Published on 26^th August 2013

from www.radicalviews.org

A picture is worth a thousand words is the age-old proverb; an image can certainly convey many ideas instantly. However, a deceptive image tells a bigger story, it spawns lies and disseminates hate on a larger magnitude. It is the hate-filled Islamophobic fascists that have been busy tarnishing the Muslims as a whole, by cherry picking certain actions, hiding behind certain political terms, and operating behind the ubiquitous mass media.

Like most Muslims, I have become accustomed to seeing numerous anti-Islamic and anti-Muslim images appearing on social media networks, and the internet, such images would get censored if it were aimed at any other community. One would be hard pushed to find similar material appearing from Muslims; at most you see posters from victims and angry mobs on the streets demonstrating in response to an American-Israeli led atrocity or another video insulting Islam published in the name of free speech.

The above image depicting a woman with an acid-burnt face along with an adjacent image of burnt pages of the Quran, implying the two are somehow connected, and the caption boldly suggests the two are alternatives. It alleges those who are busy protesting against burning of the Quran are the same people who implicitly endorse burning a woman’s face with acid, because they do not display the same reaction. What about those who are not protesting against the burning of the Quran, are they all exonerated?

Numerous crimes takes place in all societies, thus, similar arguments can be construed against the very people who produced the above image. For example, there was no mass protests inside the US, the semi-naked Ukrainian based feminist group (Femen) were nowhere to be seen, when the 53-year-old man, Ariel Castro, was arrested and convicted for imprisoning three women in his home for a decade, and subjecting them to rapes, beatings that resulted in inducing 5 miscarriages in one woman; one of the neighbours saw one woman being paraded nude like a dog on a leash on her four limbs in the garden. Are we to conclude the majority of Americans approve of this, and that it is a norm within their society because of the absence of protests?

For sure, if Ariel Castro carried even a tenuous link to Islam, say he had a Muslim sounding name, Fox News, Robert Spencer, Pam Geller, Douglas Murray, Melanie Phillips and the rest of the far right bigots would have been out with their knives, painting it as a Muslim problem.

In fact, this sort of crime is not an isolated example, rape is rife within the US, and it is one of the leading countries in the world [2] along with India, South Africa, Sweden and other western countries. The US Justice department estimates 300,000 women a year are raped, actual reported cases are around 100,000 per year [2]. How ironic for the US to claim to be the saviour of ‘women’s rights’ abroad, whilst they cannot protect their security at home. They brag about their troops being sent to save Muslim women in Afghanistan and Iraq, yet, rape inside the US forces is epidemic [1]. As The Guardian reported in 2011 [1], women soldiers in Iraq faced a higher likelihood of being sexually assaulted by a colleague than they did of dying by enemy fire. Where are feminist voices now? They have been mute in comparison to the noise they make about Muslim women and their veils, when they have never had authorization to save Muslim women! Of course, rape occurs in all societies like many crimes, but to claim it is somehow a Muslim problem, and moreover for the US and other far right groups to point fingers is going beyond the limits of hypocrisy and denial of the facts.

For the same reason, driven by political point scoring much has been made of honour killings that take place within many societies, and unfortunately includes Muslims, this is largely fuelled by illiteracy and indigenous tribal culture, and Islamic teachings do not remotely condone these actions. However, domestic violence against women is just as pervasive in the enlightened west, if not more, than Muslim nations suffering from illiteracy and poverty. The violence may be induced by culture or by pimps and drug pushers; the end result is the same. Likewise young girls can be groomed and raped by street groomers or in children’s homes and convents, so why be so selective.

Whatever the arguments about rape and domestic violence, nobody can deny the US and some western societies have a severe problem with serial killers [3] that is unique, the number of women that have been abducted, tortured and killed by serial killers runs well into double digits, such phenomena has never been found in the Islamic world with the exception of one lone perpetrator in Pakistan, who killed boys. Using the dubious logic of the far right Islamophobic camp, there is stronger grounds for claiming that serial killers are a western cultural phenomenon that is rooted in liberal democracy and Judaeo-Christian values, then go on to blame the entire community. But no such analysis here from Muslims or any explanation from the usual suspects, instead we get the silence of the bigoted Islamophobes! I guess they are waiting for a Muslim serial killer to appear then we will hear from them.

Like terrorism, women’s rights and feminism are used as propaganda tools. Feminist groups make an issue of a piece of cloth worn to cover the head, whilst turn a blind eye to the heinous crimes on their door steps. The most bizarre is the semi-nude women from Ukraine taking up the cause of the Muslim women, as if they have mandate from them! If women’s rights were really a serious issue for them, as opposed to some cheap publicity and funds gained from Zionist and far right sources, they would have started at home by tackling the issue of trafficking of girls from Eastern Europe. Modern day feminism is primarily focused on targeting Islamic values and teachings, hence the disproportionate and skewed focus.

Yamin Zakaria (yamin@radicalviews.org)

Published on 26^th August 2013

London, UK

www.radicalviews.org

http://yaminzakaria.blogspot.com