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Islamophobia and a letter from a reader
by
ORHAN KEMAL
CENGİZ
by
ORHAN KEMAL CENGİZ
I was delighted reading a letter from a reader that I share with you below. Here is an analysis of Islamophobia from the perspective of a European woman who describes herself as an “atheist”: “I am really concerned by the terrible Islamophobia we are experiencing these last decades and unfortunately probably the future ones. This is a real ‘witch hunt’ with one quite important difference: not only are right parties leading this hunting but also the leftist ones. This makes the problem, the situation even worse than the one under [Joseph] McCarthy’s period. “The previously revolutionary people, fighting for freedoms and human rights, even the ones who put their lives in danger and had to flee their countries (as did my parents), the ones who raised me with movies against Apartheid (‘Crying Freedom,’ ‘Mississippi Burnings,’…), with the story of Lumumba’s battle for freedom and independence, with demonstrations against racism, against death penalty… who taught me that we are all human beings and for this simple reason all of us should have the same rights … those same people are now terribly afraid of Muslims, despise them and cannot conceive that Islam can go hand in hand with values like democracy or simply that true love cannot exist in a Muslim couple because ‘the women are dominated by men’ since the women are veiled. “I do not say that I understand all their values or positions (of Islamic parties) as I don’t with some Catholics (or even most of them), as I don’t with most atheists who believe that Islam is per se something bad without having tried to know a little bit more about this religion, about those parties. Probably if there wasn’t such Islamophobia I would much more criticize those Islamic parties than support them because they are too conservative for me, because they are too traditionalist while I am clearly individualistic in the sense that I care first of all of my liberties, in particular the right to commit suicide, because I love provocation, because I don’t like paternalistic societies where the community, the group is more important than the individual. But that’s my own business, that’s my point of view. I know that we can learn from each other: If there were only individualistic people, I would probably get sick of that world. We need both of them. We actually need diversity in order to keep being creative, in order to exchange, in order to have real debates, in order to discover, simply in order not to be bored.”
The letter continues with a personal reference to me:
“I have read your articles in the book ‘Turkey and The World Around It.’ Could you please advise me some essays written by people like you? People who are able to realize that a man can be a great human rights defender even if he doesn’t shake hands with women for religious principles, people who are able to criticize [the Justice and Development Party] AKP in a constructive way…”
Well, I will try to “advise” this reader, but actually we need to read more from her and others who are open-minded and have lots to say.
All “phobias” should be cured. And we can help each other in this endeavor. See you next week.
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