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Colonization by Immigration

Why Haven’t Any Muslim Groups Condemned Anti Semitic Pro-Holocaust “Muslim Selfie Girl”?

A hatred of Jews--fueled by paranoia, conspiracy and lack of personal accountability--is, unfortunately, not uncommon among Muslims. It's beginning to be expressed openly in Europe.

BY Shireen Qudosi · @ShireenQudosi | May 26, 2016

Today a picture can travel at light speed via social media, building or bolstering an entire narrative globally by the end of the day. That’s what happened when 22 year old Zakia Bekhiri snapped a selfie at Antwerp’s third annual Muslim Expo. The photo shows a sneering, pucker-faced Belkhiri, stereotypically glorified as a hijab donning Muslim. She’s seen posing with a peace sign in front of a group of 40 smiling anti-Muslim protesters from Belgian’s far-right political party called Vlaams Belang.

Instead of seeing Belkhiri’s clearly smug arrogance set against the backdrop of a curiously cheerful group of protesters, the media went into a feeding frenzy over the image. Within 24 hours, Belkhiri was laureled with praise for being “heroic,” “brilliant,” “defiant,” “fearless,” and “brave.” It was a narrative premised on villainizing the smiling squad of protestors, even as they welcomed Belkhiri into their group.

By the next evening, another narrative had surfaced that showed a darker underbelly to Belkhiri’s views. In 2012, Zakia Belkhiri tweeted:

“Hitler didnt kill all the jews, he left some. So we know why he was killing them #fuckrs”

Her words are vile, deeply inhumane and glaringly celebratory of one of the darkest acts of savagery in modern history. And they’re also not an uncommon view among many Western Muslims who have rejected hallowed values of equality and freedom. A hatred of Jews–fueled by paranoia, conspiracy and lack of personal accountability–is, unfortunately, not uncommon among Muslims. Unfortunately it’s beginning to be expressed openly in Europe. In Zakia Belkhiri’s case, Twitter is forever and a screen shot only momentarily shot down her peace sign activism, which in itself is rising but meaningless trend among Millennial Muslims.

In a conversation, Will TG Miller, a blogger and a student of Asian and Middle-Eastern Studies at Cambridge, shared that he was more disappointed in the media falling over themselves in an attempt to capture this story, adding:

The real problem to me here is accountability. Media outlets, especially those on the left, jump to push a narrative onto people that, as we can see here, is really based on a fiction. When this is shown to be the case, instead of furthering awareness and promoting actual dialogue and soul searching by standing up and taking responsibility for the mistake, they simply enter ‘hush mode’ and don’t say anything further. I’m not really disappointed with Belkhiri – I’m disappointed with Buzzfeed, VICE, and Huffington Post for their shameful lack of ethics and poor journalistic conduct.

The media’s hush mode also failed to pick up on another crucial aspect to this story, and that is the immense privilege and protection Muslims and other minority groups enjoy in Western society. If Belkhiri was a Christian in any handful of Muslim majority countries, the title may have read more along the lines of:

“Christian accused of blasphemy burned alive in Pakistan by the Sunni majority.”

But there’s another group from whom we wear loud silence: Muslim interest groups. Not a single Muslim interest group or Muslim media outlet spoke out against Belkhiri for her hateful anti-Semitic comments. Though Belkhiri offered a clumsy public apology that has now pivoted her as a victim of Islamophobia by liberal media, the incident is still completely ignored by Muslim activist groups.

Over the years, Muslim interest groups have refined their public relations skills. They’ll denounce ISIS and attacks of terrorism, and they’ve even increased their efforts with community engagement and charitable work. Yet, their refusal to condemn radicalism of the mind is indicative of a greater truth – they largely agree with Belkhiri’s anti-Semitic statements.

The events surrounding Belkhiri should be treated as red flag, pushing us to realize that we’re not just dealing with radical Islamic terrorism or Islamism itself; we’re dealing with deeply radical mindsets.

The larger majority of Muslims may not have an outright Islamist agenda and they may never engage in outright jihad. However, that core mindset and rejection of universal human rights is symptomatic of a radical Muslim mindset, one that is emotionally cradled in an infantile liberal culture when it should be relentlessly challenged.

Radicalization of the mind is worryingly stronger among Millennial Muslims, who see themselves as a victim of Western society. A fear of being dominated if not entirely engulfed by the West is a fear stoked by insecurity of faith. That insecurity is triggers epidemics of lashing out against opposition in any form – even when it’s from cheap activism against a group of pacifists voicing their frustration with Islam. The real show of activism would be to engage far right groups instead of using them as props to highlight Muslim superiority and defiance.

 

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