The Australian scholar doing her Ph.D. in “Communalism in India” met us twice in Dec. 1991 and was keen to know the secrets of the Aryan/Hindu hatred for Muslims. During discussions, we wanted to know why the western world is so much obsessed with Islam and Muslims. Her article together with our editorial should provoke a debate on the subject as to why the Muslims and Islam have become the most hated things in the world today – EDITOR.
The last two decades have witnessed the resurge of Islam as a political and social force. The obsession of the white western world about the Islamic world derives from the fear of challenge which is disclosed by the constant endeavour of the western ruling class to show Islam and its followers in a bad light.
Prophet as sorcerer: If we want to reveal the reasons why the western whites feel so much obsessed by Muslims today, we should consider that Islam has served as a foe image for Europe since its early expansion in the 9th century. In the Middle Ages, the time of the Crusades, monks of law education propagated an image of Islam in which Prophet Mohammed was a sorcerer whose magic wants to destroy the church and Muslims affirmed sexual freedom.
In the 15th and 16th century the threat of the expanding Ottoman Empire brought about a resurge of an aggressive anti-Islamic propaganda. Again Prophet Mohammed was painted as a violent general of the Turkish army.
Cultural menace: It is important to note that the Islamic world was already rather perceived as a political, military and cultural menace than as a purely religious one, whereas the Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century was celebrated as the beginning of development and the validity of human rights. It was the beginning of the systematic subjugation of nature – including the people living in the colonies and women.
Ottoman Empire: During the colonial era, the Europeans tried to replace the decayed Ottoman Empire by secular and capitalistic states with the help of the obedient, westernized ruling class in order to patronise and exploit the toiling Muslim masses. That is how Islam as a political and law-giving force lost ground and the Muslim countries lost their political, economic and cultural independence. For the westerners, it seemed as if the troublesome and refractory Muslim-inhabited countries were once for all under control.
However, while the world was turning its attention towards the rivalry between the communist and capitalist countries, a third force, Islam in new and diverse shapes, came back to the scene.
Iran revolution : The first Islamic summit in Rabbat/Marokko in 1969 convened by Saudi Arabia, the representative of the conservative, pro-capitalist wing of the Islamic movement, and the foundation of the OPEC in the early 70s, which caused two oil shocks and consequently a worldwide recession, were the first reassertions of political and economic power of a great part of the Muslim world.
The next blow was the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1978, when the United States lost with the flight of the Shah, an ally, in a country of greatest strategic and economic importance.
Western values: Besides, the challenge of Iran was very dangerous for the west insofar as it was an outspoken insurrection against western values and the capitalisation of the world economy that have brought misery upon the masses of the so-called Third World. Further, Iran negated the religious claim to leadership of Saudi Arabia since the monarchy spent the money lavishly for western amenities instead of sharing it with their suffering Muslim brothers and sisters as the Koran tells.
Jihad: The appeal to Al-Jihad, war against injustice, had not only great impact on the existing Shia groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and Turkey and traditional Sunni groups such as the Muslim Brothers in Egypt, Syria or the Occupied Territories but also on secular civil movements in the Mahgrib-states, in the central republics of the ex- Soviet Union and the Occupied Territories.
To counter the expansion of Al- Jihad, the west started propagating Islam as a deadly demon instead of reflecting over the roots of this revolution.
Betty story: The US Dept. of Foreign Affairs, for instance, encouraged Betty Mahmoody – an American woman who had followed her Persian husband to Iran for a holiday and had been kept imprisoned with her daughter by his family – to write down her story, Not Without my Daughter. The book turned out to be a bestseller and later made into a film. While Mrs. Mahmoody, with the help of her co- author, describes the Iranians as dirty, crippled, incestuous and aggressive, her alleged upper- class-house in America is depicted as a realm of peace and harmony.
Male-dominated west: Betty Mahmoody’s story also fits the purpose to appeal to western women’s mother-love and awareness of emancipation that they allegedly can enjoy only in west but that Islamic society denies female freedom. I can’t approve the policy of most Islamic currents towards women but this should not distract our attention from the fact that women in western countries suffer as well from a powerful male rule. They have to bear the double- burden of reproduction and production because the US and many European countries prove unwilling to afford a system of free kindergartens and canteens; they can hardly be found in decision- making posts due to deeply ingrained image of women as inferior; they are raped, beaten and their body is exploited as marketable product.
Prejudice against Islam: Besides such trivial novels, there are a number of popular would-be scientists or orientalists who reinforce common prejudices instead of demonstrating the conditions which favour the rise of Islamic movements. Peter Scholl- Latour for instance, transfers through German TV- documentations (The Sword of Islam) and his popular books the message that Islam has always been a threat to Christianity and quotes the French ex-President de Gaulle who said: “One day the Russians will become aware that they are white”, and adds “and that they are Christians”. And his prediction has come true.
After the end of the cold war, Islam has superseded communism as the antithesis to western capitalism. This anti-thesis is even more perfect as it reasserts the historical continuity of the conflict between orient and occident, north and south, and reunites all whites against the Muslim challengers who are per definition irrational, fanatic and backward.
Gulf war & NWO: The “invasion” of Kuwait by Iraq gave President Bush the opportunity to assert the New World Order in which fake democracies and an exploiting capitalism gained the upper hand. While the strengthening of Islamic states has only indirectly an impact on the everyday life of Americans, the Europeans are confronted face to face with Muslims who form the bulk of immigrant workers in France (Algerians), Germany (Turks) and the UK (Pakistanis, Arabs). There are native Europeans who fear that one day Muslims would gain the upper hand due to their high birth rate and the ‘aggressive’ nature of Islam.
Libyan revolution : To gain a better understanding of the upsurge of the Muslim world, we should grasp that the so-called re- islamization is a modern phenomenon catching on fast- growing industrialised cities and among immigrant workers, and not a return to the dark Middle Ages as the media want us to make-believe. Islamization as a regional form of civil protest derives from a loss of identity which is a result of rising expectations evoked by industrialisation that remain unfulfilled because of the collaboration of a selfish, westernized ruling class with the representatives of an unjust world economy.
As summary we can say that the use of Islam as political weapon is an attempt to relieve the sufferings of Muslim society. Indeed, the Islamic movements recruit their followers from among the downtrodden, as the latest development in Algeria demonstrates again. But sympathy towards the oppressed and exploited does not warrant every ideology and tactic to fight the oppressors. Some traditionalist Islamic movements fight emancipation and participation in the name of the alleged true Islam instead of challenging exploitation and suppression as Lybia, one of the most egalitarian societies, does it since its September revolution in 1969.
