As I am writing these lines an extra ordinary session of OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) is in progress on 22nd of March. Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi is attending this important session in Istanbul. Turkey, being the OIC Summit Chair, has called upon holding an emergency meeting to discuss the increasing violence based on Islamophobia, xenophobia and racism, particularly the terrorist attack that targeted two mosques in New Zealand on 15 March 2019. Apart from the OIC members, the representatives of the United Nations, the European Union and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) were also invited to the meeting. It was a right move for calling upon such OIC session along with world’s other representatives organizations since the nature of the terror act was so brutal that every peace-loving nation and people across the world were shocked. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern referred to the attacks as one of New Zealand’s darkest days and termed the alleged shooter a “Terrorist”. Being a collective forum of Islamic nations, it was the ultimate responsibility of OIC nations to sit together and set the path and line of actions for future.
The Christchurch shooter Brenton Harrison Tarrant, a 28-year old Australian, allegedly recorded his beliefs in a 73-page manifesto titled “The Great Replacement”, The great replacement is a right-wing conspiracy theory written by a French author Renaud Camus which states that the white Catholic French population and white Christian European population at large, is being systematically replaced with non-European people, specifically Arab/ Berber Middle Eastern, North African and Sub-Saharan African populations, through mass migration and demographic growth. It associates the presence of Muslims in France and Europe with potential danger and destruction of French and general European culture and civilization. The conspiracy theory commonly apportions blame to a global and liberal elite, such as Brussels and the European Union, which is portrayed as directing a planned and deliberate plot or scheme to carry out the replacement of European peoples.
The alleged shooter chose a very symbolic technique to demonstrate his brutal act. He named all historic wars on his assault rifle where Muslims were defeated along with mass murderers who committed genocide against Muslims. The wars lost by Muslims were fought in Spain (Odo the great), France (Charles Martel, battle of Tours) and siege of Vienna (1683). The other mass shooters were mentioned predominantly for events that occurred in the Norway and Montreal etc. This was a clear message to the world that this act was committed under extreme hatred and violent ideology. He indicated that he was very much in contact with other white supremacist organizations and circles that believe in the great replacement theory.
Adding another fact on table, the famous clash of civilization theory presented by Samuel Huntington in early 90&’s hint towards such clash amongst civilizations due to various demographic factors, mass migrations, poverty, wars, conflicts, racial imbalance and colonization of resources. Although the motive of this theory by Mr. Huntington is not known but one thing becomes clear. There might be lot of bloodshed foreseen in the future as hinted in the book. The white population is under decline due to many social, moral and economic factors. On the other hand, the non-white population is growing, especially in the Muslim world. Many surveys have been conducted which show increasing population of the nonwhite’s and Muslims in the North America, Europe and Australian continents.
Having mentioned the above background the reason why is Islamophobia increasing in western countries, the answer is not that simple. It has basically multiple factors including racism ideology, historical religious wars and subsequent events, white identity fear and contrasting views on Islam. The islamophobia is the fear, hatred or prejudice against the Islamic religion or Muslims generally based upon few conservative views that are present either historically or intentionally spread under an agenda. The western media is a prime tool that has been used mainly to spread Islamophobic agenda and hatred specially against Muslims.
The misunderstanding, hatred and prejudice between Europe and Islam is not something that has developed recently. There are some major events over the period of time that contributed to the White prejudice against Muslims. The following are a few examples:
1. The historical crusades between Seljuk Turks and Christian knights in the Middle East that lasted over 100 years and ended with Muslims capturing of Jerusalem.
2. The advancements of Ottoman Turks in Eastern and Central Europe
3. The conquest of Constantinople,
4. The Muslim conquest of Spain, Portugal and France.
The objective of the above summary is to facilitate the reader to grasp enough background of the issue and what we can expect in the coming future. The initial response of the international media on the Christchurch incident was very disappointing and biased. But the response from New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was stunning, particularly for international pundits when she announced the Christchurch shooter as a nameless “Terrorist” Similar remarks came from the Canadian Parliament when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who stood side by side with Jacinda Ardern and labeled Christchurch shooter as “Terrorist” The way Jacinda Ardern and other New Zealanders responded to the tragedy and showed their love and respect for Muslims is a unique historical event that will have decisive and long lasting impact as far as humanity is concerned.
The international establishment has made a lot of effort labelling Islam and Muslims as terrorists. But the Christchurch incidence has revealed another form of White Terror that was hidden for so long, it was very much present but never came in the lime light. Now the world has come to know that White extremism and supremacist ideology is also a great danger for the entire world since it can create terrorists like Brenton Tarrant, Alexandre Bissonnette and Anton Linden Patterson.
The international establishment who created islamophobia may now be worried as to how to suppress the effects of the Christchurch incident. Many western media pundits tried to portray Brenton Harrison Tarrant as a psychopath, a sick person, a lonely wolf and so on and so forth but no one deemed him as a “terrorist”. The reason is that their interest lies only in showing Muslims and Islam as terrorists and no one else regardless of the scale of brutality committed. The credit goes to New Zealand Prime Minster who took the lead and tried to reverse the tide followed by the Canadian PM.
Apart from some leading examples above, the impact on the rest of the world has been encouraging. There are media people that are openly condemning the shooting massacre and the white supremacist ideology. Many independent and non-partisan media groups started terming the Christchurch shooting as act of terrorism.
A few days ago, the Labor Party in the United Kingdom officially adopted the definition of Islamophobia, saying it was important to “build a common understanding of its causes and consequences, and express solidarity with Muslim communities”. The definition states: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness”. The world finally came to understand that Terrorism is not only particular to any religion but has specific reasons that must be addressed.
It is now the responsibility of United Nations and world leaders to initiate cross national and cross religious dialogues for better harmony along with clear definition of Terrorism. Any form of individual terrorism, group terrorism or state sponsored terrorism must cover the definition envelope. The role of media must be positive and it should not follow certain type of agenda.
Recently the world also witnessed Indian state sponsored terrorism in various parts of India, particularly in Kashmir. The tactics used by Indian occupation forces were brutal to suppress the Kashmiri independence struggle whose right was also recognized under UN Resolution. Hindu extremism and White supremacist ideology are equally dangerous for the human race. The encouraging part is that the world has started to realize that blaming Islam for any incident of violence to get political leverage will not sell anymore.
