The western context
Having read Chaklader Mahboob-ul Alam's article "Freedom of expression and multi-culturalism" fairy tales immediately come to mind. Danish xenophobia, according to the author, is expressed by Danish troops' participation in Afghanistan and Iraq: one being a terrorist centre that protected al-Qaeda and Iraq which was Muslim only in so far as it benefited Saddam. The wholesale slaughter of Kurds, Muslim dissidents and the war with Iran that pitted Muslims against Muslims at the cost of millions of lives appears irrelevant to the writer; as did Saddam's imperialist incursion into Kuwait and his plans for Saudi Arabia and the Emirates.
Admittedly the western nations, starting with England and Germany and proceeding to Russian and the United States have played politics with the Islamic world. When Islam was one of the two great powers (the other being the Catholic Church and its "vassal" nations) Islam played the same politics.
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