IERA is not political but a Dawa organization, whose mission is to propagate Islam. Their latest initiative is aimed at highlighting the wider community’s attitude to Islam and Muslims and that to some extent explains why there is an escalation of hate crimes against the community.
The research was spearheaded by Hamza Andreas Tzortzis, a young Greek convert to Islam who has made quite an impact in the area of understanding between Western and Islamic thought and is a well-known debater.
The project involved 500 randomly selected non-Muslim Britons being interviewed by non-Muslims. The survey highlighted, for example, how 80 percent of Britons had very little knowledge of Islam.
Also that 93 percent of non-Muslims had very little knowledge of the Qur’an. How 75 percent believed that Muslims were a negative contribution to society while 32 percent believed that they contributed to community tensions. The research showed 61 percent did not respond positively when asked about Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and 63 percent believed that "Muslims are terrorist: while 70 percent believed that Muslims preached hatred.
The report has come at a crucial time when the reputation of Muslims in Britain is at its lowest point; most Muslim groups are confused on what to do, as any action pursued is viewed with suspicion.
Instead of dealing with the real issue of media and government collusion in covering up key questions regarding 9/11 and 7/7 while perpetuating Islamophobic hysteria, many Muslim organizations are tripping over each other trying to prove to the authorities that they are "anti-terror" while at the same time organizing mundane interfaith dialogue conferences, knowing full well that Islam has no issue with Christianity.
Maybe if they followed examples of groups like "Cageprisoners" and intellectuals like Gilad Atzmon and Norman Finklestein, and media outlets like Press TV, they might be able to confront the source of their problems.
Meanwhile, Zionist organizations continue to fuel the fires of communal discord unhindered. One such organization is Cafepress.co.uk whose latest venture to sell T-shirts, caps and baby suits with inflammatory anti Islam statements such as "Allah Sucks," "Bomb Iran," "Mohammad Sucks" and one that even shows a picture of a person standing with dirty shoes on a Qur’an. However, in order not to be seen as propagating hate Cafepress also sella items that express love for Israel and Jews, with T-shirts saying "cool Jew" or "I love Jews." Had the situation been reversed and the statements were against Jews or other ethnic groups there would have been an uproar with cries of anti-Semitism or racism.
However, this is not the case for Muslims who today are the "suspect community" and this, according to some, legitimizes any form of discrimination.
The confidence with which Cafepress can market its "hate" products without feelings of justice or humanity should be seen as a warning sign for Muslims that worse is yet to come.
Especially now that many of the "Friends of Israel" are mostly in the Conservative Party, which is now in government, and therefore will of course be supporting Zionist policies that are based on perpetuating anti-Muslim feeling. Already mass hysteria is being whipped up through media campaigns against another so-called weapon of mass destruction — the niqab.
Cases of assault and racial abuse have increased against hijabed women — a few have been told to get off the bus as the driver doesn’t feel safe with them onboard, and some have been attacked in streets and shopping centers.
Research carried out at the European Muslim Research Centre at Exeter University has highlighted how "common and vitriolic" attacks against Muslims have become.
The situation in the West doesn’t look hopeful, but Muslims are ever optimistic and many believe that if Islam was better understood as a philosophy then the hatred will begin to diminish.
And that is the stated aim of IERA who believes that the only way Muslims can sidestep this torrent of hysteria, and help eradicate misconceptions is to work on grass roots level and teach non-Muslims about Islam.
IERA’s founder Abdurraheem Green, a respected Islamic scholar known internationally, argues: “We may not be able to control what the mass media propagates, but we can at least help our situation on an individual level. Our obligation as Muslims is to convey the message of Islam to the wider society; we did the research so we could learn what non-Muslims thought of us in order to help to change their perceptions.”
He points out: “Despite the negativity, facts verify that when the wider community gets to know the real Islam many convert, that’s why Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the world.”
The report supports other studies that have shown that Muslims have been under attack as never before. Government policies aimed at combating extremism have encouraged spying on Muslims in schools, colleges and mosques. Those exercising their right to demonstrate peacefully have been subject to arrest and heavy sentencing, for example at the recent demonstrations against Israel’s action in Gaza most of the demonstrators were forced to give their names and addresses while some were given heavy court sentences.
While there is no one accusing Cafepress of advocating hatred and extremist views, Muslims cannot even attempt to follow the age-old tradition of debates on university campuses, without being visited by anti-terror police and put on government watch lists.
There have been many cases where students have been approached by government officers and asked to spy on fellow Muslim students. Even IERA, which is a non-political organization, was forced to send out an official statement defending their position when some of its members were accused of fomenting extremism.
Hamza, a senior researcher at IERA who recently made quite an impact by taking part in “The Big Debate” which involved discussions about the existence of God with prominent atheists and academics, explains: “Accusations that our speakers are "radical," "extremist" are completely baseless, for this would equate to condemning the entire corpus of Islamic scholarly tradition as such.
“The current trend amongst sections of the media and some think tanks to conflate the promotion of established theological positions and certain social values as ‘conveyor-belts’ to violent extremism are damaging in their implications.
“The absurdity of the conveyor-belt theory would lead to us saying that a Conservative would inevitably become a hard-line nationalist to a fascist.”
Green points out: “Christianity has always seen itself as a religion that promotes its world view and is still continuing to take its message around the world and no one sees its preaching as propagating extremism.”
He argues: “For example if we see the workings of Campus Crusade for Christ International, it raised over $677 million in 2008 for their activities. It employs 25,000 full-time missionaries, trained 225,000 volunteers and operates in 191 countries. We need to train our youth to bring the peaceful message of Islam to the world and positively engage with wider society at all levels. Yes we have many obstacles put in our way, so we all need to give Dawa wherever it is possible, and in the process change the negativity and misconceptions surrounding Islam.”
However noble the efforts of organizations like IERA, Muslims still need to get to the source of who is instigating Islamophobia, why and for whose agenda? Meanwhile, more fires are being fueled, an American church, followers of Jesus’ message of peace, has announced that on Sept. 11 they will be holding an "International burn a Koran day."
