Emails and postings from Muslims expressing pure hate and outright vileness is a given when my advocacy work involves support for an egalitarian Islam, i.e. support for women-led prayer, LGBT rights and women in the arts. Yes, it is amazing how the idea of a woman singing, as I do, is a problem because I am singing in the “wrong frequency,” and that the right frequency is “432 hz” which “is to make Satan and people who worship him lose” and “the real healthy music is music that is tuned in this miracle frequency!”

It is pretty out there and that's a mild example.

But that is just one end of the extreme. At the other end of the extreme are the emails from Islamophobes.

Islamophobes are those who fear and hate all things Muslim and Islam. On Thursday December 27th 2012, an innocent man, Sunando Sen, died after he was pushed into the path of a New York City MTA train by an Islamophobe who confessed to shoving him onto the tracks because he hated Muslims and Hindus. Sen happened to be Hindu.

Recently I have caught the eye of Islamophobes and with that comes emails that are very long, very clever in their manipulation of facts and very convoluted in their reasoning. Here are some examples of the topics.

Taqiyyah: “Calculated Deception - giving permission to lie as long as it advances Islamic causes”. This thesis borrows heavily from radical and conservative Muslim ideology. The Islamophobes use it to promote the concept that all Muslims are liars. Therefore, when a Muslim claims “Islam is a religion of peace,” it is only to hide our supposedly true intentions, one of which, according to Islamophobes, is to take over the Western World.

Violent passages of the Quran with the summation of “Allah hates those who don’t accept Islam” are verbatim from radical Muslims and very simplistic. Islamophobes are having a field day, and their job couldn’t be any easier, thanks to Muslim extremists and even your not-so extreme preachers. Theirs is a symbiotic relationship. Islamophobes love to highlight the violent passages as if they are exclusive of Quran, but conveniently ignore the same level of violence in the Torah and the Bible. And guess what? Both extremists use Islamic sacred texts, historically out of context, to justify their hate.

Lastly, Islamophobes love patriarchy and misogyny. Let me share an email I received from a “Larry Silverstein:”

Darling Ani,

You compare me to a Barbaric Mohammedan, when all I do is to be kind to you?

You refuse to be addressed: Shalom, Salaam, Hello Darling, Hi.

What is a man to do?

You want to belong to a Cult that preaches, MURDER, RAPE, CHILD MOLESTATION, THEFT & ROBBERY and expect people to accept you as a rational person?

COME ON, ANI.

This is the 21st century!

You have PROBLEMS in your life, that seem to cause you all kinds of problems, when dealing with men!

Are you lesbian?

Is that your problem?

I do not condemn you because of your DNA.

I will NEVER stone a woman, because she fails to live up to my standards!

What if I don't live up to her standards?

Can she stone me?

Let's be honest, Ani!

Mohammedanism is a CANCER for all of humanity.

Jesus is the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE, no one comes to the Father, but by Him!

Since Islamophobes and Muslim extremists share so much in common in their ideology of hate, I wish they would just rent a room somewhere and make out with each other. Maybe that will purge the hate out of their system. If that fails, at a minimum, I wish they would leave the rest of us out of their vile belief system. They have killed enough people with their hate.

May you rest in peace Mr. Sunando Sen.

By Ani Zonneveld, Aslan Media Columnist

Photo Credit: David Shankbone, Flickr Creative Commons