Islamophobia... between the past and the present
Islamophobia, a term used - perhaps for the first time in history - in 1910 by ethnologists specializing in Islam in West Africa: Alain Quellien, Maurice Delafosse, and Paul Marty. However, its indications and manifestations existed many centuries before this date, and not only within Western, Hebrew and East Asian societies.
Appearance in the Arabian Peninsula
Geographically, Islamophobia appeared for the first time in the world in an Arab country, and exactly among the Quraish tribe in the city of Mecca. Historically, the emergence of this phenomenon began in the seventh century AD - exactly the year 613 - with the emergence of the Muhammadan call from secret to public. At that time, this call was strongly rejected by the Quraysh masters who refused to acknowledge the prophethood of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), describing him at times as insane, at times as bewitched, and at others as a sorcerer or antichrist.
As for his followers (may God be pleased with them), many of them were subjected to ill-treatment and persecution: they were punished with the most severe forms of torture, including stoning, ironing and flogging in order to force them to abandon their new faith and return to the religion of their fathers and grandfathers. For example, Bilal ibn Rabah al-Habashi (may God be pleased with him) was taken out into the barren desert in the midday heat and tortured by placing heavy rocks on his chest, demanding that he renounce his Islam and faith in God, and pray to their pagan gods.
A still from the movie “The Message” documenting the torture of early Muslims
And there are those who were killed in horrible ways or died from severe torture. The most prominent example here is Sumaya bint Khayyat and her husband, Yasser bin Amer (may God be pleased with them), who were tortured to death by Amr bin Hisham bin al-Mughirah al-Makhzoumi, better known as Abu Jahl, who was one of the fiercest opponents of the Prophet Muhammad (may God bless him and grant him peace). …These brutal campaigns waged by the Islamophobes of Quraysh against the early Muslims caused the departure of large numbers of them from their homes and their emigration first to Abyssinia and then to Yathrib or what is termed today in Medina.
And in Taif, far from Makkah, “the stronghold of the Quraish tribe,” the masters of this city, they also rejected the Muhammadan call and revolted against Muhammad (may God bless him and grant him peace), their sons, fools, and slaves who expelled him evil and followed him, insulting him, mocking him, and throwing stones at him. Due to the severity of the stoning and the many stones that were thrown at him, Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) bled profusely and was severely injured, along with the companion who accompanied him on this journey, Zaid bin Haritha (may God be pleased with him).
Islamophobia did not disappear from these Arab lands after they became Islamic lands, as Arab Islamophobes practiced Taqiyyah for many years. During the era of the fourth of the Rightly Guided Caliphs (may God be pleased with them all), they turned against Islamic rule and put an end to the Shura caliphate system and replaced it with a hereditary monarchy. They distorted the hadiths of the Prophet and the interpretations of the Qur’an to add to their pre-Islamic habits, their liquidation of their opponents, and the rest of their crimes against humanity, the character of Islamic legitimacy.
Spread and move to other regions
Painting documenting a scene from the Crusades
The Islamophobia fever did not remain confined to the Arab lands, as it would bypass it and spread its infection to other regions, including the Magi and Christian worlds, as well as the kingdoms of East Asia. This Islamophobic tide resulted in a long series of persecutions that have not stopped to this day, as well as battles and wars, the most prominent of which remain the Crusades, the wars of recovery, and the Tartar wars that caused many harms to Muslims.
Most of the existing societies at the time of the advent of Islam, and in the Middle Ages in general, were extremist religious blocs that did not listen to the idea of the existence of a religion other than their own… especially if this religion criticized its ideological foundations and described them as polytheism or paganism, not to mention that it threatens the political, economic and social interests of the masters. those communities.
Islamophobia today
The situation today is not much different from what it was then. Islamophobia still thrives on extremism, whether Christian, Hindu, Buddhist or secular, as well as from the economic interests of capitalist or political lobbies of Zionist and Western imperialism, not to mention the racism and Arabophobia that are rampant in many Western societies and the fears of some East Asian governments of the growth of Islamic separatist movements.
Today we have governments enacting policies that encroach on the rights and freedoms of Muslims because they see them and their religion as a threat to their territorial integrity (China and Myanmar, for example) and racist social blocs (whose origins are Western or Amazigh…) that reject Islam and are hostile to its adherents for nothing other than that Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) is of Arab origin. Because in its culture, everyone who is an Arab is a “dirty” Arab, Sale Arabe. We also have extremist religious groups that reject the idea of a religion other than their own… especially if this religion criticizes their ideological foundations and describes them as polytheists (Catholicism, Protestant Christianity…) or paganism (Hinduism, Buddhism, Shenisme…).
Ashin Wirathu, the most famous anti-Islam Buddhist monk
Western imperialism
There are also other blocs that reject Islam and are hostile to it because of its cultural imperialism, which does not accept the existence of other cultures that compete with its culture. The forces of Western imperialism, for example, have for decades pursued foreign policies aimed at erasing Islamic culture from the countries of the Islamic world, and therefore it is not surprising that they reject the spread of this culture over their western lands.
When we talk about these forces, we are talking about political regimes that have always sought to export their noble and sublime Western culture - from their point of view - and impose their sovereignty on countries that belong to cultures that they consider despicable and inferior. To succeed in this mission, these powers have colonized our lands for many years. After we gained independence, it allocated huge budgets, either directly through its governmental institutions or indirectly through its civil society associations, to buy off our officials and a group of our intellectuals, intellectuals, media professionals, political activists, and associations, and push them to alienate our societies.
Thanks to these disguised bribes, usually disguised under the guise of humanitarian aid and financial or logistical support, the forces of Western imperialism have effectively succeeded in the Westernization of many citizens living in countries such as Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco... Successes are added to the success in the Westernization of the sons of the first African and Asian immigrants who settled in the western country.
But suddenly, in the last decade of the twentieth century, these powers were given the terrible shock of seeing that success evaporate. She was deeply hurt when she saw large numbers of these new Westerners as well as original Westerners with long beards and wearing shirts, hijabs, niqabs and other symbols of Islamic culture, which she considers part of the despicable and inferior cultures. This upset her so much, it made her mad with anger. This madness and frenzy clearly appears in this legal arsenal that I have adopted to discourage these Westerners from embracing Islam and put an end to the series of re-Islamization of Westerners of African and Asian origins and the spread of Islam among the indigenous Westerners.
The forces of Western imperialism never expected the children of Muslim immigrants to return to their mother culture. She was expecting that these children would continue to adhere to the noble and sublime Western culture - from her point of view, of course -. Nor did it ever occur to her that indigenous Westerners would embrace a culture she considered as vile and inferior as the culture of the religion of Islam. This is what shocked her and made her feel humiliated and pushed her to adopt a protectionist policy that limits the spread of Islamic culture over her western lands.
This protectionist policy aimed at stopping the advance of the Islamic culture is a legislative policy that contradicts the rights and freedoms that these forces claim to defend. But these are the forces of Western imperialism. They are hypocritical political regimes that do not have clear and solid principles. Her Lord is the Most High, the interest. And depending on the nature of this interest, its policies - whether internal or external - change and change. These forces defend religious and other freedoms when directed towards their interests. But when these rights and freedoms that it claims to defend go against one of its supreme interests, it does not hesitate for a second to violate it, justifying this violation by preserving the internal security and stability of its countries.
Zionism and Western Capitalism
The lobbies of Zionism and Western capitalism also played a pivotal role in the growing waves of prejudice against Islam and Muslims. The Zionist lobbies fear the loss of countries that are today their allies and defenders of the existence of Israel in the event that the majority of the population of these countries becomes Muslim, and what this situation will produce in terms of transformations in relations with the Zionist entity. That is why it exploits its networks - the media in particular - to incite Western peoples against the followers of the religion of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).
Islam in the French media
As for Western capitalist lobbies, they fear a day when Islamic customs will prevail in Western societies, which will negatively affect their economic interests, especially their investments in the areas of entertainment and other services (bars, gambling halls, discos, nightclubs…). The nature of these fears reminds us of the fears of investors in the manufacture and trade of idols - formerly Arabs and East Asians now, whether they are Buddhists or Hindus... - which the spread of Islam will cause harm to their pagan investments.
And less Western capitalist lobbies fewer big businessmen. And the fewer senior businessmen, the fewer the hands controlling the economy and their influence on the major publishing houses and the media (revenues of support and publicity...) and on the political decision makers (investment projects, tax revenues, loans and financial aid...) and the ability to put pressure on them and move them according to their capitalist interests .
Another factor that encouraged moving forward and enacting more Islamophobic policies was the fact that many Western societies no longer needed a Muslim population. Yesterday, the powers of Western imperialism were in need of labor to rebuild what was destroyed by World War II. It needed workers to work in industrial factories, construction workshops, blacksmithing, carpentry, and other professions that did not require high qualifications. That is why it opened its doors to African and Asian immigrants, who were mostly Muslims. She opened the door for them to be the new slaves of the West who accept to work in harsh conditions, to receive low wages, and to live in housing in disastrous conditions.
But today, after the children of these immigrants are demanding equality and the right to access high jobs and obtain the highest wages, it is now desiring their departure from its lands, especially since it has found in transferring its industrial activities to countries such as Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt as an alternative solution to obtain labor at a much lower cost than The minimum wage in force in Western countries.
Source : websites