Issue: Letter: Islamophobia

April 23, p. 8

Islamophobia is on the rise in the Western world. After a US priest burned the Holy Koran, and the silence of the US government, now France’s controversial ban on wearing face veils in public is in force, and those violating the recent law can be sent to police stations for identity checks and can be fined or lose their French citizenship.

These things are happening in countries that call themselves champions of human rights that always sing a song in favor of democracy. Most observers rightly think that the recent ban on veils and arrests of women is politically motivated and does not belong to personal values. It is reported that there are only about 2,000 women who cover their faces in public in France, among a Muslim population of 5 million and a total population of more than 62 million. (By Khawaja Umer Farooq, Jeddah)

Your comments:

Christian values fought for in WWII were not dissimilar to Islamic values (family, sexual restraint, etc). It’s just that this “Christian” society has degenerated over the years, and forces are now fighting for secularism, which does include gay marriage, something that Christianity and Islam are both against.

It’s insane that Christianity and Islam are apparently at such odds, considering their common secular enemy.

I think the whole thing was cooked up this way.

Ben
The US

I quote “At the time when the gulf is widening between Muslims and the Western world, Western countries are doing nothing to calm the situation”.

Why must it be Western countries’ responsibility to do something to calm the situation? It is their country. If you go to their country you must abide by their rules, just like they must abide by your rules when they go to your country.

Why must the Western countries always bend to meet your expectations? This/your type of thinking is skewed and not aligned with reality.

If you don’t like what Western countries are doing, why are you still going to Western countries?

They are not your country. If you want Shariah, stay in the Middle East. If you want true freedom, go to the West and live like they do, not try to impose your ways on them.

Abdul
Mecca

Get over yourself, mate. Islamophobia wasn’t on the rise until the Western world had been put on the defense.

Brad
New York

Farooq, How dare you accuse the West of Islamaphobia when you can read the latest news in JP about the plan to bomb a church in Serpong, Indonesia, by no doubt your co-religionists?

Where is your condemnation of these terrorists? Are you implying that non-Muslims lives are worth less than Muslims?

These women have decided to live in France, which is a secular country, and they want to impose on the rest of the French populations their own barbaric customs?

I believe the women and their husbands ought to go back to where they came from if they do not like living in France and I know that the French people would welcome that.

You have accused the West of so many things but look at your own country, aren’t your women second-class citizens in your own country? Clean up your own backyard before you start preaching to the West to clean up theirs.

Moose Amabin
London

There isn’t any such word in the Muslim world languages. Ah but they make it seem that Muslims were the ones who came up with the word, and it is Muslims that are accusing the Western people of being afraid of Islam i.e. Islamophobic.

The truth is that there is no Islamophobia, but only those who are afraid of their own shadow and of themselves.

James
Pahang, Malaysia