Islam's Response to Contemporary Issues — Page 122
122 islam’s response to contemporary issues horrors related to them. But if you examine the issue more carefully and in depth, you will begin to realise that racialism exists everywhere. One major difficulty is the definition of ‘racialism’. It can appear different from various perspectives. It is difficult to draw hard and fast lines between racialism, consciousness of class or religious superiority, tribalism, fascism, imperialism and nationalism. The most tragic and inhumane treatment of the Jews at the hands of Christians in Western Europe for more than a thousand years may be considered buried in the past, but the recent beastly treatment of the Jews during the 30s and 40s at the hand of Nazis is too fresh in our memories to be forgotten. Therefore, the moment we hear the word ‘racialism’, our minds are inadvertently turned to anti-Semitism and the long history of the ill treatment of the Semitic race at the hands of the Gentiles. This is a very limited understanding of racialism, of course. It is so limited that the other connotations of the same scenario completely miss our attention. We hardly stop to think of extremists among the Jews looking at the Gentiles with the same horrid prejudices of which they themselves have been the targets. But that is not all. There is much more to racialism than meets the eye. Racialism, though not clearly identified as such, does exist under different guises, nationalism being one of them. Again, religious, tribal and regional prejudices are but a few examples where racialism is found at work under different names. The prejudices of white races against non-whites are also forms of racialism, but it is unjust to blame only the whites for harbouring prejudices against people who do not share their colour and complexion. There also exists black racialism, yellow racialism and the racialism of such people who cannot be so clearly defined into white, black or yellow but lie somewhere in between.