Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD.

World is not as it is sensationalized on the media screen, Arabs or Muslims are not the “terrorists” and all the Western leaders are not the individualistically insane “warmongers. There is truth and facts of life outside the news media’s box and glued labels of extremism warranting serious contemplation to evolve our attitudes and perceptions as conscientious citizens in the 21st century changing global affairs. People of knowledge and intellect must initiate presence to clarify the delusional and monstrous mindset of the minority ruling elite across the globe. The documentary movie on the You Tube and elsewhere on the internet allegedly portraying false images of Islam and Prophet Mohammad’s life is not rare or the end in itself. Islamophobia is an organized scheme of things – an anti-Islamic institutionalized hatred campaigns and fear-mongering across the US and Western Europe. It is business as usual by entrepreneurs and supporters of the warmongering industry. Its ultimate aims are to keep the American and European people fearful of the growing Islamic presence in these parts of the world as if Muslims were the outcome of the eye of the storm to destroy the industrial progress or to halt the Zionist perpetuated fear of Islam. A crisis situation requires critical thinking not hasty actions of jumping into fireballs, killing of diplomats, verbal outbursts and burning of others flags. None of these are the rational strategies to address the problem. Stephen Lendman (“Islamophobia in Western Media”: 3/2011 Rense.com) elaborates the Islamophobia –the institutionalized scheme of things:

Islamophobia defined

The Runnymede Trust identifies eight components, characterizing Islam as:

-- monolithic, static, and unresponsive to change;

-- having differing values from other cultures and religions;

-- being inferior to Western societies;

-- barbaric, irrational, primitive, sexist, violent, aggressive, threatening, supporting terrorism, and clashing with Western civilization;

-- an ideology used for political or military advantage;

-- irrationally criticizing Western values;

-- warranting discriminatory practices that exclude Muslims from mainstream society; and

-- believing anti-Muslim hostility is natural and normal.

They call the politically active Arabs and Muslims as members of “al-Qaida” (the organization originally perceived, developed and managed by the CIA and American political leaders to fight the USSR-former Soviet Union occupation o Afghanistan. It is dead long time except its label is used when and if convenient to the warmongers. Richard Chamberlain observed: ""Al Qaida" is a CIA fabricated enemy, created as an opponent for the CIA-created "neocon" supermen, intended to embed an invisible terror army amongst the people, in order to perpetually justify waging war upon the people.

Pierre-Henry Bunel, a former agent for French military intelligence: "The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al Qaida. And any informed intelligence officer knows this. But there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an identified entity representing the 'devil' only in order to drive the 'TV watcher' to accept a unified international leadership for a war against terrorism. The country behind this propaganda is the US and the lobbyists for the US war on terrorism are only interested in making money."

We come to realize that politics is a game of pretension and always remains problematic. Politicians NEED problems to get public attention and to argue being the deliverers. Most often, they are not except being treacherous, cynical and deceitful to their ideas and ideals and to the public interests they claim to serve. It is an election year in the US and both presidential candidates desperately need new issues and new exciting problems – local or international to move the public passion and opinions and gain in number games. Strange as is, Arabs and Muslims of the world are providing that food for thoughts to the US politicians. This is something a planned outcome of the Islamophobia movement in the US. Last year, Terry Jones wanted to burn the copies of the Qura’an- the Divine Book of Islam. It prompted action-reaction responses and people throughout the globe got attentive why such an extreme act of ignorance against Islam, when Muslims believe and respect Judaism and Christianity as part of their indivisible faith. A Danish journalist embarked on folly and carved up a cartoon of Prophet Mohammad. The world-over reaction by Muslims and others consumed enormous time, energies and thoughts but what was the end of it? Few months earlier, American troops burned the copies of the Qura’an in Kabul. Massive protest but nothing changed on the ground. Obama and his administration cited ignorance about the vitality of the Qura’an. Thomas Jefferson had copies of the Qura’an and used it to devise the moral and intellectual injunctions for the American Constitution. Were the educated American that ignorant? Islamophobia is well organized and flourishing across the Western cultural domains, again investing in “fear-mongering” of Islam and generating sense of insecurity to peace and global harmony. There is a problem with the Arabs and Muslims at large, they are emotional people, unimaginative and often shortsighted when it comes to rational THINKING and steadfastness in situations of volatile circumstances. The Western politicians want Muslims to act like immature actors and bodies on their script originating from the Islamophobia scheme of things. This could be justified to the coming dangers to plan more wars of terrorism or terrorism of wars against the innocent people in the Islamic world. Truth speaks its own language. Islamophobia is intricately linked to the US-Western policies and foreign relations with the Arab and other Muslim countries.

Despite having a knowledge-based culture, the Islamophobia organizations generate hatred and fear throughout the global news media. They envisage and project the Muslim people as of draconian age, violent and lacking reason, science, and intellectual foresight. On September 12, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI equated Catholicism with reason, saying violent Islam lacked it. This contradicts the European history where Islamic civilization flourished for eight hundred years in Spain (Al-Anduls) and contributed to knowledge, scientific developments and helped the Europeans to become civilized when they were species of the dark ages. Was Pope Benedict not expected to be knowledgeable of these pertinent facts of the European history?

Hillary Clinton called the current battling scenes as “disgusting and reprehensible.” President Obama claims, he has respect for Islam and understanding of the faith. These are just abstract words lacking meaning and purpose. What if the US administration would move to arrest Sam Basile - the media described filmmaker of the controversial documentary movie and charge him with insult and injuries to the American public interest. After all America is part of the global moral and intellectual hub of the mankind, it is not out from somewhere from another planet of subhuman beings. It was revealed today by the Canadian Broadcasting Company – CBC TV commentator and a statement was displayed on the screen claiming that the artists of the documentary were outraged as their role were misinterpreted and dubbed willfully by the producer contrary to the script to articulate anti-Islamic aims and insult to Prophet Mohammad….

After the 9/11 and incidentally on the anniversary of the 9/11 on that very day, American politicians are vengeful, paranoid and often appear to be victims of their obsession and insanity – that all problems must be solved by power, by military interventions, killings and devastation of other nations and habitats- more so of the Arabs. The media reports that President Obama is sending warships to Libya because of the killing of its ambassador and three other diplomats. Is it not the same mindset as of George Bush to take military action in haste without rational thinking of the consequences on the US and others? Nobody has invincible armies and nobody can conquer the world on its own. Only people with monstrous mind can think that way. Not all problems require military actions but diligent and thoughtful moves to diffuse the crises. Perhaps, this is not part of the big American thinking after victimizing the mankind under the false flag of terrorism for over a decade. Likewise, the reactionary Muslim people are slipping into violent behavior on problems requiring serious thinking, attitudes and understanding to come up with peaceful and workable remedies. Muslims failed to recognize their moral precepts taught by Islam and political weaknesses and strengths within the global system of political affairs. Burning flags and denouncing the US-Israel would not solve any problems, it will enlarge the scope to more critical catastrophic incidents beyond human control. Arab rulers have no armies to defend Islam. They pump oil and enjoy living in palaces, not with people - the illusion of so called economic prosperity soon to be dismantled as is the case of change now in progress. Most Arabs are still living under the powerful shadows of authoritarian rulers who would not allow them to speak openly. People in Libya and Egypt are discovering their new freedom from the past captivity. They need to develop public institutions and encourage educated and intelligent leaders to assume the leadership role. To Muslims, Islam teaches respect and co-existence with other religions and people of the Book. Many could be pretending as if they are doing any good for the cause of Islam or to protect the honor of Prophet Mohammad while they pursue their own ambitions of power. Prophet Mohammad life is a role model for peace and human coexistence. He was always open to communication and took initiatives to have direct communication with his worst foes in Makkah and Madinah. He was commanded by God to invite them to peace and to Islam. Have the people in all these Muslim lands reacting to the current Islamophobia conspiracies considered the teachings, morals and practices of Prophet Mohammad? Those rushing to hasty conclusions and jumping into fires and burning others national flags and symbols, when did you convey the message of Islam to your enemies? Are you rational beings and know the short-long terms consequences of your actions? What would you achieve out of this staged drama and acts of irrational behaviors and utter nuisance? You compete in shouting matches, expend your time and precious energies and simply go home to sleep. Simply, you have not encountered the real world issues and how to deal with them.

Do you remember the paradoxes of history? Do you recall what Sultan Salahudeen did to free Jerusalem and drive out the Crusaders from the Muslim lands? None of you are serious about your own intentions and beliefs. What if you had intelligent leaders and freedom to THINK before you act and communicate to the enemies of Islam, don’t you THINK, you would have accomplished something better, something durable in dealing with some of the emotionally charged issues? In the 21st century of New World of Hope and Optimism, Men who are universally hated and feared can be approached , communicated and can be imagined to be sitting in front of you on the table to discuss the on-going problems. That is, if you are organized as an Ummah, you are confident of your moral and intellectual strength and have responsible and intelligent leaders to represent your interests and priorities. By the same token, if American leaders were intelligent and responsible, they could have avoided these violent developments and opened communication channels with the Muslim world as President Obama had originally claimed to do so. But he rescinded his promises and deceived the mankind on the war of terrorism, closing of the Guantanmobay and normalization of relationships with the Islamic world. Like the European colonists, Obama had pride and false sense of superiority that he failed to stop the bogus wars against Muslims and bring back his troops from the war zones. John Adams must have anticipated such political developments and offered this context:

“The pride and vanity of that nation is a disease, it is a delirium, it has been flattered and inflamed so long by themselves and other that it perverts everything.”

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(Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: Global Peace and Conflict Management: Man and Humanity in Search of New Thinking. Lambert Publishing Germany, May 2012)