Our Prime Minister, Jacinda Arden’s much revered speech to the Parliament following the Christchurch terrorist attack excluded the word Islamophobia.
Even Golriz Ghahraman, in her otherwise brilliant speech at the Aotea Sqaure rally in Auckland said: “Let’s face it, they don’t really care if we are Muslims or not, this is about race” (note this part of Golriz’s speech does not appear in the written copy of her speech available on The Spinoff site).
I admire Golriz greatly but on this issue we disagree. I think “they” do care very much about whether or not we are Muslims.
Remember what Trump said: ” Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States”.
He couldn’t be more specific. It was Muslims he was targeting for political expediency because he knew it was Muslims who were feared most- despite reports by the Anti Defamation League (ADL) that shows three quarters of terrorist deaths in the US over the past decade were carried out by far-right domestic white nationalists and only a quarter by Muslims.
So where does this idea of a “Muslim threat” comes from?
The media has had a lot to do with shaping negative attitudes towards Muslims. A recent University of Alabama study found terrorist attacks by Muslim extremists receive 357 percent more media coverage than attacks committed by non-Muslims.
Similarly, in France and Germany, it is not just immigration, but Muslim immigration in particular, that is a top political issue because Muslims are falsely regarded as a distinctive group, more prone to acts of terrorism.
A study in the UK, the biggest of its kind, found quarter of British children aged between 10 and 16 believe Islam encourages terrorism.
In the same survey, 37% of British respondents said they would support policies to reduce the number of Muslims in the country.
These Anti-Muslim attitudes don’t form by themselves. Deep-seated prejudices against Muslims have a long history and are closely linked to misrepresentation and demonization of Muslims in both Western literature and Hollywood movies.
Dr. Jack Shaheen, studied the misrepresentation of Arabs in films for thirty years.
Of the 950 films viewed and analysed by Shaheen, only 5% showed Muslims in a positive or neutral light- the other 95% vilified and demonized them. No other group of people, Shaheen reported, has ever been vilified so persistently for so long in that many films.
This negative stereotypical portrayal of Muslims has helped shape a prejudicial view of Muslims which perceives them to be a threat to Western values.
The Christchurch attacker’s mind was clearly saturated with Islamophobic fear of Muslims.
I have refused to look at the attacker’s manifesto but had a long discussion with someone who had read it.
She hesitantly expressed her fear that the fertile Muslims coming to New Zealand will eventually take over the country.
The Muslim, “takeover” fears have their origin in Europe where the term “Muslim invasion” has been manufactured to stoke fears of Muslims and where the Muslim demographic has been held up as a central concern of most far-right movements.
The fact is that Europeans greatly overestimate the share of Muslims in the total population. In France, where the Christchurch attacker reportedly found his inspiration, the actual Muslim population is only 6%, while a survey showed the French assumed it to be at 31%.
Pew Research Centre reports “Muslims to be a relatively small minority in Europe, making up roughly 5% of the population”. Muslim invasion? Hardly.
Also, the whole idea of Muslim community, especially in a European context, is a fantasy. There is no such a thing as one Muslim community. Muslims are immensely divided in their ethnicity and practice of their faith. Muslims come from different countries, reside in different places, speak different languages, have a different, sometimes non-existent, relationship with their faith and hold vastly different cultural values.
It is therefore incorrect to encage the Muslim immigrants in a homogenous Muslim Community, supposedly closed and fixed forever.
Why are we not talking about Turkish, Afghani, Somali and Iranian immigrants, for instance, instead of melting everyone together as Muslim immigrants?
Speaking constantly of Muslim community overlooks the clear diversity among Muslims and also the fact that, like me, many Muslims identify with Islamic traditions and culture but are not defined by it.
The Christchurch attacker’s mind was clearly saturated with Islamophobic propaganda and hate. He saw all Muslims as homogenous machines subordinate to Islam and preprogrammed to be violent enemies of the West.
It is this deeply bigoted view and the industry that funds and peddles it that we need to address.
Our media outlets and political leaders can help. We saw in Christchurch how quickly, in a matter of days in fact, hearts and minds can change.
We now need to ensure that our resolve to stamp out Islamophobia and other forms of hate remains as strong and as spectacular as our loving response to the Christchurch Mosque Attack.
I don’t think we can control people who specialise in slander and hate. We can’t just wave our fingers at it and make facial features we have to look at it (white supremacy) and respond to it but we can not take them seriously to the point we talk about Tarrant. Apart from the problems of islamophobia in Syria and the murders, separate from that is islamophobia in New Zealand and the effects that is having on censorship and security that’s apart of the global war on terror and there’s been one device to deal with it and it’s lie. Don’t find out what’s going on just lie, and New Zealand isn’t keeping 100% to that script. Every single time we dose the war on terror with lies it expands. Bush era WMDs lies and expansion. Russia did it lies and expansion. Syrian chemical attacks lies and expansion. Can we learn some thing from that and say okay, every time we censor and increase security and lie about it we expand the war on terror. We do hear from our own security experts that say we should handle this rationally and have a Royal Commission so long as we are concerned with the security of the people.
Probably the best description of media instigated Islamophobia i have read to date. As with many things the facts just destroy the commonly accepted narrative. Hey but who is interested in facts? “secret sources anyone” We should not forget that our own repeaters have played a large part in spreading this false impression, (direct links to cnn msnbc etc.) Let us also not forget that our armed forces are still involved in the BS american war on terror, invading whatever country (more often than not Islamic) happens to suit at the time.
Brzezinski fired up the Mujaheddin to give the Russians their Vietnam in Afghanistan. It was successful.
With the subsequent Russian collapse a decade later and the shift of balance to a uni-polar world of US ascendancy there was no enemy to justify the excesses of the military industrial complex.
Presto! What strikes fear into the heart of White Anglo-Saxon Protestants more than the threat of those religious zealots and “the clash of civilisations”?
Some of the parts of the Koran aren’t that helpful in disabusing the generated fear but most Muslims are moderates. So, prime the activation of the extremist Wahhabists to ratchet up the fear a notch or two and the phobia germinates.
It’s a beautiful construction. You can imagine the diagrams and PowerPoint presentations in the rooms there geopolitics and strategy are divined. Schisms exploited here, events plotted there.
Divide and conquer, plus ce change.
Neither are some parts of the bible. In particular the end time prophecies and the rush now for fundamentalist Christians to bring about those conditions. I guess they arent too pleased by the length of time its taking god to reveal itself and want to hurry things along a bit with a good old fire and brimstone apocalypse. I mean its in the bible so must be true
Originally mailed at 11am???
Thank you Donna. Probably the best description of media instigated Islamophobia i have read to date. As with many things the facts just destroy the commonly accepted narrative. Hey but who is interested in facts? “secret sources anyone” We should not forget that our own repeaters have played a large part in spreading this false impression, (direct links to cnn msnbc etc.) Let us also not forget that our armed forces are still involved in the BS american war on terror, invading whatever country (more often than not Islamic) happens to suit at the time.
Never believed 9/11 was a Controlled Demolition until I began researching it myself 3 years ago, and Wesley Clark’s comments top the Story off ?
The writer understates the Muslim population of Europe. See https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/11/29/5-facts-about-the-muslim-population-in-europe/
France is currently 8.8% not 6%. The Europeans worry about respective breeding rates which would see Muslims double in the next 20 years. A rather significant demographic shift which not everyone is comfortable with.
Poor old Jon… His daughter might choosee to marry a Muslim boy. All I can say is hooray to that! What courage!
If you were a true leftie you would reject religion, full stop, and believe in socialism or communism. But the ‘left’ has decided to go with minorities, their last hope to get votes, so they defend Islam while Muslims are very intolerant towards homosexuality, same sex marriage and the likes.
How the hell can you reconcile such views between your voting base, that is still to be explained to me.
Marc, I think you’ll find intolerance is not the sole preserve of muslims. Re-read your comments to find out what I’m getting at.
Oh dear Marc. You are a very angry man. Im not an accountant and dont generally try to tally votes. Mostly, I’m “against dickeads such as yourself. What was that ridiculus list of rants you put up on open mike yesterday? I could almost see you frothing at the mouth.
You are the kind of person that drags us down, full stop.
I appreciate the points you are making, but get real, there have been terror attacks by islamists in Europe, less so in the US.
Remember the murders in Paris? Remember the truck in Marseille killing many, driven by an IS supporter of sorts?
There is an ugly side to Islam, that is Islamism, and radicalism, where they interpret Sharia law in the wider sense, basically supporting and executing punishment also the Old Testament of the Bible supported.
So we have a small Muslim community in New Zealand, that has proved to be peaceful and productive to society. That is good and deserves recognition. Also are Muslims here, in their majority now grateful for the support by the PM and others, for the pain they suffered due to the Christchurch terror attacks.
Let us not forget though, that in some other places, where Muslims are representing a larger part of society (e.g. France, Germany), there have also been radicals at work and succeeding in turning Muslims against the rest of the population, and other radicals have been successful in turning their supporters against Muslims.
In some Muslim dominated countries there is NO religious freedom, even in places where Christianity has existed for about two thousand years, i.e. Egypt, Christians live in fear of radicals of the Muslim majority. In Iraq most Christians have left, due to fear of radicals and even the state, now being dominant Muslim and having less tolerance for those of other belief.
Look at the tensions in Syria, Lebanon, in other places, including Iran, where Christians and Jews have to defend their existence, that is where Islam has shown its ugly face, the terror of the majority.
ISIS were just the worst and most extreme expression of Islam, there are much better examples of where Muslims show some tolerance.
We have to be mindful of this also, it is not all as clear cut as it seems, Muslims in NZ are a small minority and doing all to fit in, only few are perhaps less tolerant. But if they would perhaps represent ten or more percent of the population, you would soon have certain issues with them demanding moral and other things to be enforced, that would go against our own culture and tradition.
And also get this straight, disliking or hating people of a religion is not ‘racism’, it is hatred towards a religion, nothing else. There ware white, black, yellow and other Muslims all over the world, so to make this a race issue is wrong and not correct.
Oh please! Get real with your definition of racism. Even in segregated US there were honarary whites. Some Maori All Blacks were honarary whites in South Africa. It doesnt mean there is no racism. Do you really think that a person could say I hate the Jewish religion and not be labelled anti semitic? So Marc you are a racist. Youre just going to have to live with it
Learn to spell correctly thanks, it may help. But still I read no sense.
“Look at the tensions in Syria, Lebanon, in other places, including Iran, where Christians and Jews have to defend their existence, that is where Islam has shown its ugly face, the terror of the majority.”
No Marc, the reason for violence in the middle east is not due to islam. You should look closer to home wgere the US and UK have interfered in tge affairs of various countries, toppling govts and supporting dictatorships. The islamic repupblic of Iran was formed after the overthrow of the despotic Shah of Iran. The shah was installed in a western backed coup that overthrew thecdemocrstically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953
The taliban seized power in afghanistan because of direct US support for so-called ” mujahideen” which led to the Soviet withdrawal and an islamic republic taking power
In every case, Jason, Iain, Marc, etc, it was western interference that resulred in unintended consequences
Those muslims who’ve escaped and migrated to NZ as refugees want no part of the power-games that’ve destroyed their societies
Conflating their muslim religion is obscene irony considering what we in the west have wrought in their countries
Well put mjolnir
Yeah, right:
‘Spread of Islam’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spread_of_Islam
“As of 2015, there were 2 billion Muslims,[5][6] with one out of four people in the world being Muslim,[7] making Islam the second-largest religion in the world.[8] Out of children born from 2010 to 2015, 31% were Muslim. Babies born to Muslims are expected to outnumber those to Christians by 2035.[9]”
And Islam was spread more likely due to worldly strategies than by conversion and the likes:
“Conversion initially was neither required nor necessarily wished for: “(The Arab conquerors) did not require the conversion as much as the subordination of non-Muslim peoples. At the outset, they were hostile to conversions because new Muslims diluted the economic and status advantages of the Arabs.”[12]”
At least the Muslims taught the filthy and smelly Europeans to wash daily, thus adopt more hygienic lifestyles.
Getting sick of the mask of a reasonable man Marc? Feeling a little suffocated and starting to choke on your own vomit? Just tear it off man! Really let that hatred out! It might do some good though I doubt it but at least everyone else will know to stay clear
I recommend you see a counsellor, to learn some mindfulness and relaxation techniques, SB.
The Islamic Republic in Iran was the thought out end result of hard line, conservative Mullahs, who outsmarted the more liberal, and socialist Iranians that also participated in the overthrow of the Shah.
You can hardly justify the Mullah’s regime by saying that was the logical and acceptable only alternative to a regime by the authoritarian, western backed Shah.
There could have been other alternatives, but the religiously motivated opposition won in the end, leading to a system that is known as one that kills a lot of people through harsh punishment.
Human rights have a different meaning in today’s Iran of the Mullahs than they have in other places closer to home.
By the way I know some Iranians that came to NZ after fleeing that regime there, and they were not loving the Shah either.
Some figures for Europe, perhaps a bit out of date (prior the refugee influx from Syria and so), but putting things into some perspective:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_European_Union
The issues with some Muslims may arise due to failed ‘integration’, even after one or two generations, and due to high concentration of certain populations in certain parts of larger cities, exploited by some who may try to radicalise youth.
Overall Europe is largely ‘Christian’ or non believers these days.
Some countries have higher concentrations of Muslims, others less so.
Given social and economic changes, some will indeed try and find a scapegoat for their problems, hence increased ‘nationalism’ and mistrust of the establishment and their press.
You’re a few years late with your ideas on assimilation. It’s a complete failure and has serious cosequences when people run up against the type of racist that you are where you look down your nose and make sure they know that you know that the colour of their skin isn’t quite right and so it doesnt matter how hard they try there will always be some little thing that still isnt quite right and now they dont even have their own culture to support them. I suppose you think the ideas of taking the children away from there parents to bring up ‘properly’in some institution that abuses them physically and sexually is worth having another go at too. You know. Proper assimilation.
You keep calling me a ‘racist’, without even knowing me, and you are intentionally misrepresenting comments I have made, ranting on like an obsessed person.
If you are to determined to defend a multicultural society, or hell bent on creating one in New Zealand, just do your calculations, work out the percentages of populations on the planet, that are Chinese, Indian, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Arab, Turkish, Russian, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Brazilian, Norwegian, Swedish, Haussa, Massai, Zulu, American Indian and whatsoever ethnic and/or cultural group you can find, and convince Immigration NZ to ensure that a representative number of immigrants from each such group of persons is ensured entry into this country.
Will the population you may wish to create also be sustainable, some may ask?
Oh, I forgot, maybe consider Tangata Whenua, how high is their global percentage? Maybe minute, so give them the space and rights according to their global population percentage then.
I wonder how they will view your ideas and plans, when coming with your determination to have a representative New Zealand UN type multicultural population.
Assimilation is not necessarily the solution, but people need to adhere to the law on an equal footing, so special considerations cannot be had before the law (based on religion, culture or individual preferences). If you allow too much diversity, then you may have little true unity in the end.
So a population needs to feel to have sufficient in common, and in some places the people may feel that some imbalances are evolving.
Pointing out such facts has nothing to do with ‘racism’.
Comments are closed.