland Palestine and disfavored establishing an empire- wecan’t say that this way of resistance is a doctrine of Islam. It is true thatIslam has obligated Muslims to resist against intruders but the point is thatIraqis’ resistance is not because of their religion, but throughout the history, with any culture and religion people have resisted againstoccupiers”.
Headof the Just Institute criticized the quality of media coverage by Asian andEuropean media and stated that unfortunately both sides act as this hostility isa part of religion.
Muzaffarbelieves that there are some likely explanations for the media coverage qualitythat has fueled Islamophobia in West. Media may know themselves as a part of theglobal system; therefore they don’t want to bring up discussions in defense ofIslam that challenges the system and main world powers.
Second, Asian andEuropean media believe that religious people are somehow biased, therefore theyprovide the microphone for non-religious or even anti-religious people and theresult will be a one-sided attack against religion, especially Islam. Owners ofmedia on both sides look at Islam and Muslims with bias and that makes the taskof illustrating an impartial and moderate image of Islam difficult. Mostimportant is that kind of coverage makes news stories hotter, resulting in anincrease of audience and revenue.