Det er ikke vanlig å høre muslimsk selvkritikk. Den selvrefleksjonen som når våre ører er en eneste klagesang over hvor forferdelig Vesten behandler muslimene. Organisasjonen av islamske stater, OIC, åpnet et møte i Malaysia igår.

Det var blitt fremskyndet en måned på grunn av hendelsene i Gaza og Irak. En av lederne sa det var en økende oppfattelse i den muslimske verden at de blir skjøvet til side, og at rettferdigheten ikke gjelder dem. Og så føyde han til: -Og det er muslimenes sak å avgjøre om dette er tilfelle.

Det hørtes ut som om statsråder var kommet styrtende til for å diskutere krisen. Så viste det seg at av 57 stater hadde en 3-4 sendt sine utenriksministre. Så viktig var det.

Det er i Vesten muslimer fører en skinndebatt, som fungerer så lenge vi tror på den. Vi tar all deres bebreidelser seriøst, og fungerer i beste fall som klagemur, i verste som projisering for de mest aggressive tendenser innen islam.

Det finnes kommentatorer i den arabiske verden som kan gi oss forståelse av situasjonen. En av dem er Razi Azmi i www.dailytimes.com, et pakistansk nettsted.

Det han skriver om islamister og selvmord/kidnappiner er to the point. Vi kjenner alle apologetene som påstår at islam hetses ved at man trekker frem at de er islamske terrorister. Religion nevnes jo ikke i sammenheng med andre terrorister.

Take the most recent example of the image problem, although I doubt that Muslims would have seen it in this light: armed Iraqis holding daggers and knives to the throats of three abducted Japanese civilians, including a woman who went there to help Baghdad’s homeless children, and threatening to slit their throats amid cries of «Allah-o-Akbar.» It was no figment of the «infidel» West’s imagination, the film having been made by the abductors themselves and proudly passed on by its producers to the Arab Al-Jazeera television to be shown to the world. Ten thousand speeches about peace and tolerance in Islam will not be able to undo the damage done by this odious sight projected worldwide as wished by its Muslim producers.

Witness the images from Gaza, Chechnya and Kashmir, where, more often than not, violent acts are packaged in Islamic garb and slogans, portraying them less as liberation struggles than as elements of a universal effort to establish Islamic hegemony. Or the successive Osama bin Laden and Al Zawahiri tapes taking credit for 9/11 and swearing to wreak havoc and destruction on the «infidel West» unless it cowers before their threats.

Take the suicide-bombers in Palestine. Their last, pre-mission recorded statements are couched in religious language, representing their supreme self-sacrifice not so much as a struggle for liberation from Israeli occupation but as an Islamic mission in a war against Jews, with the expected reward of martyrdom and houris-in-waiting. One recalls that the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka were the «pioneers» of suicide bombing to achieve a political goal. But these suicide-bombers, called Black Tigers, were not paraded before cameras extolling the virtues of Hinduism or chanting the Tamil equivalent of «Jai Ram». The world did not approve of their method but saw it for what it was — an instrument in the struggle to liberate what they called their land, not a holy war.

Even the names of the organisations that represent the struggle of Muslim people in various parts of the world necessarily carry religious connotations: Al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e Taiba, Jaish-e Mohammad, Hezb-ul Mujahideen, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, Al Aqsa Brigade, Hamas (acronym for Islamic Resistance Movement). In Pakistan, the slogan «Pakistan ka matlab kiya, La Ilaha Illallah» is chanted even during games in stadiums. There exists a «Muslim Parliament» in UK and an Imam in London has demanded the implementation of Sharia law for British Muslims. The Pope may rule millions of hearts, but he controls less than half of one square kilometre (exactly 0.44 sq km or 0.17 sq miles) of territory, and even in this so-called Holy See there is no religious police to enforce a dress code or commandeer Christians to prayers.

Azmi sier: islam har fått det image det fortjener. Indirekte sier han at vi kan slutte å be om unnskyldning.

THINKING ALOUD: Image mirrors reality

Razi Asmi, a former academic with a doctorate in modern history, is now a freelance writer and columnist