Cartoon by Khalil Bendib on Jadaliyya
Category Archives: Islam in America
How safe is home?
On March 11 an American soldier slipped out of his base before dawn and ended the lives of 17 Afghan civilians, who had returned to what they thought would be a safe home near the protection of the American military base. The general reaction to this is that the man “snapped,” an isolated act. Then there is the case of a Florida vigilante who shot an unarmed, young black kid wearing a hoodie and walking home; the man who shot him claims that it was in self defense. Someone must have “snapped” in the encounter. Yesterday an as-yet-unidentified killer took the life of an Iraqi mother living in El Cajon, California. The murderer snuck into her bedroom and bludgeoned her to near death, leaving a note that said “go back to your country.” Perhaps this was also an individual that “snapped”? A trial is now ending for a student at Rutgers who played a prank on his roommate by setting up a web-cam to record a homosexual encounter; his roommate killed himself. I guess one could say that the suicide happened because this young man “snapped”? Four different deaths, but all assumed to be because an individual acted in an abnormal way, a criminal act (suicide is still a criminal act in U.S. law) that goes counter to a society’s moral norms.
Such immoral acts have been going on since the get-go of human civilization; even ardent biblical literalists point to the fratricide of Cain. But assuming that an individual has “snapped” explains nothing, except to say “well, that is not supposed to happen.” Following the media, we are far too snap-happy in explaining away murder. Consider the bumper sticker mentality that “guns do not kill people, but people do.” To me this is like saying that malaria doesn’t kill people, but mosquitoes who carry the malaria do. Obviously it is a combination of the two. People use guns to kill people, either issued by the military (as in Afghanistan) or because of a constitutional American right to bear arms and stand one’s ground (as in Florida). People also use knives and steel rods, or even their bare hands. There are various means, but is it really useful to cite “snapping” as the rationale? Continue reading How safe is home?
Majid in Morocco
Street in Tangier, by Henry Ossawa Tanne, ca 1910
Tabsir Contributor Anouar Majid, will be giving two talks in Morocco in March. Details below:
“Todos somos moros: una invitación para un debateâ€
Conferencia de Anouar MajidFecha: 12-03-2012
Lugar: Salón de Actos. Fundación Instituto Euroárabe. Colegio de Niñas Nobles. C/ Cárcel Baja, 3.
Hora: 19:30Anouar Majid, (Tánger, Marruecos), es director del Centro de Humanidades y director adjunto de Iniciativas Globales de la Universidad de New England, Portland, Maine, (EEUU). Reconocido analista del papel del islam en la edad de la globalización y de las conflictivas relaciones del islam con Occidente desde 1492. Autor de “We are all Moors: ending centuries of Crusades against Muslims and other minoritiesâ€,â€A call for heresy:why dissent is vital for Islam and Americaâ€, “Freedom and Orthodoxy: Islam and difference in the post-Andalusian ageâ€, “Si Yussefâ€(novela)…Ha sido descrito por el filósofo y profesor de la Universidad de Princeton, Cornel West, en su obra “Democracy mattersâ€, como “uno de los escasos intelectuales islámicos de envergaduraâ€. Dirige la revista norteamericana-marroquà de ideas y cultura TingisRedux y colabora asiduamente en el Washington Post, Chronicle of Higuer Education y otras publicaciones.
Su conferencia, que reflexiona a partir del lugar destacado que históricamente ocupa España en el clima de desconfianza secular entre árabes y occidentales, trata de demostrar que las claves de una transición democrática y de una polÃtica económica con la diversidad como lema en el mundo árabe e islámico deben ser halladas en los antiguos territorios de Al Andalus.
Understanding American-Muslim Relations
Professor Anouar Majid
American Legation, 8 rue d’Amérique, Tangier.
Friday, 16 March, 19:00 Continue reading Majid in Morocco
Eliminating Islamophobia
Photo:Metropolitan Museum of Art
by Misha Habib
America has changed so much since my adolescence. Growing up as an American bred a very different outlook on life from the breeding it is providing today. And it is a shame because America is a piece of land that made a promise to allow everyone to speak the truth; to do whatever it takes to find the truth and to fearlessly defend the truth no matter what the consequences.
When I look back over the last decade I see one of the unfortunate consequences of its moral degradation…
To create national support for an enemy, the last decade has been spent breeding hatred and resentment against a symbol.
Accumulating support to annihilate the enemy was strategized along the lines similar to the ones used for the Soviet Union. In a hurry, the symbol chosen accidently represented far more people than they initially estimated. And as time began to show they really had no idea what the power of that symbol held.
By the time someone realized this symbol has far more strength than the iron curtain…
By the time someone realized their own people would spend their lives fighting for sanctity of this symbol.
By the time they realized it was too late…
America had become a victim of Islamophobia
The objective was to unite the nation against a common enemy- whether fear, vengeance or accumulating oil was the reason is irrelevant- we might eradicate the enemy and we might find alternative energy sources, but we most definitely have a new problem.
The US government likes to plan for the worst and hope for the best. The reality is that breeding a decade of hatred has led to what the government probably fears may have accidentally sown the seeds of a situation they never intended.
American children have witnessed countless displays of hate towards Islam and all its associated parts. Whether it be towards the person sitting next to them in the subway or instructions warning them not to play with the potentially evil Muslim children; worse if a family member, neighbor or any soldier the child cared about died on the battlefield fighting the evil Muslim enemy, the child has dealt with the loss on the reassurance that the sacrifice was for a good cause.
Media in a lot of ways does rule the world- and the American media has a significant control over the national minds. When I watch an American movie or television miniseries and a visual displays the sounds of the azaan (call to prayer), followed by hoards of people bowing down in worship I know something bad or violent is about to be introduced onto the screen. Whether it is Hollywood or American television productions the last decade has made something very clear- Arabic words, Arabic sounds, veils, beards and Islamic forms of worship- all these things represent evil.
Ten years of subliminal messages are a powerful enemy to fight.
In the last decade those seeds have grown. Those children are now adults. Their breeding has been blossoming in ways that those watering the seeds could not have imagined- the government has lost control of the hatred.
What we now have is regret and an urgency to do damage control. The situation must be handled before it leads to the frightening scenario of future national violence or the many unthinkable possibilities that anger and hatred result in.
Today when a politician or spokesperson comes in front of the camera saying Islam is about peace; reassuring us there are many good Muslims and we should build them mosques in the name of peace, that too on places like ground zero- these statements will seem absurd in the face of those programmed to hate anything and everything that has to do with Islam.
Subliminal messages have a far more powerful impact that can be quantified and reversed.
Sufism has become an umbrella term for the various methods of preaching and practicing a peaceful Islam. A desperate attempt is being made to use this label to display a positive side of the religion. People are waving the label Sufi like a white flag in a war zone. Continue reading Eliminating Islamophobia
The Conference on Islam in America
The Conference on Islam in America is a collaboration of diverse Muslim individuals and groups whose mission is to clarify and to further define the modalities for Muslim life in the pluralistic society of America.
The Conference on Islam in America will:
• facilitate dialogue, debate and consensus-building among the diverse theological, ethnic, class-based and political elements of the Muslim community here in the United States on the complex array of social, political, cultural and moral issues that confronts us as Americans;
• facilitate informed civic participation of by American Muslims through conversations with American policy-makers, educators, civic leaders and shapers of public opinion;
• promote the application investment of Muslim resources and talents, through the utilization execution of demonstration-projects and best practices in directed attempts to address on selected American societal issues.
The mechanism for reaching achieving these objectives is an annual conference, webinars and accessible community initiatives.
We hope that you will join us to participate in this exciting and stimulating dialogue on the future of Muslim voices and lend a hand in contributing to this powerful and beneficial event. To register for the conference, please click here to be directed to the registration page or contact Trent Carl at tcoiamerica@gmail.com for more information. We look forward to seeing you in September.
NYPD Blues…
The NYPD: Islamophobia in Blue
by Deepa Kumar, Empire Bytes, February 6, 2012
NEW YORK City police officers were shown a movie called The Third Jihad which warns that ordinary Muslims are part of an age-old conspiracy to dominate the world. The police chief and his spokesperson participated in this “counter-terrorism training,†and then lied about their involvement. And Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who touts himself as a champion of religious tolerance, doesn’t plan to do anything about it.
This latest series of events that unfolded in late January only sheds more light on the depth of anti-Muslim racism in New York City. Home to about 800,000 Muslims, as well as the world’s largest police department, the Big Apple has become the crucible of entrenched Islamophobic policies enacted by the state since September 11.
“This is not stereotyping,†Talat Hamdani said at a January 26 press conference at City Hall.
Talat’s son Salman died on 9/11 as a first responder, but his sacrifice has never been officially recognized because police initially viewed him as a suspect in the attacks. “This is legal persecution of American Muslims,†Talat said. “This is our city, our state, our country.â€
Almost a year ago, in January 2011, Tom Robbins of the Village Voice broke the story about the NYPD showing this racist film to its officers. At the time, police spokesman Paul Browne claimed the movie was only screened a few times, and that the clips of Ray Kelly in it were from old footageand not the police commissioner’s direct participation with right-wing filmmakers.
But when police were forced to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request from the Brennan Center for Justice, it came to light that the movie was a regular part of training for months, that more than 1,500 officers had viewed the film, and that Kelly had given a 90-minute interview for the pseudo-documentary.
After a year of denials and evasions, the truth was out, and it received some attention in the mainstream media. Yet this is only the tip of the iceberg. Continue reading NYPD Blues…
Worldwide Association for the Study of Religion
Whatever you think about “religion,” you must admit that “religion” is not something that can be avoided. There are countries where a person has little choice but to accept the dominant religion imposed and there are places where one can shop for religion more easily than clothes. As an anthropologist I accept the fact not only that we have evolved (even if Darwin did not start a religion) and that all members of Homo sapiens that have been encountered and studied have something that deserves to be called “religion,” even if only in the minimalist sense of Victorian Quaker Edward Tylor that religion is at bottom a belief in spirits. There are many religions out there and several important scholarly organizations devoted to the study of religion in one way or another, but add a new one to the mix.
Anthropologist Gabriele Marranci, founder of the journal Contemporary Islam, has formed the Worldwide Association for the Study of Religion (WASR perhaps for those who like acronyms) If you do not have a Facebook account, join the Wiki.
This group is open to scholars studying religion or with an interest in religion and aims to develop a worldwide association accessible to any scholar or student wherever they might live. This is a working group to develop ideas and the structure for this new association, which aims also to remove the gap between scholars working in developing countries and those in the West. This group is open to scholars studying religion or with an interest in religion and aims to develop a worldwide association accessible to any scholar or student wherever they might live. As scholars the goal of the association to study religion in all its forms and not to lobby for any particular religion or even for the absence of religion. This is a working group to develop ideas and the structure for this new association, which aims also to remove the gap between scholars working in developing countries and those in the West.
As Marranci notes, his effort is not to replace organizations like the American Academy of Religion, but to expand the network of scholars who study religion worldwide. With the Internet and Skype, scholars are no longer captive to meeting colleagues at professional meetings, important as these remain. Feel free to join today and tell your friends.
On Facebook; you can request joining (which is free) by clicking here. You can also join via the Wiki.
The fast and furious plot to occupy Iran
Manssor Arbabsiar is shown in this courtroom sketch during an appearance in a Manhattan courtroom in New York on October 11, 2011
by Pepe Escobar, Al Jazeera, October 12, 2011
No one ever lost money betting on the dull predictability of the US government. Just as Occupy Wall Street is firing imaginations all across the spectrum – piercing the noxious revolving door between government and casino capitalism – Washington brought us all down to earth, sensationally advertising an Iranian cum Mexican cartel terror plot straight out of The Fast and the Furious movie franchise. The potential victim: Adel al-Jubeir, the ambassador in the US of that lovely counter-revolutionary Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
FBI Director Robert Mueller insisted the Iran-masterminded terror plot “reads like the pages of a Hollywood script”. It does. And quite a sloppy script at that. Fast and Furious duo Paul Walker/Vin Diesel wouldn’t be caught dead near it.
The good guys in this Washington production are the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). In the words of Attorney General Eric Holder, they uncovered “a deadly plot directed by factions of the Iranian government to assassinate a foreign Ambassador on US soil with explosives.”
Holder added that the bombing of the Saudi embassy in Washington was also part of the plan. Subsequent spinning amplified that to planned bombings of the Israeli embassy in Washington, as well as the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Buenos Aires. Continue reading The fast and furious plot to occupy Iran