Muslims urgently need a PR Officer as their unpopularity grows

http://thebattlefieldoflove.blogspot.com/2011/01/jack-straws-easy-meat-comment-muslims.html

"Hatred of Muslims and Islam is becoming more and more commonplace - what are you going to do to stop it?" asks MPACUK on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=488111231172&set=a.484672296172.262217.83217536172

Claire Khaw

You need decent PR done for you by someone who is not a Muslim but understands Islam, Muslims, Islamophobia and knows the Koran, like me.

And you also need to be prepared to admit that campaigns like the one at http://www.inspiredbymuhammad....com/ is just counter-productive, ignorant and irritating.

Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK (MPACUK) ‎@ Claire: Yeah I'm confused too as to how that website is a "counter-productive, ignorant and irritating" campaign?


Claire Khaw Because people are just as Islamophobic, aren't they?

In other words, it was just a waste of time and money.

Claire Khaw

You need someone with an Islamophobic perspective to get the message right. I talk to Islamophobes all the time - quite a few of them are my FB friends. That campaign showed quite clearly a woeful ignorance about the state of mind of the typical Islamophobe.

They hate you because they *want* to hate you, because you are many, visible and alien.

Otherwise, they would have to hate *themselves* .

Abdullah Al Andalusi of Muslim Debate Initiative (MDI) even commented on his Facebook wall that I had "hit the nail on the head" with my analysis of the situation, but he subsequently deleted it.  

Avais Qureshi Claire, I'm interested in what you think would get rid of Islamophobia. Would you mind elaborating?

Zoe Chase

When I look at MPACUK I see a group which is attempting to draw attention to Muslim grievances in Britain, Palestine, the former Yugoslavia, and Pakistan. These four political regions involve vastly different circumstances with no publicall...y understandable causal links between what is going on in the four separate regions. ''Islamphobia'' is a social problem in Britain but it would be absurd to describe what is going on in Bosnia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Palestine as ''Islamphobia''.

Beginning in the mid 90s Bosnians were victims of ethnic cleansing by Christian Serbs who were motivated by a greater Serbian nationalistic agenda which was supported by Russia. America intervened militarily to halt the abuse and murder of Bosnians and today the Americans use their military protection of Bosnians to misrepresent the USA as protectors of Muslims. In this way America distracts attention from their vast financial support for the abuse and murder of Palestinians by the Israeli Defence Forces. Muslims in and around Pakistan are being killed by American Drones but the America operates in and around Pakistan with the consent of Pakistani Government who are allied with America against the Taliban. If MPACUK is against American military activity in Pakistan then MPACUK is also against the government of Pakistan.

We understand that the Americans have a self-serving definition of ''terrorism'', i.e. when Muslims do it then it's call ''terrorism'', but when Americans to it then it's called ''anti-terrorism''. The Group Name ''MPACUK'' mimics the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee. AIPAC has a coherent message in America because AIPAC represents the Nationalist Aims of Israel, but this group MPACUK is lumping together difference people in different countries who are doing different things for different reasons. This Group lacks any coherent message because totally different problems are being lumped together under the bandwagon banner of ''Islamphobia''.

I am not offering help to MPACUK because I do not have knowledge of the Koran. I only have knowledge of the Israeli/American abuse of Palestinians as shown in the 32 images with text and links in my album at this link http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=51035&id=1640467141 Claire has knowledge of the Koran and Claire has the ability to present Islam to non-Muslims, so I suggest MPACUK takes any advice Claire is offering because the existing public relations message from MPACUK is incoherent therefore MPACUK will have no effect on your target audience who are non-Muslims.

Claire Khaw

Avais, non-Muslim Europeans fear and hate Muslims because the sheer number of Muslims in their land reminds them of their helplessness. They have also invaded two Muslim countries and must have an apprehension that Muslims cannot like them for their foreign policy.

There was a time when the West was a happier place for Westerners and this was a time when they were not troubled by the presence of Muslims.

It is easier for them to hate Muslims because Muslims are many and visible and alien instead of asking themselves why they have so many Muslims in their country when they don't even like them.

Only when it can be shown that Islam is useful and helpful to them will they stop hating you.

I have my Secular Koranism idea which they might just like if presented carefully and gently.

Zoe Chase

‎ 

Websites like http://www.inspiredbymuhammad.com/ are very good in the eyes of Muslims but in the eyes of westerners such websites only present Muslims as having an unsophisticated revivalist religious fervour which further alienates Westerners from Muslims.

As Muslims you belong to a separate culture which is completely different from the culture of the Westerners you are trying to persuade. This makes Muslims blind to the cross-cultural subtleties which are involved. How can we convince you that Muslims should not trust their own judgment about the best method for communicating with the non-Muslims which Muslims need to persuade?

 

Adnan Ramzan @ Zoe, what's your point ?

Zoe Chase

‎@Adnan Ramzan. Quoting Claire from above, ''Your campaign shows a woeful ignorance about the state of mind of the typical Islamophobe. You need someone with an Islamophobic perspective to get the message right. You need decent PR done for you by someone who is not a Muslim but who understands Islam, Muslims, Islamophobia, and who knows the Koran.''

MPACUK is presently incapable of persuading Islamophobes to see how Islam can be useful and helpful to them, so Claire has offered herself by saying, ''I have my Secular Koranism idea which they might just like if presented carefully and gently.''

Adnan Ramzan, my point is that Claire is 100% correct. The MPACUK message is too important to be left in the hands of enthusiastic amateurs. MPACUK should convene a meeting to formally appoint Claire Khaw as the professional controller of MPACUK's PR. That is my point.

Claire Khaw It would get HUGE publicity, Adnan, just because of who I am and the party I belong to.

I am thinking of using the designs at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=12922&id=100001102239731&fbid=126933724020035 for the poster campaign.

Claire Khaw

Just to say that Abdullah Al Andalusi (also on Facebook and whom I have met on a few occasions) the Speaker and Director of Muslim Debate Initiative thinks I have hit the nail on the head as regards why Muslims are so hated.

If you do decide to use me, my appointment would be very controversial indeed, but I think that would be a Good Thing as far as the campaign is concerned.

 

 Zoe Chase

Through her party associations Claire has publically placed herself in the direct path of ethnic political prejudices and over the three years I've known Claire, she has consistently demonstrated her special talent for bringing dignified rationality to even the MOST controversial subjects, which makes things extremely difficult for her detractors. Claire's professional legal background make her a 'safe pair of hands' and she is an accomplished public speaker/debater whose energy and commitment are not doubted by anyone. Claire's thoroughly modern approach to gender and ethnicity together with her well-developed ideas of 'Secular Koranism', offers MPACUK a very powerful method for dismantling irrational Islamophobic attitudes in the minds of the non-Muslims who are MPACUK's target audience. Without Claire Khaw MPACUK will remain incapable of communicating the message that Islam makes Muslims valuable to British secular society.