The sorry split

We have reached the stage where it is Muslim World versus the Rest, and the centre of the battle is the Middle East

A February 6 headline from the national press: “Pakistan calls on world to combat Islamophobia”. The country’s ambassador to the United Nations has “called for action” to check the “disturbing trend” of Islamophobia in countries that should know better. Well, given the happenings in much of the world, inspired by a warped image of a major religion, this is a tough call.

A phobia is fear-driven, and obviously fear can lead to a form of hatred. From Indonesia right up to Nigeria, where Boko Haram has indulged in unspeakable acts of barbarism, largely ignored, what has come to be known as the ‘Muslim world’ is in turmoil. We have almost actually reached the stage where it is the Muslim World versus the Rest. The centre of the battle is the Middle East where the Arab Spring has morphed into the Arab Calamity. More than enough has been and continues to be said and written on that particular plague.

Had the calamitous in-fighting within this Muslim world remained within its borders, there may have been no need to plead to the Rest to curb the sporadic Islamophobia, spurred on justifiably by fear of Muslim militancy. But the militants have great expansionist ideas and their xenophobic activities have spread fear — often quite naturally leading to hatred. Europe has suffered at the hands of militants, as has the mighty US and numerous other areas and countries. So can they really be blamed for fearing those who operate in the name of religion, who call themselves Muslims, and who murder, maim, destroy and wreak havoc, driven by tortured, warped and brainwashed minds?

There are many who fear, and some hate, who voice their fear and hatred because Muslims have committed acts of violence within their territories. The leaderships of certain of the countries where fear prevails have often bent over backwards to mollify and pander to Muslim beliefs and customs. When Hassan Rouhani, president of Iran, visited Italy recently, the Italians draped classical statues that celebrate the human body so that no offence could be caused. And foreign visitors to the Kingdom have always suitably subjugated themselves to its mores. The Muslim World does not reciprocate, it is unbending.

Mustafa Akyol, a Turkish writer and journalist, recently commented on how Muslims wish to believe that their religion is one of peace, but how “politics has poisoned Islam”, that it has been misused and that “the conflation of religion and politics poisons Islam itself” — a pretty unwholesome state of affairs which many sane, who are derogated by the word ‘liberal’, would probably agree with.

Take just one member of the Muslim World, this Islamic Republic. It has its own share of Militant-Islamophobia, it is fearful of many of its own fellow religionists and citizens whose rigid and dangerous brand of religion run amok around the land on sporadic killing sprees and destruction. An entire generation of schoolchildren and college-going youths are traumatised by fear, as are their parents and relatives, because they have no state protection. And what and who are behind this fear — militants operating in the name of Islam. So when Pakistan tells the world it should curb Islamophobia, it should consider its own backyard.

Even the press is tainted by a phobia, fear of the militant intolerant mind. It has no option but to indulge in an extremely ridiculous form of self-censorship lest it be subjected to violent reprisals as it often has been. It has to close its mind and the minds of its readers to any form of debate on religion or the land’s current social norms. Like the Italians and Rouhani, it shrouds in white words and images that for centuries have been wondered at and accepted by what is known as civilisation.

There is no way out — at least in the foreseeable future. What passes for leadership of the political variety is beset by the same phobia and in self-preservation mode can but tread with the utmost care.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th, 2016.

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