The targeting of Islam in the world is a worrying development – Middle East Monitor

Among the many most harmful threats to world safety in the present day, along with the growth of army armament, particularly within the nuclear area and the unfold of terrorism, is the phenomenon of antagonising religions, particularly Islam, and in search of to demonise them utilizing probably the most horrific strategies. Probably the most outstanding of those strategies is misinformation, distortion and stereotyping. After a long time of concentrating on the political manifestations of Islamic actions, the previous approaches of concentrating on faith have been restored.

This concentrating on deepened after the failure to focus on what was known as “political Islam” and the involvement of events hostile to the spiritual phenomenon in its essence, seeing it as an impediment to the expansion of absolute liberalism that seeks to skip spiritual directions and its rules. Along with cultural motives, a lack of know-how concerning the rules, values and legislative techniques of Islam that defend the weak and rein within the grasping, exploiters and looters is the principle motive for this hostility.

What is for certain is that Islam has been subjected to the lion’s share of concentrating on, which is not confined to the media. Relatively, official insurance policies within the Western world are taking this path that doesn’t serve peace and safety on this planet. The liberal venture truly shoots itself within the foot when it seeks to confiscate the rules it’s speculated to undertake, particularly within the area of public liberties. France, which is on the forefront of the brand new Western venture to focus on faith, not adheres to the liberal guidelines of the sport, particularly within the area of freedoms associated to private decisions comparable to perception, costume and non secular practices. The present French President, Emmanuel Macron, has change into probably the most radical French presidents in the direction of Islam and he’s supported on this strategy by a big a part of the media, though most human rights organisations reject the strategy he takes as a result of embarrassment it causes to the liberal venture. Final October, authorities closed a mosque in Allonnes, claiming that it promoted “radical Islam”. The French Minister of the Inside, Gerald Darmanin, confirmed that the financial institution accounts of the mosque’s directors had been additionally seized, including that 13 Islamic organisations have been closed within the nation since Macron took workplace and that 92 mosques had been closed.

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Final March, the UN Particular Rapporteur on freedom of faith or perception, Ahmed Shaheed, stated: “Islamophobia builds imaginary constructs round Muslims which can be used to justify state-sponsored discrimination, hostility and violence in opposition to Muslims with stark penalties for the enjoyment of human rights together with freedom of faith or perception.”

Maybe former US President, Donald Trump, was the primary to reveal the brand new Western venture aiming to limit the spiritual phenomenon, particularly the Islamic one. He started his presidency by issuing a regulation banning residents of seven Islamic international locations from getting into the US, in what was thought of a violation of liberal values ​​themselves and an expression of intolerance, narrow-mindedness and persecution. American organisations working to advertise democracy and help what they thought of “reasonable Islam” modified their insurance policies to cease supporting the Islamic establishments that they had thought of to be “reasonable”.

One of many clearest examples of this transformation is what occurred to the Nationwide Endowment for Democracy, as a few of its officers involved with Islamic establishments within the Center East had been modified, and help for a variety of them stopped. Through the Biden administration, the concentrating on continued in a quiet method, and abruptly Islamic establishments and mosques in Western international locations discovered themselves dealing with authorized questions on their actions, trustees and funding sources, underneath numerous pretexts, together with stopping cash laundering, preventing extremism and combatting terrorism. Lots of them had been closed, particularly in France, though the regulation is meant to take its course by prosecuting those that violate it, and never turning mosques into arenas for inside battle and strife.

Ladies supporters of Jamaat-e-Islami protest in opposition to hijab ban in faculties in India on Fabruary 10, 2022 in in Karachi, Pakistan. [Sabir Mazhar – Anadolu Agency]

Right here we see the sensible utility of the saying “each citizen is a guard,” because the imam of the mosque is required to report the worshippers to the police if he suspects their concepts and actions. Charities are required to keep away from addressing the problems of Muslims on this planet, claiming that this isn’t one of many actions they’re allowed to apply. In an effort to keep away from accusations of racism, the official our bodies involved with registering charities and monitoring their actions, put ahead new insurance policies that put extra stress on establishments via banks and accounting companies. These establishments started to hold out periodic “questioning” of Islamic establishments about their revenue, spending, supporters, what is claimed in Friday sermons and the remainder of their cultural actions, in addition to about their guests and their mental and political identities. If they don’t cooperate, their financial institution accounts are closed.

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Islam is being focused globally via the insurance policies of Western international locations that feed this spirit of demonisation, and thru the phenomenon of Islamophobia, which has not stopped regardless of criticism from human rights and humanitarian organisations. Now India, which known as the most important democracy on this planet attributable to its inhabitants that exceeds 1.25 billion, is blatantly concentrating on the Islamic presence, stopping feminine college students from sporting the hijab in faculties and universities, and working towards systematic persecution of Muslims who symbolize about one-sixth of the whole inhabitants. Final week, Human Rights Watch stated that banning the headband violates India’s obligations underneath worldwide human rights regulation that ensures the precise to precise spiritual perception, freedom of expression and training with out discrimination.

Over the last 25 years, Muslims sought to advertise interfaith dialogue, hoping that their presence within the West could be a consider creating human and non secular relations, and would contribute to constructing an understanding humanity, not antagonistic. Nonetheless, it’s now clear that there are forces that don’t want this and which view Muslims with a way of suspicion and doubt tinged with emotions of hatred. Lately, this pattern has change into clear via concentrating on spiritual manifestations and expressions. The headband has been formally banned in a variety of European international locations, together with France and a few states of Germany and Denmark and within the final 5 years, there was an inclination to crackdown on Muslims in an effort to restrict the unfold of non secular observance.

These carrying this out consider that it’ll scale back the unfold of the phenomenon of religiosity, which they see as a menace to what they name “the values ​​of the West.” It’s not unusual to accuse others of “preventing our values” or “concentrating on our democracy”. It is without doubt one of the manifestations of the populist phenomenon that’s based mostly on ignorance, shallow thought, and the dearth of a real id. It’s also not a secret that the phenomenon of Islamophobia has escalated by exploiting some marginal points to discredit Muslims or by exaggerating some issues to recommend that. There’s widespread astonishment on the resentment expressed by some Western politicians in the direction of China due to its persecution of the Muslim minority within the Xinjiang area. Some noticed this as a type of hypocrisy and an try to confuse Islamophobia and the systematic concentrating on of mosques and Islamic establishments underneath the pretext that they’re harbouring extremist or terrorist people and promote extremism. Furthermore, some Islamic ideas have change into topic to distortion and abuse, together with the idea of jihad, which obtained particular Western consideration after it was claimed by Daesh and Al-Qaeda. There’s even a worry of elevating the topic of jihad, even whether it is to make clear its true meanings in Islam. It’s true that extremist and terrorist teams have misused this time period, however this doesn’t cancel the significance of this accountability in Islamic laws, which is regulated by many circumstances.

Is Islam actually being focused? Does this concentrating on have political and ideological dimensions that aren’t normally disclosed? What does the demonisation of conventional Islamic actions and their manifestations imply in each Arab and Western international locations? This concentrating on will not be solely mental and ideological, nevertheless it additionally has elements aimed toward uprooting the phenomenon of non secular affiliation from its basis.

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Focusing on Islamic actions with this brutality is available in parallel with the phenomenon of Islamophobia and the concentrating on of Islam on this planet; in China, which is concentrating on Uyghur Muslims, in Myanmar, which persecutes Muslims solely due to their faith, or in India, the place the ruling Bharatiya Janata Social gathering (BJP) adopts extremist insurance policies, whether or not by banning the veil in faculties and universities or by abusing Muslim ladies on the Web. The identical might be stated about France, which began to implement the confrontation of mosques and banned the veil and the US, which unleashed its regional allies to confront the Islamists particularly and normalise with the occupation as a part of a plan to terrorise opponents and the lovers of Palestine, who’re nearly all of Arab and Muslim nations.

This text first appeared in Arabic in Al-Quds Al-Arabi on 20 February 2022

The views expressed on this article belong to the creator and don’t essentially replicate the editorial coverage of Center East Monitor.