Islamophobia, Cartoon-O-Phobia and Equalityphobia

Prime Minister Haji Abdul Razak of Malaysia has offered to help Obama overcome "Islamophobia" by sending "experts in Islamic studies" to America in order to correct misconceptions about Islam. Malaysia's Deputy Education Minister, Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, stated, "We qualify to send our experts as we have the experience of administering a country which is multi-ethnic, multicultural and multi-religious like the US."

Of course by multi-religious, he means Malaysia is an Islamic state which pervasively discriminates against non-Muslims. Malays are automatically treated as Muslims and subject to Sharia law. They are not allowed to become members of another faith, without applying to an Islamic Sharia court. And without official recognition, the law forbids them from marrying Christians or Buddhists. The Lina Joy case is an example of how non-Muslims can remain in limbo under a legal system which is based on Islamic law, and denies equal rights to non-Muslims.

And then there's the case of Revathi Massosai, a true example of what Muslim tolerance holds for the kind of "multi-religious" society that those "experts in Islamic studies" would love to inflict on us.

Revathi Massosai, a Hindu whose parents had converted to Islam, was considered a Muslim under Malaysian law, despite the fact that she had been raised and was a Hindu. When she tried to get the government to recognize that fact, the Islamic authorities put her into an "Islamic Re-education Camp". There she was forced to wear a burqa, read Muslim prayers and eat beef. Since then she has been prevented from living with her husband and her daughter has no birth certificate. Nor is her case unique. Families have been broken up, children have been seized, even bodies have been dragged out of funeral homes because of Malaysia's Islamic law.

Under Malaysian law, only Muslims were permitted to use the word, "Allah". (This incidentally puts the lie to the common Muslim claim, that Allah is the universal word for God, rather than for the Muslim deity alone.) When in response to a Catholic lawsuit, the Malaysian court struck down the law, Malaysian Muslims responded in their usual tolerant fashion by firebombing churches. All of this without any protest from the same useful idiots, who go mad at the latest news from Gaza, and tramp down to Ground Zero in their Keffiyahs in support of Religious Freedom for the Ground Zero Mosque backed by a man with his own extensive ties to Malaysia.

But what will Malaysia's "experts in Islamic studies" tell us to defuse our horrible Islamophobia? Perhaps they will tell us how Malaysia broke up and criminalized the Sky Kingdom compound and charged with practicing a "deviant religion". Will they tell us whether Revathi Massosai has finally been allowed to see her daughter, and maybe explain to us how Islam's famous religious tolerance accords with forcing a Hindu woman to eat beef. And maybe fill us in on how, if there is "no compulsion in religion" under Islam, why do there have to be Islamic Reeducation Camps? Can we also discuss Malaysia's destruction of Hindu temples and how this differs from the behavior of the Taliban?

But of course we are not going to talk about any of that. Instead we are going to get lectures on Islam from a country where Muslim rule has produced tyranny, brutality and oppression. And we are going to get it in order to check our "Islamophobia". Naturally there will be no Hindu or Christian lecturers headed to Malaysia to check their phobias toward other human beings.

Islamic Cartoon-O-Phobia leads to Declaration of War

Even a brief look at Malaysia, makes it rather clear that its Muslims suffer from a common problem in their religion-- Equalityphobia, the fear of treating non-Muslims as equals. Since the Koran explicitly forbids friendships with non-Muslims and mandates legal inferiority for them, Equalityphobia is sadly grounded in the teachings of Mohammed and his successors. And until a cure for Equalityphobia is found in the Muslim world, perhaps the Malaysian "Islamic Experts" should stay home and help their fellow Muslims "misunderstand" the teachings of the Koran a little better.

But keep in mind after all this-- Malaysia is actually one of the more tolerant Muslim countries in the world. Yes that's right, all this... is tolerant. By the standards of the Muslim world. And that is the true horror of Islamic law.

Meanwhile Zunar, a Malaysian cartoonist, was arrested and had a book containing his cartoons seized. The book's title was "Cartoon-O-Phobia" and the reason for the arrest, was that his cartoons touched on the "Allah" issue. Maybe a delegation of international cartoonists should be dispatched to Malaysia to lecture them on "Cartoon-O-Phobia". But of course we know that unlike a delegation of Muslim experts to America, such a delegation to a Muslim country would survive for about as long as it would take them to disembark from the plane.

When even in Western countries with Muslim minorities, cartoonists like Kurt Westergaard and Molly Norris have been forced to go into hiding, what hope is there for treating Cartoon-O-Phobia in the Muslim world. But that is the price we pay for the Muslim phobia of everything non-Muslim. In Malaysia that means smashing teapots and terrorizing Hindus. In America, that means blowing up buildings and then trying to build mosques as a thumb in the eye to a grieving nation.

But while Malaysia, like the rest of the Muslim world, may fail horribly at interacting with non-Muslims-- they do have one last hope, space aliens.

The United Nations has just appointed the former head of Malaysia's space program to head its Office for Outer Space Affairs, which would be in charge of talking any little green men who happen to land on our planet. Mazlan Othman had formerly been in charge of such vital issues as figuring out how to practice Islam in space (spin counterclockwise before beheading the individual to the left, then rotate and turn to complete the maneuver) will now be the person to represent the human race in the event a UFO shows up on the White House lawn.

Appointing a representative from a country and a religion that has still not learned to treat other human beings as equals, to deal with aliens, is probably not the best idea. But we can probably assume that it's part of Obama's strategy to prioritize boosting Muslim self-esteem over space exploration. Still it might have been better if Malaysia focused more on learning how to deal with people on earth, before aiming for the skies. Especially when Malaysia's Religious Peace are likely to burst into the Office for Outer Space Affairs and drag the doctor on suspicion of immoral affairs with non-Muslim aliens. A fate that happens often enough to female professionals who work with non-Muslims in the Muslim world.

All this is particularly unwise, as Muslims have already declared a Jihad against "space aliens". Sheikh Omar Bakri has declared that, "We are obliged as Muslims to make the whole galaxy subservient to almighty Allah". Say what you will about Muslims, you can't accuse them of thinking small. At least not when it comes to genocide. Forget conquering and enslaving the whole world, when there's a whole galaxy out there. And a chance to force ET to wear a Burqa.

But Mazlan Othman has already said that in the event the spaceships do show up, "we should have in place a co-ordinated response that takes into account all the sensitivities related to the subject". Since Muslims are habitually only concerned with "sensitivities" when it comes to their own beliefs, the aliens will probably be greeted with a copy of the Koran, which hopefully for all our sakes, they won't mistake for a snack or a cigar, and an explanation of how Islam is the light of the universe.

And when that day comes, let's just hope the aliens don't bring any cartoons with them.