True Islamophobia is serious and should be addressed.
Yet as the 'Muslim world', mainly the Arab world, is facing its own plagues of extremism, there is a definite need to introspect.
This is definitely not to say that white supremacist terrorism is a direct result or linked in any way to Muslim terrorism.
In fact, both terrorism are same, they take root in exclusion, and the refusal of diversity. They capitalize on the anger of people who are disheartened by their lives. People who feel helpless and hopeless and try to find a reason for their misery. They find the focal point to their anger in a group of people that are different. Though the difference is often due to stereotyping and ignorance rather than objective significant differences.
So why do I say "Muslim societies need to learn from New Zealand"?
Because the difference, when faced with homegrown terrorism is that in the West such actions provoke a real discussion and overwhelming refusal of intolerance. True that the extreme right tries to justify terrorism as a reaction to the 'other' terrorism, but until today extreme right represents only 10 to 25 percent of any of the Western democratic societies. And not all who vote for the extreme right are racists, some of the vote is a protest vote. Debate is taking to high level of introspection and analysis.
While in Muslim and Arab societies, there is an overwhelming drive to find reasons, refusing to take responsibility for the prevailing culture of exclusion.
The so called 'intelligentsia' does not engage in a real debate and introspection.
Protest remains cosmetic or just taking a position because it is politically correct.
Enough to explore social media reaction after Muslim extremist or white supremacist attacks.
When the culprit is Muslim, then there is tendency to blame historical colonialism and imperialism, or the meddling of world powers in local affairs. Almost never the teaching and practice of contemporary Islam is to blame. Today mainstream Islam is not inclusive, even to Muslims! Believers that are not strictly practicing rites are excluded by the most moderate of clerics. Christians are tolerates but none practicing Muslims, agnostics, and atheists are not tolerated.
The governments, countries, leaders that say they are fighting the source of terrorism talk and launch initiatives of 'dialogue between religions'. They exclude those who are not religious, focusing the problem on a religious discourse, never exploring that the problem emanate from religious exclusion, the lack of national identities, the refusal of secularism, and the negation of free speech.
The only solution is separation of state and religion; it is the first step to inclusion.
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