Macron, I am telling you; Islamic world, you listen?

Although the new Islamophobic wave that Macron has resorted to in order to cover up his domestic political crises in France is bad in essence, I think the debates it has provoked are beneficial.

When such chapters are opened, even on this occasion, Islam and Muslims have much more to say to Europe. There is much that Europe, whether it wants to or not, will hear from Muslims. Indeed, there is even more that the Muslim world, in its sleep of heedlessness, will hear, and ought to hear, from the words addressed to Europe on the occasion of these debates.

When Macron, overstepping his bounds, speaks of Islam needing a reform, the question of which inadequacy of his own at home he is covering up with such an agenda is now taken much more seriously than Islam's own internal affairs. Indeed, it thereby becomes clear through a perfect example that all rhetoric of hatred or fear about Islam is, in the final analysis, connected to Europe's own internal problems.

Of course, the best example of a discourse of the "I am telling France, let the Islamic world hear" kind was given by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in his speech addressed to the meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. This organization, whose very reason for existence is to represent Islam all over the world, to put forth a common defense and cooperation in the face of any attack on Islam, and to put all the problems Muslims face in the world on the table and to put forth a common stance, strategy and solidarity to overcome them all, is far from even putting hate speech or attacks against Islam on its agenda.

On the agenda of the Organization's major members, far from resisting the attacks against Islam, cooperation with those who attack Islam is the more dominant form of relationship and politics.

Yet the material and political means that the Islamic world possesses are more than enough, even in excess, to prevent these attacks. Today, not even all of them, but if only a few leading countries put their weight behind it, Muslims would have no Kashmir problem, no Myanmar, no Syria, no Iraq, no Yemen, not even a Palestine problem, nor would these Islamophobic rhetoric and attacks against Muslims be possible.

Unfortunately, even to Macron's latest outrageous statements, no one other than Erdoğan objected.

Is the persistent silence of some Islamic countries on this matter an expedient attitude out of fear of spoiling their relations with France or Europe, or have they in any case voluntarily adopted this distance from Islam themselves?

How will the Islamic countries that are today competing to have many mainstream Islamic civil organizations in America and Europe placed on "terrorist organization" lists fight Islamophobia or hatred of Islam? They themselves are already in an attitude that provokes and frightens Europeans about Islam. The Islamic organizations they complain about to the Westerners are the most effective, most widespread movements of Islam. Frightening people about them means frightening them directly about Islam, because they themselves have nothing to do with Islam, near or far.

Do not be fooled by their presenting themselves as "moderate Islam." The "moderate Islam" they represent is in fact something like "no Islam." As Erdoğan aptly put it:

"The main purpose of such initiatives led by French President Macron (and supported by the policies of these Islamic countries, sometimes by remaining silent and sometimes through direct contribution) is to settle accounts with Islam and Muslims. Under the guise of 'fighting extremism,' rather than combating terrorism, what is targeted is a profile of a passive, timid, cowardly, unassuming Muslim citizen who does not react to oppression and does not raise his voice against the oppressor."

The actual representation of this Muslim profile, which Europe also actively supports, is put forth by names such as the one who murdered and sawed apart his own free citizen in his consulate, who with the extreme repression he applies in his country, arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial executions does not even come near human rights (MBS); who savagely mowed down and massacred 3,000 of his civilian citizens in a single day during a peaceful demonstration, who subjects hundreds of thousands of his own citizens to torture in prisons under inhuman conditions (Sisi); and who again killed over a million of his own citizens and deported millions of them (Assad).

When Europe, Macron or these countries speak of an Islamic reform, they are not speaking of correcting such inhuman practices. What they are talking about is precisely those Muslims who oppose these human rights violations, who demand democracy, who speak of Muslims taking ownership of their own will and destiny.

Yet is the picture not very clear? Today the perpetrators of the deaths of millions of people in the Islamic world, of the extreme human rights violations, massacres, tortures, repressions, despotic practices that trample human dignity, are not the Muslims in question.

On the contrary, the victims and casualties of all of them are Muslims. In return, the perpetrators, supporters and those who turn a blind eye to these atrocities are today talking to us about the "reform of Islam."

Do you not also think it is beneficial that these chapters are opened, even on such occasions? Just look at what contradictions, what shamelessness are coming to light.