As the Islamophobia index increases: On being Muslim in America

By Yuram Abdullah Weiler

“I think the real question is not whether America is afraid of Islam (and its adherents) but whether Muslims should be afraid of the US and Americans especially in this post-9 /11 world.” —Attorney Diana Mae Cabili

Being Muslim in America carries the risk of being reviled, insulted, discriminated against, humiliated publicly or, worse yet, physically attacked. Despite having been a part of the American landscape since 1501, Muslims have faced discrimination, suspicion and hatred bordering on public hysteria, especially since the 9/11 attacks. With the ascendancy of Donald Trump and his virulent anti-Muslim diatribes, the prospect of a McCarthy-era-like internment of Muslims in the United States does not appear to be off the table given current policy trends.

Make no mistake about it; Islamophobia in the U.S. not only is on the rise but also is condoned public policy. The Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU) with support from the Bridge Initiative of the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University has developed the National Index of Islamophobia based on responses to various survey questions designed to uncover the deep-seated beliefs of respondents in five particular anti-Muslim stereotypes, which regrettably are often utilized by U.S. political leaders during campaigns to gain voter support. 

These five anti-Muslim stereotypes are that most Muslims living in the United States: are more prone to violence than other people; discriminate against women; are hostile to the United States; are less civilized than other people, and are partially responsible for acts of violence carried out by other Muslims. These five stereotypes are linked to constituent support for policies, enacted by government officials, which discriminate specifically against Muslims, such as the surveillance of mosques, racial profiling and heightened security scrutiny of Muslims at airports.

Here in the quiet border community of Las Cruces, New Mexico, people seem to be generally tolerant and supportive of Muslims. Perhaps this is because Hispanic Americans are five times as likely to hold positive views of Islam and Muslims as negative views.  Ironically, the only place where I have been even questioned aggressively about my Shi'a Islamic faith and connection to the Islamic Republic has been at the local mosque. But Las Cruces appears to be an exception to a general U.S. trend towards increasing Islamophobia. Over one quarter of Americans surveyed in a recent poll conducted by the ISPU endorsed negative stereotypes of Muslims and Islam. In fact, White Evangelicals are twice as likely to hold negative views of Muslims as positive ones.

As a Muslim living in the United States, I, too, have been discriminated against. Past employers have made it difficult for me to do salaat at the proper times, and have even suggested that I do the prayer in a filthy janitor’s closet so as not to bother or distract other employees. I have been threatened with loss of employment for exhibiting support for the oppressed Palestinians, who have been the perpetual targets of Israeli violence. I have been reprimanded for speaking out against possible U.S. military action against Iran.  I have been told that I should be shot for simply wearing a small flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran on my jacket. All this and more has taken place in the alleged bastion of human rights and religious freedom known as the United States of America.

However, I am not alone. Seventy-five percent of my brothers and sisters in Islam believe there is a great deal of discrimination against Muslims in the United States. Nearly the same number of Muslims is worried by the actions of the current U.S. president, and do not feel Islam is considered to be part of mainstream American society. About half feel that being Muslim in America has become more difficult and have themselves personally experienced an act of discrimination. Yet in spite of their Islamophobic environment, nearly nine out of ten Muslims in America claim to be proud to be Muslim and, astoundingly, proud to be American.  I myself, while proud to be a Muslim, do not profess membership in the latter group, seventy percent of whom still hold fast to the American dream.

Unfortunately, Islamophobia seems to be a commonality uniting a number of disparate hate groups in the United States. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a forerunner in confronting racial, ethnic and religious hatred, has identified 33 Islamophobic groups operating openly on Facebook, all of which engage in anti-Muslim imagery and promote Islamophobic stereotypes to attract members.  Some of these hate groups actually have avoided being screened out for hate speech and Islamophobic content by claiming to be educational forums. For example, the group “Infidels United for Truth” claims to be “for the education and sharing of information globally about the dangers of Radical Terrorism and how it is affecting all of the world.”

Professor of computer science at Elon University Megan Squire has done preliminary research on Islamophobia and has found it to be a common thread among hate groups. Squire’s findings indicate that those groups holding anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant views do have significant common membership. Moreover, analysis of the data shows that “anti-Muslim ideologies, in particular, can serve as a bridge between mostly disconnected communities, such as between anti-government and white nationalist communities.”

Yet the categorization of Islamophobia as merely “anti-Muslim” animosity overlooks the systemic racism inherent in the Orientalist world view that permeates and, in fact, predates the creation of the United States. Concerning this danger professor of law at the University of Detroit Mercy Khaled A. Beydoun warns, “To reduce Islamophobia to ‘anti-Muslim animus’ and nothing more overlooks its expansion and penetration into American culture, news, media, law, and political parlance.” As clearly evidenced by the “Muslim ban,” the Trump regime has endorsed Islamophobia as state policy, which legitimatizes anti-Muslim stereotypes widely held by private U.S. citizens. 

To see the systemic nature of Islamophobia in the United States, it is only necessary to note that Muslims are viewed as a “racial and socioeconomic monolith.”  In other words, Americans tend to view Muslims as a race, just like Blacks, Native Peoples, or Japanese, and given the endemic nature of racism in the U.S., we see that Islamophobia is another virulent strain of racism. The IPSU concurs, noting that “Islamophobia is just one branch on a bigger tree of bigotry.”

Continuing with the IPSU’s tree metaphor, we can understand that merely loping off the branch of Islamophobia does next to nothing to cut down the tree of American racism that nourishes its growth.   Fertilized by Facebook and other social media, the ugly branch of Islamophobia, after pruning, will not only sprout anew but also more vigorously than before. The same holds for another branch sprouting from the same tree, Iranophobia.

As far as Facebook is concerned, it is no exaggeration to call it fertilizer for the tree of bigotry, as can be seen by the central role played by Zuckerberg’s social media platform in the genocide of the Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar. According to Marzuki Darusman, chairman of the U.N. Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, Facebook has “substantively contributed to the level of acrimony and dissension and conflict, if you will, within the public.” U.N. Myanmar investigator Yanghee Lee, concurring, noted, “I’m afraid that Facebook has now turned into a beast, and not what it originally intended.” Similarly, Equality Labs, a South Asian community technology organization, found that most hate speech violations on Facebook India are Islamophobic, and 93 percent remain posted.

Given that Islamophobia and Iranophobia are both flourishing branches on this mammoth tree of systemic American bigotry, it is self-evident that the tree itself must be felled and the stump of residual racism uprooted. Muslims should not be afraid of the United States and Americans, as Ms. Cabili has suggested in the epigram. Instead, we Muslims must carefully sharpen the Ax(is) of Resistance, uniting in our Islamic Revolution to cut down the tree of bigotry once and for all.

The future of Islam and Muslims

By Quayyum Raja

KASHMIR - Islam is a universal faith. Anyone from anywhere at any time can embrace Islam and has been doing so ever since the dawn of Islam. Therefore, the future of Islam is bright, but the future of the current Muslim states looks very bleak.

Therefore, the future of Islam is bright, but the future of the current Muslim states looks very bleak.

Why?  Because most of the Muslim states are either fighting their own people or against each other. There is no independent foreign policy due to external interference.

  Any Muslim state which tries to have its own foreign and economic policy is targeted by the imperialists and the other fellow Muslims watch it idle by. Iran is a prime example, which has been facing unjustified economic sanctions for decades.

 How Iran has managed to survive is a miracle. Iran’s ability to survive in the face of harsh economic sanctions provides a source of strength and hope. It raises the question as to what is the power behind the survival of Iran, whose living standard and infrastructure is still better than most of the well-off Muslim states.

I have recently spent three months in Iran during which I have very closely observed the social, cultural, political and economic conditions of Iran.  The Iranians are a dignified people with a remarkable history and civilization.  They have supported their government, because they know the external powers see their civilization as a competing force.

America wants a political hegemony and Iran is seen as a power but why? Iran was certainly not seen as a threat for America during the Shah era. So, what is the difference?  The main difference is that Shah had allowed America to change its culture and control resources and foreign policy.

 In comparison, the post-revolution Iran has maintained its independence in the face of all difficulties and proved clear difference between “Oral Islam” that existed during the Shah era and practicing Islam brought about by Ayatollah Khomeini.  The practicing Islam emerged out of firm belief in Allah (SWT) and life after death. 

Over a century ago, Dr. Allama Iqbal, the poet and philosopher, who is a Kashmiri by background, but known in Iran as Iqbal Lahori, wrote extensively in Farsi despite, not being in Persia. His poetry showed to what extent he adored the Persian language and culture.

 Iqbal lamented the “Oral Islam”, where Muslims had reduced Islam to rituals and customs and lacked belief. It is unfortunately still the case today, where most of the Muslim rulers are happy with “Oral Islam.”  People follow Islam out of a habit rather than an understanding of the concept of Islam. 

 Pakistan was formed in the name of Islam, but it has become more un-Islamic than it was before its formation in 1947. The educational curriculum of Pakistan comes from Britain and the language of instruction right from the primary school is now English in Pakistan. 

 This is how the Pakistani children are being brainwashed, losing the knowledge of their own history, culture and heritage. The Arab countries have Arabic as their language of instruction but the level of research is very limited and creativity hardly encouraged. This is why the Arab world has not been able to contribute to the world for centuries in terms of scientific knowledge despite large resources.

Up until the 12th century, the Islamic world produced scientists, scholars, and poets like Omer Khayyam, Abu Sinna, Ibn Khaldun, Abu al Qasim Ferdowsi, Sheikh Saddi Shirazi and Syed Ali Shah Hamdani and many others within a short span of time, but not half the figure in the last ten centuries. So, what is the reason? It is simply because the most Muslim countries do not have their own curriculum in their own languages.  

The imperialistic world has discovered a new weapon to defeat and rule the people through a remote control. This is the imposition of their education system in their own language. 

The solution lies in the re-introduction of our own curriculum in our own language. Iran is a good precedent for the Muslim world.  Iran does not only have a good education system, but also “Public Diplomacy” through which the Persian Language and culture is promoted as well as the public to public relations.

 The Muslim countries must follow the example of Iran’s Public Diplomacy to bring about mutual understanding between the Muslims necessary for harmony and peace between them. Otherwise, the Muslims will remain a community in competition with itself rather than other competing forces, who have already reduced it into a subordinate exploited world. 

Dr. Iqbal has envisioned “the Mard-e-Momin”, a true Islamic character by following Allah and the Prophet through self-discipline and patience for removal of all the ills in the Muslim society. Let us try to create and develop such a character in each of us. Iqbal’s “Mard-e-Momin” is not confined to a particular territory or belong to a particular race. It is a human being who has followed the sunnah of the Prophet to gain complete independence from the evil forces and has acquired inner satisfaction rather than material success in the eyes of the materialistic world. 

The Western Union has removed visa restrictions for economic benefits, while we Muslims believe in one God and one Prophet, but have hardest visa conditions. This is why, the Muslims know more about non-Muslim countries and little about each other. Let us start here and today to bring the Muslims closer and stronger.

Despite media bias, Western people have right to authentic information on Arbaeen

By Afshin Majlesi

Mass media outlets, including news agencies, radio, television, the Internet and mobile platforms, have undoubtedly become the primary source of information for the majority of, if not all, individuals in modern societies.

Thus, they can gain a weighty influence to shape a dominant culture, perception or belief in a society by pursuing hidden agenda, which is left implicit in their discourse.

Monitoring Western media, in particular the British and the U.S. ones, in the span of the past ten years, show that they have substantially paid little attention to the Arbaeen pilgrimage, which is regarded as the world’s largest annual public gathering on earth.

From a journalistic point of view, the pilgrimage bears adequate news values including impact, magnitude and bizarreness for coverage but we simply realize that the event is underrepresented or misrepresented.

In their portrayals, you cannot realize scenes of affection, fondness, brotherhood, and hospitality that Muslims have towards each other. In return, such outlets are continuously trying to label Islam as a religion that supports violence and terrorism and portray Muslims as extremists.

Each year millions of international pilgrims, including a record numbers of Iranians, come together in Iraq’s holy city of Karbala to commemorate Arbaeen, which marks an end to the 40-day mourning period following martyrdom of the Imam Hussein (AS) and his loyal companions at the Battle of Karbala on Muharram 10 in the year 61 AH (680 CE).

Pilgrims enter the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala up to two weeks before Arbaeen that this year falls on October 19. Many arrive in Karbala after trekking about 70 kilometers northward from the holy city of Najaf in a symbolic gesture honoring the third Shia Imam.

Pilgrims are warmly greeted by the generous hospitality of the Iraqi people, who provide them with food, beverages, transport and accommodation needed for the journey.

Many believe that the event has turned into a symbol of unity between the Iraqi and Iranian nations, who both profoundly respect Imam Hussein (AS) and his moral values.

Reverting to the news coverage, it is worthy to mention that some Western media usually represent the event skillfully mixed with scenes of violence or so to cultivate prejudice, irrationality and distorted images of Islam and Muslims in the minds of addressees.

That is because mass media have potential to manipulate portrayal of any image or occurrence in order to inscribe the meaning they want in the minds of audiences. Many media experts believe that there is no finally-fixed meaning of a happening in the world and interpretation of a meaning changes from person to person, and is entirely dependent on people’s historical and cultural framework.

On one hand, mass media are granted freedom to perform. On the other, they have social responsibility towards their audiences. Western people have absolute right to gain authentic information, news and images on such a peaceful and major religious gathering. 

Is Saudi Arabia getting Eid wrong? Meet the British Muslim on a moon mission

Taufiq Wan

Londoner Imad Ahmed wants to revive the Islamic tradition of celestial observation [NCS]

Has Saudi Arabia been faking lunar sightings ahead of Eid and Ramadan? This British Muslim is one of a growing number who think so.

A moon war is raging in the Muslim world, with many gripped in a divisive debate over Earth’s closest celestial body. At the centre of the matter lies one crucial question – has Saudi Arabia been faking its sightings of the moon?

For Muslims, whose religious calendars are based on the moon’s cycles, this is no small matter. The sighting of the moon’s new crescent indicates the start of each month of the Islamic calendar, and in turn the dates of Muslim religious festivities.

In the West, disagreements between those who follow Saudi moonsighting announcements and those who prefer more local reports have resulted in neighbouring mosques beginning the Ramadan fast separately, as well as the odd phenomena of members the same household celebrating eid on different days.

Now, with the festival of Eid al-Adha on the horizon, the moon wars have been in full swing.

Eid on Sunday or Monday?

Among Arab states, there has been disagreement about the date of Eid al-Adha, with Saudi Arabia having announced it for August 11, while Omani and Moroccan authorities have declared it would be the day after.

	Imad Ahmed says Saudi Arabia's reports are not credible [NCS]

In the United Kingdom, meanwhile, a movement of amateur astronomers is challenging Saudi Arabia’s ‘fake’ moonsighting announcements. Among them is Imad Ahmed, founder of the New Crescent Society - a group dedicated to reviving the Islamic tradition of celestial observation.

"The problem in particular with Saudi Arabia is that all year round, they don't do moonsightings. They use the Umm al-Qura calendar which is based on calculations, but that often means that their calendar is one day ahead of those based on physical sightings of the moon," Imad explains.

"So when they do carry out moonsightings, or claim to do so, they end up doing it one day early. Sometimes - and there are many instances in history of this - Saudi Arabia has even claimed the moon has been sighted when it was in fact below the horizon. We know that’s not possible from our data and this is a cause for alarm."

Saudi Arabia has even claimed the moon has been sighted when it was in fact below the horizon. We know that’s not possible from our data and this is a cause for alarm

Armed with this information, the East Londoner has travelled across the UK to promote the idea that British Muslims should carry out their own moonsightings and stop relying on foreign authorities - including Saudi Arabia.

Growing momentum 

	Moonsighting groups are springing up across the UK [NCS]

Up and down Britain, it seems many are in agreement with Imad, eager to gather at local vantage points to sight the moon for themselves.

"The response has been incredible – we have been contacted by people up and down the country who are enthusiastic about taking back control of the Islamic Calendar in the UK," Imad told The New Arab.

"People don’t want to outsource this incredible tradition – they want to enjoy being part of a shared heritage, where they can teach their children astronomy and to enjoy nature. We have more people contacting us to help them sight the moon than we can logistically manage right now!"

As a result of The New Crescent Society's work, much of which is promoted through its Facebook page of around 8,000 followers, Muslims across Britain have set up monthly moonsighting events to gather at local hills, fields and even in London's iconic Shard tower to see if they can spot the crescent moon.

In conjunction with the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, The New Crescent Society has also held regular 'Astronomy and Islam' events, where members of the public can learn about the history of Islamic astronomy and how to sight the moon's new crescent themselves. As part of this cooperation, the Royal Observatory held its first ever live moonsighting streamed on Facebook to mark the beginning of Ramadan in 2018.

The New Crescent Society has worked with the Royal Observatory in Greenwich to promote amateur astronomy [NCS]

Now with Eid al-Adha on the horizon, the New Crescent Society has compiled a growing list of over 300 British mosques that have declared that they will be following local moonsighting reports. According to local sightings, Eid will be on Monday in Britain.

Imad believes that breaking away from Saudi moonsightings will encourage unity among British Muslims, both with each other and with the universe around them.

"By establishing local moonsightings, people learn more about astronomy, more about Muslim heritage and become better connected to nature. This would bring the community together," Imad told The New Arab.

"It doesn’t matter if youre Sunni, Shia, Arab, Iranian, Brelwi, Deobandi or a white British convert - there would be one thing we can agree upon: Did we see the moon or not?"

Eroding Saudi influence?The growth of local moonsighting groups in Britain comes at a time of worldwide disillusionment in Saudi Arabia as a moral and religious authority. Riyadh's involvement in Yemen's brutal war, which has been dubbed by the UN as the world's worst humanitarian crisis, has greatly undermined the state's credibility among Muslims.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's crackdown on dissent in the ultra conservative kingdom has also swept up popular clerics and religious figures - one of whom is facing death for simply calling for unity between rival Muslim states.

While the majority of the world's Muslims have never fully bought into Saudi Arabia's petrodollar-backed propogation of Wahhabism, one religious matter which many still defer authority to the kingdom over is moonsightings. However, if this changes, it is likely that Saudi Arabia will lose even more influence over the religious affairs of Muslims outside of the kingdom.

It doesn’t matter if youre Sunni, Shia, Arab, Iranian, Brelwi, Deobandi or a white British convert - there would be one thing we can agree upon: Did we see the moon or not?

"If Muslims find about the problems of following a foreign moonsighting, especially when they [Saudi Arabia] mix calculations with moonsightings and seem to get reports when we know the moon is not visible, will have many asking ‘why should we follow that country?'" Imad says.

For him, it is high time that British Muslims held their own moonsightings and took control of their own Islamic calendar.

"For many Muslims living in the UK – the penny has dropped. It is now irrefutable that Saudi Arabia’s moonsightings are not credible," Imad told The New Arab in response to Saudi Arabia's latest controversial moonsighting report.

"At New Crescent Society we would urge people to stay away from controversy, and rather than blaming Saudi Arabia, focus on building moonsighting systems here in the UK. Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, South Africa and Morocco all do their own moonsightings – so it’s time we did too!"

The little-known Muslim influence on Sir Isaac Newton’s scientific breakthrough

ARMEN FIRMAN

Sir Isaac Newton. One of the greatest physicists ever who said: “If I have seen further, it is because I stand on the shoulders of giants”.  We know about Isaac Newton very well, but we do not recognize the ‘Giants’. We are aware of the famous picture of Isaac Newton, where he is seen experimenting with light. But we are not aware that the same experiment was done by Ibn al-Haytham more than seven centuries before him.

Muslim scientists such as Thabit ibn Qurra and Ibn al-Haytham wrote about calculus. We know of Ibn al-Haytham and his writings about gravity. Abu Bakr al-Razi, centuries before Newton, made a strong distinction between absolute and relative space; absolute space, which is three dimensional and infinite, exists quite independently of the bodies contained in it. And Ibn Sina tried to relate velocity with weight, which is a precursor to the concept of momentum. These discoveries are all connected to Newton.

Let’s look at Newton’s laws of motion. Ibn Sina and Ibn al-Haytham, among others, are seen to be writing about Newton’s law of inertia, the first law of motion. Abul Barakat Al-Baghdadi writes that force is proportional to acceleration, which we get to know from the second law. Ibn Bajja wrote that for every force there is a reaction force, which became the forerunner to Newton’s third law of motion.

So how do so many things that Newton worked come to light as being described by Muslim scientists long before his discoveries?

The ‘Giants’ they say, are Copernicus, Kepler, Descartes, Tycho Brahe, and Galileo. But actually, it just might be that Sir Isaac Newton was influenced by Muslim scientists.

In his writings, there are clear marks of influence from Ibn Tufail’s philosophical romance Hayy ibn Yaqzan (Alive Son of Awaken). It is known that both the Latin and English translations of the book by Edward Pococke and Simon Ockley  were available at Isaac Newton’s time. Ibn Tufail’s influence is seen in other philosophers, scientists, and fiction authors of the time too.

The talented man he was, Ibn al-Haytham’s name is frequent. Isaac Newton even kept a copy of Ibn al-Haytham’s magnum opus, Kitab al-Manazir in his personal library.

Many laugh at Jabir ibn Hayyan for his alchemy, considering it irrational. Jabir ibn Hayyan didn’t try to create gold out of silly stuff without a system; rather his process was more scientific and experimental. Many people in fact, get shocked when they find out that Sir Isaac Newton also practiced alchemy. And, he didn’t only practice alchemy, he read Jabir’s book and was influenced by it. A book called Summa Perfectionis was based on the Arabic work Kitab al-Mulk, from the Jabirian Corpus. It was translated into English by Richard Russell, and appeared in three other versions, one of which was Willam Starkey’s Secrets Reveal’d, the one which Newton owned.

So, perhaps, Newton’s ideas didn’t fall from an apple tree after all. Perhaps they fell from the great minds of Muslim scientists before him.

---

SOURCES

• J. al-Khalili, “Science and Islam” on BBC Four, (Oxford Scientific Films), 2009.
• Michael Hamilton Morgan, Lost History : The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Scientists, Thinkers and Artists  (Washington D.C.: National Geographic, june 2008) p: 104
• Shlomo Pines, Studies in Arabic Versions of Greek Texts and in Mediaeval Science. p.368.
• Nasr, S.H.; Razavi, M.A. (1996). The Islamic Intellectual Tradition in Persia. Routledge.
• Seyyed Hossain Nasr, Science and Civilization in Islam  (ABC International Group, Inc. 2001) p: 128.
• Espinoza, Fernando (2005). “An Analysis of the Historical Development of Ideas About Motion and its Implications for Teaching”. Physics Education. 40 (2): 139–146. doi:10.1088/0031-9120/40/2/002.
• Franco, Abel B. “Avempace, Projectile Motion, and Impetus Theory”. Journal of the History of Ideas. 64 (4): 543.
• Samar Attar, The Vital Roots of European Enlightenment: Ibn Tufayl’s Influence on Modern Western Thought, Lexington Books, ISBN 0-7391-1989-3
• Salim T. S. al-Hassani (edt), 1001 Inventions: The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Civiliazation  (National Geographic, 3rd Edition 2012) p: 35.
• G. A. Russell (1994), The ‘Arabick’ Interest of the Natural Philosophers in Seventeenth-Century England, p. 278-96, Brill Publishers, ISBN 978-90-04-09888-6.

Christchurch shooting and the normalization of anti-Muslim terrorism

The real forces responsible for the destruction of many Muslim-majority countries and the current chaos present in many Western countries are not generated by civilian populations or religions but instead by the global oligarchy that engineers and profits from this chaos.

These were the remarks of Chile-based American journalist Whitney Webb in her article for MintPress, titled: “Christchurch Shooting and the Normalization of Anti-Muslim Terrorism”.

What is without question the worst mass terrorist shooting in New Zealand’s history took place on Friday, March 15 when shooters, 28-year-old Australian Brenton Tarrant among them, opened fire at two Christchurch mosques. Four, including Tarrant, have been arrested for the heinous act, which claimed at least 50 innocent lives. Tarrant was responsible for killing more than 40 victims, among them several children, in a rampage he live-streamed on Facebook, sending chills throughout the Muslim community, particularly Muslims living in Western countries.

Tarrant’s motives and ideology, laid bare in a 74-page manifesto, show a concern over the fertility rates of non-white groups as well as the immigration of non-whites to countries like New Zealand and Australia, which he likened to an “invasion” that threatened the white majority in those countries. However, Tarrant — in his ignorance — failed to grasp that many of the Muslim immigrants he targeted had come to New Zealand after fleeing Western-backed invasions, occupations, or persecution in their home countries.

Notable among Tarrant’s views is the fact that he is a clear ethno-chauvinist, promoting his view that different ethnic groups must be kept “separate, unique, undiluted in unrestrained in cultural or ethnic expression and autonomy.” Tarrant claimed that he targetted Muslim immigrants that chose “to invade our lands, live on our soil and replace our people.”

He also stated that he chose to target Muslims because “Islamic nations, in particular, have high birth rates, regardless of race or ethnicity” and to satiate “a want for revenge against Islam for the alleged 1,300 years of war and devastation that it has brought upon the people of the West and other peoples of the world.”

Tarrant the terrorist’s views are remarkably similar to those of Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik, which is unsurprising given that Tarrant named him as an inspiration for the shooting.

Though many — in the hours after the shooting — have sought to place blame and point fingers at notable demagogues like US President Donald Trump or anti-Muslim ultra-right figures like Laura Loomer and Jacob Wohl, it is important to place Tarrant’s motivations in context.

Indeed, while Trump’s rise to political power has brought Islamophobic rhetoric into the public sphere in an undeniable way, it is a symptom of a much broader effort aimed at propagandizing the people of the United States and other Western countries to support wars in and military occupations of Muslim-majority countries. This manufactured Islamophobia, largely a product of Western governments and a compliant mass media, has sought to vilify all Muslims by maligning the religion itself as terrorism, in order to justify the plunder of their countries and deflect attention from their suffering.

It is a classic “divide and conquer” scam aimed at keeping Westerners divided from Muslims in their own countries and abroad. The horrific shooting in Christchurch is a testament to its unfortunate success and pervasiveness, as well as a potent reminder that it must be stopped. Indeed, this manufactured Islamophobia has made it so that Muslims in their home countries are in danger of dying from Western-backed wars and, if they flee to the “safer” West, they have targets on their backs painted by the very war propaganda used to justify Western military adventurism in Muslim-majority nations.

The question is: Islam, the media and “Forever Wars”: Who’s the “real” terrorist?

Since September 11th, 2001 and the advent of the so-called “War on Terror,” mass media reporting increasingly began to conflate Muslims and Muslim-majority nations with war, terrorism and violence in general. Indeed, 9 out of 10 mainstream news reports on Muslims, Islam, and Islamic organizations are related to violence and Muslims who are named on mainstream media are all-too-frequently warlords or terrorist leaders.

This near-constant association of Islam and violence has created the false perception that the religion of Islam, by its very nature, is violent and that Muslims too must then be violent and thus dangerous. This media-driven association has had very real and troubling consequences. For instance, a 2010 study by the University of Exeter found “empirical evidence to demonstrate that assailants of Muslims are invariably motivated by a negative view of Muslims they have acquired from either mainstream or extremist nationalist reports or commentaries in the media.” In other words, Islamophobic media reports are directly related to hate crimes targeting Muslims.

This is no accident, as such biased reporting on Muslim-majority nations also began as Western-backed wars in countries like Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan sought to put these countries’ natural resources, namely their oil and mineral wealth, into the hands of American corporations. It should be no surprise then that top funders of media outlets that have routinely promoted Islamophobic narratives are also those who have profited considerably from the “War on Terror” and Western-backed regime-change wars in other countries.

This concerted effort to vilify Muslims has had the potent effect, likely by design, of reducing empathy among Westerners for the largely Muslim victims of Western military adventurism in Muslim-majority countries.

Indeed, while mainstream news outlets often trumpet the imminent dangers Americans face from what is alleged as terror by Muslims, the death toll of innocent people — most of them Muslim — that have been killed by the US-led “War on Terror” is several orders of magnitude greater than the number of Americans who have died from all terror attacks over that same period.

For instance, from 2001 to 2013, an estimated 3,380 Americans died from domestic and foreign terrorism, as well as acts of domestic terrorism carried out by white nationalists and supremacists. Most of the mass-killers were not Muslim.

By comparison, an estimated 8 million innocent people in Muslim-majority nations died as a result of US policies and wars in West Asia, and North Africa from 2001 to 2015. Yet, the magnitude of this loss of life of these “unworthy victims” is minimized by media and government silence, and the creation of a climate of Islamophobia in the West has only served to deepen the ease with which mass murder is accepted by the aggressor countries’ populations.

Beyond the staggering disparity in the death tolls caused by terror groups and Western-backed imperialist wars is the fact that many of these very Western governments that purport to be so concerned with “radical Islamic terror” have often created and funded the most notorious terror groups of all. Indeed, the US regime helped to create al-Qaeda and continues to protect its Syrian branch — Hayat Tahrir ash-Sham — in Syria’s Idlib province to this day. In addition, the CIA was just recently revealed to be helping the Islamic State regroup in Syrian refugee camps. Furthermore, the US has long turned a blind eye to the funding of terror groups by allied states like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The role of Western money, arms and policy in the creation and maintenance of radical Wahhabi terrorist groups is often entirely ignored by Western media portrayals of Muslim-majority nations, thereby creating a false image that such violence is endemic to these nations when, in fact, it is often imported state-sponsored terror.

These nuances of the situation are rarely heard in the narratives parroted out on mainstream media and those who regularly consume mainstream news sources are more likely than not to support those narratives. For that reason, it is easy to see how someone like Donald Trump — who is said to watch television for eight hours every day, much of it Fox News — has espoused the views that he has. Thanks to the manufacturing of Islamophobia of mainstream media, racist policies like the so-called “Muslim ban” have found wide support, as this false narrative has conflated Islam with violence so often that many have come to believe that only by banning Islam can violence and terrorism in the U.S. be reduced.

However, the recent shooting in Christchurch, as well as the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting and other recent acts of domestic terrorism, should alert us to the fact that it is the hate manufactured by this false narrative that is itself endangering American lives while also covering up the mass murder that has been perpetrated by the US and other governments around the world for decades.

The illegal Zionist regime is playing a leading role in stoking ethno-chauvinism. While the realities of post-9/11.2001 America, as well as the rise in visibility of white ethno-chauvinism during the Trump Era, have done much to normalize attacks on immigrants, the country that has done the most to normalize anti-Muslim terrorism over this same time frame has been the Zionist regime called Israel.

Israel, from its founding days, has long been steeped in neocolonialist ideology that is remarkably similar to the ideological basis behind other settler states like the United States, Australia and New Zealand. This system of beliefs holds that the native inhabitants of the land — whether the Palestinians, the Sioux or the Maori — are “primitive” and incompetent and that the land would have remained “wild” and undeveloped were it not for the “fortunate” appearance of European settlers. As MintPress noted in a previous report on the subject, such narratives cast these settlers as both superior and normal while the natives become inferior and abnormal, thus obfuscating the settler’s status as foreigner and conqueror.

In Israel’s case, this ideology has promoted the idea that all Arabs are “sons of the desert” while the desert simultaneously represents a barbaric obstacle to “progress” and development. However, the Zionist regime, under the lengthy tenure of current Zionist Premier Benjamin Netanyahu, has seen these long-standing and somewhat hidden underpinnings of the Zionist state burst out into the open.

The result has been the overt expression of ethnon-chauvinism in such a way that Israel has become an inspiration to white nationalists in the United States, like Richard Spencer, and far-right ethno-fascist leaders like Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro and India’s Narendra Modi. The inspiration has been mutual, according to reports and testimonials published by Jewish newspaper The Forward.

For years, through its military occupation of Palestine, the Zionist has sought to paint all Palestinians, including children, as “terrorists” or “terrorist sympathizers.” Take, for example, current Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, who wrote in 2014, “This is a war between two people. Who is the enemy? The Palestinian people …”

A more recent example came from former War Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who asserted just last year that “no innocent people” live in the Gaza Strip and that every inhabitant in the enclave is somehow connected to Hamas, even though nearly half of Gaza’s population are children and teenagers. Such rhetoric has become par for the course and numerous examples show that Shaked and Lieberman’s views are increasingly accepted and “normal” in today’s Israel.

Yet, the clearest indication of anti-Muslim terror’s normalization in Israel is the recent rise of Otzma Yehudit, or the “Jewish Power” Party. This party, founded by devotees of radical American-born Rabbi Meir Kahane, has now merged — at Netanyahu’s urging — with the Jewish Home Party and stands to become part of Israel’s ruling coalition if Netanyahu manages to win in the country’s upcoming elections.

In the office of Itamar Ben Gvir, one of Otzma Yehudit’s leaders, is a framed picture of Baruch Goldstein. In an act that bears a striking similarity to the events in Christchurch, Goldstein — a long-time devotee of Kahane — entered a mosque in the West Bank city of Hebron in 1994 and opened fire, killing 29 and injuring more than 125 worshippers. After the act, Kahane’s Kach party — the predecessor of Otzma Yehudit — was labeled a terrorist organization by the United States and Israel.

Despite official condemnation, Goldstein’s atrocious act has been the subject of praise and inspiration for subsequent extremists who, under Netanyahu’s government, have become increasingly normalized. Goldstein’s gravestone reads “He gave his life for the people of Israel, its Torah and land” and continues to be used as a site of pilgrimage and homage by the very extremists that Netanyahu is openly courting for political gain.

While the followers of Kahane are making a comeback in Israel, several notable Arab political parties have been banned from participating Israel’s upcoming elections, with some being accused of “supporting terrorism” owing to their opposition to Israel’s decades-long military occupation of Palestine. Yet, by elevating clear terror supporters among the ranks of the Jewish Power Party, it has become increasingly clear that openly supporting and advocating anti-Muslim terrorism is no bar to legitimacy and political power in today’s Israel.

No ‘clash of civilizations,’ only manipulation and exploitation of differences. The tragic and barbaric shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand is yet another horrific and glaring reminder that the “divide and conquer” war propaganda that has sought to promote the so-called “clash of civilizations” between Christianity and Islam, West and East, has not only been monstrously effective but continues to be monstrously destructive to people on both sides.

However, the media’s manufacture of Islamophobia, in seeking to reduce empathy for Muslim suffering and reduce Western empathy for innocent Muslim civilians, has increasingly placed targets on the back of Muslims everywhere — in the West and the East — making it increasingly difficult for practitioners of the Islamic faith to feel safe regardless of where they live.

With most Muslim-majority countries now killing fields in Western-backed wars, ruled by oppressive, Western-backed dictatorships, or under threat of Western-backed regime change, even those Muslims who have sought a safer, quieter life in the “civilized” West have now found themselves targets thanks to the very war propaganda used to justify the destruction of their home countries.

While the murderous terrorist Tarrant had stated that he hoped his horrific crime would help stoke “civil war” in Western countries, this tragedy should and must serve as a wake up call for people everywhere that the real forces responsible for the destruction of many Muslim-majority countries and the current chaos present in many Western countries are not generated by civilian populations or religions but instead by the global oligarchy that engineers and profits from this chaos. These oligarchs loot from the people of the West just as they do from the people of the East and it is time to recognize that they are the real threats to a more peaceful world — not regular people praying, whether it be in a church, a synagogue or a mosque.

Wrong Interpretations of Quran Root Cause of Some Seditions in Muslim World

TEHRAN (IQNA) –  A Kuwaiti religious figure said many Fitnas (seditions) in the Muslim world have their roots in the wrong interpretations of the Quran.

 

Speaking to IQNA, Osama Mansour Ibrahim Sayiq, the director of the Jafari Waqf Department in Kuwait, underlined the need for ideological campaign against Takfiri terrorism.

Fighting against Takfiri ideology after the collapse of Daesh (ISIL of ISIS) in the region is no less important than fighting the terrorist group militarily, he said.

In November, the self-proclaimed caliphate of the Daesh terrorist group in Iraq and Syria formally collapsed after Syrian forces recaptured the group’s last stronghold in the Arab country’s city of Albu Kamal.

Sayiq hailed the fall of Daesh but said it is important that the thoughts and ideology of the Takfiri current must be countered through an ideological campaign.

It is also necessary that all Muslim countries pay special attention to the principle of peaceful coexistence with others to promote Islam’s spirit of peace and mercy, he said.

The cleric underlined that the rise of Takfiri terrorist groups like Daesh was rooted in inaccurate interpretations of the Quran by some ill-wishing groups, saying it has led to emergence of many Fitnas in the Islamic world in recent years.

Elsewhere, Sayiq, who was in Iran to attend the 31st edition of the Islamic Unity Conference, stressed the importance of enhancing unity in the Muslim Ummah (community) to counter challenges and Fitnas facing the Islamic world.

Titled “The Unity and Requirements of the Modern Islamic Civilization”, the international conference was held in Tehran last week to discuss ways to promote unity and solidarity in the Islamic world.

Sayiq also condemned the US president’s recent move to announce Quds (Jerusalem) as the capital of the Zionist regime, and said Muslim scholars and thinkers play an important role in drawing attention to the issue of Quds as a major priority of the Islamic world.

Donald Trump officially declared the disputed city of Quds Israel’s capital, despite warnings from around the world that the measure risks triggering a fresh wave of violence in the Middle East.

In a speech at the White House on Wednesday, Trump said his administration would also begin a years-long process of moving the American embassy in Tel Aviv to the holy city.

The announcement was a major shift by Washington that overturns decades of US foreign policy.

Palestinian leaders had previously warned the move would threaten a two-state solution.

Israel has occupied East Quds since the 1967 Middle East war. It annexed the area in 1980 and sees it as its exclusive domain. Under international law, the area is considered to be occupied territory.

Waving of ISIS flag in Kashmir’s biggest mosque sparks protest, condemnation

TEHRAN - Days after some masked men barged inside the biggest mosque in Indian-controlled-Kashmir and unfurled the flag of ISIS on the pulpit of the mosque, a protest was held on Friday across the valley.

A massive protest against the ‘desecration’ of Jamia Masjid saw participation of separatist leaders, civil society activists, religious clerics, representatives of trade bodies and students, who slammed the terrorist group’s sympathizers in the region.  

The incident took place last week when the masked men entered the mosque after Friday prayers and waved ISIS flags and chanted ‘Dawlat-e-Islam’ slogans. A video that was circulated widely over social media showed one of the men standing on the mosque pulpit with a black flag.

The incident drew widespread criticism from political leaders of all shades, besides civil society activists and trade leaders, who denounced it as a “sacrilegious act”.

The biggest protest was held in Srinagar on Friday, led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq , Kashmir’s chief priest and leader of Hurriyat Conference, a conglomerate of separatist parties. Farooq delivers Friday sermon at the mosque.

The protest was attended by representatives of both Shia and Sunni socio-political organizations.

“All of us need to stand up and defeat the elements that are trying to malign our struggle,” Farooq said, referring to the December 28 incident at the 624-year old mosque.

Earlier on Wednesday, Farooq led a protest march to the mosque, joined by traders and civil society members, and cleaned the pulpit. “Not only has the incident saddened the people of Kashmir, but there is growing demand for isolating these elements (ISIS supporters),” he said, addressing people.

“This is a vicious attempt to cause dissension among the Muslim fraternity in Kashmir. The people of Kashmir don’t have any global agenda. Our indigenous struggle is for the right to self-determination,” he stressed.

Following the incident, Farooq had met senior separatist leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Yasin Malik to mobilize support against the elements behind the incident.

“The mosque is important from both the religious and political point of view. We discussed it and felt it was definitely a well thought attempt to divert our movement towards something which is totally alien and is globally condemned,” he said, following the meetings.

Condemnations have been pouring in from all quarters. Kashmir Center for Social and Development Studies (KCSDS), a civil society forum, termed the incident as a “deplorable act”.

“This unfortunate act needs to be condemned by one and all. The Jamia mosque epitomizes peoples’ identity, struggle and political aspirations. A sponsored group of miscreants tried to defame the indigenous Kashmir movement by linking it with global miscalled Islamic terrorist movement,” chairperson of the forum Hameeda Nayeem said.

Kashmir Economic Alliance (KEA), an umbrella organization of different trade bodies in the region, also denounced the incident and supported Farooq’s protest call.

“We can’t afford to sit silent…there is a need to expose these miscreants who want to defame Kashmir,” KEA chairman M. Yasin Khan said.

The black flags of ISIS have previously appeared at the funerals of slain militants, which have raised eyebrows in Kashmir’s intelligentsia circles and reignited the debate over the presence of the global terrorist organization in Kashmir.

While some see it as a worrying sign of extremism and radicalization among youth, some others dismiss it as a desperate attempt by a motley group of disenchanted youth to provoke India.

Unlike in Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria, Kashmir’s freedom movement, which gained momentum in late 1980s, has remained largely indigenous, according to observers.

However, in recent times, global terrorist outfits like Al-Qaeda and ISIS have made desperate attempts to gain foothold in the troubled Himalayan valley, much to the consternation of local pro-freedom leaders, peace activists and common people.

Addressing media persons in Kashmir, region’s police chief Dilbagh Singh ruled out the possibility of a large-scale presence of ISIS in Kashmir, though he said the ideology was “radicalizing youth” in Kashmir.

“A section of youth is being radicalized. Otherwise, the presence of ISIS is not that big in Kashmir,” he said, adding desecration of the Masjid’s pulpit was an “effort from ISIS elements to try and show their presence” in the valley.

Some Pakistan-based militant organizations also condemned the incident. Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) said there is no presence of "Daesh" (ISIS) in Kashmir. “This all is the handiwork of Indian agencies who cannot suppress the freedom movement of Kashmir through such tactics," a spokesperson of JeM Mohammad Hassan said in a statement.

United Jihad Council (UJC) also said there is no presence of Daesh (ISIS) in Jammu and Kashmir, and those waving ISIS flags in Jamia Masjid are “Indian agents,” adding that the “black deeds” of ISIS in Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Afghanistan are “known to everyone”.