The Embassy of Iran in Islamabad is planning to hold a seminar as to why the Qur’an is repeatedly desecrated and burnt in the West? I have been asked to give my analysis for the press whether it Islamophobia but I will add what we should do about it?
Generally speaking, people think it is Islamophobia. I don’t think the individuals who commit this crime are Islamophobic. These acts are carefully planned and executed by the states agents and termed them as a right to freedom. Therefore, the western states protect these criminals in the name of freedom of expression. Yet, the Western states don’t tolerate the words like Zionism, Colonialism. Imperialism and so on. Any criticism of Jews is termed as antisemitism and the legal action is taken against such writers or speakers. Whereas nothing happened against those who insult Islam or the Holy Quran. As someone educated in Europe as a psychologist and lived there for a long time, I know that reasons behind the desecration and burning of the Holy Quran is not some phobic individual’s personal decision, but a planned political policy. Let me separate phobia from Islam or Islamo.
I went to Europe as a teenager, where I studied Psychology and Social Sciences and have extensive knowledge and qualitative data of the views of the Western people. Although I acted most of my years as a writer due to being one of the pioneers in ongoing struggle for the reunification of Jammu Kashmir, I have remained a regular reader in psychology and therefore, I can offer a psychological analysis.
According to the Oxford dictionary, phobia is an unreasonable and instinctive fear of something or a situation. If so, then defect is in the individual rather than the situation. A phobic may be suffering from mental disorder, but the Holy Qur’an is not insulted by mentally disordered individuals. Rather, it is a controlled and planned policy by certain sections and agencies of some western states. I say states, because we should differentiate between the behavior of the overwhelming majority of the western people and their regimes, which provoke Muslims for a negative reaction to promote their negative narrative to discredit Islam and destabilize Muslim societies. Most of the people in the West do not want a cultural clash and don’t discriminate against Islam. Many Western people have rather embraced Islam. Islam is not just confined to prayers and rituals. It offers a social, political and economic system. This is what the political operators and thinkers fear about in the West. They do not fear because of mental disorder but because of their exploitative and hegemonic nature. Islam had upper hand until the 19th century, but West first conspired to dismantle the whole Islamic system and then controlled it through the imposition of despotic Muslim rulers. They support democracy at home and oppose it in the Muslim countries. Iran and Algeria are two major examples. Iran continues to suffer from international economic sanctions because of Islamic Revolution. The democratic governments in the Muslim world are demonized, while despotic Muslim rulers are used in the West to discredit Islam in order to show that West is good, and Islam is bad. West enjoys freedom and Islam deprives people of freedom, choice and opportunities. West is progressive and Islam is regressive. Westerners are learned and the
Muslims are ignorant. Islam is dark and west is white and so on. This is not done instinctively but deliberately.
Now, the question is how we should deal with this situation? The first thing we should do is to identify our role and status granted by Allah (SWT). A true Muslim is a vicegerent of Allah. He or she is not white or black. Allah accepts every colour and category so long we believe in Allah and treat everyone fairly and justly. Therefore, white and black doesn’t matter for us. Islam is a Universal Faith with its tested social, political and economic system. This is what the western economy and politics based on privatisation is concerned about. We should resist western binary division. We should take two primary steps.
Firstly, we should educate our own people to such an extent that our people refuse to tolerate the despotic rulers, who are a source of regression and insult. Secondly, we should strengthen our social, economic and political system to prevent Western hegemony. Thirdly, the Muslim should unite themselves. Fourthly, we should consolidate our communication network and reach out to people of every social, cultural and religious backgrounds which will remove many misunderstandings about us. There are so many examples to cite that when even most open enemies of Islam understood it, they embraced Islam. A senior Dutch politician Joram Jaron van Klaveren (born 23 January 1979) is a fresh example. As a member of the Party for Freedom he was an MP from 17 June 2010 until 21 March 2014. He was subsequently independent until his term in office ended on 23 March 2017. He became well-known for anti-Muslim comments. In October 2018. He converted to Islam halfway through writing an anti-Islam book. After becoming a Muslim, he decided to rededicate his book to his search for religiosity and the subsequent conversion to Islam. His book titled Apostate: From Christianity to Islam in times of secularization and terror was published in both Dutch and English.
During my stay in Europe as a young man, I was educationally facilitated and promoted as an activist and supported as a writer. I know from my experiences that everyone in the West is not racist or anti Muslims. It must be noted that Western democracy produces minority governments, which create fears in their people to keep them united behind them. Otherwise, Islam will come back to deprive them of their freedom. It is these minority governments which use some individuals to desecrate the Holy Quran to cause a clash of civilization. So, we should act wisely and sensibly and promote Public Diplomacy.
The Iran’s Cultural Diplomacy is one such example of a Public Diplomacy, which should be expanded and introduced in other countries so that Muslims can benefit from this vision and adopt it.
