How they hide their fears with the fabricated Islamophobia…

It is not very rare to observe Muslims getting offended with even the most rational and valid criticism of Islam. With almost 20 years of experience living among Muslims in an Islamic republic, I can safely conclude that there is nothing that actually offends them. They in fact offend themselves by not welcoming any sort of discussion, opinion, or even question against or regarding their beliefs.

Out of the feeling of offense, an armed Muslim would shoot or slaughter the “offender” on the spot, a Muslim in authority would declare the offender to be wajib-ul-qatl (someone whose assassination is obliged on every Muslim on earth) just like Iran's Ayatullah Khomeni issued a ruling for Salman Rushdie to be killed for writing the “blasphemous book” named The Satanic Verses. Although Rushdie says it crystal clear that the book was never intended to offend the Muslims in any sense of the word, the ruling remains as fresh as ever even today.

But if a Muslim, who is neither armed, nor in authority, gets himself offended, he would simply entitle the “offender(s)” to be Islamophobic (someone who is intimidated by the “rise” of Muslims and the spread of Islam). For Muslims, anyone who criticizes Islam is Islamophobic, or, at least anyone who the Muslims think criticizes Islam. I mean, let’s face it; Nike had no intention to offend the Muslims with a simple design on some shoes, nor did Burger King with a random pattern on its ice cream cones, nor did Coca Cola with its logo. Imagine the mental level of a nation that gets offended by shoes, ice cream cones, and drinks.

Delusional Thinking Among Muslims

A couple of weeks ago, when I was collecting material for my assignment on Artificial Neural Network from the library of my university, a random fellow came by and sat beside me, beginning a sort of table talk after a while. I was not paying any attention at all because I apparently had a much more important task in my hands than a random gossip about what’s going on, that was until he murmured the words, “…And that is exactly what they want. They want to weaken us, the Muslims, because they know how powerful we can be once we are united. They want to keep us away from awareness and progress.”

The irony is that as he said all that, he was sitting in a library which is centrally air conditioned (modern air conditioning design was developed by an American engineer Willis Carrier), holding a ballpoint pen (developed by American inventor John J. Loud and Hungarian inventor László Bíró), with the PDF version of Fundamentals of Physics open in his Hewlett-Packard laptop with Microsoft Windows 8.1 as its operating system, downloaded using the Google search engine on Google Chrome web browser.

But, it is not surprising at all. The whole library is full of books containing the gifts and charms offered by the likes of Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, Alan Turing, Barry Boehm, Auguste Comte, and numerous other scientists and philosophers. Yet, at least 80% of the total students at the university would be of the opinion that the whole world is focused on eliminating the unity among Muslims because everyone knows how strong Muslims can be once they are united.

This inferiority complex, this self-offensive attitude is so fierce that, in reality, if no one is even “considering” them, they would still assume that everyone is “focused” on dividing them. To elucidate on just how insane their ideas are, let us consider the following example:

News Headline!

How the world sees it: “India successfully launches its first mission to Mars.”
How typical Muslims see it: “India successfully launches its first mission to Mars in another gruesome attempt to keep Muslims away from technological advancement and destroy their unity.”

Muslim Self-Destruction

On a serious note, how many times have you seen Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens passing a fatwa for killing Muslims? Or, how many times have you observed a group of atheists protesting by killing people, looting the shops, smashing the cars, burning the tires, and trash-talking on the roads just because someone set on flames a copy of The God Delusion or The Grand Design? That’s right! That has never happened and never will happen.

But what if someone desecrates the Quran, even allegedly? Muslims would burn down their buildings, and out of the feeling of rage plus helplessness, they would even kill their own people and destroy their own property. In fact, they are so immature and thin-skinned that one needs no weapon to destroy them, just make a “blasphemous” video clip or cartoon and get ready with a pack of popcorn to watch them destroy themselves. The weird thing about them is that, as they protest against you, they would harm themselves and feel proud of it.
           
What is even more interesting is that, it seems that Muslims have some sort of built-in grudge and hatred for the kuffar (infidels) and the worst title that they can give to someone is kafir (infidel).

Living in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, I have seen different groups of Muslims divided on the basis of difference in opinion. Each group claims that its beliefs are the true ones, the genuine ones, directly taught by Mohammad and his companions. Most of the groups consider others to be infidels. For instance, the Shiite Muslims are openly declared infidels in speeches and pamphlets by the opposing parties and such is wall-chalked all over the country. And the Shiite Muslims get immensely offended by all this.

In the Muslim world, the word “kafir” is a symbol of sheer hatred, disgrace, immorality, and offense even though this same Muslim world is enjoying the modern technology developed and being innovated by the same infidels whom they pointlessly hate so much.

Muslim Fear

By the looks of the scenario, I don’t see the concept of Islamophobia to be anything but a covering, a curtain, a shelter under which hides the Kufrophobia of Muslims. It is actually they who are afraid of the rise of other nations around them, not the other way round.

Why is it that there are certain aspects which are not allowed to be questioned? Why is it that the one who leaves Islam to become an atheist or join another religion becomes obliged to be killed? Why is it that just because of one “offensive” video, the Pakistani government banned YouTube and ignored a whole treasure of other informative and educational videos? Why is it that when you talk to a Muslim about a new scientific discovery or innovation, he claims right away that the Quran had already mentioned it centuries ago, and then molds and bends certain verses from the scripture to prove it?

The fact that some beliefs are not allowed to be discussed or doubted is enough to prove that those beliefs are meaningless and defenseless on critical grounds, and that is why the believers are “phobic” of critical thinking and rational argument. The fact that the one who leaves Islam must be killed adequately depicts how high the insecurities of Muslims are. The fact that they can neglect and give up the social and educational enlightenment of their youth only to block one “blasphemous” video on YouTube is a proof of their intolerance and inability to react in a suitable manner.

There is no such thing as Islamophobia in real; there is only Kufrophobia that resides in the heart of every Muslim on earth, which is quite reasonable as well…

Photo Credits: Al Jazeera English