Image
© Carlos Latuff"Islam is a religion that promotes death and violence!"
Sez who?
For years now in the U.S., and in European countries such as the UK, Germany, The Netherlands, and France, Muslims have experienced difficulty when it comes to finding a job, due to the ever-increasing Islamophobia. And that's not all, a 2006 report by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, entitled "Muslims in the European Union: Discrimination and Islamophobia", concludes:
  • Regardless of their ethnic background and/or approach to religion, many European Muslims are facing discrimination in employment, education and housing.
  • Discrimination against Muslims can be attributed to Islamophobic attitudes as well as to racist and xenophobic resentment, as these elements are often intertwined. Hostility against Muslims must therefore be seen in the more general context of xenophobia and racism towards migrants and minorities.
  • It is evident that Muslims are experiencing Islamophobic acts, ranging from verbal threats through to physical attacks, even though data on religiously aggravated incidents is collected on a limited scale.
  • The available data on victims of discrimination show that European Muslims are often disproportionately represented in areas with poorer housing conditions, while their educational achievement falls below average and their unemployment rates are higher than average. Muslims are often employed in jobs that require lower qualifications. As a group they are over-represented in low-paying sectors of the economy.
  • Many European Muslims, particularly young people, face barriers to their social advancement. This could give rise to a feeling of hopelessness and social exclusion.
  • Racism, discrimination and social marginalisation are serious threats to integration and community cohesion.
Now that anti-Islamic sentiments have risen by 110% in France, and 'anti-Islamization' demos have been held in several countries, chances are high that the disadvantageous position Muslims already were in prior to the Paris attack will only get worse. Needless to say, this is far from fair, considering that the Muslim majority had nothing to do with the recent attack in Paris, just as they didn't have anything to do with the 9/11 attacks in the U.S. Yet they've become the very target of hatred, and it affects their daily lives quite significantly.

Take a moment to watch the following 5-minute interview with Jahangir Mohammad, Director at the Center For Muslims' Affairs, in order to get a glimpse of the situation British Muslims are in:
According to recent research, Muslim men are 76 percent less likely to have a job of any kind compared to white Christians of the same age and with the same qualifications. And Muslim women are 65 percent less likely to be employed than white Christian counterparts. The survey has found that religion is now causing more prejudice than skin color. The only religious group with better work prospects than white British Christians are British Jews. Experts say the situation seemingly stems from growing Islamophobia and hostility towards Muslims in the UK.

Note what Mohammad said near the end: "The current terrorism bill which is going through Parliament is actually proposing to turn the present policy into law and the effects of that is, that the definition of extremism will make it a crime to support certain types of Islam, even to be politically active in some cases. It puts an obligation on all employers, whether at schools, colleges, universities... [It even puts an obligation on] your doctor, your G.P., to report people that they think are extremists. What's happening is that a whole culture is being created in which it is seen as normal to spy on Muslims for their political beliefs."

If this isn't extremely racist, then I don't know what is. Just how far are we from having Muslims "branded", and eventually sent into camps, in order to increase "monitoring efficiency"?
Image
© TwitterLiberal political commentator Sally Kohn saying what many won't.
Knowing that, so far, there have been about 28 attacks on Islamic places of worship in France, which included firebombs and pigs' heads being thrown into mosques, and knowing that 88 threats have already been made against French Muslims, and taking the recent increase in Islamophobic incidents in British schools into consideration, one can't help but think: Just how different is a person who can't accept having Muslims walking on 'their' streets from a 'religious extremist' who in a similar way can't accept having Christians walking on 'their' streets?

Physical torture or discrimination - they're both forms of serious oppression. If people have started discarding their ability for compassion and understanding similarly to those who perform the most atrocious acts, then it's not looking good for Muslims around the world, much less for humanity at large.

In addition, in a report published in 2013, entitled "Legislating Fear: Islamophobia and its impact in the United States", The Council on American-Islamic Relations have identified 37 organizations with an alleged anti-Muslim agenda, which appeared to have a total budget of $120 million to spread hatred and fear of Islam. Perhaps this partly explains why nearly half of all Americans believe that Islam is more likely than other religions to encourage violence among its believers, while only 2% of Americans indicated that they are "very knowledgeable" about the religion. Their opinion appears to be formed for them, and not by themselves.

Image
© Carlos LatuffThe three faces of Islamophobia.
While Muslims have become a target for discrimination, oppression and racism in the "more developed countries", elsewhere Muslim citizens continue to suffer tremendously at the hands of psychopathic individuals who continue with their unstoppable spree murders, whether it's by, for example, crashing a wedding party, dropping one of those 'humanitarian' bombs and killing 47 civilians in the process, or by interrupting a playful soccer game on a beach, with the help of a 'self-defence' bomb and causing the death of four children aged between 9 and 11 years old. Whether it's in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Syria, Palestine or elsewhere, war crimes like these are committed daily.


Image
© RTThere never was a war on terror. On the contrary, these two U.S. invasions brought terror to those countries, destroying infrastructure, breaking families apart, and taking away people's bright futures, while looting the place.
Recently, a drone operator by the name of Brandon Bryant said:
'We didn't even really know who we were firing at' - former US drone operator

"There was no oversight. I just know that the inside of the entire program was diseased and people need to know what happens to those that were on the inside," he told RT's Anissa Naouai. "People need to know the lack of oversight, the lack of accountability that happen."

Bryant decried the "black hole putrid system that is either going to crush you or you're going to conform to it," and apologized to families of victims whose deaths he was responsible for. By his estimation, he helped kill some 1626 people. "I couldn't stand myself for doing it" he added.

"I'm sorry that the mistake happened. I'm doing everything that I can to prevent further mistakes from happening."
Like Brandon Bryant, other U.S. soldiers have stepped up in recent years to share their experiences as regards what really happens on the ground and in the skies of the countries that have been invaded, and which continue to be bombed to this day, namely that it is the civilians that are the biggest victims of these 'wars'. A tremendous amount of violence has been committed in the name of 'freedom' against Muslims, and yet, the majority of us stand by and watch, and have now seemingly turned to committing more violence and oppression against the same group, whether consciously or unconsciously, here in Europe or in the U.S.

If the majority of Muslims deserve anything, it is for others to place themselves in their shoes. The horrific attacks in NYC on 9/11 and the recent attack in Paris should not stop us from acting humanely towards a minority group that continues to be falsely blamed for these attacks via the mainstream media. To discriminate against them, to kill them, to harass them, to verbally abuse them, is exactly what any terrorist would do. And terrorists we certainly are not aiming to be. Plus, if we keep chasing the wrong people, we will never be able to bring the real monsters to justice.

That such oppression towards a minority group exists should be experienced as one big déjà vu moment by humanity. And when it comes to addressing this problem, we truly ought to look at ourselves. Let us remind ourselves of what 'V' said in V for Vendetta:
And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the now high chancellor, Adam Sutler. He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent.
This is a good moment to ask ourselves whether we are part of the problem, or part of the solution. This is the right moment to ask ourselves what we can do to help diminish the increasing pressure of racism on our fellow citizens, whether Muslim, African-American, Jew, Christian or otherwise. As Martin Luther King, Jr., said:
"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."