Ayoon Wa Azan (Do not give the enemies ammunition)

There is unprecedented incitement against Islam and Muslims in the West. The Likudnik gangs of evil in the US media have shifted away from attacking radical Islamic terrorists or fundamentalists, to attacking Islam itself, even when it is a thousand times better than Judaism, and the texts of the Torah and the Quran are available to all for comparison. Now, I fear that the extremists in Egypt and the rebels in Syria may be providing ammunition to the enemies of Islam, to be used against them. I am writing in journalistic haste, and not writing an academic study, so I can only be brief. I will therefore use some excerpts from what is being published in the West on the topic at hand, some from the independent press, and others from the Likudnik media. The Mail on Sunday, one of the most widely circulated newspapers in Britain and the world, ran with an extensive full-page report last Sunday titled “Muslim extremists kill our priests, burn our churches and kidnap our women: How Egypt's Arab Spring dream descended into a nightmare of religious hatred,” by The Mail corresponded Angela Johnson. A few days earlier, The Independent ran a story titled “Now Egypt’s Christians targeted in sectarian violence: The Muslim Brotherhood blames Copts for coup, with deadly consequences.” The two stories, published by prestigious Western newspapers, provide details about incidents involving killing of priests or burning of churches, from El-Arish to Luxor, and in Cairo and elsewhere. There are accusations that the extremists are engaged in ethnic cleansing, and reports about 200,000 Christians immigrating out of Egypt since 2011 to Europe, the United States, Canada, and beyond. But the Likudnik media is worse, as it goes beyond the extremists and attacks Islam itself. One Likudnik website reviewed a book titled “Crucified Again,” which claims that Christians are persecuted in Muslim countries. I read another report titled “Obama to Egyptian Christians: Don’t Protest the Brotherhood.” The headline deserves an explanation, as it is basically saying that President Obama supports the Brotherhood to turn Americans against him, and also that Christians are against the Brotherhood, to turn the latter’s supporters in Egypt against them. In these conditions resulting from the so-called Arab Spring, the campaign on the Muslims is going way beyond the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. For instance, I read another article titled: “Christians in Syria: Separating Grim Reality from Islamist Propaganda,” and another lengthy article in the Likudnik National Review titled: “The Shadow War against Syria's Christians” by Nina Shea, who testified in Congress on the issue. In short, the accusations involving Syria are almost identical, and not just similar, to the ones involving Egypt, with reports about the murder of priests and other Syrian Christians or forcing them out, as well as ‘existential threats’ to Christians in Syria, as in Egypt. The worst thing about these reports, which I found to be a kind of propaganda against Islam and Muslims, is that some of them are true, while others are based on accurate information, but contain hyperbole in how they describe matters on the ground. Equally bad is the fact that 99 percent of Muslims around the world have nothing to do with terrorism. To be sure, when Muslims number 1.5 billion and the terrorists number one thousand or two, then the percentage of terrorists is even below 1 percent. Despite this, the pro-Israel media, that is, pro-occupation, murder, and destruction, often attempts to displace the accusation of terrorism from Israel to the Muslims. The terrorists are the enemies of the Muslims before anyone else, from al-Qaeda, whose terror was a pretext to murder one million Arabs and Muslims in Iraq, to al-Nusra Front, which the enemies of the Syrian revolution are claiming to represent the entire revolution when it is made up of small number of fighters most of whom are foreigners and not Syrians. I limited myself thus far to accurate information, and I have the documents it is based on in keeping. But I will continue with two brief opinions: First, the Muslim Brotherhood has failed during its one-year tenure in power in Egypt, and its ouster is justified. Second, the Brotherhood enjoys large popularity and has many supporters, and any political reform meant to mend the mistakes of Mohamed Morsi’s year as president must include the Muslim Brotherhood, in a way that represents their actual size in the country. Indeed, democracy would not deserve its name if it is not inclusive, rather than exclusive (that is, excluding any segment of the populace). I would advise the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood to publicly condemn any violence against the Copts, and to lead a campaign against fanatics, so that the Copts do not become a major issue in the Christian West that can be used to argue against the Brotherhood’s right to political participation on charges of terrorism, which should be limited to the known terrorists. In the end, I say to all Muslims that they have a good example to be emulated in the Prophet’s covenant to the Christians of Najran and Umar’s covenant to the Christians of Jerusalem. No one can be more Muslim that the Prophet and his companion and caliph. The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.