This is not Islam

The protests that have swept across the Muslim world over the past several days are nothing to do with the inflammatory anti-Islam video “Innocence of Muslims”. The growth and spread, and most significantly, the timing of these violent demonstrations should make that clear by now.

What began with the murder of a US diplomat and the assault upon an American Embassy in Benghazi, Libya has now escalated to the sacking of a German embassy in the Sudan and street protests at Western embassies from Iraq to Indonesia. The attack in Libya occurred on 11^th September, and the White House, amongst many other security analysts, believes it had been a long planned operation to coincide with the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre.

Following the emergence of the offending video, promoted in recent weeks by US Islamophobes, it has been forgotten that Muslims the world over have been subjected to a decade long campaign of discrimination and prejudice. So these protests have been seen by many solely as a response to the video, and not as part of lingering anti-Western sentiment which was not simply wiped away with the retirement of George W Bush.

The death of anyone in these circumstances is inexcusable and cannot in any way be justified. But it happened at the hands of terrorists with links to Al-Qaeda, not protesting Muslims. The Guardian reported on 14^th September the lack of support from Libyans for the actions of the Islamist militia in Benghazi. An Imam called the faithful to prayer in Benghazi that evening saying “The burning of buildings is not the path of the prophet Muhammad”. Photos of protesters holding placards of apology to America spread across the internet as quickly as the offensive video.

But we in the West are too quick and too willing to tar every Muslim with the same brush. Absurd arguments are invoked that Islam is exceptional in its lack of tolerance, when we are surrounded by evidence of fear and intolerance harboured by every religion, and when a silent ignorance clouds our own judgement. I am no exception.

I am a Quaker, and I was educated at a Quaker school. In every class, in every assembly and in every conversation with our teachers and mentors, we were taught nothing but the value of compassion, acceptance and love, wherever we were and to whomever we encountered.

But despite this, quietly and without noticing, I became prejudiced. I watched news reports and began to fear these men and women shouting “death to America”, not understanding the whys and the wherefores of their protest. I read of bombings by terrorists and accepted what politicians and commentators told me: that this was the work of Muslims.

I lived in a world infected with the idea that we were experiencing a clash of cultures. That Islam was incompatible with modernity and that its believers, men and women both, were not free – trapped by their faith and behind their veils. I thought of myself as an upstanding, enlightened liberal. I had not realized what I had become.

I write this with a sense of deep and profound shame. I write this knowing that it does not excuse my guilt, but that education and knowledge rescued me from ignorance.

There is a hatred alive in our culture that never sleeps. Its power is unparalleled because it feeds off our ignorance and fear. Despite our multi-cultural communities and technology which connects the world, we in the West still have little understanding of Islamic culture. Because of this, we fear it.

We fear when US commentators tell us to beware of an Islamist government in the Middle East, despite the fact that Turkey’s past decade of development and its recent role as the responsible regional powerbroker is the success of its Islamist ruling party, AKP.

We fear potential terrorism when protestors tell us the West has insulted the Prophet Muhammad, but as the Quran tells us “judgement belongs to God alone” (6:57). If we are to truly coexist, the West must educate our children more faithfully. They should understand that Muslims are no different from the rest of us. They should know that the extremists calling for the beheading of those who insult the Prophet are no different from members of the Ku Klux Klan or religious terrorists in Northern Ireland.

Muslims the world over abhor the death of Chris Stevens. And his life, dedicated as it was to outreach and understanding in the Islamic world, would be wasted if the West places his blood on every Muslim’s hands. Do not believe those who foster fear among us. Do not believe those with hate in their hearts. For this is not Islam.