Robert Spencer: The Monstrous Moral Inversion of the “Islamophobia” Industry

Over at Atlas Shrugs I discuss the "Islamophobia"-mongers' Orwellian inversion of reality:

A steady stream of articles appears about the “Islamophobia” industry, a supposedly well-coordinated, well-funded band of bigots, hatemongers and racists who are doing their utmost to disrupt what would otherwise be a peaceful and harmonious welcoming of Muslims into the United States and other Western nations. Yet every day’s headlines demonstrates anew that these claims, however often they appear in the mainstream media, are not only wholly fabricated, but represent a moral inversion of monstrous proportions.

If it weren’t for the “Islamophobes,” we are told, Americans wouldn’t have the low opinion of Islam that surveys show they do; innocent Muslims would not be victimized; and discrimination against Muslims would be essentially non-existent. Then the whole narrative gets ratcheted up even higher when anyone suggests that the reason why non-Muslims may have a low opinion of Islam is because of the behavior of Muslims themselves, when they commit acts of violence and make supremacist declarations in the name of Islam.

To suggest such a thing, the guardians against “Islamophobia” hasten to assure us, is to express one’s approval of the brutalization of innocent Muslims and discrimination against Islam in the public sphere. They claim that to say that Islam itself might bear any responsibility for the actions committed in its name is to approve of acts of vigilantism and hate directed against Muslims.

But this is not actually the case at all, and this is a point so elementary that in any less Orwellian age it would be represent the height of condescension even to take the time to make it. If core Islamic texts teach hatred and violence, as they manifestly do, then to point out that fact when Muslims commit acts of hatred and violence and even quote those texts in defense of their actions is simply to recognize reality. It is not a call for reciprocal acts of violence and hatred against innocent Muslims, but rather a challenge to peaceful Muslims and non-Muslim officials to recognize the root causes of Muslim violence and hatred and take effective steps to end it. It should not be necessary, in a sane public discourse, to point out this fact. But it is another sign of the success of the “Islamophobia” industry that people have such difficulty grasping it.

For there is indeed an “Islamophobia” industry, but it is not the one that you will read about in sensationalistic “exposes” in Leftist publications offering highly misleading and often outright false information about the supposedly handsome funding of “Islamophobes.” The real “Islamophobia” industry is the one that churns out those “exposes,” trying to convince the public that the problem most troubling the peace of the world is “Islamophobia” and the “Islamophobes” behind it. They are actually the ones with the funding. They are the ones with the carefully planned and coordinated message. They are the ones, above all, who are by their actions justifying harm done to innocent human beings.

The moral inversion is astounding. It is hard to believe that anyone would fall for it, but understandable that they would, given the ubiquity of this line in the mainstream media and that same media’s stonewalling about the Islamic identity and motivations of so many jihad terror acts and organizations around the world.

Just last week, for example, the mainstream media was full of numerous enthusiastic puff pieces about the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations’ ad campaign to convince the world that jihad is just about getting in one’s exercise despite a busy schedule or making friends of a different political point of view. Meanwhile, it was revealed (after a coverup in the Pakistani media) that a Muslim mob opened fire upon a group of Christians celebrating Christmas in Pakistan, and that a plot to bomb and fire upon Christmas celebrations in Egypt had been foiled, and that Russian authorities killed a group of Muslims who were planning jihad mayhem and murder in the North Caucasus.

All of these and other attacks were carried out by Muslims who were acting in the name of jihad, believing that they were fulfilling a divine responsibility delineated in the Qur’an and Sunnah. To recognize this, and to call for an end to it, is not “hate,” or “bigotry,” and above all it is not the trumped-up and manipulative neologism of “Islamophobia.” And to accuse the defenders against jihad hatred and violence of being the haters is not just wrongheaded; it is clearly in service of the jihad itself, as an attempt to clear away obstacles to that jihad violence. It is, in short, in service of a monstrous evil.

I know I have said all this before. And I will say it all again. Because again and again it keeps on needing to be said. And it needs to be said again and again because this is one of the only places where you will read it, as most other outlets on the Left and the Right have already been compromised. It may be shouting into the void, but as long as breath remains in my lungs, I will keep shouting.