Despising Islam

Ian McEwan has joined the ‘hate-Islam’ bandwagon according to the Independent. His comments are devoid of any diplomacy or tact as he claims to despise ‘Islamism, because it wants to create a society I detest.’

When reading the article I began looking for possible links of the words terrorism or extremism to be related immediately with the word ‘Islamism’ but surprisingly there were none, it was simple- McEwan just hates Islam.

He justifies his views on the basis that Islam gives a ‘lack of freedom for women’, to which I can only impatiently sigh in response. Remarks like these no longer have any feasibility as there is no doubt that Muslim women today more than ever have broken so many barriers in playing a significant role within society.

Working in a media environment myself, I am conscious of the fact that I have to show that I’m not ‘oppressed’ to prove people like McEwan wrong in their misconceptions.  Either McEwan has taken a safe route here in a bid to attack Islam or he has not really interacted with many Muslim women in his life, though he did once write an ‘open letter’ to Yasmin Alibhai-Brown warning her that Islam is here to attack her too.

Reading the article with growing disappointment of a writer who’s work I had always admired, I became increasingly conscious of one of his novels ‘Atonement’ sitting menacingly on my bookshelf, (next to Ed Husain’s novel funnily enough).  For a moment I contemplated in getting rid of it but then in the same instance realised that I was doing exactly what McEwan was doing- attacking things at face-value and thus become reactive with no substance.

This brings up the point that too often we react to challenges being thrown at Islam in a spasm-like fashion, without thought or reason, and though I could sit all day dissecting McEwan’s interview, it dawns on me that we do need to look at ourselves and ask why negative perceptions of Muslim still exist.

Being involved within circles of community work in trying to bring about engagement and harmony, I question and wonder if we’re wasting our time? Needless to say we are doing a lot of proactive work – on a daily basis my inbox gets filled to the brim of invitations to this conference and that seminar, but to whom are these efforts going to? Who are we talking to in these events? Or maybe more accurately (and possibly herein lies the problem) – who are we lecturing at? Clearly not McEwan.

The copy of ‘Atonement’ has made its way to my table, and as I flick through it I remember the gist of what it was about – the story of a character called Robbie Turner who gets falsely accused of a crime. He is seen to be doing something which through the eyes of a child is naively interpreted as a crime, and for that he faces life-imprisonment until he is proven innocent. 

This takes me on the thought trail – innocent till proven guilty, a terrorist till proven not a terrorist, and oppressed till proven not oppressed …a twisted irony no doubt as McEwan himself is advising caution before judgement, questioning Islam before ‘despising’ Islam.