Islamophobia is a term thrown around these days to condemn anyone who dares to tell the truth about the source of global terrorism. The Organization of Islamic Conferences (OIC), for example, claims that it is “offensive," "irresponsible" and "insensitive" to describe the self-professed Muslim jihadists who kill in the name of Allah as Islamist fundamentalist extremists or Muslim terrorists. But that is exactly who they are.
Is the OIC right in saying that “Islam often conjures in the western minds images of authoritarian government, subjugation of women, cruel punishments of Sharia Law and violence in the popular Western mind?" Yes they are, but that is not evidence of Western bigotry or a “clash of ignorance,” as the OIC would have us believe. Every one of these images mirrors the truth about the unfortunate state of Muslim life in much of the Middle East, Asia and Africa today.
No amount of Islamo-propaganda can obscure the fact that extremist Muslims kill other Muslims with whom they disagree as well as the "infidels" whom they so despise. Moderate Muslim leaders who believe in more modern, pluralistic values and who would criticize the extremists if they had a chance cower in silence in fear of their lives. When a government run by strict adherence to Islamic law takes control, those who do not conform are jailed or executed. Women are treated like chattel. And, sadly, Islam has been used to justify legions of al Qaeda and Shiite fanatics to fight to the death – theirs and ours – in order to establish their vision of a global Muslim caliphate...
...The standard Islamo-propaganda line, by the secular left, is that Western foreign policy has caused the pent-up hostility of many Muslims. Israel and Iraq are the standard bogeymen. Of course, they do not explain how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or American forces in Iraq have anything whatsoever to do with the Islamic fanatics’ brutal assaults on “non-believers” in far removed places like India and the Philippines, as well as the regular slaughter of fellow innocent Muslims whom they believe are apostates.
It is always much easier to play the victim rather than look deeply inside oneself for the truth. Iran’s official news agency reported last month, for example, an alliance between the far-left antiwar movement in Great Britain and a new Muslim network that is being launched “to help strengthen the country's anti-war campaign at a time of intensifying Islamophobic attacks against the 1.8 million community.” The fact is that Jews are four times more likely to be attacked because of their religion than Muslims in Great Britain, according to figures compiled by the police. One in 400 Jews compared to one in 1,700 Muslims are likely to be victims of "faith hate" attacks every year, the Telegraph reported last December. But Islamaophobia – not anti-Semitism – is all we are told that we should worry about...
Read the rest of Joseph Klein's important and plain-speaking article in FrontPageMagazine.com right here.
