From the days of Salman Rushdie and the Danish
Cartoons to the recent movie on YouTube, the issue of free speech and Islam has
primarily surfaced in the context of vulgar language being directed at the
Prophet (saw) and the teachings of Islam; this rabid Islamophobia is fueled by
the mainstream media, in particular the gutter tabloid press like the Daily
Mail. To reinforce the prejudice, the media disseminates un-Islamic actions of
individual Muslims as representative of Islam. Besides the mass media, the
Internet is filled with many anti-Islamic websites, engaged in the same task of
circulating crude propaganda and inciting hate.
There are primarily two types of groups engaged
in this type of activities, the far right extremists driven by xenophobia, and the
militant secular camp. The former has adopted the anti-Islamic stance to
conceal their disdain towards foreigners. So they make the flimsy argument that
the Muslims are not a racial entity. That is true; however, the Muslims are largely
composed of foreigners, when they are attacked by the far right, one can see
the racist undertones and at times the clear racist language surfacing.
