A Sane Resolution: UN out to Combat Islamophobia

Ram Puniyani :

A couple of years ago there was a resolution, moved by Pakistan at the United Nations, which called for establishing “International Day to Combat Islamophobia”. Many countries, including India had opposed the same arguing that this is unwarranted as there are many other religions which face similar situations. This opposition was small and the UN went ahead to declare March 15 as the day to ‘combat Islamophobia. Unfortunately it went unnoticed last month.

This year the UN went further in acceding to the demand to appoint a ‘special envoy’ to initiate specific actions to combat Islamophobia. This demand had come from Pakistan again. This was also opposed by many countries. Indian envoy T.S. Tirumurthi while opposing the resolution had stated, “…there was a global rise in sectarian violence, anti-Semitism, Christianophobia, anti-Hindu, Anti Buddhist and anti-Sikh examples abound as well” As per him there is abundance of phobias…” We already know the UN has declared November 16 as the “day of Tolerance” and also highlighted pluralism so another day to combat Islamophobia is unwarranted.

Where does the truth lie? Is there any difference between phobias against other religions and Islamophobia? It is true that at places people of other religions have faced the phobias in many parts of the World. Talking of South Asia we have seen the persecution of Hindus (Tamils) in Sri Lanka and Pakistan in particular. We have also seen the persecution of Christians in Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan. Currently in Taliban ruled Afghanistan Sikhs are facing the worst.

So how is Islamophobia different for which the UN has named March 15 as a day against Islamophobia and appointed a special envoy for the same? Unfortunately current global politics is heavily dominated by identity related issues. Many an ethnic issues like persecution of LTTE has dominated Sri Lankan politics. In India even before global Islamophobia was brought in Muslims were already faced with various types of intimidations and hate, leading to acts of violence against them, so how is Islamophobia different and more intimidating.

Islamophobia, in contrast to other sectarian insanities of persecution and violence was gradually built up from the 1970s when Ayatollah Khomeini took over Iran in the aftermath of the overthrow of US stooge Raza Shah Pahlavi. The US at that time propagated ‘Islam as the new threat’. Why New threat? Till that time US media was projecting Communism as the threat to the free world. The Free World stood for the US dominated World. The US was facing a stiff challenge to its political and economic hegemony from the Socialist Block led by Russia (USSR). The ‘global social common sense’ was perceiving communism as the threat. This was the idea (propagated by the most powerful Country) ruling broad sections of society, proving the adage, ‘ruling ideas are the ideas of ruling class’ (Karl Marx).

With gradual decline of Socialist Russia and its total collapse in early 1990s, the global dominating force needed another demon to fight with. This was also the time when the US was promoting the Madarrasas in its stooge country, Pakistan. As per Mahmud Mamdani’s book (Good Muslim Bad Muslim), quoting CIA documents, US not only designed the curriculum of these madarassas, using a narrow (Wahabi) version of Islam; it also invested 8000 million dollars to support the training of these Mujahideen which gave rise to Taliban and later Al Qaeda. The US equipped them with 7000 tons of armaments including stringer missiles. One small clip by Hillary Clinton says it all, she states that the US needed to fight Russian Communists, they propped up the Taliban and having achieved the exit of Russians, the US washed its hands off.

The US aimed to control the oil wealth of West Asia. Its policies were directed in that direction. The ‘World Trade Center Attack’ (9/11, 2001) killing nearly 3000 innocent people belonging to most religions and most countries died in this. This was a pretext enough for the US to launch an attack on Afghanistan, in which 60000 people lost their lives. And next to this the attack on Iraq, on the pretext of ‘Weapons of Mass destruction’, which in any way were not to be found after capture of Iraq.

The attack on WTC, claimed to be done by Osama bin Laden and Arab elements, led to the most dangerous construct by US media, ‘Islamic Terrorism’. As the US media is as dominating as its political, economic and military might, this phrase spread all over the World like wildfire. And this is what led to the Global phenomenon of Islamophobia. This ran parallel to one time popular thesis of ‘Clash of Civilization’ by Samuel Huntington. The thesis concluded that this is the era where clash of civilizations will dominate the globe and backward Islamic civilization is out to attack the advanced Western Civilization.

It was this which led to the Murder of a Sikh, mistaken identity, in the US. A US pastor to burn Koran. And this peaked with a film, ‘Innocence of Muslims’ by an American Christian, Nakoula Basseley. Its 14 minute clip was made viral all over the World. This clip showed a mob of bearded modern Muslims attacking the Christians. We also remember the Danish Cartoons, which showed Prophet Mohammad with a bomb in his turban. The impact of all this is not restricted to one part of the globe, nor has Islamophobia disappeared.

The UN did its best to counter the ‘Clash of Civilizations’ thesis. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan had set up a high level committee to examine the clash theory. This high level committee of the UN, which also had an Indian representative, came out with a remarkable report, ‘Alliance if Civilizations’. This put forward the understanding that all human progress has taken place through alliance of different civilizations, cultures and religions. True to the dynamics of the World, dominated by American interests, it was practically ignored by the media, and Islamophobia continued.

In India the problem is the worst confounded as already the communal politics had created hate among different communities. The global Islamophobia as an add on the prevailing Hate against Muslims. During the freedom movement Muslim communalists spread hate against Hindus and Hindu Communalists (Hindu Mahasabha and RSS) spread hate against Muslims. After Independence the Muslims communalists got deflated and Hindu communalists have gone from strength to strength, leading to Islamophobia at multiple levels.

The UN move is a welcome step in bringing peace to the hate and violence torn World today.