The New Nation - Internet Edition

Dr. Mohamed Elmasry

Islamophobia is morally wrong, period. It is a detestable violation of the basic human right to live free of discrimination and intolerance. Islamophobia has had a devastating effect on Muslim minorities everywhere in the Western world and its poison has spread to global society at large. Since 9/11 there has been a shocking increase in violence and discriminatory actions against Muslims and their places of worship, ranging from the denial of local permits to build mosques, to brutal personal attacks and vandalism, including arson. On July 8, 2008 Press TV of Italy reported European Affairs Minister Andrea Rochi as saying; "Action must be taken so that mosque supervisors recognize Israel. We must force those who do not recognize Israel to leave the mosques." Press TV's commentary added;

"Many Muslims around the world do not recognize Israel, saying the United Nations had no right to allow the establishment of a state in a land that has long belonged to the Palestinians. " Since 9/11, it has also been commonplace to deny basic human rights to Muslims illegally detained. Many have undergone torture at the hands of their captors and such practices are casually accepted as the "new normal" in American-run prisons at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, and in other secret American prisons around the world.

Keeping Muslims behind bars for years at a time without any proven criminal charges is another all-too-common travesty of justice. Mohammad Momin Khawaja, a Canadian citizen, was incarcerated for four years (from March 2004) in Ottawa; he was the first Canadian to be detained and prosecuted under this country's hastily concocted 2001 Anti-terrorism Act. In Canada and other Western countries, immigration and citizenship policies have been (and are still being) changed to discourage or prevent Muslims from entering. On Saturday July 12, 2008 The Guardian reported that a French court denied French nationality to a veiled Muslim woman on the grounds that she was "too submissive" to her husband and that her religious rituals were "incompatible" with French values. In a ruling cited by the newspaper Le Monde, the Council of State said; "She lives in total submission to her male relatives t She seems to find this normal and the idea of challenging it has never crossed her mind." The Guardian story continued: "Moroccan-born Faiza Mabchour, 32, has been living in France since 2000, is married to a French national and speaks fluent French t The mother-of-three has applied for French nationality, but her application was rejected in 2005 on grounds of 'insufficient assimilation.' She appealed to the Council of State, which last month approved the rejection."

Yet France is home to nearly seven million Muslims-the biggest Muslim minority in Europe.

Islamophobia also leads to discrimination in hiring and to the widespread public image-distortion of Muslims and their views, especially regarding issues such as democracy, women, and Western culture. Conversions of Muslims to other faiths (especially Christianity) have been made much easier.

Within the Muslim community, health care professionals, social workers, psychotherapists and related vocations have reported increasing rates of anxiety, depression, divorce, and loss of identity-especially among youth.

On July 24, 2008 the Vancouver Sun reported: "A Muslim Canadian employed at a biotech company on the University of BC campus has been awarded nearly $12,000 after the BC Human Rights Tribunal found he was a victim of racial profiling by colleagues. The profiling led to him being reported to the RCMP as a suspect in the 9/11 terrorist attacks." The victim, Ghassan Asad, was summarily fired from his job at Kinexus Bioinformatics in March 2003. Spokesperson Abraham Okazaki said the case was so egregious that if it could, the Tribunal would have awarded Mr. Asad much more in compensation for the insensitivity and lack of care by Kinexus Bioinformatics Corporation' s senior management. Discrimination against Muslims by government officials-including security, intelligence, and police forces-is on the increase. In July 2008, with the release of video excerpts from the interrogation of Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen detained without charge for more than 2,500 days by the U.S. military in Guantanamo Bay, millions now know that Khadr was frequently abused by his American captors.

The onetime child-soldier, now barely 21, has been kept in solitary confinement and deprived of sleep for weeks at a time. The Canadian government had full knowledge of this abusive treatment as far back as 2003, yet continually assured Canadians that the teen-aged Khadr (then still a minor) was being "treated humanely."

Islamophobia also creates a debilitating collective "silencing dynamic," making it almost impossible for Muslim groups to participate, even minimally, in any open democratic discussion. The current mantra claiming "the remedy for hate-speech is more and better speech," is in fact both false and misleading. The reality is that those who are expected to respond with "more and better speech" cannot do so in today's public forum. Or if they do speak out, their words are often dismissed as lacking credibility. Islamophobia makes hate-motivated actions against Muslims not merely acceptable, but even justifiable. On Feb. 26, 2008 ABC TV News said of Islamophobia that it "has entered the American vernacular, and the anti-Muslim attitudes and prejudice it describes remain common." The news network experimentally posed this question to viewers: "What if you witnessed 'Islamophobia' in action and saw someone being victimized because of someone else's prejudices? What would you do?" The network then showed a bakery in Texas that was outfitted with hidden cameras. Two actors played, respectively, a female customer wearing the hijab (a traditional Muslim head scarf) and a sales clerk who refused to serve her. The sales clerk started spewing common anti-Muslim slurs: "Get back on the camel and go back to wherever you came from t You got that towel on your head t I don't know what's underneath your dress t Just please take your business and go elsewhere with it." ABC reported that "The other customers seemed to hear the exchange, but they barely looked toward our actors. When no one came to her defense, Sabina made a direct appeal to one customer, asking, "Sir, would you mind ordering me an apple strudel? That's why I am here." Though visibly shaken by the hateful words, the man gave Sabina the cold shoulder, completed his purchase, and walked out of the bakery. "I really think that a person who owns his own business should be able to say who they sell to," he explained in his defense after ABC revealed the experiment.

The network commentator pointed out that the "real" customer was wrong: it is illegal for public establishments to deny service based on someone's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, according to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Another male customer said, "She wasn't dressed right; if I was running the place, I'd do the same thing."

Worse still, ABC added; "After Sabina left the bakery, seemingly frustrated and empty-handed, one man thanked the [actor] sales clerk for his discriminatory behavior t He then gave our actor a thumbs-up, not once, but twice."

(Dr. Mohamed Elmasry is national president of the Canadian Islamic Congress. The views expressed here are his own. He can be reached at np@canadianislamicc ongress.com)