Modern Day
More recently, Western support for the continued existence of the State of Israel has been declared part of a "war against Islam." Osama bin Laden has declared that "the West's rejection of the fairly elected Hamas government is a reaffirmation of the 'injustice, aggression, and rancor' against Palestinians." Enver Masud, an Indian Muslim and author of the book The War on Islam complains that while there are no Muslims in high-level policy making and media jobs in the United States, "Jewish Americans occupy nearly every single position relating to US Arab-Israeli policy."
In modern day, events alleged to be attacks on Islam include media portrayal of the religion and the War on Terrorism. Statements portraying Islam as a destructive ideology have been made by Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Benny Hinn, V.S. Naipaul and Ann Coulter following the 9/11 attack. Franklin Graham, the son of famed American Christian evangelist Billy Graham, declared in November 2001 that "the God of Islam is not the same God. He's not the son of God of the Christian or Judeo-Christian faith. It's a different God and I believe it is a very evil and wicked religion."
On September 16, 2001, George W. Bush referred to the war in Afghanistan as a Crusade: "This crusade, this war on terrorism is going to take a while. And the American people must be patient. I'm going to be patient."
According to Boston-based novelist and author James Carroll, the conflict between Muslims and Westerners "has its origins more in `the West` than in the House of Islam." And can be traced to "the poison flower of the Crusades, with their denigrations of distant cultures," and other Western injustices. Proponents of this view often consider the War on Terrorism with the accompanying 2001 military activity in Afghanistan, 2003 invasion of Iraq to be part of the war against Islam. The Western colonial domination of the Middle East for a good part of the 20th Century is also regarded as such an attack by some.
Alleged conspiracies against Islam sometimes involve other Muslims who are accused of being apostates. The Ayatollah Khomeini believed that "agents of imperialism," the term he gave to secular pro-Western Muslims, were "busy in every corner of the Islamic world drawing our youth away from us with their evil propaganda." Muslims at TheMajlis.net find evidence of "the primary conspiracy against Islam...not Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair," but in "the enemy which lurks within the Ummah. The most poisonous and lethal enemy for Islam in this century consists of the munaafiqeen (hypocrites)and murtaddeen (apostates) who are concealing within the folds of the Ummah," but "products of kuffaar universities" and have cast doubt on traditional interpretations of the Sharia (Islamic law).
Read more about this topic: War Against Islam, Claims of Proof
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