Too often fear of Islam seems the rational response to the actions of some Muslims

Too many Muslims sell tyranny and dishonesty not justice, strength and openness. If we are to stop fearing Islam then that, as well as our own hearts, needs to change.

In 2013, under the leadership of Zulfi Karim, Bradford Council of Mosques agreed to help save the beautiful Moorish synagogue in the City. The result was a remarkable partnership between the old and declining Jewish community and a part of its large and vibrant Muslim population:

“Now the two men get on so well that when Leavor goes on holiday he gives the synagogue keys to Karim, as well as the alarm code. They have begun what they hope will be a lasting tradition, whereby the Jewish community invites local Muslims and Christians to an oneg shabbat (Friday night dinner) and Muslims return the invitation for a Ramadan feast and Christians during the harvest festival. For the latter, Karim provided halal mince for the shepherd's pie.”

When I lunched with Zulfi at MyLahore, a ‘fusion’ restaurant popular with students, while I ate dahl with seekh kebabs and a chapati, he enjoyed their shepherd’s pie. We talked about how young Asians in Bradford didn’t really want to eat curry, that’s what they get every day from aunty at home, but want pizza, burgers, or fish and chips. It was a lunch that gave me a little bit of hope that the future for community relationships in Bradford and beyond was good. An idea I was reminded of again while sitting next to a Muslim Lord Mayor at a requiem mass for a former Labour councillor.

This is how it should be, but a few seconds' glimpse at the world’s news tells us that the terrible truth is that ancient hatreds - and some new ones - still have too much power. You only need to watch the testimony of Jewish students to the US Congress or watch the joyous hatred paraded through the streets wrapped in a Palestinian flag. If you have the stomach for it, you might read the testimonies of witnesses to the atrocities on 7th October and, like me, wonder how that grim, sexually-charged hatred came about? It is one thing for civilians to die as collateral death in a military campaign but quite another thing for civilians to be the deliberate targets of the attack. And, worse still, for the attack to be so exciting and stimulating that the young men committing the attack are able to repeatedly rape and mutilate women.

November was Islamophobia Awareness Month and it is difficult to think of a worse advert for Islam than the actions of Hamas and its allies during this last month. The official theme of the month was ‘Muslim Stories’:

“The goal of this year’s campaign is to facilitate connections among individuals from diverse backgrounds, including both Muslims and non-Muslims, using the transformative power of storytelling. So take part by sharing your stories and sparking meaningful and engaging conversations!”

Which stories do we want though? I’m assuming that the organisers of Islamophobia Awareness Month want more of the sort of tale I opened with, stories of cooperation, engagement and understanding that show Mulsims positively and as people to cherish not people to fear? And we should hold those stories close to remind us, in a world seemingly filled with madmen screaming ‘Allahu Akbar’ as they stab children, attack synagogues or blow up concert -goers. We need to keep the hope that Zulfi and Rudi gave us in Bradford because, in a world filled with preachers calling for the death of Jews, such hope seems so distant. Those stories of help and hope are so few but so important because they are so few. Without them, it is hard not to see Islamophobia as an entirely rational response to the public rhetoric and actions of Muslims. Why should we not be fearful when we see people invoking Islam’s God and Prophet as they commit vile crimes? How can we condemn fear when one teacher is murdered and another is forced into hiding for showing young people a picture of Mohammed? And as an autistic child is condemned for putting the smallest of marks on a copy of the Quran? Or as a university teacher is hounded from her job for showing a painting - one done by a devout Muslim - of the Prophet? People rightly see this and ask whether the problem is Islam not their response to Islam.

We are presented with example after example of preachers in Britain’s mosques encouraging the hatred, even the destruction, of Jews. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is still treated as truth across the Muslim world and antisemitic screeds like Hitler’s Mein Kampf are widely and freely available in Arab countries. Egyptian TV ran and repeated a series called ‘Horseman without a Horse’ which draws directly on the Protocols and other antisemitic literature. Arab, Pakistani and Muslim online spaces are littered with claims that ‘Hitler was right’ alongside grim ancient tropes about Jews killing babies, collecting organs and drinking blood. Why should people, especially Jewish people, not be fearful of this? And if so, is that fear not entirely rational?

Because of Zulfi and many other Muslim friends and colleagues, I’m uncomfortable with the blanket damning of Islam, but these good people’s voices are too quiet and too hesitant whereas the preachers of hate are loud and clear. The good people didn’t go to the help of the teacher in Batley driven from his job and into hiding. The good people don’t criticise, let alone condemn, preachers in mosques claiming that Islam’s scriptures call for the extermination of Jews. And the good people too often respond to terrorism by people invoking Islam’s God, Prophet and scriptures by a sort of whimpering, ‘it wasn’t us, please don’t attack us’ defence of Islam when what the rest of the world wants to hear is the strongest of condemnations and the most robust of criticisms. Worse, as people rage in anger at these attacks, many of the good people don’t respond with empathy but instead with lectures about Islamophobia and how any criticisms even hinting at the expressed faith of the attackers might be a hate crime. This is not as it should be.

If we are to get to a world that isn’t fearful of Islam, then Muslims must attend to the log in their own eye rather than forever pointing to the mote of dust in that of the liberal west. When a leader of a widely supported and respected Muslim organisation, 5 Pillars, can podcast a cosy fireside chat with Nick Griffin, the avowedly racist and antisemitic leader of Britain’s extreme right, then perhaps we need to point out that parts of Islam have a problem?

Islam has contributed so much to our world. Muslims remind us about ancient Greek knowledge saved by Muslims. We’re rightly told how maths, chemistry, astronomy and geography owe so much to the work of Muslims. Those mediaeval Muslims also took ideas of trade and exchange with them on their travels. The communities of Muslims in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Malaysia arrived there as merchants, businessmen and traders not warriors, the success of Islam was as much about its economic power as it was about its military might. So while we are right to criticise generalised attacks on Islam, we should also ask Muslims to remember the parts of their heritage that aren’t about violence, oppression and control but rather are about openness to spiritualism, respect for others and the celebration of ideas and innovation. By all means condemn the likes of Douglas Murray or Tommy Robinson who use selective reading of scriptures to blacken the entire faith of Islam but, at the same time, the good Muslim people need also to condemn the preachers within their faith who use those same words to promote a message of hate.

I don’t believe that any good Muslim could look at what was done to women, children and the elderly on 7th October - while those committing these awful attacks cried ‘Allahu Akbar’ - and believe that this is what the Prophet meant when he brought the words of God to the faithful. And this, not terrible lies about Jews or Zionism, is where good Muslims should start in thinking about why people fear so many of their fellow believers. While us non-Muslims understanding Islam better will help guard against islamophobia, a part of the solution lies in those good Muslims exposing and expelling the bad, the hateful and the violent from their faith. Only then will people start to feel there is no reason to fear Islam.

As Muslim scholar, Ibn Khaldun explains in “The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History”

“Now, whenever the established dynasty avoids injustice, prejudice, weakness, and double-dealing, with determination keeping to the right path and never swerving from it, the wares on its market are as pure silver and fine gold. However, when it is influenced by selfish interests and rivalries, or swayed by vendors of tyranny and dishonesty, the wares of its market place become as dross and debased metals. The intelligent critic must judge for himself as he looks around, examining this, admiring that, and choosing this.”

Today, too many Muslims sell tyranny and dishonesty not justice, strength and openness. If we are to stop fearing Islam then that, as well as our own hearts, needs to change.