Rita Panahi: We must call out this bigotry
AFTER recent deadly attacks you’d expect a careful examination of the ideology motivating them. But anyone admitting the undeniable link to Islam is accused of Islamophobia.
Rita Panahi
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IN THE past week Islamist terrorists have launched deadly attacks against civilians in places as disparate as the United States, Syria, Israel, France and the Philippines.
You’d expect this carnage would prompt a careful examination of the ideology motivating these attacks but our leaders, and much of the commentariat, steadfastly refuse to acknowledge let alone discuss Islam’s role in acts of terror around the world.
Instead they indulge in the most cowardly moral equivocation imaginable, one that gives cover to extremists. Worse, they attempt to intimidate and silence those who dare acknowledge the proverbial elephant in the room. Anyone who admits the undeniable link between Islam and Islamist acts of terror is accused of Islamophobia.
A wise man once described Islamophobia as a term “created by fascists and used by cowards to manipulate morons”. It’s become the go-to slur for those who don’t like inconvenient facts challenging their sloppy thinking.
The denial and obfuscation that follows every Islamist atrocity does nothing other than embolden the extremist elements within the Muslim community.
In the wake of the Orlando massacre, the Regressive Left refused to identify radical Islam as one of the underlying motives of the terrorist who gunned down dozens of innocent people.
It was simply a “hate crime” against the LGBTIQ community with no consideration of what drove that murderous hatred. It mattered not that Omar Mateen had pledged bay’ah or allegiance to Islamic State. Even the gunman’s own explanation of why he was committing this atrocity wasn’t enough to convince the wilfully blind that this may have something to do with Islam. Two days later, in France, another terrorist pledging allegiance to IS slaughtered a police officer and his wife in front of the couple’s three-year-old child. The horrific crime was filmed and broadcast on Facebook.
Mateen was US-born but he was anything but a patriot. Classmates recall him cheering the 9/11 attacks in 2001. His father is a Taliban supporter who thinks “God will punish those involved in homosexuality” and shares his anti-US views online and on a TV station aimed at Pashtun Afghans in America and Europe.
It has been widely reported that Mateen himself was bisexual or gay; that is a problem for a radicalised Muslim from a devout family. Under Sharia law homosexuality is forbidden and can be punishable by death.
A gay man may choose to leave the religion but the punishment for apostasy is, you guessed it, death.
The unpalatable truth is that homosexuals, like Jews, are seen as targets for jihadists. Hostile attitudes to homosexuality exist not just in Islamic countries but are also present in Muslim communities in Western nations.
Research conducted in 2009 showed British Muslims had zero tolerance for homosexuality; not one of the 500 Muslims polled in the Gallup Coexist Index believed homosexual acts were morally acceptable. Another reputable poll conducted in 2015 by ICM showed that 52 per cent of all British Muslims think homosexuality should be illegal and a quarter are in favour of Sharia law.
To compare the oppression of homosexuals in the Muslim world with the homophobia present in other religions is a nonsensical exercise. There is only one religion that regularly executes gay men for the crime of being gay.
Human rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali wrote: “No doctrine is more violent to the gay community than Islamic doctrine. It is time to take on Muslim homophobia.”
It’s not just the savages of IS who murder gay men by throwing them off roof tops and then stoning those who survive the fall. There are 10 countries — Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Nigeria, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Mauritania — where gay men may be executed for homosexual acts. It’s not a wild coincidence that all are Muslim-majority countries.
Even in the more “liberal” Middle Eastern countries, such as Lebanon, men are mistreated for being gay. Homosexuality may be legal in Turkey, but anti-gay sentiment is strong and rising.
A Turkish newspaper with close ties to the country’s president reported the Orlando attack with the headline: “Death toll rises to 50 in bar where perverted homosexuals go!”
But this homophobia is rarely called out by those who are normally hypersensitive to any suggestion of LGBTIQ bigotry.
A gay couple denied a wedding cake in Colorado receives more sympathy and coverage than the systematic oppression of gay men in the name of Islam. Ugly attitudes that would normally be condemned are tolerated due to “cultural sensitivities”.
Similarly the subjugation of women in the Muslim world is all but ignored by western feminists who rail against any trivial offence, real or imagined.
If your reaction to acts of Islamist terror is to immediately recite the ills of every other religion, then you’re part of the problem. If you’re more outraged by Donald Trump’s tweets than innocent people slaughtered during a night out then you’re part of the problem. If your reaction to Orlando was to bleat endlessly about gun control while never mentioning Muslim extremism then you’re part of the problem.
For the record I’m in favour of stricter gun laws, but that won’t stop terrorists as attacks in places like Paris, London and Brussels have shown.
If you truly value the rights of individuals then you must treat Islam like any other doctrine and call out bigotry when you see it.
Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist.
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