Skip to main content

Growing anti-Muslim Prejudice Result of Secular Liberal Ideology and Politics

An Essential Research poll released yesterday found 49% of Australians support a ban on Muslim immigration primarily due to “fears of terrorism” and the belief that Muslims don’t share “Australian values” or integrate. Whatever the accuracy of this particular poll, there is little doubt that anti-Muslim sentiment is growing throughout the West.
Hizb ut Tahrir Australia emphasises the following in this regard:
1.   The hardening of anti-Muslim sentiment is alarming but hardly surprising. It is the obvious and expected result of a 15 year politically motivated campaign to encourage hatred and suspicion of Islam and Muslims. A campaign instigated by mainstream politicians and dutifully carried by the mainstream media. A campaign that used terrorism as the excuse to implant the false idea that Islamic beliefs were the cause of violence, so Islam itself was the suspect and needed reform. For fifteen years straight all things Islam have been abused as a political football by politicians and demonised in the media. For fifteen years straight Islam and Muslims have been viewed squarely through the prism of national security, terrorism, values and integration. What other result can we possibly expect?
2.   The irony is that in the last decade and a half two Muslim countries were invaded and destroyed by western powers, the Arab uprisings exploited for western benefit to devastating effect as in Syria, dictators were propped up and supported in the Muslim world, all sorts of abuses committed in the like of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, yet somehow those who have been the worse victims are now considered the problem. Indeed, those who lost everything and were forced to seek refuge elsewhere are seen as most suspect. This is the logic of blind prejudice fostered by narrow political agendas.
3.   While the far right has become the face of this open prejudice, to focus critique on it would be to miss the mark. It is the mainstream of politics that created the social and political environment that fosters suspicion and hate of Islam, which those on the “fringe” exploit. The path for the open prejudice of the likes of Pauline Hanson is paved by the agendas and policies of the likes of John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Tony Abbot and Malcolm Turnbull. The latter scapegoat the former – recent comments at the UN by President Obama and PM Turnbull on refugees being a case in point – while it is their policies that are the core of the problem. That is where our critique must be focused.
4.   What we have here, ultimately, is the remarkable failure of the secular liberal paradigm and its resultant politics. An ideology which encourages selfishness and individualism, the relegation of the spiritual, the primacy of the material, the commericalisation of everything, and the division of humanity into arbitrary “nations”, each motivated by its own narrow “national interest”. The result is a world of powerful nations exploiting weaker nations by whatever means they can, in each of which the elite classes exploit the masses by whatever means they can. The prevailing political systems, thoroughly corrupted by the influence of corporations, have no solutions to real human problems faced by the masses, in whom the lowly sentiment of nationalism and patriotism is always latent. The result of scapegoating one minority or another is predictable.
5.   In this context, Muslims have a formidable challenge. We must not only face increasingly hate and prejudice with the nobility that Islam demands but we must do so while on the front foot. Going insular and defensive is not an option for us, for such is entirely out of sync with the noble prophetic way. We must be on the front foot, critiquing the mainstream ideology and system and showing how Islam alone, far from being the problem, is the need of the time. We must move beyond the narrow politics of self-image and compromise to a politics of truth, resistance of oppression and leadership of humanity.

Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Australia

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

An advice to Muslims working in the financial sector

Assalam wa alaikum wa rahmatullah wabarakatahu, Dear Brothers & Sisters, We are saddened to see Muslims today even those who practise many of the rules of Islam are working in jobs which involve haram in the financial sector. They are working in positions which involve usurious (Riba) transactions, insurance, the stock market and the like. Even though many of the clear evidences regarding the severity of the sin of Riba are known, some have justified their job to themselves thinking that they are safe as long as they are not engaged in the actual action of taking or giving Riba. Brothers & Sisters, You should know that the majority of jobs in the financial sector, even the IT jobs in this area are haram (prohibited) as they involve the processing of prohibited contracts. If you work in this sector, do not justify your job to yourself because of the fear of losing your position or having to change your career, fear Allah as he should be feared and consider His law regard

Q&A: Age of separating children in the beds?

Question: Please explain the hukm regarding separation of children in their beds. At what age is separation an obligation upon the parents? Also can a parent sleep in the same bed as their child? Answer: 1- With regards to separating children in their beds, it is clear that the separation which is obligatory is when they reach the age of 7 and not since their birth. This is due to the hadith reported by Daarqutni and al-Hakim from the Messenger (saw) who said: When your children reach the age of 7 then separate their beds and when they reach 10 beat them if they do not pray their salah.’ This is also due to what has been narrated by al-Bazzar on the authority of Abi Rafi’ with the following wording: ‘We found in a sheet near the Messenger of Allah (saw) when he died on which the following was written: Separate the beds of the slave boys and girls and brothers and sisters of 7 years of age.’ The two hadiths are texts on the separation of children when they reach the age of 7. As for the

Authenticity of ahadith on tall buildings in Makkah?

Question Are these   ḥadith  sound? Are the references provided correct and accurate? When you see the belly of Makkah will be cleft open and through it will be dug out river-like passages (i.e. tunnels) (or water in the road to Makkah), and you see the buildings surpass its mountains, then take care (or beware, or a variant has: then know that the matter is at hand, or then understand that the time of trial (Judgment day) is near at hand). [Narrated by Al-Azraqi in the Book of reports about Makkah – Kitab Akhbaar Makkah, Hadiyth-1725; A specific Hadiyth (in fact several related-Hadiyths) which prophesizes about this Tower. Itha ra’aitun mecca bu’ijat katha’ima, wa ya-tasawa bunyanuha ru’usa jibaliha, faqad athalati as-Sa’atu. When you see Mecca, its mountain with holes (pierced through them), and its buildings reach its mountain tops, then as-Sa’ah (the Hour) has already cast its shadow. [Suyuti] So when you see in Makkah that channels have already been dug (or tunnels built), and you