An Answer to “Islamophobia”

Recently a gathering of Islamic leaders in Dakar, Senegal, has brought together leaders from many countries to discuss what they described as "Islamophobia." Included in this gathering were respectable leaders from Muslim countries, a handful of despotic maniacs, and a complete desire to ignore basic human freedoms.

Is it possible that there can be no understanding between the east and the west? I, personally, do not think so, but we in the west are not the only people that have to make changes to make that possible. According to our friends in the AP:

Concerned about what they see as a rise in the defamation of Islam, leaders of the world's Muslim nations are considering taking legal action against those that slight their religion or its sacred symbols. It was a key issue during a two-day summit that ended Friday in this western Africa capital.

Attempting to formulate a world-wide plan to control the freedom of expression in other sovereign states, they wish to come up with actions of legal nature to force others on our happy little planet to follow their rules and regulations. As one member of this Organization of Islam Conference stated:

"I don't think freedom of expression should mean freedom from blasphemy," said Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade, the chairman of the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference. "There can be no freedom without limits."

Another member goes on to say: "'Muslims are being targeted by a campaign of defamation, denigration, stereotyping, intolerance and discrimination,' charged Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the secretary general of the group, 'Islamophobia cannot be dealt with only through cultural activities but (through) a robust political engagement.'"

Further:

Hemayet Uddin, the lead author of the OIC report and head of cultural affairs for the group said legal action is needed because "this Islamophobia that we see in the world has gone far beyond a phobia. It is now at the level of hatred, of xenophobia, and we need to act."

Well, allow me to retort.

Here in the middle of the US I live next to a great number of Islamic peoples. I have learned to cook many of the dishes in the traditional fashions, and while I have not learned the language, I am not offended by the large number of stores and restaurants that sport Arabic menus and signs in the slightest. I frequent them because I enjoy that cuisine and culture as I do many others. I love to cook, and I love to learn. To the greatest extent of my understanding, these people living here are peaceful, productive tax-paying legal citizens that have no desire to impose their views on me anymore than I wish to convert them to Catholicism and celebrate St. Patrick's Day with me. That is fair and equitable.

That is not what most of these OIC people are about. Let us ponder the use of the term "Islamophobia" for a minute and see why such a thing should even exist. For me, the entire thing is summed up in a nutshell by the above comments by Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade, when he says that freedom of expression should have limits. Limits based on exactly what, I ask? In his case he names blasphemy. It is a blasphemy against a religion that I do not follow. His folks in Senegal do not seem to have any trouble at all in denigrating western values and ideals. They have no difficulty, in fact, with killing Christians.

That is what leads me to an important point. The Facist Islamist is a person that thinks in universal terms. It is not enough that people bend their wills to THEIR interpretation of the Koran in their own countries, it bothers them intensely that there are other people not bound by their laws, and most importantly, by their religion. That is why in this OIC that you do not hear anything of the rights of the Jews in Israel, instead you hear Mahmoud "Batshit Nuts" Ahmadinejad declaring the holocaust a myth and he calls for the elimination of that tiny little country. You hear about the cruelties of the West by the elimination of Saddam Hussein and his band of thugs, and you hear about the heroic martyrs of Islam when they blow up innocent men, women and children. You will hear nothing of the total inability of Hamas and the PLO to even get along, but you will hear about the cruelties of the Israeli government when they lash back at those that kill indiscriminately. The Islamic world had no problems when Turkey invaded northern Iraq to kill Kurdish insurgents, but if Israel does the same thing in Lebanon they are roundly condemned by the Islamic world as monsters. A cartoonist pens down a cartoon of Mohammed that was, considerably perhaps, in bad taste, but the reaction of the radical Islamic was way beyond the bounds. Now they wish to organize in legal ways to abridge the laws of countries within which they have right to intervene. They remind me of children crying about being called names.

Make no mistake. These fascists have no interest in abridging their desires to control other peoples to mere political maneuvering. The same people that applaud the killing of innocents in the name of the "religion of peace" will have no problem in extending their desire to control right over into military action. The "religion of peace" that has no problem with the slaughter of Christians in Dakar will have no trouble in the slaughter of my own wife, children, parents, and everything that I hold dear.

This is not Islamophobia. This is the simple fear of maniacs. This is the fear of those that hold no laws but those that they believe in holding. I do not fear Islam, and I do not fear the vast majority of Moslems as citizens of my own neighborhood. I fear that the West will not fight this handful of blood-thirsty barbarians who happen to have gained power through the blood of their peoples and those of their neighbors.

I would ask those that object to what I am saying a simple question: Do you think that exploding the Trade Towers in New York City exactly "endeared" Moslems to the rest of us? Do you think that we are somehow going to relish the thought of sending simpletons, women, and children into public places with explosives tied to their body as being a sample of real civilization and justice? Do you think the blood of innocents makes you worthy of being admired? Do you believe that hating Jews and Christians is acceptable because they are different than you are? Lastly, do you think the West has an infinite amount of patience in dealing with thug dictators and eastern potentates when they threaten our own families and ways of life? If that is the case, then you understand the West in no way whatsoever.

If you wish to dialogue with the West, you are going to have to understand a simple thing for us, but incomprehensible to you: namely, that we consider the rights of people to religious freedoms as a primary human right. We also consider the right of speaking our minds as a primary human right. We consider the right of the individual to exist and function with as few governmental regulations as is possible as fundamental. We also consider our sovereignty beyond whatever laws and regulations that you may impose on your hapless peoples with repression, cruelty and their own blood.

Islamophobia implies that we mean to fear Islam simply because it is Islam. That is a misuse of a language that you do not speak very well. We get along fine with the Moslem peoples when they do not mean to tell the rest of us what to think, and what to write, what our laws are, and how to believe. The rest of you can go to hell.