Anti-Islam Detractors and Islamophobes

ON February 27^th, 2004, the European Union, or EU, condemned in the harshest terms the former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahatir Mohamad, who, in a controversial speech at the opening of the tenth session of the Islamic Summit Conference, maintained that the Jews rule the world by proxy. By “proxy” is meant to affirm, on a simplistic scale, a scenario in which a person is authorized to act for another. On a larger scale, the Prime Minister is saying that Jews exercise political power by getting other people to fight and die for them. Israel can defy the United Nations, declared the former Malaysian Prime Minister, because they have the entire world behind them.

Then French President Jacques issued a harshly worded statement, saying that the summit was “not the correct forum for such a statement”. In a response to a question from Haaretz, a prominent Israeli periodical, President Mohamad remained unrepentant. Instead, the Prime Minister re-iterated that he would visit Israel as soon as the Jewish leadership visit the Muslim countries and explain why they call Muslims terrorists.

The Jews rule the world by proxy. This seven-worded statement has been placed out of context and sends only a ripple effect on a global scale so as to reinforce the view that Islam is a violent religion. Besides, U.S. religious broadcaster Pat Robertson affirmed this view: Islam “is not a peaceful religion that want to coexist. They want to coexist until they can control, dominate and then, if need be, destroy”. Franklyn Graham issued a similar statement: Islam “is a very evil and wicked religion” and is “a slightly warmed-over version of the hatred that led to the Holocaust”.

I took the opportunity to read Matahir Mohammad’s entire speech. The Prime Minister is simply exhorting the Muslim Ummah to disprove the perception that Islam is a religion of backwardness and terror. But he also wondered aloud how “a few million Jews” stultify the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims. Besides, the Prime Minister did not attack the Jews but is only protecting the rights of the Palestinians.

It’s no secret that the most powerful lobbies in the U.S. government are backed by pro-Israeli sympathizers, some of whom are Jewish. There is no secret either that the media relies heavily on Zionists – not all of whom are Jews – to spew anti-Islam and anti-Muslim propaganda. Further, joining the Islam-haters are many Fundamentalist evangelical “born-again Christians”, who have unflinchingly aligned themselves with hard-line Zionists and their agenda against the Palestinians. Their sole function is to attack the credibility of the Qu’ran and defame the Prophet (SAW). These are the Franklyn Grahams and the Pat Robertsons of our era.

Jerry Falwell said this: “I think Mohammad was a terrorist”. Jerry Vines chimes in: “Islam was founded by Mohammad, a demon-possessed pedophile who had 12 wives, and his last one was a nine-year old girl”. Both claim to be educated individuals who will inform ordinary Christians about Islam.

No wonder, then, that a recent ABC news poll showed that the number of people who have an unfavorable view of Islam went up 9 points, and those who think that Islam fails to teach respect for other religions has increased by 13 points.

The Islamophobes are convinced that Islam can be destroyed through propaganda in 80 to 100 years. Read Israel’s tourism minister, Mr.Elon, in the May 15^th 2003 issue of Haaretz: “It’s clear that Islam is on the way to disappearing. How will it disappear? Very simply. Within a few years a Christian crusade against Islam will be launched, which will be major event of this millennium…”

Writing in Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler maintained clearly that “…effective propaganda must be confined to a few bare essentials…” and that “The whole art consists of doing this so skillfully that everyone will be convinced that the fact is real…”

Such carefully packaged statements will launch this “Christian crusade”; and this propagandistic tactic is more effective than bombs. The American public already understands Matahir’s statement the way Zionists want them to.

(The writer is a recent revert to Islam and can be contacted at: drummondhugh@verizon.net)