How to deal with Islamophobia

Since 9/11 attack in USA, Islam has found itself swimming in the ocean of heavy attack as never before. The West and the media have created ether in which all Muslims are portrayed as intransigent and terrorists. The Islamophobes claim that Islam is naturally a terrorist religion.  Well, since they believe that every terrorist attack is an Islamic.

In schools and some other work places, Muslims are subjected to surveillance in the name of fighting “extremism” and those who exercise their right to demonstrate peacefully, have been subjected to arrest and heavy sentencing.

Fresh are memories of Marwa Sheribini’s death in 2009. The 32-year-old pregnant mother-of-one who was killed in court by a man identified as Alex W, an immigrant from Russia of German heritage –who stabbed her 18 times, BBC reported.

The killer had previously been fined for calling her a “terrorist” for wearing the Islamic hijab or headscarf, and was in court to appeal against his conviction. Police also reportedly shot Sheribini’s husband as he was trying to save his wife.

These are but few incidents that confirm that Muslims are seen as a threat to this world, with numerous propaganda programs being aired every hour on TVs and Hollywood movies demonising Islam with some Muslims falling prey to the brainwashed Western fundamentalists.

Now, the question is, what are we as Muslims doing about it? Should we just sit back shaking our heads, upbraiding with our mouths, hating with our hearts, blaming the Western countries and do nothing with our hands? No!

We have to act! But in what way?

When we are saying that we have to act with our hands, we do not mean that we should wage war with those against Islam, as that would make us even worse than those who do many atrocities and terrorise in our name. We have to do something that would dwarf their evil and surmount their desire to define who we are as Muslims of cognizant of faith and a community of believers.

There is need for us to take a stand, open the doors of our Mosques, and stay in front of the message and have competent leaders. Fearless leaders who will be able to challenge those who say Islam is a war religion or encourage our brothers and sisters to blow themselves up, as these actions are what give our enemies advantage. Wherever we do not understand, let us consult our Sheikhs and Maulanas for proper guidance.

We need also to have more institutions and places that would serve the needs of the people both Muslims and non-Muslims like Maryam Girls Teachers Training College. By doing this will increase our interaction with them and at the end they will know who real we are.

We need to do more dawah, not just to ask non-Muslims to convert to Islam, but also to equip them with full knowledge – it is up to them to choose which is good as Quran says there is no compulsion in Religion. These are what considered to be good values of Islam, but today they are rare.

We have also to know that if we really want to identify the enemy of Islam, we need to look no further than our reflections.

Every moment we waste not in service to humanity and our ummah, ensuring that all are safe, sheltered, and protected we go against what Islam requires of us. Every moment we ignore our duties to God to be the shining example to mankind, we become an adversary of Islam.

We could go on for years faulting non-Muslims, the West, and Israel and it would not yield anything. The real question we should ask ourselves is, if we were doing all the things God commanded, and our countries and lands were a shining and true reflection of the example of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), would non-Muslims, the West, or Israel even matter? If we know that they are the enemies of Islam, then why do we go to them and ask to bring democracy in our beautiful Islamic countries?

Somewhere, somehow, something is wrong.