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February 10, 2006
Strategy for survival:
A question of priorities
By Dr. Muhammad Khan, MD
In the west, which keeps its' color/faith above others, it is becoming clearer today that American Muslims are being cornered. The US Foreign policy aims at fighting Muslim fundamentalism for 20 years, so said the Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in a speech in Pentagon. Resources are being allocated and strategies developed at the level of both military and intelligentsia for a physical and psychological war. Mr. Rumsfield said either fundamentalist Islam will overcome us or we will overcome it.
Psychological war is being waged to exhaust and humiliate Muslims to isolation. Today it is Danish cartoons, in the past it was flushing of the Quran in toilet in Guantanamo Bay. The pattern here is worth noting. When there was a world wide protest against the flushing of Quran and Muslims were demanding apology from the US and punishment to the perpetrators, then London bombings happened and so all the demonstrators forgot about it and their governments started cracking them down. Then attack on Bajaur (Pakistan) came which was un-necessary. Demonstrations started in Pakistan and people were demanding apology from the US then the Danish cartoons came up. Again Muslims forgot the demand and began protests against the cartoons. To know more about the Psychological war read "Killing hope" by William Blum (www.killinghope.com). Muslims are kept to be reactive rather than proactive. Why this happened and what can be done now? This question seems relevant.
In one sentence the answer of the first half of this question is that the brown people are valueless, their lives and property are worth worthless for the US and Europe, so this pattern of humiliation can be expected to continue for another 20 years at least.
An article appeared in Moscow news and reported on www.informationclearinghouse.info said that the purpose of such cartoons for now is to create a wedge between the Muslims and Europe so tomorrow in the event of a US attack on Iran, Europe offers its money and soldiers to US (just as it happened in Iraq).
Having said that, now what the American Muslims should do?
American Muslims thinking need to be based on the ground reality and priorities should be set accordingly now at least as they were not so far.
Bulk of Muslims in the USA came about 30 to 35 years ago. Initially when Muslims talked about political involvement and they were less than 5 % (rest either didn't care or were outright against getting involved in politics) the focus was we should write letters to congressmen, but no response. Then someone said we should donate money because in this country of capitalism where money is above justice, human rights and fairness. But this proved a waste because all the handshakes and smiles disappeared afterwards.
Then some pundit said they will respect us if we can get them defeated and sure enough a politician respects one who can get him defeated rather than who can get him elected because it means the former is stronger. There are three incidences in which Pakistanis helped defeat politicians. First is Sen. Larry Pressler famous for his Pressler amendment against Pakistan, second was Congressman Stephen Solarz from Brooklyn, NY and third was the Republican candidate for New York Senate, congressman Lazio who scolded Hillary Clinton also running for the seat for taking $50,000 from Pakistani Americans. He even said Ms. Clinton took blood money. Clinton returned the money and Pakistanis worked against Lazio who lost. Muslims voted for Bush and he has not said much in favor of those law abiding Muslims who are against any kind of terrorism. Recently Mr. Bush didn't say a word of sympathy in favor of Muslims, not a word of respect. He only said that the foreign governments should reign their Muslim population against violence. Very true but not a word of sympathy for Muslims, and their just protest. All this tells us that we didn't understand the system and that we were on wrong track. Politicians do welcome money and votes but only when that doesn't put them in bad light with majority of the electorate, or if it is not against the popular trend.
On a scale with respect and disrespect being on each side Jews are with respect and Muslims on disrespect, other way to see is that ordinary Americans can't disrespect Jews even on their back while they can do so to Muslims on their face.
We should also note that this country and Europe have a tradition of annihilating minorities of their country, in US, Indians, and blacks are obvious examples. Future of Muslims can’t be any better if we don't realize the graveness of the situation and urgency to correct it or reverse it.
Now big question is what should be done?
Immediate answer is that we should focus on improving our image as Muslims with ordinary Americans and present Islam as religion in accordance with the teachings of Abraham, Moses, Jesus etc. This should be done on individual level and collective level.
Individually we should have a monthly budget for interacting with our Jewish and Christian neighbors, coworkers, classmates etc. etc. Many things can be done e.g. at Xmas time give to Christians a box of candy with a book "More in common than you think.....a bridge between Islam and Christianity: by Bill Baker(available from www.wrmea.com for $10.50 a copy). At work place if Muslims are more they should set up a table on Christmas or new year and even at Eid with coffee, donuts and similar books.
Books should be non preaching type, just presenting the commonness in two religions. I recommend you order free a bumper sticker that reads: "Discover Jesus in the Quran. www.freequran.org. "
This can be ordered free in any quantity from the website and has a pleasant effect on Christians. A cheap, sure and non offensive way of attracting Christians to read Quran and negating their belief that Islam is Anti-Christ.
Collectively it is a shame to say that there is not even one organization whose work is focused in reaching out to Americans and improving public image .There are organizations whose only achievement is to have an annual gathering of 30 to 40,000 attendees in their convention. Nothing else. With the budget they have, a lot more can be done.
Need of the time is that some organization should come up with the sole goal of improving relations the experts in the area of advertising, public relations, psychologists should be on its board and work for it with chapters statewide. The local chapters should work to encourage Muslim students to write letters or articles in local newspapers to fight disinformation and such letter writers should be acknowledged by giving prizes every 3 months. Good students should be encouraged to offer preparation classes for SAT and other exams and non Muslim neighbors be invited on low fees (discount for neighbors).They should also reach out to American writers who are balanced in their work by acknowledging them.
Organizations with multi directional work should be discouraged. Success lies in area of specialty and mutually referring and not pulling legs or competition.
There is a big need for such an organization and its creation and successes will encourage members of other organizations to generate pressure on them and even on mosques to open rather than living in cocoon.
Individually and collectively Muslims should spend money and effort on public relations as a first step, over and above socializing with politicians and offering them money. The victory is when the politicians come to us and ask for our votes and money in the open and publicly and offer us in writing how many Muslims they will hire in their staff if elected.
February 8, 2006
The only acceptable racism left: Islamophobia
By Abdul Malik Mujahid
"So what do you do for a living?" the activist asked me. He was an American Christian, an ordained minister and leader of an interfaith peace organization. I was attending a conference organized by his group.
"I produce Islamic videos and programs, particularly for children," I replied.
"Oh. Doesn't Hamas produce programs for children, too?" he asked.
I was stunned. This exchange occurred shortly before the Hamas victory in the recent Palestinian elections. What floored me though was that this man associated what I do for a living with a group considered terrorist by the American government. It is clear that the ugly tentacles of Islamophobia have penetrated places where Muslims have normally felt safe from it. An interfaith gathering is the last venue I'd expect these comments.
I was representing the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago as it's chair, and he knew that pretty well. It's a federation of more than 55 mosques and Islamic organizations serving 400,000 Muslims from the region.
The Danish cartoon affair - Europe's latent Islamophobia comes to life
The latest example of Islamophobia comes from Denmark and Europe, not the United States. By now, we've all seen and read about the protests against 12 deeply offensive cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him.
What is critical to know is that it was not some random cartoonist drawing one cartoon and an editor who decided to publish it. Rather, a neo-con newspaper chose to commission artists to draw these images that depict the Prophet as a terrorist. These cartoons were not an ignorant mistake. The intent was to insult and inflame. The concept of respect and honor among Muslims is well-known. So is the potential risk of incitement, especially after knowing what happened when the Muslim world came to know about some American soldiers disrespecting the Quran last year.
The Danish embassy in Lebanon has been torched, the country's flags burned, death threats have been issued and some protesters have been killed as a result of police firings.
But well before these dramatic images that must have made editors salivate for their sensational qualities made the news, Muslims in the Muslim world and abroad launched peaceful, lawful protests for four months against the cartoons that would have made Martin Luther King Jr. proud.
Danish Muslims wrote letters of protest. They were ignored. Eleven Muslim ambassadors in Denmark asked to meet with Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen. He refused to do so. A grassroots boycott of Danish products was launched in the Middle East. That got some attention, but not much until Danish businesses realized how much of their $1 billion business in the region was at stake.
The cartoons were printed in September 2005. In September, October, November, December and almost all of January, the Muslim opposition to the cartoons was characterized by peaceful demonstrations of love for the Prophet and restrained protests of how he was being denigrated.
Arrogant Response to Peaceful Protests
When newspapers in Norway, Germany and France, in their Islamophobic frenzy, decided to republish the cartoons in the name of "freedom of expression," the scale of anger and protest widened. What started off as peaceful opposition spiraled out of control.
Now, the situation was out of the hands of Muslims who had made serious attempts to resolve the issue peacefully. They had tried their utmost, but to no avail. From this point onwards, all kinds of people, including those with little knowledge of Islamic rules that forbid harm to foreign emissaries in Muslim lands, had upped the ante. The torching of embassies is wrong. So is stepping on and burning the symbols of Danish pride, their flag. It is Haram and a sin in Islam.
Unfortunately, some Iranian newspapers have commissioned the drawing of anti-Semitic cartoons in protest. This is a disgusting form of retaliation that deserves absolute condemnation. It will neither help fight Islamophobia, nor elicit any understanding about why Muslims are upset about the Danish cartoons. The conflic has hit a new low with this move.
But the world media, always in search of dramatic images of death and destruction, lapped up the anger and violence with glee. There was little coverage of the peaceful response of the Muslim community to these cartoons in the initial days after their publication. There were no calls for death, there was no fire involved or images of screaming bearded and Hijabed Muslims. Just peaceful bearded and Hijabed Muslims. Yawn. The media was bored.
When it comes to Muslims, everything goes
Would the media outlet which commissioned and printed these cartoons, as well as those which reprinted them, call for artists to develop grotesque anti-Semitic caricatures to prove that they have the freedom to do so? Of course not. The French even have laws to punish anti-Semitic "speech" and "writings."
The current cartoon affair is not about freedom of expression, it's about Islamophobia.
Islamophobia is real
Islamophobia, or the fear and hatred of all things relating to Islam and Muslims, has become an acceptable form of racism. A sympathetic Jewish lawyer who was representing a Palestinian client in Chicago pre-9/11 said something telling to me in this regard: "Muslims are the new N…ers of America. If you will not fight for yourself, no one will."
He's right. But Muslim complaints about Islamophobia continue to be dismissed.
More than one fourth of all American Muslims surveyed by more than one public opinion organization stated that they have personally experienced Islamophobia or know someone who has. Over 200,000 American Muslims have been subjected to some kind of law enforcement activity since 9/11. At least 15,000 Muslims have been detained or arrested since that tragedy. Over 16,000 were either deported or are in the process of deportation. (http://www.soundvision.com/info/muslims/internment.asp). The Council on American-Islamic Relations annually issues reports about the state of Muslim civil rights in the United States. Harrowing tales of anti-Muslim discrimination on the job, at schools, stores, restaurants and on the streets fill these publications. The case of Capt. James Yee is a disturbing example of how American Muslims even in positions of authority and respect must endure Islamophobia publicly at the hands of our own government.
It is due to Islamophobia fanned by government policies and a media frenzy that a majority of Americans continue to hold negative opinions of Islam and Muslims. And a few thousand bin Laden terrorists contribute to authenticate this negative image. Forty-four percent of Americans queried in a Cornell national poll favor curtailing some liberties for Muslim Americans.
Over half of schoolchildren in the Australian city of Victoria view Muslims as terrorists, and two out of five agree that Muslims "are unclean", a survey has revealed.
Islamophobia is older than 9/11 and is based on ongoing ignorance
The fear and hatred of all things Islamic can be traced much farther back than 9/11. Edward Said's landmark book "Orientalism" outlined how European colonial masters viewed their Muslim subjects with disdain and disgust. This attitude continues to characterize the discipline today. That view of Muslims as bloodthirsty, misogynist and violent savages persists. It is furthered by Bernard Lewis, America's top Orientalist, and his neoconservative students, a number of whom are the architects of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
In the 1980s, funding was cut throughout the United States for programs that attempted to understand other peoples and nations. With the fall of the former Soviet Union in 1991 and the establishment of America as the world's sole superpower, a fair amount of arrogance towards the rest of the world pervaded America's dealings with other countries and continues to do so.
The barring of Yusuf Islam in 2004 and Tariq Ramadan in 2005 from the United States are examples of how we are not only closing our borders to Islam but opening them to Islamophobia. Even worse, we are closing our minds. As Diana Eck, President of the American Academy of Religion wrote in the Boston Globe on February 2, 2006 about the Ramadan case, "Denying us face-to-face access to scholars and theologians who contribute to critical reflection on the religious currents of our world is an intolerable impoverishment of the academic enterprise." The Academy is currently suing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff for barring Ramadan entry into the US.
Islamophobia harms all of us
In my four interfaith interactions in the last two months, I have met a whole lot of very nice people. But I was surprised to find at almost each event I attended, one or two Islamophobic people who seemed to have a high dose of Fox News in their system. I listened to them and prayed for them instead of responding to them.
Like racism and anti-Semitism, Islamophobia hurts all of us. In America, it is eroding our civil liberties. In Europe, it is further isolating minority communities and inflaming latent xenophobia. It is perpetuating the neocon wish for a "clash of civilizations" at a time when no country in the world, Muslim or not, can afford it politically, economically or otherwise. Just ask the Danish dairy industry how Islamophobia has hurt its business.
Islamophobia is responsible for torture. Islamophobia is responsible for the grave misunderstandings that only serve to perpetuate hatred and demonization.
Perhaps we need to learn from Canada, where hate speech is banned despite the guarantee of free speech in the country's constitution.
Islamophobia is today's accepted form of racism. It will require Muslims to fight hard against it. Muslims are neither solely responsible for its creation, nor will they be able to fight it on their own. It is a collective responsibility for all bridge-builders of the world.
Let us today take a stand to end all kinds of fear and hatred of "the other."
Toronto Sun - February 11, 2006
Protesters right to be outraged
By MICHAEL COREN
Three cheers for the Muslim world. Three cheers for people who will not simply fall down and allow their most deeply held religious beliefs to be spat upon and treated as garbage.
Three cheers for people who will decry a cartoon whose sole purpose is to abuse and vilify one's faith.
It is absolutely acceptable and even desirable to make fun of the Taliban, Osama bin Laden and many other fanatical Muslims and Muslim organizations. But when we are told that Mohammed should not be depicted and should certainly not be depicted in an insulting manner, perhaps we should listen.
Yes, of course, the violence, the arson, the hateful rhetoric, the anti-Semitism and the threats have been unacceptable.
But the Western media have, predictably, shown images of salivating mobs every night, yet not recorded many interviews with moderate, devout Muslims who deplore extremism but are viscerally angry at the insulting cartoons.
Why? Because such interviews would shake the comfortable stereotype the secular West has of all religions, not just Islam. Easier to film a screaming zealot than a highly educated Muslim cleric who desires peace and respect and understanding. Just as it's easier to film a wild-eyed Christian kid with an agenda than a calm and brilliant priest with a doctorate.
Do remember, by the way, that the cartoons in question were originally published some months ago and the protests were controlled and reasonable.
It was only when the Danish and then Norwegian and French press ran wild with the thing that the Muslim world, yes, ran wild in response.
One of the most troubling aspects of all this is the reaction of so many Christians. They seem to think that the battle between western values and Islamic sensitivities places observant Catholics and evangelicals on the side of the West.
Not so. The West is no longer Christendom but the heartland of secular humanism and fundamentalist atheism. This is the West that regularly insults Christ, mocks Christianity and increasingly takes away the rights of genuine Christians to practice their faith.
A publicly funded museum featuring a picture of Jesus soaked in urine. Another with the Virgin Mary covered in excrement. A Canadian cartoon last year depicting Pope Benedict, whose father almost lost his life to Hitler and his gang, making a Nazi salute to Mary, the Mother of Christ.
Jesus portrayed in a play as a homosexual who has a sexual relationship with one of his disciples. Cartoons showing the Pope smiling as women and babies are killed. Endless television shows spewing forth horrible caricatures of priests, ministers and devout Christians. On and on and on, and then the execrable Da Vinci Code.
We hear Muslims saying, "They wouldn't treat Jesus in this way." They're wrong, of course. Not because they are stupid but because they assume that a part of the world founded on the beauty of Christianity would not then be so disgustingly rude about Christ.
In other words, Muslims are as ignorant of the West and its intentions as are Christians who live here. Modern Western liberalism despises religion, and Islam and Christianity are equally in its sights.
In some ways it is shocking to see men, women and children outraged and taking to the streets to defend their religion against crude blasphemy. But in others ways it's refreshing and delightful. I say again that violence is wrong, but that muscular protest against hatred is not.
Sorry, I cannot and will not join the ranks of the smug God-haters who refuse to understand a person's love for their faith.
If you draw a cartoon that intends to offend, don't be surprised when it has the desired effect.
http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Coren_Michael/2006/02/11/1436557.html
Washington Pot - February 7, 2006
Prophetic Provocation
By Eugene Robinson
The cartoons aren't exactly knee-slappers. Quite the contrary: Even allowing for the fact that political cartoons usually defy translation, no matter how funny or incisive they are, the 12 drawings published in September by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten strike me as lame and unsophisticated, crudely equating Islam's prophet Muhammad -- and thus, by clear implication, all of Islam -- with terrorism and ignorance. They look like the provocation they were intended to be.
And they worked, especially after other newspapers in Europe and elsewhere began republishing the cartoons in solidarity. The Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus and the Danish consulate in Beirut were burned by angry mobs over the weekend, while street protests have raged around the world, not just in the Middle East and Europe but as far away as placid New Zealand, where people are far outnumbered by sheep.
So one defends the right of Jyllands-Posten to free expression because, yes, that right has to be absolute, encompassing cartoons that spit in the face of an entire religion. One laments the fact that the cartoonists also now enjoy the right to withdraw into hiding under threat of assassination, living the way novelist Salman Rushdie had to live all those years. And one knows that the terrorist overlord Osama bin Laden, the nuke-happy Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and others bent on hastening apocalypse are the real winners in this whole unnecessary episode.
You could dispute my verdict "unnecessary," but everyone involved made choices. The editor of Jyllands-Posten commissioned the cartoons specifically to make the point that the European press, in his view, was exercising a pernicious self-censorship when it came to Islam. The cartoonists chose to participate -- some others who were invited declined -- and chose how they would depict Muhammad, including one who drew him with a turban that on closer inspection turns out to be a bomb with a lit fuse.
And, of course, the Muslims who are offended that any image of their prophet would be published, let alone these images, could have expressed their displeasure with a barrage of letters to the editor or angry e-mails rather than take to the streets.
I wonder, though, what the reaction would have been, say, 30 years ago. My guess is that it would have been more letter-writing than rock-throwing. People don't normally burn down embassies over a few cartoons in a newspaper they've never even heard of, much less ever read. The widespread hair-trigger outrage, I think, grows out of a sense that the world of Islam has been used and abused for many years by a powerful and evil entity called "the West" -- and that this mistreatment is getting worse, not better.
Which is precisely the kind of paranoia that jihadists such as bin Laden and radical fundamentalists such as Ahmadinejad love to cultivate.
The focus this time is on Europe, which has awakened to the fact that it is home to millions of Muslim immigrants who do not necessarily care to assimilate. I think the solution for Europe is to embrace multiculturalism, and I would hope that even those who disagree would at least consider the possibility that crude caricatures of Muhammad might not be the best starting point for constructive dialogue.
But eventually the focus of this conflict will shift back to the United States, the undisputed leader of "the West." With all his talk of freedom as a universal right, President Bush pretends to understand that U.S. support of corrupt dictatorships in places such as Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan contributes to the feeling that Muslims are under attack and helps give strength to fundamentalism and jihad. Yet the Bush administration continues to prop up these same autocrats, some of whom happen to sit on huge reserves of oil, while giving little more than lip service to those in the crowds that took to the streets over some undistinguished Danish cartoons.
The United States and its allies easily conquered Iraq, only to see religious parties dominate the recent elections. The radical religious movement Hamas won control of the Palestinian Authority, and the religious Muslim Brotherhood is now the only coherent opposition force in Egypt.
Those Danish cartoonists and their editor set out to teach Muslims a lesson about free speech. They ended up giving the rest of us a startling illustration that while Bush and his allies speak of a post-Sept. 11 global war against terrorism, terrorism is nothing but a tactic. This is really a war of ideas, a battle for hearts and minds, and it's a war in which "the West" will lose ground until its deeds are more consonant with its high-minded words.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/06/AR2006020601259_pf.html
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