What do Islamophobia, Monkeyophobia, Goblokophobia, Pondanophobia and Karaokesingophobia have in common here in Malaysia?

Folks! Do you know what Islamophobia is about?

According to Wikipedia, Islamophobia is, quote:

“Islamophobia is a controversial[1] term that refers to prejudice or discrimination against Islam or Muslims.[2] The term dates back to the late 1980s,[3] but came into common currency after the September 11, 2001 attacks.[4] Opponents of the concept argue that it is often misused to undermine legitimate criticism of Islam.[5]”

Islamophobia Watch Dot Com meanwhile has a better defined meaning of Islamophobia. They define it as, quote:

“The Runnymede Trust has identified eight components that they say define Islamophobia. This definition, from the 1997 document 'Islamophobia: A Challenge For Us All' is widely accepted, including by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia. The eight components are:

1) Islam is seen as a monolithic bloc, static and unresponsive to change.
2) Islam is seen as separate and 'other'. It does not have values in common with other cultures, is not affected by them and does not influence them.
3) Islam is seen as inferior to the West. It is seen as barbaric, irrational, primitive and sexist.
4) Islam is seen as violent, aggressive, threatening, supportive of terrorism and engaged in a 'clash of civilisations'.
5) Islam is seen as a political ideology and is used for political or military advantage.
6) Criticisms made of the West by Islam are rejected out of hand.
7) Hostility towards Islam is used to justify discriminatory practices towards Muslims and exclusion of Muslims from mainstream society.
8) Anti-Muslim hostility is seen as natural or normal.”

There you are! Well then, do we have Islamophobia here in Malaysia then? To most concerned Muslims, the answer is a big yes! Many concerned Malaysian Muslims would point out that the biggest Islamophobic group in the country is actually the current ruling government themselves. We all know that the current ruling government is led by Muslims who are reluctant to be complete Muslims and they rather follow the ways of the West (‘mat saleh’ wannabes?) instead. Mention Islam and these folks will start to do the ‘Joget’ dance (a traditional Malaysian Malay dance). Very graceful indeed! It is so graceful that their phobias of Islam are not at all visible. You would not be able to see them with the naked eye for they are using a super stealth or cloaking technology that is 1,000 years ahead of the American’s! Superb! :-)

On a lesser extent, DAP is clearly Islamophobic. Everybody knows that. Mention Islam and they would start showing off their kung fu and jujitsu moves. While I’m at it, pardon me for saying this but I must say that some subscribers of MalaysiaKini and readers of Malaysia Today are quite Islamophobic too. They certainly have shown that if we go by the comments that they had left behind.

Well, that’s Islamophobia. What about the rest of the phobias that I had mentioned earlier then? What the hell are Monkeyophobia, Goblokophobia, Pondanophobia and Karaokesingophobia?

They are all one and the same thing. Fear of Malaysian bloggers especially those who blogs on Malaysian social and political issues. The best thing is that all four of those phobias were indirectly coined quite recently by some folks in UMNO.

What do Islamophobia, Monkeyophobia, Goblokophobia, Pondanophobia and Karaokesingophobia have in common here in Malaysia then?

Can’t you see it? They are all there deep inside the heart of our current ruling government. :-) Enough said!

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