Reykjavík Grapevine - 08.04.2016, Blaðsíða 12

I had been waiting for it to show up in Ice-
land for a long time—or, more ac-
curately, dreading the inevitabil-
ity of it. It already had a stronghold
in Europe, and I knew it was only
a matter of time. Then suddenly
it happened, following the City of
Reykjavík's decision to allocate a
plot of land for a mosque: a full-
fledged Islamophobic eruption.
Some pig heads were found
on the plot of land, and pages
of the Holy Quran desecrated
with blood. The usual rhetoric
about mosques being a breeding
ground for radical Islamism was
heard, and also the argument
that Islam is inherently violent.
The very notion that Icelandic
Muslims simply wanted an ap-
propriate place for worship was
hardly mentioned.
Before the 2014 municipal
elections, a new candidate joined
the Progressive Party, proposing
to withdraw the permit for the
mosque, assuring people that
her opinion was based on per-
sonal experience after living in
Saudi Arabia—not on prejudice.
This stance was received favour-
ably and her party won two seats,
contrary to earlier forecasts that
indicated that they might not
even get one.
The Ultimate “other”
The root cause of the friction
and rift between the West and
the Middle East, each consider-
ing the other a bitter rival, can
be traced back to early days of Is-
lam. Edward Said explains in his
book ‘Orientalism’ that to justify
colonising the Orient, the inhab-
itants became the ultimate “oth-
er,” in the eyes of their colonisers,
with them seen as “backward,
uncivilized, and at times danger-
ous,” and us the exact opposite.
The modern version however is
believed to have been reinforced
by the War on Terror, triggered by
the horrendous attacks on Ameri-
ca in September 2001.
Ever since the declaration of
that war, relentless efforts have
been made to counter terror-
ism. Invasions and occupations
of Afghanistan and Iraq, captures
of “illegal enemy combatants,” se-
cret jails, torture and assassina-
tions with drones. Over a million
people, the majority of them Mus-
lims, have been killed and many
more have become refugees.
The Western media has played
a vital role in reinforcing the fear
of Muslims by demonizing them,
both in the news and entertain-
ment media, with endless cov-
erage of dark-bearded, danger-
ous men, and oppressed female
v i c t i m s .
C r i m i n a l s
and terror-
ists are pre-
dom i na ntly
p o r t r a y e d
as Muslims.
The killing
of Muslims
is even glam-
orized in
movies like
‘A m e r i c a n
Sniper’, a bi-
opic about a
soldier “heroically” assassinating
terrorists, supposed terrorists or
those likely to become terrorists
one day, in US-occupied Iraq.
Radical Islamists
One has to keep in mind firstly
that Salafi/Wahabi extremists
do not represent Muslims as a
whole, and most prominent Is-
lamic scholars denounce them.
Secondly, inhabitants of the
Middle East are more likely to
suffer under these groups than
are Westerners, be they Sunni,
Shia, Christians, Yazidi or any-
one else of any religion.
Thirdly, one must always look
at the context. Al-Qaeda would
never have come into existence
were it not for the CIA uniting
like-minded men from all over
the Muslim world in order to
fight against the Soviet occupa-
tion of Afghanistan, back in the
early 90s. Likewise, Daesh (ISIS)
would most definitely not exist if
it was not for the invasion of Iraq.
If the objective of the War on
Terror is to rid the world of ex-
tremism and to protect freedom
and democracy, it has failed
completely. However, if there is
a hidden agenda, as many critics
claim, to gain access to the rich
resources of the Middle East, it
has been a huge success—won
by creating friction and hostility
between different religious and
ethnic groups in the region, kill-
ing the innocent, and invoking
more hatred against the West.
Will the extremists prevail?
It is important to be self-critical
when new fears come to exis-
tence, like in the case of imported
Islamophobia, and to be aware
of our orientalist racism-taint-
ed lens. It is equally important
to pay attention to stereotypes
manufactured by the media and
consider the absurdity of any pre-
sumption that 1.6 billion people,
the total number of the world’s
Muslims, could share the same
traits. The two extremist sides
might end up taking our fate into
their hands: the West behaving
like political arsonists, starting
a fire while
neither know-
ing how to put
it out nor envi-
sioning how it
might spread,
and the ex-
tremists using
obscure inter-
pretations of
Islam to jus-
tify murder
and mayhem,
and again re-
inforcing Is-
lamophobia.
Everybody will lose except for
the powerful, with Islamophobia
the necessary lubricant for the vi-
cious cycle to continue.
SHARE: gpv.is/islamo
The Western
media has played
a vital role in
reinforcing the
fear of Muslims
by demonizing
them
ISLAMO-
PHOBIA
IS HERE!
Photo by GETTY IMAGES
Words by GUÐRÚN MARGRÉT
GUÐMUNDSDÓTTIR
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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 4 — 2016
12