The Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) latest report indicating a 25 percent increase in anti-Muslim bias from 2005 to 2006 and also the statement by foreign ministers of the Organization of the Islamic Conference last month that ‘the gravest terrorist threat in the world today is Islamophobia‘ is a revelation, not only for media but also for the contemporary world as a whole.

Islamophobia, you might argue, is true, and yes, it is, however, this absolute fear has lead to a comprehensive ‘war on terror’ (read error) propelling a deliberate angst against a particular group, with or without reason, verifying how big a dent we’ve made on our sanity. Keeping in mind that religion, if you believe it exists, is not only the greatest forces for good, but also, undoubtedly, is the greatest forces for evil, we cannot neglect it’s importance and un-importance.

A different take

All said, yes, there is a war out here. But the war is not between Muslims or non-Muslims, believers or nonbelievers, apparently, it’s between sanity and insanity. Keeping this in mind, if you are expecting us to discuss the tenets of Islam and how the world has done and undone the knots it’s made of, you’re on the wrong page.

Those who’ve already tasted the blood might never give it a second thought, but it’s true that the phenomenon called Jesus is gone and so is the phenomenon called Mohammad. Quoting Popper, ‘if our civilization is to survive, we must break with the habit of deference to great men. Great men make great mistakes’, it’s clear that now it’s on us how we actually want to carry on their legacies. And even if there is some ‘flaw’, how we perceive it and mold it as per the contemporary world and evolve ourselves, because religion and faith too must not and cannot remain constant. They have to change if they really want to remain alive; after all, it’s us, not religion.

Even if we take all incidents - including 9/11, London bombings, Abu Ghraib, beheadings, et al - as the background, we’ll find that these could have been easily averted, but for our failure to recognize and accept the beauty of reason.

An open inquiry

In order to do justice with the concept we want to reinforce here in this article, it’s important to keep in mind that the real war in the very very near future would not be between people with different faiths, but conversely between those who have faith and those who do not and we’re already witnessing the trend. So, where does Islamophobia stands and how far it’ll be able to change the way the coming generations would look upon each other - as human beings or as mere slaves of something which does not exist? In our fight for existence, we’ve resorted to different armors and Islamophobia perhaps doesn’t fit in our arsenal anymore - it, and other similar false ideologies, has certainly lost its power to ignite.

We all know there is hatred on both the sides, of course, based on concrete facts, but what now? We’ve to make a choice - either to continue with the bloodshed or do some introspection. Those who believe that Islam is a threat to their faith, apparently, nurture nothing but weak and hollow beliefs and deserve to lose their religion, which anyway they’ve failed to comprehend. Their failure to understand the fundamental difference between race and religion has taken the toll on their conscience. You can’t choose your skin color, however, you can choose your beliefs and no one has the right to forcefully mold them.

We’ll even find people raising fingers on holy books; for reasons of their own, however, they, including those who come forward to chop those raised fingers, certainly do not have that mettle to reason and are not qualified enough to even touch them.

Hot waters

Throw a frog into hot water and it will straightaway jump out of it, but throw it into cold water and then boil it slowly; the animal will slowly adapt to the changing temperatures and wouldn’t mind getting burned to death. In present times, it’s hard to find cold water anymore, it’s boiling everywhere, ostensibly enough to send that chill down our spines further alienating us from the truth.

Former Secretary-General Kofi Annan rightly said while addressing the Department of Public Information (DPI) seminar, ‘Confronting Islamophobia: Education for Tolerance and Understanding’, in New York:

When a new word enters the language, it is often the result of a scientific advance or a diverting fad. But when the world is compelled to coin a new term to take account of increasingly widespread bigotry, that is a sad and troubling development. Such is the case with Islamophobia.

We’re actually taught and trained to hate and nurture that ‘fear of the other’ to an unbelievable fanatical point, where once reached, there is seemingly no return. The false supremacy and power of the ‘I’ factor is the same in a ‘group’ as it is in an individual. And, as we all know, it is not easy to dilute it altogether, it gives us enough reason to try harder. Isn’t it, or would we like to term ourselves a race of cowards? Certainly not!

Keeping in mind all dimensions of Islamophobia, including hatred of Muslims and criticism of Islam, we can eliminate the madness only by either understanding the true nature of the faith or by shunning believes altogether. And here too, the question is not we ‘can’ or ‘not’ but whether we ‘want’ or ‘not’.

Failure of media - Gone too far

Media has completely failed and has further alienated us from the truth by directly launching a secret vendetta - paying undue emphasis on Islam inspired terrorism. The way things only on the ’surface’ are projected without concrete facts, proves that it’s an eye for an eye attitude, which has successfully created two different worlds in a desperate need of some better insight. No one reports about achievements, only events, which are most of the time not related to religion at all, are projected as ‘facts’ sans any cushioning. Take for example the scarf issue - The Philly police ban on Muslim headscarves has been enforced by the court and media has made a quite an issue out of it. The ban in no way violates religious sentiments of the Muslims, if someone has chosen to be a part of the department, he or she has to abide by the dress code too.

The purpose of the CAIR report and a similar report recently published by the European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), and other such reports are beyond comprehension. What actually the massive human forces behind these reports want to propagate? We doubt, they are moving in a positive direction.

Intolerance Vs tolerating the animal within us

The way we’re constantly screaming that we should not, we must not, and we’ll not move on with the members of a particular section - a major section, for one out of every five people in the world is Muslim - of our society shows how intolerant we’re and we can be towards our own selves. We’re inclined to argue here a simple point that all religions have a variety of schools, some moderate and some not, it’s not only the case with Islam. The hatred in different forms we’re able to witness today are mere defeated manifestations of Islamophobia. We can erode the core problem only if we’re able to understand what it actually is and from where it’s able to unleash such deadly weapons of hostility, discrimination and prejudice.

And the answer is within us. This time, instead of throwing the frog in hot water, try a big stone, you’ll get yourself burned. Or sip and enjoy its warmth, but that demands a mighty heart - the choice is yours. However, we’re sure, as humans we’re not yet evolved enough to embrace that. We’ll have to wait for some long hot red moments to reach that high an altar where we can gauge through the eyes of a human into the eyes of another.

Till then, if they’re not (not really) coming in, let’s go and at least knock their doors politely, we’re sure you’ll never regret the moment.

Image Credit: Harvard