Obama based his support for the centre on the grounds of religious freedom and thereby missed the point. But New York Mayor and wealthy Jewish politician with no fixed political abode, Michael Bloomberg didn't miss the point. "The International Trade Centre," he said clearly and unequivocally to CNN, "was attacked by Al Qaeda. Not Islam."
But maybe these are voices in the wilderness. Because the disease caused by ignorance and xenophobic hysteria is creeping into a space near you. Islamophobia is insidious and has the potential to escalate the 'rich/poor' scenario beyond it's already bloody scale Of course the disease became endemic to the US after George W's use of the 'C' word, creating a 'them and us' face-off. That was way back when invading Iraq seemed like a good way to 'get' the bad guys. If a country had to be invaded, Saudia Arabia might have been a more logical choice, but logic along with truth were early casualties in this conflict. And then some down-home, fruit and nut cake, holy roller in Florida planned to burn the Koran! This was criticised by the US government and military on the grounds of a potential backlash against US soldiers, not because it's an obscene and stupid act of religious intolerance.
For a while most of Europe, except the UK, had avoided the Islamophobia plague. But it has slithered into Europe. In France , urged on by the Sarkozy government, they yell ed 'aux les barricades!' over the 'veil issue' (according to the Independent newspaper, an estimated 2 000 Frenchwomen choose to wear niqab or burqa- 0.003% of the population.) Belgians are also getting excited about religious clothing and of course in Switzerland the government has banned the building of minarets.
Much to the embarrassment of Mrs Merkel and her government, Deutsche Bundesbank board member, Thilo Sarrazin has warned that 'real' Germans stand to be overwhelmed by migrants. Top spot on Herr Sarrazin's list of migrants goes, of course, to Muslims, but here's a twist , the banker couldn't resist adding Jews to the list- some old habits die hard! The creepy part is that, while the government and the bank uber-managers distance themselves from Sarrazin's views (and he's almost certain to be fired), many rank-and-file members of the Social Democratic party have expressed support.
Islamophobia is also alive and well in Austria. The Freedom Party has set up an online game, 'Bye bye mosque' in English, to foster the spread of the disease. The aim of the 'game' is to knock down minarets and muezzins before they take over the south-eastern state of Styria. The weird thing is that only 1.6% of the population of Styria is Muslim and there are no minarets or mosques. Of course, that is not the point: the aim is to stir up paranoia throughout the country about loss of national identity and the subtext, as always, is the threat of 'terrorismus'.
By disassociating Islam from 9/11, Michael Bloomberg took a step towards reality. He might know but could never say, that 9/11 was a warning from the 'poor world' to the 'rich world' and had very little to do with Islam. But Islamophobia in its many guises is the smokescreen that hides the reality that the 'rich world' does not want to face; the 'poor world' is out there and it's knocking on the door, with increasing vehemence.