Shameless and dangerous Islamophobia
What would you think if you were told that a South African academic spoke about Muslims in South Africa at a conference in Israel, organised by a right-wing Zionist organisation, and said: “I’m going to be talking about ‘Radical Islam in South Africa’, and … I was kinda thinking, well you know, I could have done the same presentation on something called Mainstream Islam in South Africa.”
According to this academic, “radical Islam in South Africa” is the same as “mainstream Islam in South Africa”? A very interesting perspective. Being an academic, of course, he must be able to back up his assertion with evidence. But his startling revelations do not end there. The paper, presented to a conference on “counter terrorism”, adds: “If you look at South African Muslims, some have fought in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union, some have fought in Kashmir against the Indian army, they fought on the side of Iran during the Iran Iraq war in the 1980’s, some have experience in terms of Chechenya.” Again, of course, this great scholar must have got solid evidence to back up these serious claims. He must have interviewed quite a few of these “soldiers”, I am sure.
He also must have done substantial research for his assertion that, “There are groups with Islamist-socialist orientations penetrating gang structures and drug networks.” That I don’t have a clue what “groups with Islamist-socialist orientations” means is irrelevant; he must know what he was talking about, right?
Actually, no. He has no evidence to back up these spurious allegations. Nothing. Nada. Zero. Zilch. It is the kind of thing that would make one’s academic peers shake their heads in embarrassment and disgust. I challenge him to prove that he is not such a source of disgust, this academic who merrily spouts such nonsense and feels no need to explain.
But that’s not enough. Look at this gem quoted in the conference brochure. The academic, we are told “cautioned that radical Islam is becoming more and more mainstream within South Africa.” Why, we South African Muslims might even be to blame for problems with the successful holding of the 2010 Soccer World Cup. “The upcoming soccer World Cup in 2010 will pose a great counter terrorism challenge, he said, offering only the wry consolation that at their current levels of performance, there is little chance that either the Israeli or US teams will make it to the Cup games.” At least the guy has a sense of humour.
The brochure also quotes our academic as enlightening his audience with this incredible information: “More and more Moslems in South Africa travel for education and indoctrination to Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and return to important positions in their communities.” Where are these indoctrinated Muslims hiding out? We (the few Muslims who are not fundamentalist, terrorist radicals) should be informed so that we can keep away from them!
Based on his lecture, the brochure also tells us that, “While not a homogeneous entity, with Sunni-Shii tensions, Shiism is growing [in South Africa] due to the perceived victory over Israel in last summer’s Lebanon war.” Well, what do you know? The Sunnis and Shi’as are bashing each other’s brains out in South Africa, folks. Oh, and by the way, Mr (or is that Professor) Academic, it wasn’t a “perceived victory” over Israel; Israel was beaten! Your friends ran with their tails between their legs. And there is lots of evidence to prove that.
Most readers would likely read these foolish (but dangerous) statements and conclude that this must be the insane, propagandistic and fanciful ramblings of some non-Muslim, anti-Muslim Zionist. That suspicion would be at least partly wrong. The academic who peddles this twaddle goes by the name of Hussein Solomon and is based at the University of Pretoria. The centre he heads – the Centre for International Political Studies – even publishes a glossy, full-colour tabloid rag called Islamic Focus, which publishes authors whose names many Al-Qalam readers will recognise and, hopefully, be disgusted at.
And the conference which Professor Solomon illuminated with this rubbish was the Seventh International Conference of the International Institute for Counter Terrorism, held in Herzliya, Israel, last year. This Institute is a leading Zionist and anti-Muslim “research” institute which aims to entrench Israeli power over the Middle East. It puts out such interesting publications as its book on Suicide Terrorism. A fascinating article on the front page of its website is entitled “Which is the major Islamist threat? Global Jihad or the Iranian coalition”. One of its preposterous studies (it is, admittedly, better researched than Solomon’s paper) “examines the hypothesis that Palestinian women’s involvement in terrorism indicates women’s liberation”.
At the conference Solomon addressed, he was in the illustrious company of such people as the former Mossad head, Shabtai Shavit, American Islamophobes Daniel Pipes and Steven Emerson (of “Jihad in America” fame) and former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. I’m sure Solomon was very comfortable with that group.
After all, he is also well-liked by a number of South African Zionists and has written many non-researched papers and done even more conference presentations around the world about the threat of Islam and Muslims not only to South Africa but to the whole of Africa.
One article, I recall, was entitled “Terrorism in Africa”. In truth, it was about what he called “Islamic extremism”. The most barbaric terrorist organisation in Africa, the Christian “Lord’s Resistance Army”, gets a mention only so that the authors can attack Sudan. In the article, Solomon and his co-“terrorism expert”, Anneli Botha, concocted a gory picture of all kinds of terrorist activities in Africa that they claimed Muslims were involved in. He attacks Muslim governments, Muslim organisations and even Muslim aid agencies. For example, “Although some of these [Muslim] NGO's [doing relief and welfare work] have legitimate objectives, those in control of it use it as a vanguard for destabilizing activities. These objectives include the destabilization of regimes or the determination to change the composition of regimes.” Any sane person can see the danger in such writings (and I’m not referring to his poor grasp of the rules of English grammar, which is the topic for another critique). For a brief commentary of this article, see http://naeemjeenah.blogspot.com/2007/01/terrorism-experts-insult-to-academia.html.
I have no doubt that Solomon will be unhappy with this column. In fact, he might even stoop (or is that “rise”) to using the Zionist tactic of asking to meet my boss so that I might be spoken to or silenced. This was what I became used to from Zionist organisations when I was a university lecturer. And Solomon himself last year asked to meet my boss to discuss a comment of mine in Al-Qalam which he didn’t like. I am tempted to say that people like Solomon should be ashamed. I’m not sure, however, whether they “do shame”. At least all those who write for his Islamic Focus (each one probably getting paid much more than Al-Qalam can afford to pay its editor) should feel ashamed for supporting a person with such Islamophobic views.
According to this academic, “radical Islam in South Africa” is the same as “mainstream Islam in South Africa”? A very interesting perspective. Being an academic, of course, he must be able to back up his assertion with evidence. But his startling revelations do not end there. The paper, presented to a conference on “counter terrorism”, adds: “If you look at South African Muslims, some have fought in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union, some have fought in Kashmir against the Indian army, they fought on the side of Iran during the Iran Iraq war in the 1980’s, some have experience in terms of Chechenya.” Again, of course, this great scholar must have got solid evidence to back up these serious claims. He must have interviewed quite a few of these “soldiers”, I am sure.
He also must have done substantial research for his assertion that, “There are groups with Islamist-socialist orientations penetrating gang structures and drug networks.” That I don’t have a clue what “groups with Islamist-socialist orientations” means is irrelevant; he must know what he was talking about, right?
Actually, no. He has no evidence to back up these spurious allegations. Nothing. Nada. Zero. Zilch. It is the kind of thing that would make one’s academic peers shake their heads in embarrassment and disgust. I challenge him to prove that he is not such a source of disgust, this academic who merrily spouts such nonsense and feels no need to explain.
But that’s not enough. Look at this gem quoted in the conference brochure. The academic, we are told “cautioned that radical Islam is becoming more and more mainstream within South Africa.” Why, we South African Muslims might even be to blame for problems with the successful holding of the 2010 Soccer World Cup. “The upcoming soccer World Cup in 2010 will pose a great counter terrorism challenge, he said, offering only the wry consolation that at their current levels of performance, there is little chance that either the Israeli or US teams will make it to the Cup games.” At least the guy has a sense of humour.
The brochure also quotes our academic as enlightening his audience with this incredible information: “More and more Moslems in South Africa travel for education and indoctrination to Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and return to important positions in their communities.” Where are these indoctrinated Muslims hiding out? We (the few Muslims who are not fundamentalist, terrorist radicals) should be informed so that we can keep away from them!
Based on his lecture, the brochure also tells us that, “While not a homogeneous entity, with Sunni-Shii tensions, Shiism is growing [in South Africa] due to the perceived victory over Israel in last summer’s Lebanon war.” Well, what do you know? The Sunnis and Shi’as are bashing each other’s brains out in South Africa, folks. Oh, and by the way, Mr (or is that Professor) Academic, it wasn’t a “perceived victory” over Israel; Israel was beaten! Your friends ran with their tails between their legs. And there is lots of evidence to prove that.
Most readers would likely read these foolish (but dangerous) statements and conclude that this must be the insane, propagandistic and fanciful ramblings of some non-Muslim, anti-Muslim Zionist. That suspicion would be at least partly wrong. The academic who peddles this twaddle goes by the name of Hussein Solomon and is based at the University of Pretoria. The centre he heads – the Centre for International Political Studies – even publishes a glossy, full-colour tabloid rag called Islamic Focus, which publishes authors whose names many Al-Qalam readers will recognise and, hopefully, be disgusted at.
And the conference which Professor Solomon illuminated with this rubbish was the Seventh International Conference of the International Institute for Counter Terrorism, held in Herzliya, Israel, last year. This Institute is a leading Zionist and anti-Muslim “research” institute which aims to entrench Israeli power over the Middle East. It puts out such interesting publications as its book on Suicide Terrorism. A fascinating article on the front page of its website is entitled “Which is the major Islamist threat? Global Jihad or the Iranian coalition”. One of its preposterous studies (it is, admittedly, better researched than Solomon’s paper) “examines the hypothesis that Palestinian women’s involvement in terrorism indicates women’s liberation”.
At the conference Solomon addressed, he was in the illustrious company of such people as the former Mossad head, Shabtai Shavit, American Islamophobes Daniel Pipes and Steven Emerson (of “Jihad in America” fame) and former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. I’m sure Solomon was very comfortable with that group.
After all, he is also well-liked by a number of South African Zionists and has written many non-researched papers and done even more conference presentations around the world about the threat of Islam and Muslims not only to South Africa but to the whole of Africa.
One article, I recall, was entitled “Terrorism in Africa”. In truth, it was about what he called “Islamic extremism”. The most barbaric terrorist organisation in Africa, the Christian “Lord’s Resistance Army”, gets a mention only so that the authors can attack Sudan. In the article, Solomon and his co-“terrorism expert”, Anneli Botha, concocted a gory picture of all kinds of terrorist activities in Africa that they claimed Muslims were involved in. He attacks Muslim governments, Muslim organisations and even Muslim aid agencies. For example, “Although some of these [Muslim] NGO's [doing relief and welfare work] have legitimate objectives, those in control of it use it as a vanguard for destabilizing activities. These objectives include the destabilization of regimes or the determination to change the composition of regimes.” Any sane person can see the danger in such writings (and I’m not referring to his poor grasp of the rules of English grammar, which is the topic for another critique). For a brief commentary of this article, see http://naeemjeenah.blogspot.com/2007/01/terrorism-experts-insult-to-academia.html.
I have no doubt that Solomon will be unhappy with this column. In fact, he might even stoop (or is that “rise”) to using the Zionist tactic of asking to meet my boss so that I might be spoken to or silenced. This was what I became used to from Zionist organisations when I was a university lecturer. And Solomon himself last year asked to meet my boss to discuss a comment of mine in Al-Qalam which he didn’t like. I am tempted to say that people like Solomon should be ashamed. I’m not sure, however, whether they “do shame”. At least all those who write for his Islamic Focus (each one probably getting paid much more than Al-Qalam can afford to pay its editor) should feel ashamed for supporting a person with such Islamophobic views.
posted by na'eem jeenah at 13:04
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