Author: Lukman Harees

Publisher: self-published

Year: 2025

Pages: 496

ISBN: 9781964838014

Source: https://lukmanharees.com/

Extract from the Author’s Note,

[. . .] my deep interest in delving ino Islamophobia arose when I researched into the glaring gap between the rhetoric of human dignity as reflected in various Human Rights declarations and covenants AND the awful realities which the majority of mankind [. . .] After 09/11 in the US, followed by the UK’s 7/7 and the resultant so-called War on Terror, Islamophobia became an ubiquitous expression of political racism; its presence felt in immigration restrictions, critiques of multiculturalism, and the co-option of feminism that casts Muslim women as abject figures. From Tony Blair and Rishi Sunak to Geert Wilders and Donald Trump, we begin to see Islamophobia take form as an expression of racialised governmentality. This danger from without became more acute when extremist elements from within, under pseudo-religious labels and slogans, began to project Islam as a religion of violence. Ultimately, the Muslims became the ‘Other’ and were made targets of hate attacks and assumed collective guilt for every terror act committed by anyone who bore a Muslim name [. . .].

I was amazed at how the officialdom and the media in the so-called liberal and democratic West, with their legacy about liberal values and justice, chose to act with duplicity and hypocrisy when it came to Islam and Muslims. I wondered where the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ideals (which the West passionately championed after the disastrous World War II) stood, when the human rights and dignity of Muslims (constituting one fourth of humanity) were blatantly violated, trampled and desecrated in full limelight.

Reviewers’ comments (provided in the book):

“Lukman Harees’s book ‘Muslim in the Dock’ emerges not only as a powerful weapon to combat Islamophobia but also as a useful instrument to effect course correction. The book is an erudite and hard-hitting response to the divisive forces that work against our common humanity, common destiny, and mankind’s unity. At a time when much effort is required to be made to establish equality and fraternity in human society before another holocaust tarnishes human history, the book is timely and a must-read.” Ameen Izzadeen, International Editor, Sunday Times, Sri Lanka