.... We can expect a litany of ominous claims about Muslims during House homeland security Committee hearings on domestic Islamic radicalisation scheduled for this week. Representative King (Republican, New York) chairs that committee and has singled out Muslims as the source of potential terrorism on our shores. We were most recently exposed to a sustained public airing of wild-eyed Islamophobic storylines during the controversy over a proposed Islamic centre for lower Manhattan.
Seemingly moderate American Muslims were said to be secretly plotting to replace the US constitution with Sharia law. Civil rights organisations were portrayed as front organisations for violent foreign "jihadi" groups. Islam was revealed to be an inherently violent, even terroristic religion. Such slanders and conspiracy theories demonise Muslims and Islam. They would be laughable were they not so ubiquitous, and therefore dangerous.
[COMMENT] In my opinion, the way any criticism of Islam is labelled Islamophobia is a bigger problem than Islamophobia itself.
[COMMENT] Yes, anyone can see from the marvelous way in which non-Muslims are treated in Muslim-majority countries that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance. Incidently, is the Guardian bothering to report the latest church-burnings and deaths of Copts in Egypt. [Guardian Cif] Read more
