Defense Against Disaster – A Response to the Systematic Vilification of Islām and its Prophet (peace be upon him) in the Modern Age” By Shaykh Faheem
The modern age is one which on one hand, preaches that empirical knowledge is the only true means of distinguishing between reality and falsehood, but on the other hand, it has witnessed an increasing fascination with the world of ‘fantasy’ and ‘fairy tales’.
Ask any rational person for the criteria to determine what is ‘real’ and what is not, and the response will usually resound to the effect that if one cannot have any sensory perception of a thing, proving its reality is almost impossible. In the end, distinguishing between falsehood and reality boils down to one’s method of interception of that knowledge, which in turn gives one the understanding of what is definite and indefinite.
Knowledge then, is the acquaintance of facts, truths or principles derived from experience or report. In simpleton terms, we may either acquire knowledge through our own experience of seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, smelling etc. or by a transmission of information (from one person or from one source to another) which is then intercepted by the same means of initial acquisition i.e. sight, hearing, etc.
Hence if someone makes an Islāmophobic statement, it is merely that person’s ‘knowledge’ regarding the ‘information’ about what he / she ‘believes’ to be ‘facts’ or ‘truths’ by that person’s experience, or by the ‘reports’ of what has been seen or heard, etc. by oneself or by others.
Surprisingly, majority of people who harbour such hatred -in the form of Islamophobia-, usually possess neither personal experience of the accusations they pose against Muslims, nor have they verified the reports. They are merely ‘mockingbirds’ of the concrete jungle, who simply mimic what they ‘hear’ and thus play a huge cog in the Islāmophobia industry, and must therefore take responsibility for their role in driving hate crimes against Muslims.
Essentially, this tells us that in a time of science and atheism, which preaches the epistemology that knowledge of a thing is only true if it is acquired through sense perception, yet the same ‘rational’ beings have no qualms in ‘believing’ any information they receive about Islām and Muslims, so long as the ‘report’ paints Muslims in the garb of negativity.
The hypocrisy is mystifying to say the least, because these are the
very people who will defend their own beliefs and ideologies with every
ounce of their energy, yet they are unapologetic in disrespecting
another religion based on ‘unknown’ or ‘untested’ information. Is this
what the world is meant to embrace as ‘ultimate truth?’
Speaking on the side of Islām however, its socio-moral code has even
taken this factor into consideration by advising its reader as follows,
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِن جَاءَكُمْ فَاسِقٌ بِنَبَإٍ فَتَبَيَّنُوا أَن تُصِيبُوا قَوْمًا بِجَهَالَةٍ فَتُصْبِحُوا عَلَىٰ مَا فَعَلْتُمْ نَادِمِينَ
“O People who Believe! If any miscreant brings you some tidings, verify it, lest you unknowingly cause suffering to some people, and then remain repenting for what you did.”
The Qur’ān induces the rational faculty by stating that the ‘source’ of information must be considered first, and if the source is unreliable then it follows that the information is unreliable too. In order to resolve the question pertaining to the validity of the information received, the Qur’ān commands that we ‘verify’ the news before settling upon a position which we may regret at a later stage if the information turns out to be fictitious.
Thus, when an ‘educated’ Muslim receives news which may be offensive or detrimental to an unknown party, then the educated Muslim is not to take a preconceived position on the matter until the information is verified.
Now that we have understood the Islāmic position on dealing with
matters of this nature, let us progress to juxtapose that view against
the method employed by the secular world thus far.
The secular world has synonymized the word ‘Islām’ with the word
‘terror’. Many scientists, atheists and apologists have echoed these
vile statements and have accused Islām of being a religion which
encourages its adherents to ‘Kill all infidels’.
As a result of this systematic vilification of Islām and Muslims via
propagation of flagrant misinformation, this generally held secular view
regarding the Qur’ān has not been verified, yet it has been accepted as
well as propagated through news media and social media to the extent of
people or companies arranging paid adverts in public spaces to demonize
Muslims.
Thus, the forthcoming chapter titled “False Allegations Against Islām
and its Prophet (peace be upon him)” will focus on a response to clarify
that the allegations are either conjectural, calculated, or ignorantly
propagated amongst people.
We are obliged to ask, ‘What then, was the verification process to
‘justify’ such actions by these supposedly rational human beings?”
“What are the rights of Muslims in this regard, if indeed they do possess any?”
“Why have the allegers not questioned the authenticity of that message yet?”
Contrarily, there are thousands of videos documenting Israeli soldiers clearly perpetuating hate crimes against unarmed Palestinian children. There are videos of reporters dressed clearly in the attire to suggest that they are from the media, but have been killed by ‘sniper’ fire. There are doctors, nurses, by-standers who have been killed for having committed no crime besides aiding the weak and oppressed against oppression!
When these videos are ‘seen’ by those who claim to have the greatest intelligence gathering services in the world, or by those who claim to be advocates of Human Rights and Democracy, or to those ‘sensible’ human beings who address themselves as ‘atheists’ or ‘scientists’, why then are these Zionist Jews not considered to be ‘terrorists’ as well? Does the scope for terrorism differ based upon ‘who’ commits these heinous crimes? It certainly seems so, and anyone who is willing to tell the truth aka ‘whistle blowers’, will have paid a heavy price.
Once again, seeking the truth, or speaking the truth seems to be a massive problem for this secular age? We reiterate, that it may be –and God Knows best- that the intent to destroy religion is in actuality a plan to change the way people perceive ‘truth’ from ‘falsehood’.
In relation to why a Zionist Jew can be confident enough to do as he
pleases with no concern of backlash whatsoever, is perhaps to do with
the tight-knit laws against “Anti-Semitism”?
We thus motivate our readers to pressure their leaders into exhaustively
working towards a bill which protects Muslims too from such slanderous
allegations. Perhaps a bill that reads, “The Islāmophobia Act”. Of
course, one can only dream of such equality of human rights…right?
When we compare the number of Jews against the number of Muslims, we
will deduce that the perception which leads people to Islāmophobia is
‘illogical’, and ‘untrue’. This can be deduced by a mere comparison of
numbers.
Israeli news agency, Haaretz released statistics regarding the global Jewish population in 2018 according to the calculations of Professor Sergio Della Pergola, Israel’s leading expert on Jewish demography. They refer to what is defined as the “core Jewish population” of the world,
“On the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the world Jewish population totals 14.7 million – hardly changed (an increase of 0.01 percent) from a year ago, according to figures published Sunday by the Jewish Agency….Of the total, 6.6 million Jews (45 percent) live in Israel, and among the 8.1 million Jews who live outside Israel, 5.7 million (70 percent) live in the United States.”
In contrast of the above figures, Muslims make up approximately 1,78 billion of the world’s population, yet almost no aid is offered to them when they are thrown in concentration camps for the only crime of being Muslim? Why so? If ‘terrorism’ was the main objective being taught to every Muslim, then surely 1,78 billion Muslims would have been committing acts of terrorism daily? Why is it that from the entire population of Muslims, only a few percent of that figure harbours extremist inclinations, yet the entire Muslim world is painted with the brush of terrorism?
This is what ‘Islamophobia’ is all about. It is an ‘irrational’ fear of the global populace of Muslims, based on the isolated actions of a meagre few, who have not understood the religion themselves. Until and unless a genuine bias free attempt is made, then the allegers are in no position to comment on the matter at all.
Thus, Islāmophobia is responsible for many hate crimes across the world yet there is almost no protection offered to Muslims for this illogical victimization. Nonetheless, from our perspective, we shall endeavour to at least refute these allegations from a theological standpoint so as to ensure that the excuse of ‘ignorance’ can no longer be utilized as a scapegoat when apprehended!
