Islamophobia Worst Form of Terrorism

Arab News reported Foreign ministers of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) yesterday expressed grave concern at the rising tide of discrimination and intolerance against Muslims, especially in Europe and North America. “It is something that has assumed xenophobic proportions,” they said in unison. Speaking at a special brainstorming session on the sidelines of the 34th Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers (ICFM), the foreign ministers termed Islamophobia the worst form of terrorism and called for practical steps to counter it.

The worst form of terrorism? Worse that flying a plane into a building? Worse than blowing yourself up in a pizza shop just to kill others? Worse than killing children in a Russian school? Worse than beheading christian girls?

The ministers described Islamophobia as a deliberate defamation of Islam and discrimination and intolerance against Muslims. “This campaign of calumny against Muslims resulted in the publication of the blasphemous cartoons depicting Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in a Danish newspaper and the issuance of the inflammatory statement by Pope Benedict XVI,” they said.

Something printed or something said is worse than killing innocent people?

During a speech in Germany last year, the Pope quoted a 14th Century Christian emperor who said the Prophet had brought the world only “evil and inhuman” things. The Pope’s remarks aroused the anger of the whole Islamic world.

They anger very easily. They must really be unsure of their faith if a few negative words can cause them to riot, burn buildings, and kill people.

“The increasingly negative political and media discourse targeting Muslims and Islam in the United States and Europe has made things all the more difficult,” the foreign ministers said. “Islamophobia became a source of concern, especially after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, but the phenomenon was already there in Western societies in one form or the other,” they pointed out. “It gained further momentum after the Madrid and London bombings.

Isn't that strange. I wonder why a few bombings would upset people/ And just because the people doing it said they were doing it because their religion called for it, why would people worry about that religion?

The killing of Dutch film director Theo van Gogh in 2004 was used in a wicked manner

Was the killing wicked, or just what people said about it?

by certain quarters to stir up a frenzy against Muslims,” the ministers pointed out. Van Gogh had made a controversial film about Muslim culture.

The OIC foreign ministers deplored the misrepresentation in the Western media of Islam and Muslims in the context of terrorism. “The linkage of terrorists and extremists with Islam in a generalized manner is unacceptable,” they said.

Tell the terrorists that Islam does not call for them to do what they are doing.

“This is further inciting negative sentiments and hatred in the West against Muslims,” they said. The ministers also pointed out that whenever the issue of Islamophobia was discussed in international forums, the Western bloc, particularly some members of the European Union, tried to avoid discussing the core issue and instead diverted the attention from their region to the situation of non-Muslims and human rights in the OIC member states.

Why should Christians and Jews in Europe worry about how Christians and Jews are being treated in OIC member states? And why should they fear that Muslims in their countries sought to make their countries Islamic countries where they would be subjected to the same mistreatment the Christians and Jews in OIC member states are receiving.