Riffat Yusaf is appalled by the confidently casual character of today’s Islamophobia.
In the local library, while waiting to have my books stamped (yes, they still do that), I looked agreeably upon a pleasant scene in which four women sat knitting and nattering. I don’t know if they were part of a weekly group or just there as individuals. The point is, it was a public setting. I overheard one of the women talking about her father serving in the RAF, and how they as a family received nothing for this. (I’m sure he was paid, but he may never have done anything noteworthy enough to be awarded a medal). Then she continued thus (I paraphrase):
And they come over here and expect a house straight away, and all the spitting they do, and they look at you as if you don’t belong here, and they do all this beheading.
Imagine my dilemma: this was a private conversation, but expressed in a public place. Was it my duty to intervene, or should I have alerted the library staff? The woman was clearly very extreme in her views (how very un-British). But what struck me was the complete lack of parity I had with someone who is supposed to be my fellow citizen.
I was born here and judging from her accent, the woman who was talking must have been born abroad. And yet, because of the social climate in which Muslims are fodder for pretty much anything, she was comfortable enough not only to decry and denigrate all people of my faith, but to dismiss my presence entirely. Standing in front of her, having smiled at her before she began her diatribe, I was nevertheless invisible to her.
The next day, I saw the most appalling footage of a man on a bus abusing an elderly gentleman using the same graphic violent sexual insults that are better suited to ISIS (think Yazidi women). He wasn’t a Muslim; but his victim was.
And the question occurred to me: here was a man from the same community of colour as the woman in the library, extremist in all his expressions, but would anybody be allowed to link degenerate behavior with black people? Would that woman in the library accuse her own race/religion of being responsible for such un-British values? Would she ever consider that her sons’ peers commit more knife crime than Muslims do in this country? Of course not. Meanwhile we ‘normal’ Muslims are obliged to distance ourselves from any attack or insult committed by anyone who claims to be Muslim.
I concede that a salient difference between ISIS and ordinary. home-grown thugs is that ISIS use my religion to justify their actions, while young black men stab themselves and other people without claiming a divine incentive to do so. But nowadays no one would dream of holding a whole community to account for ‘black’ violence, would they? Yet that’s exactly what’s happening today to the Muslim community.
For decades, I have argued against Muslims who carry an anti-Western chip on their shoulders. I have pointed to the tolerance that we enjoy in this country. I have been emphatic that incidents of racism and anti-Islam are few and far between. I’ve had to provide good practice to numpty non-Muslims just so that they would be left with a positive image of Islam. Now I’m not so sure. Now, I fear that we are the new Jews of Europe. If seemingly respectable, reasonably literate women can express extremist views with such ease, then I am concerned for their sanity and our safety.
Photo by David Lisbona used under creative commons licence.