Early Prevention of Bigotry and Racism
Monday
When you're talking to non-Muslims and you say something unflattering about Islam, most Westerners will try to defend Islam. They tend to see what you're saying through the filter of "racism" or "bigotry," and toward such things they have an automatic response: Protect the poor abused Muslims from hatred and fear-based reactions. They may envision lynchings. They don't want to see racial profiling. They don't want to have interment camps like the Japanese suffered during WWII.
Since they see your criticism as bigotry or racism, they are unthinkingly and reflexively opposed to a perfectly normal and legitimate activity in a free country: Political and religious criticism.
One of our most treasured guaranteed rights is the right to critique the doctrines of any political or religious group. The fact that it might be offensive to someone is exactly why free speech has to be protected (if it didn't bother anyone, there would be no need to protect it). (Read more about that here.)
Hopefully you are not a bigot or a racist, but whether you are or not, racism has nothing to do with criticism of Islamic doctrine. Islam is not a race or an ethnic group. There are Muslims of every race. And there are more non-Arab Muslims than Arab Muslims.
If you're not a racist, whoever balks at your criticism of Islamic doctrines and thinks you're being racist actually agrees with you, and you should make your agreement on this issue crystal clear. In fact, we can emphasize the racial issue as an important reason to solve the "Islamic encroachment" issue as soon as possible.
Many people in the counterjihad think it will take a dirty nuke going off in Chicago or Paris before the free world wakes up. But after a tragedy or a major attack, people will be angry and afraid, and decisions under those circumstances aren't always the sanest decisions. In times like those, people can overreact. In times like those, they do things like put all Japanese people into internment camps. That was a fear-based reaction, and it was bigoted and racist.
We can avoid that kind of overreaction if we talk about Islam now, in calmer times. In other words, talking about Islamic teachings now can help PREVENT racism and bigotry by making sure everyone understands what Islamic teachings are about, and that everyone understands Islam is a doctrine, not a race. This is a point you should stress when someone seems to resist talking about Islam and who seems irrationally against talking about it. They are probably afraid you're a bigot. They might be afraid even talking about it with you somehow condones racism. Make it very clear right up front you're against racism, that Islam is not a race, and that conversations like these will prevent racism in the future if something disastrous happens.
If racism is what they were concerned about, you will suddenly have their attention. If those who are not racist think criticizing Islam is racist, it proves an important point. Namely, that it is vital more people understand Islam.
In other words, if you think criticism of Islamic doctrine is racist, you are demonstrating that you don't understand what Islam is, and you are illustrating exactly why we need to talk about it and learn about it, because if YOU, who are so strongly against racism, think Islam has something to do with race, then how are racist people going to react if a bomb goes off in downtown Houston and kills a million people?
The world needs to know about Islam — needs to know what it is and what it is not — and this needs to happen as quickly as possible. If you want to help, start here. Learn more about influencing your friends:
- How to approach a conversation about Islam
- Answers to objections when you talk about Islam
- How to think outside the persuasion box
6 comments:
From an article entitled Islamism is the Racism of Our Time, written by Naser Khader, a Danish Muslim immigrant of Syrian background, and member of the Danish parliament. He has tirelessly opposed radical Islam in his country, often at great personal risk. Here is his article:
Today, on the 7th anniversary of 9/11, we face the fact that the War on Terror is not won. It is, however, not lost either. It’s more like a draw. And we are facing the fact that while the democratic world, using its superior firepower, has been able to keep the terrorists at bay, we have failed in a different battle.
This battle is one we have not launched in a similar decisive fashion. This is the battle against political Islam. Today, the Islamists are stronger than ever. While we shoot at terrorists in Afghanistan and elsewhere, the Islamists are winning still more souls for their cause. Both in the Arab world, in the Muslim countries in Asia, and amongst the Muslim minorities in the Western countries.
Everywhere the Islamists are advancing. Their influence in international organizations, in international business and through Islamic lobbying, is advancing on all levels on a daily basis.
Islamism as a political ideology is now a more serious threat against democracies than the violent terrorism that Al-Qaeda have been advancing. We simply need to wake up.
As Islamists gain a footing in still more countries, the very values that our soldiers fight for in Afghanistan are repressed. Freedom of expression is the first to go, and freedom of religion with it. In societies adhering to Sharia, fundamental civil liberties are suspended, and laws discriminating against ethnic and religious minorities are passed, with reference to religious doctrine.
Islamism is the racism of our time. It can be said no more clearly than this. And as such, a united democratic world must turn against Islamism — not seeking ‘dialogue’ or ‘understanding’, but in rejection and concrete resistance.
Later this year, the United Nations will hold a conference on racism. Durban II in Geneva. In spite of this conference, which, like the first, is being hijacked by Islamic countries to support Sharia, the Danish government has chosen to participate. Other countries, including Canada, will boycott it. Now that Denmark chooses to participate, this opportunity must be seized to make a firm stand.
I believe that the Danish government should use Durban II to propose a condemnation of political Islam as a racist ideology. We owe it to ourselves and to our soldiers, who set their lives on the line fighting terrorism on the battlefield, that we at the lofty conferences in the international society act equally firmly and with principle against Islamism.
The Islamists’ assaults and threats against authors, cartoonists, and other intellectuals, who challenge their monopoly on the right teaching, are increasing in strength. We experience it in Denmark with the threats against cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, and this goes on worldwide.
Recently, at a conference in France, I had the opportunity to meet some of the victims of Islamist intimidation. They were brave people standing firm in their criticism of religion — and for that reason were forced to live a life with security guards and insecurity for themselves and their families.
It is time that we discard the velvet gloves and make this clear: There exist religious practices that are not compatible with fundamental human rights. Islamism is one of those, and must therefore be fought.
It is not sufficient to keep killing Taliban warriors on the battlefields of Afghanistan, if we do not simultaneously put our fullest efforts into the other battle. If our souls are lost to the Islamists, we will eventually lose the War on Terror. Democracy must learn to strike hard.
WE should not use the word Islamism. There is no Islamism, only Islam, just as there is no Christianism. Islamism is used to make Islam look good. Bad idea. Islam as a whole is evil, not just Islamism. I do not use the word. It is misleading.
Elisabeth, I agree. Islamism is a misleading term. However, when you're introducing the idea to a non-Muslim for the first time, especially a multiculturalist, the use of the term "Islamism" or Islamic supremacism can be very useful. (Read more about that.)
When talking among ourselves (those of us who already know something about Islam), the "ism" is totally unnecessary and redundant. When talking to non-Muslims who DON'T know anything about Islam, whether people will shut you out or open their minds to what you are saying will depend on how you present your case. It must be done carefully.
Then, once they understand the full scope of the situation and have had a chance to come to grips with it, we can speak without terms like Islamism.
What's with the refrence to the Japanese internment camps? Interring the Japanese was absolutely the right thing to do, especially in Hawaii. Not only is it a bad example of racism in an otherwise very good article, but it's a stunning statement of cowardice and lack of ethics. Please read Michels Malkin's 'In Defense of Internment.' Under no circumstances should there be Mohammedans roaming our streets, especially since they (falsely and unconvincingly) use the American 'occupation' as n excuse for terrorism.
And Elisabeth's right. There is no such thing as Islamism. Islam is inherently political, imperialist, and colonialist. Take jihad out of the equation and you're left with Ahmadiyyism.
The 20th century racial classification by American anthropologist Carleton S. Coon, divided humanity into five races:
Caucasoid race
Congoid race
Capoid race
Mongoloid race
Australoid race
This is the way Thomas Henry Huxley divided up the races:
1: Bushmen
2: Negroes
3: Negritoes
4: Melanochroi
5: Australoids
6: Xanthochroi
7: Polynesians
8: Mongoloids A
8: Mongoloids B
8: Mongoloids C
9: Esquimaux
The above is from Wikipedia.
Below is from Answers.com:
Over time, many different racial classifications have been created, numbering anywhere between 6 and several hundred. Below are a few of these.
* Khoid (Hottentot) race
* Sanid (Bushmen) race
* Central Congoid race (Geographic center and origin in the Congo river basin)
* Bambutid race (African Pygmies)
* Aethiopid race (Ethiopia, Somalia)
* Mediterranid race (from Mediterranean areas)
* Dinaric race (predominant in western Balkans [Dinaric Mountains] and northern Italy)
* Alpine race
* Ladogan race (named after Lake Ladoga; indigenous to Russia; includes Lappish subrace of arctic Europe)
* Nordish or Northern European race
* Armenid race (Armenia, Syria, Lebanon and northern Iraq)
* Turanid race (Kazakhstan, Hungary and Turkey)
* Irano-Afghan race (Iran and Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey)
* Indic or Nordindid race (Pakistan and northern India)
* Dravidic race (India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka)
* Veddoid race (remnant Australoid population in central and southern India) Melanesian race (New Guinea, Papua, Solomon Islands)
* Australian-Tasmanian race (Australian Aborigines)
* Northeast Asian or Northern Mogoloid race (China, Manchuria, Korea and Japan)
* Southeast Asian or Southern Mongoloid race (China, Indochina, Thailand, Myanmar [Burma], Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines)
* Micronesian-Polynesian race
* Ainuid race (remnants of aboriginal population in northern Japan)
* Tungid race (Mongolia and Siberia, Eskimos)
* Amerindian race (American Indians)
To describe the teachings of Islam or the behavior of Muslims cannot, in any reasonable way, be construed as "racism."
Bill Warner created a test for Islamophobia and bigotry:
Take the Acid Test for Islamophobia
Find out if you are a bigot. Take the test.
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