Islamophobia
&
Islamic Moderation
Spahic Omer
i
Acknowledgment
Publishing this book was possible due to a generous help and
unreserved support by a group of Bosniaks who live in Melbourne,
Australia.
I most sincerely pray to Almighty Allah to reward them and their
families abundantly.
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Table of Contents
Introduction……………………………………………………………………………
Chapter One: Islamophobia: Meaning and Origins..............................................
Chapter Two: The Story of Islamophobia...............................................................
Chapter Three: John of Damascus and Christian-Muslim Polemics……………….
Chapter Four: Riccoldo and Islamophobia………………………………………..
Chapter Five: Martin Luther and Islamophobia …………………………………..
Chapter Six: Why Did Prophet Muhammad Fight?........................................................
Chapter Seven: Muslims as a Moderate Nation.……………………………………….
Chapter Eight: It Is All about Peace (Salam)………………………………………..
Chapter Nine: Why Should Muslims Learn about Western Civilization?……………
Chapter Ten: The Srebrenica Genocide: Lest We Forget……………….....................
Chapter Eleven: Converting Churches and Temples into Mosques…………………….
Chapter Twelve: Jesus and Mary as a Misread Sign….……………………………..
Chapter Thirteen: A Westerner’s Unprejudiced Views on Islam…………………….
Chapter Fourteen: The Qur’an as the Ultimate Source of History………………………
Chapter Fifteen: Makkah and Islamic Unity……………………………………………
Chapter Sixteen: Muslims and the Challenge of Modernity…………………………..
Chapter Seventeen: The Prophet’s Anxieties…………………………………………….
Chapter Eighteen: Abdullah b. Rawahah as an Embodiment of Heavenly Justice……
Chapter Nineteen: Remember Who You Are……………………………………….
Chapter Twenty: In Search of a True Ecstasy………………………………………...
Chapter Twenty One: Man Is Created to Be Productive……………………………
Chapter Twenty Two: Might Makes no Right…………………………………………
Index…………………………………………………………………………………
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Introduction
It is undeniable that Islamophobia and Islamic moderation (wasatiyyah) are two of the most
widely used and abused concepts nowadays. There are no agreed-upon definitions. Thus, they
are used predicated on contexts, prevalent sentiments and interests. Not only the friends and
foes of Islam and Muslims, but also Muslims themselves, are at fault. More often than not,
people are guided by expediency rather than principle, and by unreasonableness rather than
rationality.
At any rate, Islamophobia can be defined as the excessive and empirically unjustifiable fear,
hatred of, or bias against Islam, Muslims and Islamic civilization, which are translated into
policies, attitudes, language, literature, and into condoned individual as well as collective
behavioural patterns.
Islamophobia is a new term for a centuries-old idea and phenomenon. Its evolution was steep
and dynamic. Differences from one era and its context to another were in nuances and
methods, rather than magnitudes and goals. While at first and for a long time Islamophobia
was in the spirit of “us versus them”, in recent times it came to be, principally, in terms of
“them among us”.
Islamic moderation, on the other hand, is a very comprehensive and, at the same time,
complex concept. It perhaps most fully portrays the holistic meaning of Islam and the role of
Muslims. The actual connotation of Muslims as a moderate nation (ummatan wasatan) is that
they are “a true, just, best, middle and rightly balanced nation”.
Islamic moderation is relatable neither to religious leniency nor permissiveness, the latter yet
signifying the threshold of liberalism. Rather, Islamic moderation is a heavenly mandate,
which weighs heavily on each and every true Muslim. It is at once a privilege and
responsibility. It is a two-edged sword, so to speak.
Islamophobia and Islamic moderation are peculiarly interrelated at the conceptual and
practical planes. One is a negative and the other positive entity. Presently they converge
intermittently at some vital, yet extemporaneous, junctures, but as soon as they do they start
drifting away from each other. They forge such unusual relationships as are neither reciprocal
nor unilateral, and are neither fully confluent nor fully divergent. They neither intrinsically
attract nor repel one another. They are both “opportunistic”.
For example, it is unclear whether it is the distorted forms of the Islamic message with some
people, or the lack of the philosophy and practice of authentic Islamic moderation, that is
more responsible for breeding and sustaining Islamophobia. Or could it be a combination of
both, or perhaps entirely something else?
Likewise, while it is expected that the powerful presence of Islamophobia will drive home to
Muslims a message that the true meaning of Islam as the last revelation of God to mankind
and as a complete way of life should be both universalized and globalized in a systematic and
engaging manner, such seems not to be the case as much as craved. Islamophobia is a wake-
up call which not many people heed. It made out a case which the actualization of Islamic
moderation and nothing else - ideally - can face and eventually triumph over. Islamophobia is
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inherently wrong. Facing it with wrong strategies and means will solve nothing, for indeed
two wrongs do not make a right.
This book aims to shed more light on the two concepts, trying to explain more points where
they simultaneously congregate and part company. The book is a collection of twenty two
chapters, which loosely constitute a whole. The whole could be perceived in terms of
examining diverse aspects of each of Islamophobia and Islamic moderation and finding a
common thread to most of them. The book, accordingly, as much enquires and probes as it
enlightens and educates. It does so at once in a forthright and oblique manner, raising thereby
a myriad of different correlative questions and issues.
The book discusses such themes as the meaning, origins and evolution of Islamophobia;
Muslims and Western civilization; Christian-Muslim polemics and the role of John of
Damascus; the contributions of Riccoldo da Monte di Croce and Martin Luther to
Islamophobia; an example of Western unprejudiced views on Islam; Prophet Muhammad
(pbuh) and fighting (Islamic ethics of war); the meaning and significance of Islamic
moderation (wasatiyyah); the Srebrenica genocide; the notions of modernity, Islamic unity,
peace, justice, happiness, might, and the Qur’an as the ultimate source of history.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Spahic Omer
Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences
International Islamic University Malaysia
spahico@yahoo.com
