Category Archives: Islamophobia 101

New Book Stokes Fear of a Muslim Europe

Islam in Europe, Islamophobia 101

New Book Stokes Fear of a Muslim Europe
Religion Dispatches, By Bruce B. Lawrence
August 13, 2009

Review of: Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam, and the West
By Christopher Caldwell(Doubleday, 2009)

This is a full-throttle polemic, a meanspirited book meant to raise alarms, stoke fears, and tame a danger at once unseen and misunderstood yet pernicious and widespread.

The danger is Islam, the villains are Muslim immigrants, the terrain is the West, and the outcome is certain defeat for European culture—unless the tide of Muslim immigration, which threatens to become a tsunami, can be stemmed.

But how? This book, despite the myriad cases set forth in its 350 pages of rant and rave, offers no explicit steps to stem the Muslim immigrant tide allegedly sweeping Western Europe, ravaging its European culture, and threatening the future of Western civilization. Continue reading New Book Stokes Fear of a Muslim Europe →

On Fascist-Islamophobia

Islamophobia 101, Journalism and Media

The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of a Clash of Civilizations

Excerpt from “Fascist-Islamophobia”: A Case Study in Totalitarian Demonization by Dr. Robert Dickson Crane, published in The American Muslim, October, 2007. To read the entire article, click here.

The future of America and of global civilization will depend on whether and when the leaders of each of the world’s nations can join to bring out the best of each civilization in order to build a single civilization of global pluralism. The purpose must be to bring out the best of the past in order to build both for the present and the future a global federation of independent nations in the pursuit of peace through compassionate justice.

The opposite alternative is mutual demonization whereby members of one civilization join the extremists of another in supporting the extremists’ perversion of their own religion. In practice this would bring out the worst of the past to paralyze the present and destroy the future.

The many books by Robert Spencer and a host of lesser professionals in demonization typify a genre of books that have captured the imagination of an entire nation. Amazon’s list of books on Islam and Muslims available for purchase in the Year 2007 exceeds 75,000. Of the first 400 listed, fifty could be classified as Islam-bashing, and half of these are militantly or extremely so. A critique of any one of them could serve as a critique of them all, though Robert Spencer’s book is perhaps the most sophisticated in its virulence. The basic theme is a self-fulfilling prophecy that brands Islam as inherently terrorist and thereby provokes Muslims to become exactly what they are said to be. Continue reading On Fascist-Islamophobia →

Watch Out for Jihad Watch

Islamophobia 101, Judaism, Muhammad, Teaching Resources, Terrorism Issue

Among the cyber Islamophobes, few are more obsessed than Robert Spencer, a self-styled expert whose The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and The Crusades) should be published in a new version without the word “Politically” in the title. Spencer writes for a specific audience, either those who already hate Muslims or others lacking the knowledge and common sense to see through his rhetorical jihad against Islam. There are numerous rebuttals to Spencer’s work available on the web. Some of the best comes from the pen of Dr. Khaleel Mohammad, whose website is worth looking at.

I attach below an excerpt from Khaleel Mohammad’s “Robert Spencer’s Obsession With Islam: What Would Jesus Do?” published in The American Muslim, September 30, 2008.

Here is something that Spencer might consider next time he chooses to pray to the Creator—while ranting and raving about Islamic radicalism and the threat it presents. Spencer should examine himself and his agenda and motivation closely. The danger to this country presented by radical Islamists is an overt one and is being confronted. Spencer, on the other hand, turns a blind eye to the extremists who are not Muslim who would see this country turned into a theocracy that imprisons people simply because they are Muslim. Continue reading Watch Out for Jihad Watch →

A Stink Bomb in Georgia

Ethics, Islam in America, Islamophobia 101, Scholars

GSU Professor Resigns over “Bomb” Comments to Muslim-American Student

Atlanta, Georgia – July 1, 2009 – The Director of the Middle East Institute at Georgia State University, Dona J. Stewart, has resigned citing the university’s failure to address incidents of anti-Muslim bias.

In August 2008 a Muslim-American doctoral student, Ms. Slma Shelbayah, was repeatedly asked by a senior faculty member, Dr. Mary Stuckey, if she was ‘carrying any bombs’ underneath her Islamic headscarf, or hijab. Ms Shelbayah was also employed as a Visiting Instructor of Arabic in the Middle East Institute. She holds Bachelor and Masters degrees from Georgia State University.

Dr. Stewart’s resignation cited retaliatory actions taken by the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Lauren Adamson, following Ms. Shelbayah’s request that the incidents cease. Continue reading A Stink Bomb in Georgia →

Final Solution

Islamophobia 101, Pakistan

Is there a ‘Final Solution’ to the Muslim Question?

by Tareq Fatah, The Muslim Question, Wednesday, May 20, 2009

On the weekend I came across an article by Hugh Fitzgerald of Jihad Watch in which he mocked Senators John Kerry and Richard Lugar for daring to suggest that Pakistanis “are like us.”

This mild exhibition of empathy towards Pakistanis so riled up the good Mr. Fitzgerald that he blasted not just the two senators for having the the temerity to equate Americans and Pakistanis, he suggested we not trust any Muslim until he or she renounces Islam.

The fact that Americans and Pakistanis are both human beings governed by democratically elected governments who seek to wipe out the scourge of Jihadi terrorism, and that both admit to having played a role in creating these monsters, was lost on Fitzgerald. The fact that two countries have been allies–militarily and politically–for two generations, mattered little to the writer. The fact that nearly a million Americans have Pakistani ancestry did not matter either. For him, since Pakistanis are Muslim therefore they cannot be “like us”. Continue reading Final Solution →

Tea Party A[O]bom[a]inations

Islamophobia 101, Obama Administration


Sign at a tea party tax protest earlier this week in Arizona

In the 1770s the beer and coffee drinking crowds of revolutionaries in Boston heaved sacks of British tainted tea into the deep. Since American colonists were never that fond of tea, the symbolism was not very taxing. “No taxation without representation” was the rallying cry. Earlier this week, encouraged by the right-wing media pundits on Fox News and the radio rush of vitriol, a slight rage [the oxymoron here is intentional] of tea bagging took place. Apparently the government that poured millions and millions of dollars into an unnecessary war in Iraq and lined the pockets of Wall Street executives through deregulation was doing its job when it was Republican in name. But tea is the wrong drink to describe the protesters, few of whom were the two-martini lunch crowd. This was a shot of sour grapes straight up. Continue reading Tea Party A[O]bom[a]inations →

Islamophobia and MisIslamothropes

Islamophobia 101, Osama Bin Laden, Terrorism Issue


Geert Wilders, the right-wing Dutch politician. Photograph: Jerry Lampen/Reuters

“Islamophobia” is a relatively new word, perhaps only from the late 1980s. What it signifies, however, dates back to the very beginning of the Islamic faith. Indeed, the initial response of the Meccan elite to the monotheistic preaching of Muhammad was so fearful of the economic fallout and political challenge of the message brought by this new prophet that the first Muslims were forced to flee to a safe haven in Madina. After Islam was established as a community and expanded, it came into conflict with the Christian enclaves in Syria and Egypt, as well as the Sassanian Persian empire to the east. By the time Muslims had briefly made forays into southern France in the 9th century, the Venerable Bede villified them as a “very sore plague.” Whether seen as Arabs, Moors or Turks, the many ethnicities represented by the growing religion understandably struck fear among those who saw the faith as a political or religious threat.

Fear is understandable; anything new is prone to be misunderstood, especially when the issue is about how to believe in God. Christians and Jews came to fear Islam because it was a rival, one with powerful political muscle through the 16th century. Fear, however, is not the problem. The major stumbling block for peaceful coexistence between rival faiths or ideologies of any kind is hatred. Continue reading Islamophobia and MisIslamothropes →

April through March Fools

Islam in America, Islamic Law, Islamophobia 101, Journalism and Media

Most of us probably passed April Fools Day with only minor irritations. After all, fooling in jest is sort of fun. Then there are those fools who seem to operate 365 days a year and stream into our consciousness non stop. Take, for example (and it is a very foolish example that unfortunately fools quite a few people) Fox News Facts (and please forgive the oxymoron but remember the moron part). On April 1 anchoress Alisyn Camerota interviewed one Nonie Darwish about the appointment of Harold Koh, a former dean at Yale, to be the State Department legal advisor. The following is the transcript, and you can watch the video here.

ALISYN CAMEROTA (Fox anchor): The White House is defending its nominee to be State Department Legal Adviser. Now, some of the criticism of this nominee, Harold Koh, is based on remarks that he reportedly made saying that Islamic Sharia law should apply in U.S. courts, even though those laws are used in some countries to justify stripping women of basic rights and even worse, frankly. Continue reading April through March Fools →