“As a child as I studied the vilification and demonization of Islam and Muslims through history, one thing clearly stood out in my mind: There was near-consensus among the critics that there was nothing good that could be said about Islam or Muslims. The chorus that came from every side seemed to say: “Muslims are bad and Islam is no good.”
All I had to do to put this anti-Islam chorus to some kind of a Truth-Test was to look at my own father, and my mother, and my relatives, and all the other wonderful Muslims around me. And it became plain as daylight that those who demonized Muslims and Islam were idiots and ignoramuses or they were outright crooks and liars.
That means they were genuinely confused and misinformed or they were knowingly and deliberately lying through their teeth as the saying goes.
Later on, as I grew up, I was to learn that idiots and ignoramuses most of them were not. And having the kind of often very high educational qualifications and background many of them seemed to have, they had no excuse for being ignorant or misinformed.
I then began to realize how thorough, how extensive and how systematic the propaganda against Islam and Muslims was. And how multifaceted, aggressive, pervasive and powerful it was. And how there was not a lie or distortion the anti-Islam propagandists would not use to give Islam and Muslims a bad name.
And I also began to see how ignorant and unaware of any of this the Muslims were. History offers no parallel to such an unequal matchup of forces – to such an un-level playing field as you might call it.
And, perhaps, nothing speaks to the truth of Islam more loudly or clearly than how Islam survives, even thrives, against such seemingly impossible odds.” (Dr. Pasha)