Western Arabo-Islamophobia: Where and When Will It End?

Abstract

deep-seated Islamophobia undeniably harks back to many centuries of denigrating, and othering It has taken different forms at different times and in different contexts. From Spanish Reconquista to Crusades, and from colonial wars to post-coloniality, Islam has been archetypical enemy of West, demonised Other. This long-standing mental construct of Arabs and Islam in depth of Western psyche stems from manifold reasons that will be explained later. Hence, it unexpected that Islam has currently been made into what Kabbani (1986) once called, the religion West loves to hate . . . and dumping ground for all blame (italics mine). Every day, as Ali Bulac (12 June 2009) in Why Islam in conflict with West? notes, world confronts a new definition and another campaign for defamation: fanaticism, fundamentalism, political Islam, integrism, radicalism, Islamophobia, Islamofascism, reactionaryism, conservatism, extremism, Islamic terror, etc.Arabo-Islamophobia, as Said (1978), Kabbani (1986), and Chahuan (2005) point out, can be attributed to set of imperialistic designs that emanates from colonial past. The prejudices of today, aptly contends Chahuan, for instance, preserve and perpetuate falsehoods of past. European colonial aggression in Arab countries during XI X and XX centuries have been justified by series of arguments whose common denominator depreciation of Other, and negative view of Arabs today an extension of imperialist attitudes of past so far away.In contrast, Keegan, defence correspondent of Daily Telegraph (October 2001), Bernard Lewis and Samuel Huntington and their ilk, maintain that it of civilizations, (Esposito 1999: 230). But President Bush goes on so far as to claim that it a strugg le for Bush's address to nation (September 11, 2006) reveals perverse logic of Islamophobia today:The war against this enemy more than military conflict. It decisive ideological struggle of 21st century, and calling of our generation . . . This struggle has been called clash of civilizations. In truth, it struggle for civilization. We are fighting to maintain way of life enjoyed by free nations.Pope Benedict XVI also asserts this in his speech (September 12, 2006), as he equates Catholicism with reason and Islam with violence and lack of reason. Paraphrasing fourteenth century Byzantine emperor, he stated that when religion (like Islam) spread through violence it goes against reason, and also against nature, for not to act in accordance with reason contrary to God's nature.In Islamic Thinking in Limbo, published in Higher Education section of Australian on October 25, 2006, Riaz Hassan also alleges that Islam imprisons a sign ificant proportion of humanity into permanent servitude.., and that science weakest in lands of Islam. Hassan also assumes that consequential dangers of this weakness are devastating. Besides, he claims that Muslim countries are increasingly coming under intense pressure from religious fundamentalists to impose epistemologies comparable with their versions of Islamic doctrines that are generally hostile to critical rational thought. Furthermore, he alleges that most causes of Muslims' present predicament can also be attributed to prevailing culture and political practices, and that in his recent studies of contemporary Islamic consciousness in some Middle Eastern countries, he was struck by an all-pervasive sense of humiliation... This sense of humiliation, as he claims, is key underlying cause of Islamic militancy and terrorism.Hassan then concludes that A robust civil ethic prerequisite for developing society based on tyranny of strongly held convictions but on social order based on reason and compromise. …