Islamophobia is a new tool at the hands of the far-right which
they are using, quite successfully, to gain political ground. The
question is not why they are using Islamophobia, but the question is,
why is it working? Why are people buying the hatred for a certain
religious group and rejecting peaceful multi-cultural parties. Hatred
and Xenophobia is breeding & thriving within the large masses of
European population and we might see another fascist Europe, with
segregation laws against Muslims in effect, with in the next 10 years.
But again, the question is: Why is hate working?
The Present Situation
The present situation Europe depicts largely a pre-War Europe suffering from The Great Depression, with unemployment and inflation on the rise. Strong dictators came forward to seize the power with great public support. Such situation might happen in present day Europe, with anti-Semitism swapping places with anti-Muslim sentiments. Many of the European countries are already implementing laws which specifically designed to have their effects only on the Muslim population. Legislations prohibiting the wearing of Hijab and Burka and the Swiss law prohibiting the construction of Minarets may give way to further legislations that confine the freedom for Muslims. Such laws are no different than the draconian Nuremberg laws that the Nazi Germany applied over Jewish population. Five of the states in Germany ban the female Muslim teachers to wear the headscarf but allow the wearing of Christian symbols such as a nun's habit. Such legislations raise concerns whether the European republics are discriminating in their behavior towards a specific religious group, especially Muslims.
The present situation Europe depicts largely a pre-War Europe suffering from The Great Depression, with unemployment and inflation on the rise. Strong dictators came forward to seize the power with great public support. Such situation might happen in present day Europe, with anti-Semitism swapping places with anti-Muslim sentiments. Many of the European countries are already implementing laws which specifically designed to have their effects only on the Muslim population. Legislations prohibiting the wearing of Hijab and Burka and the Swiss law prohibiting the construction of Minarets may give way to further legislations that confine the freedom for Muslims. Such laws are no different than the draconian Nuremberg laws that the Nazi Germany applied over Jewish population. Five of the states in Germany ban the female Muslim teachers to wear the headscarf but allow the wearing of Christian symbols such as a nun's habit. Such legislations raise concerns whether the European republics are discriminating in their behavior towards a specific religious group, especially Muslims.
Where the Islamophobes stand?
Europe's political face has been transforming at a rapid rate. In 2001, 12 European states were under the right-wing or conservative ruling parties' and 14 states were governed by left-wing or liberals. But in the present year, only 5 European states are under political ruling of left or center left, with right-wing or conservatives in 21 states. Right-wing, Eurosceptics, Islamophobes, anti-immigrants, neo-Nazis and Nationalists are on the move to the parliaments of their respective countries. In Netherlands, the Partij voor de Vrijheid (Freedom Party), led by a great Islamophobe, Geert Wilders, came out of obscurity to win four seats out of 25. Norway saw the Progress Party, which was once supported by Anders Breivik, winning 22.9% of the vote in 2009 elections. Similarly, Lega Nord (Northern League) in Italy, National Front in France, Felmish Interest in Belgium, Danish People's Party, Sweden Democrats (famous for using swastikas and Nazi uniforms in the past), True Finns in the Finland, The Jobbik party in Hungary and Freedom Party in Austria have made astonishing gains in the political arena and won considerable votes.
In Britain and Germany, the
right-wing British National Party and the National Democratic Party
respectively, are not able to make any gains into the parliamentary
system. The Best ever performance by BNP was in the local elections
where the party was able to win 3 local council seats.
With the
right-wing participating in the parliamentary race, violent neo-Nazi,
Islamophobic and fascist groups are not very much in the shadows either.
Notorious organizations are on the loose, which are free to spread
their message of hate, bigotry, terrorism and violence. Some of these
Islamophobic and Neo-Nazi groups like The English Defence League, The
Swedish Resistance Movement, National Socialist Workers' Party, National
Socialist Movement of Denmark, Bloed, Bodem, Eer en Trouw (Blood, Soil,
Honour and Loyalty) of Finland, Nomad 88, Bloc Identitaire, Autonome
Nationalisten, Tricolor Flame, Veneto Fronte Skinheads, Netherlands
National Youth, Dutch People's Union, Vigrid, BootsBoys and their likes
are already responsible of violent marches and protests and some of
these groups are convicted of planning terror attacks in Europe.
Maybe,
just maybe, The Norwegian Terrorist Andhers Brievik was just a lone
gunman, with no links to global terrorism but what about these
Islamophobic organizations which are still at large, in and around
Europe? Brievik's misguided ideas were not just a creation of his own
mind. Surely there were many other "inspirations" that made him carry
out the horrible act of terrorism in Norway, which he confesses in his
manifestation of death, "The Manifesto 2083: The European Declaration of
Independence". The madness behind the terrorist Breivik, was excited to
a great degree by Islamophobic & hateful writings of Robert Spence
& Pamela Geller, which Breivik cites at great lengths. Neo-pagan
writer Koenraad Elst and Daniel Pipes are also mentioned as sources of
inspiration.
With a phobic obsession on the prospect of "Islamic
Jihadi culture" and Immigrant Muslims turning into "radicals", the local
authorities turned a blind eye to their own white supremacists, racist
terrorists, and Christian Terrorists. Writings and publications of hate
should be banned and discouraged just like any terrorist multimedia
material is banned. Or else new Anders Breiviks will be created every
day. Masses will be brainwashed and terrorists like Breivik will find
sympathizers in the public. Norway Terror attacks and London riots
should be enough to show the politicians that instead of dumping
everything on "Islamic Terrorism" and promoting further Islamophobia,
they should do something to stop their own fascist threat that is
knocking on their doors.
This is what is happening in Europe. But why is it happening? Let's read further.
This is what is happening in Europe. But why is it happening? Let's read further.
Post 9/11 Policies:
It seems that the west, especially Europe, has been declining, both in economy and tolerance. And both these factors are strongly intertwined with each other. Islamophobia is the new "trend" among the Europe's right-wing. Ever since 9/11 took place, the focus shifted from the "Communist threat" to the "Islamic threat" and thanks to mainstream media, a phobia has been fed constantly in the minds of ordinary people that every Muslim is a potential suicide bomber. The United States, UK and more than half of the Europe went to war with Afghanistan and even after 10 years, peace seems no where in sight. After the Afghan war, UK blindly went to war with Iraq as well. Although the decision was taken by mostly left-wing parties, but like with every war, religious sentiment was exploited to be used as a fuel of war, just as Afghan Mujahideen were collected from all over the world to fight the "Afghan Jihad", a war which had plain political ends to destabilize the Soviet Union. A large mass of Media was utilized to give the justification of going to a war.
It seems that the west, especially Europe, has been declining, both in economy and tolerance. And both these factors are strongly intertwined with each other. Islamophobia is the new "trend" among the Europe's right-wing. Ever since 9/11 took place, the focus shifted from the "Communist threat" to the "Islamic threat" and thanks to mainstream media, a phobia has been fed constantly in the minds of ordinary people that every Muslim is a potential suicide bomber. The United States, UK and more than half of the Europe went to war with Afghanistan and even after 10 years, peace seems no where in sight. After the Afghan war, UK blindly went to war with Iraq as well. Although the decision was taken by mostly left-wing parties, but like with every war, religious sentiment was exploited to be used as a fuel of war, just as Afghan Mujahideen were collected from all over the world to fight the "Afghan Jihad", a war which had plain political ends to destabilize the Soviet Union. A large mass of Media was utilized to give the justification of going to a war.
The Politicians and media deliberately refused to
tell their citizens the cost of waging a long war. With President Bush
claiming it as a "Crusade" and Tony Blair following his lead, the
tolerance for Muslims in western society degraded further and it
promoted what can be correctly termed as "European Terrorism". With
constant loss of lives, property and crunching effects on the world
economy, the frustration among the populace is on a high tide. Many
families lost their loved ones at the hands of local insurgency in
Afghanistan and Iraq and the anti-Muslim hate just kept on increasing.
With the liberal parties failing to deal with the economic effects of
war and with media still blaming everything on "Moslems" instead of
utterly wrong decisions made by their own politicians, the right wing
started gaining grounds, riding on the backs of anti-Islam hate and
bigotry.
It is this "European Terrorism" that created Breivik and
has caused notoriously violent and Islamophobic groups like the EDL to
rise. Organizations like "Stop the Islamification of Europe" are no
different than Nazis, which call for the destruction of 1.8 Billion
adherents of Islam just because they don't see eye to eye with them,
even advocating the use of nuclear weapons over the Holy cities of Mecca
and Medina. Media channels like ABNSAT.com are no different than the
Jihadi Websites on Internet that promote religious hate and violence.
ECONOMIC CRUSH:
With war come economic problems. But maybe this was a fact that was kept under the rugs by the political leadership that decided to go to war. After 10 years of disastrous war in Afghanistan and a misadventure in the trail of WMDs of Iraq (which were no where to be found), and loss of hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides, the story of the west is a gloomy one. Unemployment on the rise, recession causing inflation, and with most of the world economy sinking, the frustration of the European population is natural.
With war come economic problems. But maybe this was a fact that was kept under the rugs by the political leadership that decided to go to war. After 10 years of disastrous war in Afghanistan and a misadventure in the trail of WMDs of Iraq (which were no where to be found), and loss of hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides, the story of the west is a gloomy one. Unemployment on the rise, recession causing inflation, and with most of the world economy sinking, the frustration of the European population is natural.
And with frustration, come anger
and anger leads to hate and violence. The ruling political parties tried
to protect their own vote banks and instead of pulling out of expensive
and costly wars, did everything else. Wrong decisions were made again.
Spain, Greece, Ireland, Portugal and even states like UK, Germany and
France are observing protests and riots that are solely against
unemployment, inflation and degrading standards of living. Austerity
protests seem like an everyday routine.
The recent riots in
England were enough to portray the frustration and the difference of
classes inhabiting in UK. Tottenham, from where the riots originally
erupted, is the main hub of unemployment, where a single job vacancy is
followed by 26 - 34 people. Analysts carved out the statistics that most
of the looting and rioting happened because of unemployment, social
exclusion, poverty, the growing gap between rich and poor, drug abuse
and economic conditions. With such economic conditions, which were not
heard of before the global War on Terror, opportunists, Islamophobes,
Fascists & neo-Nazis stand out like a messiah to give a hand to the
public, using emotions to win votes, as the rulers failed to take the
correct decisions to solve these problems. Today, Europe stares at an
uncertain future - its economies mired in debt, unemployment at record
levels, with little prospect for growth or jobs and thus, multiracial
harmony has strained as a result.
The Future
Let's keep an optimistic view about the future of Europe, but if things keep on the present track, we might see another rise of Fascism in Europe with its target as Islam. The misconceptions and conspiracy theories of "Eurabia" might be used and are being used to cause terror and fear of Islam in general public and thus supporting segregation laws against the Muslim population of Europe.
Let's keep an optimistic view about the future of Europe, but if things keep on the present track, we might see another rise of Fascism in Europe with its target as Islam. The misconceptions and conspiracy theories of "Eurabia" might be used and are being used to cause terror and fear of Islam in general public and thus supporting segregation laws against the Muslim population of Europe.
With falling economic
conditions of Europe and the prevailing recession all over the world,
failing liberal policies and continuous spread of Islamophobia and
negative propaganda, conditions are ripe enough to cause the natural
public support for right-wing radicals, neo-conservatives, neo-Nazis and
Fascists which can further result in either of the two scenarios; A
Fascist Europe reminiscent of the 1930s or a Militant Europe with the
rise of armed violent groups.
Either version of such Europe in
this century will not only be destructive for its native population but
it also might trigger what we don't want to hear, believe or experience -
The Clash of Civilizations.
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