Discrimination

E. Specific Issues - Islamophobia

Moon and star

Introduction
Some negative images of Islam
Some negative images of Christianity within Muslim experience
Some important points of clarification
A telling tale
A Reconciliation Walk

E3 a) Introduction

Fear of Islam, like prejudice generally against Muslims, draws on deep-seated anxieties many of which are irrational. Its physical expression in recent years is unbelievable for any civilised society, but in England alone there have been numerous examples. They include attacks on mosques and the grotesque instance of a woman's corpse awaiting collection in a hospital mortuary prior to burial being wrapped in bacon. For full definition of the nature of Islamophobia:
www.runnymedetrust.org/publications/currentPublications.html

E3 b) Some negative images of Islam

The perceived threat from Islam, which is behind such acts of prejudice, has undoubtedly been increased by the events of September 11th, 2001. Some of the media images generated during the war against the regime of Saddam Hussein can convey a continuing impression of Islam as a breeding ground for fanatics.

That impression has been accumulating, along with other barbarisms which have registered in the public mind:

the book-burning reaction in the UK to Salman Rushdie's novel Satanic Verses and the promulgation of a fatwah inviting his execution
in northern Nigeria the sentencing of a young woman to death by stoning for being pregnant and unmarried
reports of the extensive practice of female circumcision within certain predominantly Muslim countries in Africa, extended occasionally even to the UK

During the same period, instances of deliberate hostility expressed towards Christians in predominantly Muslim countries have been reported:

machine gun attacks on Christian worshippers in churches in Pakistan.
the overt ban on Bibles and churches in Saudi Arabia .

E3 c) Some negative images of Christianity within Muslim experience

When President George Bush used the word 'crusade' to describe the campaign against Saddam Hussein, he did not have in mind what that word conjures in the living tradition of Islam, which is Christian bloodshed against Muslims in Jerusalem and the Middle East in medieval Christendom.

Briefing on impact of Crusades on Muslim attitudes from the Council for Arab-British Understanding
ttp://www.caabu.org/index.asp?homepage=resources&article=briefings&detail=no63

In the popular Muslim mind, it is Christians who deserve the terms 'militant' and 'fanatic'.

E3 d) Some important points of clarification

The term 'jihad' translated as 'holy war' may have a military connotation. Its application however may entail spiritual striving and exertion, or in the effort involved in transforming desert drought into environmental vitality. Similarly, mainstream Christianity uses the language of 'Salvation Army' to describe a process of social transformation using personal effort not brute force.
According to the Qur'an "there shall be no compulsion in religion" Sura 2:256
There is no religious obligation on Muslims from Qur'an, Hadith or Sharia law that women should be circumsised/infibulated. Although it is true that this operation is carried out by Muslim women on Muslim women in several African countries, including Egypt, Somalia and the Sudan, it is also carried out by Christian women on Christian women in the same territory, especially Sudan. In other words, the practice is intrinsic to neither Christianity nor Islam.
Jesus, referred to as Isa is highly regarded within the Qur'an as a Muslim prophet, alongside other biblical figures such as Abraham and Moses.

E3 e) A telling tale

This is from the autobiography of the North American Muslim Malcolm X. It tells of the transformation he experienced from journeying to Mecca. He had begun the Haj convinced of the message of the Black Muslims, and demanding separation between blacks and whites, and the repudiation of everything that he thought the 'Christian' white American heart was about. Whilst in Mecca however he discovered the difference which Islam can make to the quality of all human relationships

"Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality and overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colors and races here in this ancient Holy Land, the home of Abraham, Muhammad and all the other Prophets of the Holy Scriptures. For the past week, I have been utterly speechless and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed all around me by people of all colors.

"I have been blessed to visit the Holy City of Mecca, I have made my seven circuits around the Ka'ba, led by a young Mutawaf named Muhammad, I drank water from the well of the Zam Zam. I ran seven times back and forth between the hills of Mt. Al-Safa and Al Marwah. I have prayed in the ancient city of Mina, and I have prayed on Mt. Arafat."

"There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world. They were of all colors, from blue-eyed blondes to black-skinned Africans. But we were all participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in America had led me to believe never could exist between the white and non-white."

"America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem. Throughout my travels in the Muslim world, I have met, talked to, and even eaten with people who in America would have been considered white - but the white attitude was removed from their minds by the religion of Islam. I have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colors together, irrespective of their color."

"You may be shocked by these words coming from me. But on this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to rearrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions. This was not too difficult for me. Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which is necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth."

"During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept on the same rug - while praying to the same God - with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the words and in the deeds of the white Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan and Ghana."

"We were truly all the same (brothers) - because their belief in one God had removed the white from their minds, the white from their behavior, and the white from their attitude."

"I could see from this, that perhaps if white Americans could accept the Oneness of God, then perhaps, too, they could accept in reality the Oneness of Man - and cease to measure, and hinder, and harm others in terms of their 'differences' in color."

"With racism plaguing America like an incurable cancer, the so-called 'Christian' white American heart should be more receptive to a proven solution to such a destructive problem. Perhaps it could be in time to save America from imminent disaster - the same destruction brought upon Germany by racism that eventually destroyed the Germans themselves."

"Each hour here in the Holy Land enables me to have greater spiritual insights into what is happening in America between black and white. The American Negro never can be blamed for his racial animosities - he is only reacting to four hundred years of the conscious racism of the American whites. But as racism leads America up the suicide path, I do believe, from the experiences that I have had with them, that the whites of the younger generation, in the colleges and universities, will see the handwriting on the walls and many of them will turn to the spiritual path of truth - the only way left to America to ward off the disaster that racism inevitably must lead to."

"Never have I been so highly honored. Never have I been made to feel more humble and unworthy. Who would believe the blessings that have been heaped upon an American Negro? A few nights ago, a man who would be called in America a white man, a United Nations diplomat, an ambassador, a companion of kings, gave me his hotel suite, his bed. Never would I have even thought of dreaming that I would ever be a recipient of such honors - honors that in America would be bestowed upon a King - not a Negro."

"All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of all the Worlds.

Sincerely,
Al-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X)
The Autobiography of Malcolm X (with the assistance of Alex Haley) Grove Press 1966, pp339-42

E3 f) A Reconciliation Walk

On Easter Sunday 1996, to coincide with the 900 anniversary of the First Crusade, an interdenominational group of Christians also set out from Cologne Cathedral. They retraced the route, on this occasion apologising for the earlier atrocities to Muslims, Jews and Eastern Orthodox Christians whom they met on their journey.
http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_cru1.htm
http://www.itnet.org/recwalk1.html
http://www.soon.org.uk/page15.htm