Laura Loomer’s remarks regarding Muslims are not patriotic, informed, or courageous. Their tone suggests that they are indolent. They appear to be the same old dread, but they are presented as political discourse. This is the reason I refer to her as the prejudiced boomer. Her words serve as a reminder that Islamophobia is not a natural consequence of truth. It is the result of deliberate misinformation, selective memory, and a tainted history. Individuals such as Loomer attempt to portray Muslims as outliers, colonizers, or hazards to civilization. However, that narrative is rendered untrue when we examine actual historical events. The record is significantly more complex, extensive, and comprehensive than the simplistic slogans she advocates for.
The Pre-Columbian period would serve as an appropriate starting point for Loomer. Many individuals who have been reared on a limited Western narrative of the world believe that history has progressed exclusively through Europe and that Christian empires were the sole means of achieving grandeur. That perspective is inaccurate. Prior to the assertion that modern Europe was the language of progress, knowledge was disseminated throughout Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and the Americas through trade, scholarship, travel, and translation. That movement was fundamentally influenced by Muslim societies. The knowledge they possessed was not inherited simply. They preserved, questioned, expanded, and transmitted it.
Muslim centers of learning gathered, translated, debated, and enhanced Greek philosophy, Indian mathematics, Persian science, and medical knowledge from a variety of regions. That is not propaganda. That is the essence of civilization
Córdoba and Baghdad were exemplary cities of urban life, learning, and cultural confidence during a time when cities such as London and Paris were still dirty, confined, and far behind in public sanitation. At the time, Córdoba boasted paved streets, public illumination, baths, and libraries that were significantly larger than those of much of Europe. Baghdad emerged as one of the world’s foremost intellectual centers. Medicine, mathematics, astronomy, geography, law, literature, and philosophy were the subjects of study for the scholars who resided there. Muslim philosophers did not merely safeguard antiquated texts from destruction. They constructed upon them. They evaluated concepts. They contributed to the establishment of hospitals, the refinement of surgical knowledge, the advancement of optics, the improvement of algebra, and the establishment of the foundations that would later influence Europe’s own revival. If Loomer wishes to discuss civilization, she should initially ascertain the individuals who contributed to its preservation.
Just as dishonest is the notion that Muslims are perpetually intruders in the Indian subcontinent. Muslims in South Asia are not a foreign blight on the land. They are a component of the Earth. They have been present for centuries, speaking their languages, influencing their culture, defending their borders, constructing their cities, composing their poetry, preparing their cuisine, and lamenting their tragedies. It is not historical to refer to them as intruders. It is exclusion that is enveloped in wrath. Real intruders leave behind ruins after destroying and looting. In the twenty-first century, foreign invasions and interventions have been observed to have devastated Arab countries, murdered civilians, broken institutions, and left disorder in their aftermath. That is the appearance of devastation.
It is not the product of centuries of existence, labor, and statecraft in South Asia that Muslims have created
If Loomer ever decides to exchange indignation for knowledge, she could begin by visiting the Taj Mahal. It is not merely a monument of grandeur. It is indicative of the contributions that Muslims made to the subcontinent through art, architecture, design, engineering, and a vision of public culture that continues to influence the region. And the Taj Mahal is merely one example. Examine Delhi, Lahore, Agra, Hyderabad, and numerous other cities. Examine the language itself. Muslim presence and contribution are evident in Urdu, court traditions, music, miniature painting, calligraphy, gardens, cuisine, textiles, and legal institutions. It is unnecessary to romanticize the empire in order to acknowledge the truth that history has demonstrated. Muslims were not solely passing through the subcontinent. They contributed to its current state.
The toxicity of Islamophobia is derived from its capacity to capitalize on ignorance while masquerading as common sense. It reduces a billion or more individuals to a singular caricature. It eliminates centuries of scholarship, trade, literature, spirituality, and everyday human life. It conveys the message that individuals who are neighbors, coworkers, or citizens are unable to genuinely integrate as a result of their faith. Because it provides individuals who are feeling frustrated with someone to point the finger at, that venom is advantageous to demagogues. It is simpler to exclaim about intruders than to peruse a history text.
It is simpler to disparage Muslims than to elucidate the reasons why a significant portion of modern science, philosophy, and medicine was influenced by Muslims on its journey to the present
Loomer’s rhetoric also exposes a more profound issue within certain aspects of Western political culture. There is a tendency to celebrate freedom while simultaneously preserving dread of difference. There is a propensity to extol civilization while possessing minimal knowledge of civilizations beyond Europe. Muslims are frequently regarded as suspects, despite the fact that Muslim societies played a significant role in the development of the intellectual world that the West now claims as its own. That is not a demonstration of confidence. This is a state of insecurity. Lies are not necessary for a culture that is genuinely self-assured to defend itself. It is capable of confronting history with candor. It has the capacity to acknowledge debt. It is capable of acknowledging contributions. It is able to coexist with individuals of varying religious beliefs without causing any distress.
This does not imply that Muslim history is flawless. There is no civilization. Like all empires, Muslim empires were characterized by violence, hierarchy, and injustice. But serious history is not about presenting one group as virtuous and another as malevolent. The issue is the rejection of absurd beliefs. The fallacy that Loomer propagates is that Muslims are incompatible with progress and antagonistic to civilization. The reality is nearly the opposite. Muslim civilizations were among the most significant contributors to human progress. Muslim communities continue to be an integral component of the fabric of nations worldwide, including in South Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas.
Therefore, Laura Loomer is the prejudiced boomer, not because the term is memorable, but because her remarks are indicative of an antiquated prejudice that persists by perpetuating ignorance. Islamophobia necessitates denial. It is necessary for individuals to disregard centuries of collective human accomplishment, as well as the events of Córdoba and Baghdad. It is necessary for individuals to disregard the structures that Muslims have constructed in the subcontinent and other regions. It requires individuals who are more concerned with fear than with facts, and who speak with a strong voice. Silence is not the solution. The solution is to state the truth, as plainly as possible and as often as necessary: Muslims are not intrusions into history. They are among its creators.
