A Muslim, Hasan Mahmud, criticizes another Muslim, John Esposito, for his Deceptions on ‘Islamophobia’:

I am a Muslim. I believe that accepting our (Muslims’) share in creating “Islamophobia” in the West will help eliminate it.

Is there any significant Islamophobia in the West? Not much if the word means “irrational” fear of Islam. But Islam has done its damnedest to make the West afraid of it, and considering that 0ver 17,700 deadly terrorist attacks have been carried out world-wide in the name of Islam since 9/11 (see the figure in our margin), it is rational to fear this murderous cult, this Religion of War.  Muslims do not merely “have a share” in creating fear and hatred of Islam, they are totally responsible for it.

But let’s read more of what Hasan Mahmud has to say. It is worth reading.

Dr. John Esposito’s recent article in the Huffington Post, “Islamophobia: A threat to American Values?” puts the entire blame on Western “media commentators, hard-line Christian Zionists and politicians.” He even neglects to mention the huge contribution Muslim societies have had on the issue. Esposito ignores that in our global village the West is regularly flooded by violence coming from Muslim societies; violence which is perpetrated in the name of Islam while citing Quranic verses and the Prophet’s examples. The list is long. Here are some examples:

1. A Sharia court stoned to death a gang-raped girl, who was a minor at the time.

2. A Sharia court flogged another girl to death for having an affair.

3. Punishing raped girls/women by Sharia courts is continuing.

4. Wife-beating is openly preached.

5. Child-marriage is openly preached.

6. “No rape in marriage” is openly preached.

7. Female genital mutilation (FGM) is supported by many clergics including some of Al Azhar University.

8. Women are instantly divorced – there is no maintenance in such cases.

9. A woman appealed to a Sharia court to order her husband to beat her not every day but once a week.

10. Sharia-police (Hisba) are invading people’s lives.

11. The persecution of Muslims with different ideas is reaching a frightening level.

12. Non-Muslims are arrested for carrying their holy books.

13. The persecution of non-Muslims is continuous and reaching a disturbing level.

14. Hate preaching against non-Muslims in media is common.

15. Indoctrination of children with such hate is open and alarming.

16. School syllabi are full of hatred directed at “The Other.”

17. Non-Muslim places of worship are destroyed regularly.

18. Lying and deceiving are supported.

19. Civil rights are violently suppressed by “Islamic” governments — often by hanging.

With such phenomena and experience, what else does Dr. Esposito expect from the West except “Islamophobia”? He also blames the West for resisting the Ground Zero Mosque.

Now comes something we find surprising:

I wish he knew how many Muslims around the world are opposed to the proposed Islamic center, not because we don’t want mosques, but because before its construction, the notion of the center created “fitna” (division) and violently divided the whole nation.

The issue has “violently divided the whole nation”? He must mean the American nation. (Islam is not a nation.) But did it divide “the whole nation”?  And has there been violence because of it? Not that we know of.

But then Mahmud goes on to condemn Esposito’s indulgence in just such exaggeration, and praises the concessions the West makes to Islam – which we believe are made out of fear:

Esposito is also utterly wrong to state: “Today, opposition to mosque construction with claims that all mosques are ‘monuments to terrorism’ and ‘house embedded cells’ in locations from NYC and Staten Island, to Tennessee and California, has become not just a local but a national political issue.” I wish he knew that only last month a new mosque, Baitul Gaffar, was constructed in New York without a shadow of resistance, or how many euros European governments are pouring into the construct of new mosques.

That, Mr Mahmud, is very bad news.

Mr Mahnud, what is your view of Islam? We can’t make it out. You say next, in what presumably is a spirit of disapproval:

By the way, women were barred from attending the opening ceremony of Baitul Gaffar (House of Creator) in New York.

Do you like Islam with its inbuilt uncompromising contempt for women, or not?

Despite overwhelming support for Muslims among politicians, [Esposito] cites a few bad apples. For instance, Esposito says, “Politicians use fear of Islam as a political football.”…

If politicians who do not “support Muslims” are “bad apples”, then you are …. for sharia? It’s difficult to know. You say:

Aren’t there Islamists trying to establish Sharia courts in the USA? Yes, the blueprint of American Sharia courts was created as early as 1993 by TAM, The American Muslims.

And the sharia courts, you say, with apparent disapproval, are being established with Saudi money. Next, you say of Islamic terrorism:

Who is breeding the home grown terrorists? Are they Western media commentators, hard-line Christian Zionists and politicians?

No. The breeders are Muslims. And you seem to wish they wouldn’t do it.

You also come out strongly against Muslim hatred of Jews and the West as a whole:

I wish Esposito mentioned the hate-sunami against Jews and the West that roars in the media and throughout the pulpits of the Muslim world, constantly in Himalayan magnitude. One cartoon against our Prophet (SA) caused chaos to break loose, but during my long years in the Middle East, I saw many dozens of worse cartoons in the media about Jews and their holy book. No government contained that, nor was there a sane Muslim voice against these cartoons.

There wouldn’t be, would there, considering what Muhammad/Allah had to say about Jews and infidels generally?

Esposito also states that “all Muslims have been reduced to stereotypes of Islam against the West, Islam’s war with modernity, and Muslim rage, extremism, fanaticism, and terrorism” and “all leaders of that [American] society look at all Muslims with suspicion and prejudice.” These are hyperbolic overstatements. I am a Muslim; I live in Canada and often travel to the US – there is a general sense of concern, but in general, Muslims are doing well, living well and are treated well. The overwhelming support and protection of Muslims by common North Americans and churches after 9/11 is on record, but is sadly overlooked. …

The West is continuously bombarded by the news of serious violence from the Muslim world against women, non-Muslims and Muslims of different Islamic ideas, in the name of Islam.

This is the main reason for “Islamophobia” — and a logical one.

Yes. Right.

But please show us where your holy script is against this violence. Show us an Islam that does not insist on war, conquest, enslavement, and the subjugation of women and non-Muslims.

Can you?