Since the late 70s, Islam and Muslims have occupied the public and intellectual discourse worldwide. While Muslims regard their faith as a panacea for all problems, others consider Islam a source of all evil. Who are the others, and why do Muslims feel Islam offers hope for the future?
Five influential groups are active against Islam and Muslims in one or the other way. They are Right-wing evangelists, Israeli Zionists, liberal intellectuals, Hindu nationalists, and Chinese communists. Each has constructed its narrative against Islam and Muslims.
Right-wing Christians identify Islam as anti-Christ. They await for the Kingdom of God under the leadership of Jesus after the destruction of all other existing faiths. To them, Islam is from Lucifer, its Prophet was false, and its scriptures were the outcome of wrong reading of the Bible.
Israeli Zionists see Islam as a threat to their survival. In their view, Muslims would never accept the state of Israel as a legitimate entity and would continue to denounce its existence. Their presence in the West is a source of anti-Semitism, and without marginalizing them, Israel would live in a state of uncertainty.
Liberal intellectuals are allergic to a living faith. They can accept a dormant and passive faith. Since Muslims claim that their religion offers hope for the future, they fear a totalitarian society with little freedom and despotic rules.
Hindu nationalists regard Muslims as an enemy of India and view Islam as a brutal ideology that challenges the thousands-of-year-old ethos and norms of Hindus. They blame Islam for changing the demographic profile of India by luring millions of the so-called lower caste people to their egalitarian concept of society.
They have developed a narrative that describes Muslims as wild, violent hedonists, iconoclasts who destroyed their temples, killed their priestly class, and raped their women.
Read the article by Dr Aslam Abdullah in AMUST.