Book Reviewed: An Imaginary Racism: Islamophobia and Guilt by Pascal Bruckner

Is there such thing as Islamophobia?

Brilliantly written by a well-known French writer and philosopher, Pascal Bruckner has published scholarly work in the area of Islamo-fascism. He is highly analytical and skilled in describing the Muslim invasion of Europe in a historical context and the impact of modern-day immigrants from Asia and Africa.

The word “Islamophobia” was invented by Muslims that amalgamates two opposing concepts: the persecution of non-believers of Islam is acceptable; and debating Islamic belief system is unacceptable: God’s Word is too sacred for interpretation! This notion supported by all Muslim countries has made Islam above all other religions. In October 2013, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, who persecute Hindus, Jews, Christians and Buddhists into extinction, demanded that Western countries put an end to freedom of expression about Islam. Even though by all estimates, by the middle of this century, non-Islamic faiths like Christianism in Muslim Middle-East is expected to be extinct. Muslims and journalists supportive of the “Religion of Peace” enlistment leftists, neo-liberals and feminists in the defense of Islam in non-Muslim countries. They have rebaptized it as the religion of the poor. In fact, they are making criticism Muslim faith an international crime. Blasphemy laws in countries like Pakistan, Indonesia, and Malaysia have seriously affected the lives of non-Muslims. To contest a form of obedience, and to reject dogmas that is absurd or false is the very basis of intellectual life, but belief in the existence of Islamophobia renders such contestation impossible. The fundamentalist preacher Tariq Ramadan, now in a French jail for rape, explained that the situation of Muslims in Europe was like that of Jews in the 1930s. The implication is, if we criticize Islam, then it is nothing less than a Holocaust. The notion of Islamophobia is meant to give the religion of the Prophet a status of exemption denied to other spiritual systems. Thus, we have the reprehensible laws enacted by the U.K, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other nations that prohibits criticism of Islam, while other faiths still can be denigrated without any fear!

In Cologne, Germany, on New Year’s Eve of 2016, around 1,000 Muslim migrants congregated by the city’s main train station, where they sexually assaulted hundreds of German women, defied police; and one attacker crowed, “I’m a Syrian! you have to treat me kindly! Mrs. Merkel invited me.” In response, Cologne Mayor Henriette Reker vowed to make sure that women change their behavior so that they don’t provoke the poor immigrants to sexual assault again. The teachings are progressively taking over the cultures of Christian world.

This book is strongly Euro-centric and favors to discuss Islamic takeover of Europe rather discuss in a broader context. The efforts of Muslims to conquer India, Asia and Africa where Hinduism, Buddhism sand Christianism has suffered immensely throughout the history.