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Radical Islam and the Survival of the West
By Ron Banerjee
February 19, 2006
The global reaction to the recent cartoons of Muhammad
in Denmark is part of a familiar pattern. In 2004, a Dutch filmmaker named
van Gogh was shot dead by Islamic fanatics because he made a film which
dared to question the treatment of women in Islam. Similarly, global
violence and death threats accompanied the publication of Salman
Rushdie’s book, the Satanic Verses. His Norwegian publisher, William
Nygaard, was shot by Islamic fanatics in his own country. Every supposed
‘insult’ to Islam leads to violence, murder, and threats.
Other communities, particularly the Hindus, have also
suffered their fair share of inaccurate and demeaning assaults on their
religion and traditions in the west. In late 2005, the Toronto Film
Festival and Canadian media bestowed awards and honor on Deepa Mehta,
director of the movie Water. This movie featured a bizarre plot involving
widows in the holy city Varanasi (which is equivalent to the Vatican or
Mecca) being forced into prostitution by Hindu priests. Despite the fact
that the movie was extremely demeaning and depicted practices virtually
unheard of in India, Hindus in the west did not resort to violence or
murder to express their displeasure.
This was not the first time that Hindus have been
unfairly stigmatized. In 2003, the Toronto Star, which bends over
backwards to flatter and please some of their favored minority groups,
published a nude picture of a revered Hindu goddess. Again in 2005, the
AIDS Committee of Toronto put on a fashion show which featured semi-nude
transsexuals dressed as Hindu deities. In both these cases, the large
Hindu community in Toronto and the Western world did not burn buildings,
destroy public property, or attack Westerners. Instead, they used
democratic and peaceful means to voice their protest.
To understand what gives rise to these divergent
reactions, we need to examine the historical record. Unlike Hinduism,
Islam was imposed on adherents of other faiths through conquest and
subjugation. In South Asia, Islam was spread through a brutal conquest,
which began in the 8th century AD. In fact, famed historian
Will Durant has referred to this conquest as the bloodiest story in
history. During this period, many Hindus were enslaved and millions were
massacred. Fear of death, subjugation, and enslavement forced hapless
Hindu victims to convert to Islam. Fanatical Islamists, who exercise
significant power and influence, continue to nurture these notions and
ideals. These elements are responsible for the violence and murder that
follows each perceived insult of Islam throughout the west.
Apologists, whether in the West or India, often attempt
to justify the acts of Islamic fanatics by arguing that such acts are
legitimate means of protest against discrimination or imperialism. This
argument is untenable: Islamist fanatics are not victims but rather
champions of imperialism and bigotry. Their utter disregard for people of
other faiths and their desire to Islamize, through conquest, the
non-Muslim world, including India and Europe, clearly demonstrates their
imperial designs.
Democratic societies, both in India and the West, can
dissuade these fanatics only by demonstrating that legitimate means of
protest are more successful than violence and murder. Fanatical Islamists
receive tremendous incentives to continue their behavior when they find
that their methods are more successful than those employed by groups which
utilize democratic means.
A just democratic society should reward good behavior
and penalize negative conduct. Western democracies, when dealing with
radical Islamists, appear to be doing the precise opposite. The West, for
its own survival, ought to reconsider this curiously self-destructive
attitude.
Ron Banerjee is the director of the Hindu
Conference of Canada.
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