The present wave of “Islamophobia” is “Reaction” to the “Extreme and violent actions” of American trained ‘Jihadis‘ [Mujahideen]. They were equipped, financed and supported by USA and Western allies abandoned in Afghanistan after defeat of communist USSR in 80’s. They have chalked out their own violent agenda under the guise and label of Islam, which is rejected by Islamic scholars. The Palestine tragedy and oppression of Muslims all over the globe are other reasons besides the historic malice.
Instead of tackling the Extremists through focused approach, USA and West has started blaming Islam and 1.5 Billion Muslims for violence, to which innocent Muslims themselves are victims. Muslims are being killed both by terrorists as well as US and allied forces in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and elsewhere.
Think and decide yourself; is it rational? Who are allies and who are victims?
Hence “Islamophobia” is “irrational” fear of or prejudice against Islam, rather than simple criticism, prejudice against, or hatred or fear of Islam or Muslims.
The following excerpt from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sP9WBDAUg4 are worth reading:
“Seems Taliban & Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan creation of Western Russophobes who gave contra-productive Victory to brutal Muslim fanatics during the Cold War out of hate, revenge and competition with Russia, without thinking of the future consequences? Another cruel mistake? Afghanistan was given to Radical Islamists. Politicians should study history and should not make decisions based on phobias, prejudice and narrow-mindedness.
The Economist magazine noted soon after September 11, Russophobic policies in Afghanistan a decades and more ago helped to create both Osama bin Laden and fundamentalist Taliban regime that shelters him.” An examination of this history will reveal the extent to which that foreign policy is based on hypocrisy, realpolitik, and the short-term pursuit of narrow interests”.
During Cold War, in February 1980, Washington Post reported that mujahideen was receiving arms coming from U.S. government to fight Soviets.
The objective of the intervention, as spelled out by Russophobe Brezinski, was to trap Soviets in a long and costly war designed to drain their resources, just as Vietnam had bled United States. To hurt t Russians, he deliberately choses to give most support to most extreme groups of mujahideens. A disproportionate share of U.S. arms went to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, “a particularly fanatical fundamentalist and woman-hater.”‘ According to journalist Tim Weiner, ” [Hekmatyar’s] followers first gained attention by throwing acid in the faces of women who refused to wear the veil.
With support of Pakistan’s military dictator, General Zia-ul-Haq, U.S. began recruiting and training both mujahideen fighters from 3 million Afghans in Pakistan and large numbers of mercenaries from other Islamic countries. Estimates of how much money Russophobes in the U.S. government channeled to the Afghan rebels over next decade vary, but most sources put the figure between $3 billion and $6 billion, or more. In March 1985, Reagan administration issued a plan to escalate covert action in Afghanistan dramatically.
Abandoning a policy of simple harassment of Soviets, Reagan team decided secretly to let loose on the Afghan battlefield an array of U.S. high technology and military expertise in an effort to hit and demoralize Soviet commanders and soldiers.. By 1987, the annual supply of arms had reached 65,000 tons.
As well as training and recruiting Afghan nationals to fight Soviets, CIA permitted its ISI allies to recruit Muslim extremists from around the world. Eventually more than 100,000 Muslim radicals were to have direct contact with Pakistan and Afghanistan and be influenced by the jihad [against the USSR].
In camps near Peshawar and in Afghanistan, these radicals met each other for the first time and studied trained and fought together. The camps became virtual universities for future Islamic radicalism. One of the first non-Afghan volunteers to join the ranks of the mujahideen was Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden recruited 4,000 volunteers from his own country and developed close relations with most radical mujahideen leaders. By 1984, he was running Maktab al-Khidamar, an organization set up by the ISI to funnel “money, arms, and fighters from outside world in the Afghan war.” “In 1988, with U.S. knowledge, bin Laden created Al Qaeda (The Base): a conglomerate of quasi independent Islamic terrorist cells spread across at least 26 countries,” writes journalist Rahul Bhedi. “Washington turned a blind eye to Al-Qaeda, confident that it would not directly impinge on the U.S.” Over the past 17 years, the “Afghani” network has been linked to terrorist attacks not only on U.S. targets, but also in the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, France, Azerbaijan, China, Egypt, Algeria, and elsewhere. “This is an insane instance of the chickens coming home to roost,” one U.S. diplomat in Pakistan told the Los Angeles Times. “You can’t plug billions of dollars into an anti-Communist jihad, accept participation from all over the world and ignore the consequences. But it was done.
As the Russians withdrew from Afghanistan in early 1989, American policymakers celebrated with champagne, while the country itself collapsed into virtual anarchy. Later, a new groop, the Taliban (Pashtun for “students”), emerged on the scene. Its members came from madrassas set up by Pakistani government along the border and funded by U.S., Britain, and Saudis, where they had received theological indoctrination and military training.
The roots of Taliban lay in 20 years of “jihad”(supported by Western Russophobes) against the Russia’s effort to keep extreme Islam away from it’s borders.
How many American and NATO soldiers have to die in the former Russia’s war for Failed Policy of those Russophobes ?”
Conclusion:
Instead of tackling the Extremists through focused approach, USA and West has started blaming Islam and 1.5 Billion Muslims for violence, to which innocent Muslims themselves are victims. Muslims are being killed both by terrorists as well as US and allied forces in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and elsewhere. Think and decide yourself; is it rational? Who are allies and who are victims?
Hence “Islamophobia” is “irrational” fear of or prejudice against Islam, rather than simple criticism, prejudice against, or hatred or fear of Islam or Muslims.
Islamophobia اسلام فوبیا 