Demotix/Stefano Montesi. All rights reserved.“The Islamic State has taken the
Iraqi city of Ramadi” … “The Islamic State beheaded British aid worker Alan Henning”
… “The Islamic State beheaded American Journalist Steven Sotlof” … “The US
discusses with its allies how to respond to the Islamic State” … “Russia is
taking a tough stance against the Islamic State”.
These are not made up phrases. They
are headlines in British and western media. While other terrorist groups,
such as Boko Haram and Al Qaeda, were referred to by their foreign names, this
notorious group was given the honour of becoming both ‘Islamic’ and a ‘State’.
The question is why have the western media decided to brand a barbaric
terrorist group first and foremost as ‘Islamic State’ when it is neither
Islamic nor a state?
I do not subscribe to any conspiracy
theory. Nor am I one of those who believe the west is innately anti-Islamic. On
the contrary, I think the west, and Britain in particular, has tolerated
extremist groups for too long and offered many of their leaders, such as the
notorious Abu Qatada and Abu Hamza, among others, safe sanctuary, to the
dislike, if not horror, of most Muslims.
I am also secular and have always
advocated western-style democratic rule in Muslim countries because I believe
it’s the only way forward, for those countries to progress economically and
socially, as well as technologically and scientifically. As a journalist I worked for and contributed to several western media
organisations. As an academic, I taught the subject of ‘Islam and Modernity’ at
a renowned British university, so I know what Islam is or isn’t. On top of
that, I spent most of my time over the last decade or so touring the Middle
East and living in it. Throughout the last four decades of my life, I have been
following western as well as Arab media reports, debates, news bulletins,
commentaries and articles, be they liberal or conservative.
With this background, I still
wonder why western media use the phrase ‘Islamic State’ when referring to a
detested criminal terrorist group that has illegally and through violence taken
control of parts of Iraq and Syria? Why do they make so much of this dangerous
terrorist group that has been committing abhorrent violent acts every hour of
the day since its creation ten years ago? Calling it Islamic is a form of recognition
that this group never dreamed of and which no Muslim country, not even the
governments perceived to ‘sympathise’ with it, has ever bestowed on it. Calling
it a ‘state’ is another recognition that is totally out of place and surely outright
illegal when the world has stopped short of granting this status even to
longstanding countries such as Taiwan.
The two recognitions are both
bizarre and harmful to the interests of the west as well as to long-term
Muslim-western relations. Yes, it calls itself the ‘Islamic State’ in order to
draw legitimacy from the religion of Islam which over a billion people across
the globe embrace willingly and happily, but is it really Islamic? Does it
subscribe to any heavenly value? Can any religion on earth condone or tolerate
the barbaric acts that ISIS perpetrates every day? If such a religion exists,
then it’s the duty of the international community to uproot it urgently since
it’s a danger to mankind.
Many Muslims feel that referring to ISIS as ‘Islamic’ is an insult to them and their religion.
There are at least a billion Muslims
across the world, millions of them live in the west, and they are peace-loving,
law-abiding human beings who detest and abhor the actions of ISIS and all
terror groups, from the Taliban in Afghanistan to Boko Haram in Nigeria and Al
Qaeda, ISIS and the Nusra Front in Iraq and Syria. This is not a claim in
defence of one sixth of humanity—and I would not shrink from doing so if
defence was due—but a fact that can be verified and ascertained by
globe-trotting western journalists who cover events around the world. Many
Muslims feel that referring to ISIS as ‘Islamic’ is an insult to them and their
religion which preaches peace and fear of God.
As for calling it a ‘State’, this flies in the face of international practice and conventions at a time
when the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
(TRNC) are not given this honour even though they have been seeking it for decades.
The world has not called them states, even though they both possess all the
necessary components needed for a modern state, such as land, people, army and
police; they abide by international law, hold elections and have international
trade relations. The world doesn’t recognise them as states because it would
upset China, in the case of Taiwan, and Greece and Cyprus in the case of the
TRNC. Yet, the western media don’t mind upsetting Muslims across the globe by
calling a terrorist group ‘Islamic State’ without any qualification such as
‘the self-proclaimed’ [or “so-called”].
It’s time the world recognised that
terrorism committed in the name of religion must be confronted on all fronts,
the first of which is theologically. Those terrorists have not come out of
vacuum. There are clerics out there who provided them with the necessary
theological justification to go out and recruit young and inexperienced youth
to perpetrate atrocious terrorist acts. Those theologians who slap a gloss of
religious legitimacy over such acts must be held to account and sanctioned; and
this must be enacted in international law through a binding resolution passed
by the UN. Those who condone terrorism or apologise for it, must also take
their share of the blame and pay for their actions.
The second front would be the media.
We live in a dangerous world and the media is the number one source of
information for most people. Ordinary people take anything they hear in the
media as true. Therefore, the media must act responsibly. They must use the right
terminology for events and concepts. I am not calling on them to be specialists
in everything, but they can consult specialists and learn more about the
effects of, and subliminal messages conjured up by, any term they intend to
use.
People in the west have been
suffering unnecessarily due to the mistakes made by their governments and the
media which they have trusted and paid for. It’s time both acted responsibly
and served those who placed their trust in them. Muslim people have for too
long been at the receiving ends of terrorism in the name of their religion.
They, too, need to do something urgently to claw back Islam from the
terrorists. This has now become imperative; in fact, it is overdue.
One way to do it is to hold an
international convention for senior Muslim theologians and intellectuals, from
all countries and sects, regardless of the views they hold about each other.
This convention should denounce all violent acts perpetrated in the name of
religion unequivocally and emphasise the values of peace, tolerance and
co-existence. It must also create a supreme body which can prevent any person
trying to preach violence from using the cover of religion for their violent
actions. This would be the beginning of a long road to pacify religion and stamp
out violence from Muslim societies. The status quo is neither acceptable nor
workable.