Category Archives: Islamophobia

Mo of the Same

Islam in Europe, Islamophobia, Journalism and Media, YouTube Watch


Ehsan Jami, member of the city council of Leidschendam-Voorburg on behalf of the Dutch Labour Party(PvdA) and one of the two founders of the Central Committee for Ex-Muslims

Islamophobia is as old as St. John of Damascus and the Venerable Bede, so it is not surprising that it should also have a youtube extension. One of the latest contributions has not been Piped in by an ardent jihad watcher nor obsessed by a horribly-witted and spent spinnermeister that robs truth to pay politics. Move over Ibn Warraq, hang on Ayaan Ali Hirsi, there is a new apostate on the video block going Dutch on Muslims. His name is Ehsan Jami and he has recently released an “Interview with Muhammad.” So if you would like to hear what someone who has rejected Islam would like the Prophet Muhammad to say on camera after more than fourteen centuries, here is a chance. An earlier prophet, Solomon the Wise, complained that there is nothing new under the sun. Applied to this film I would have to say it is Mo of the same. Continue reading Mo of the Same →

Obama and Islam

Election 2008, Islam in America, Islamophobia

American Muslims overwhelmingly voted Democratic
Lorraine Ali, NEWSWEEK, November 7, 2008

For the past few months, not a day went by without the words “Muslim” and “Obama” being mentioned in the same sentence. From the divisive shouts and jeers at McCain rallies to the Op-Ed pages of The New York Times to an interview with Colin Powell on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Muslims—or at least the mention of them—have been more prevalent this campaign year than “Joe the Plumber.”

But beyond the use of the term Muslim as a pejorative, and accusations by the far right that Obama was himself a secret follower of the Quran, what did real Muslim-Americans think of the Chicago senator? And how did they vote? The American Muslim Task Force on Civil Rights and Elections released a poll today of over 600 Muslims from more than 10 states, including Florida and Pennsylvania, and it revealed that 89 percent of respondents voted for Obama, while only 2 percent voted for McCain. It also indicated that 95 percent of Muslims polled cast a ballot in this year’s presidential election—the highest turnout in a U.S. election ever—and 14 percent of those were first-time voters. The Gallup Center for Muslim studies estimates that U.S. Muslims favored Obama in greater numbers than did Hispanics (67 percent of whom voted for Obama) and nearly matched that of African-Americans, 93 percent of whom voted for Obama. More than two thirds who were polled said the economy was the most important issue affecting their decision on Nov. 4th, while 16 percent said the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan informed their vote—numbers that put Muslims roughly on a par with the general population. Continue reading Obama and Islam →

Barack Hussein Obama: We can say it now

Election 2008, Islamophobia

If it ain’t over ‘til it’s over, it’s over at last. Yes, he did it. The next President of the United States, it is finally safe to say with a loud voice, is Barack Hussein Obama. Not just Barry for the ESPN fans, nor Barack H. for those frightened of prejudicial backlash from the Bible Belt, but a candidate who won decisively despite a middle name of Hussein. There is no reason why President Obama should use his middle name. Bill Clinton resonated without a Jeffersonian middle and Jack Kennedy marched into Camelot without his Bostonian f-word on the lips of reporters. But neither is there any need to disguise the fact that a name like Hussein, or even Muhammad, is as American as Tom, Dick, Harry, Mario, Chang, Hideki, Prideep or any of the myriad names that grace American passports.

Names do matter, but nothing matters more than getting over the name blame game that highlighted the Islamophobia in this tense, mercifully past tense now, presidential campaign. Continue reading Barack Hussein Obama: We can say it now →

Guilty of Befriending Muslims

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Election 2008, Islamophobia, Taliban


Professor Rashid Khalidi

by Mark LeVine, Tikkun, October 30, 2008

With less than a week left before the most important Presidential election in at least a generation, the McCain campaign has decided that, having failed to convince most Americans that Barack Obama is actually a closet Muslim, its best hope for winning undecided voters is to accuse Obama of having Muslim friends.

Not just Muslim friends, Muslim Palestinian friends. Apparently there are few more fearful combinations in the American ethno-religious lexicon.

And so a McCain spokesman has accused the Los Angeles Times of “intentionally suppressing” a video that would “show a clearer link” between the Democratic candidate and Professor Rashid Khalidi, the most important scholar of Palestinian history in the world, who at the time the video was shot, was a neighbor of Obama and a colleague at the University of Chicago. Continue reading Guilty of Befriending Muslims →

Rethinking Jihad conference

Conferences and Talks, Islam and Christianity, Islamic Law, Islamophobia, Terrorism Issue

International Conference
“Rethinking Jihad: Ideas, Politics and Conflict In the Arab World and Beyond”

The University of Edinburgh, 7-9 September 2009

Especially since 11 September 2001, the notion of ‘jihad’ has assumed
centre-stage in public and academic discourses on Islam, Muslims, and the
Arab world, particularly as a byword for terrorism and violence. But
clearly jihad has meant different things to different people at different
times, whether as theory, as action or as metaphor. As a timely exploration
of this diversity, the Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World
(CASAW) is convening a major international conference on the subject of
jihad in its multiple dimensions. The conference has three overarching
goals. The first is to bring together academics and others from a variety
of disciplines and specialisations to generate an in-depth discussion of
jihad in its practical, theoretical, historical, juridical and symbolic
dimensions. It is hoped that by drawing on a diversity of perspectives
(methodological, historical and geographical) the conference will contribute
to a deeper and more critical understanding of jihad. The second goal is to
reflect critically on the importance of jihad, however defined, to the study
of the Arab and Islamic worlds: to what extent is jihad a useful analytical
concept? Have students of Islam and the Arab world minimised or overstated
its importance? How should jihad be located in future research agendas?
Finally, the conference will seek to engage with the broader knowledge
community and explore current understandings and representations of jihad
within policy and media circles internationally. It will critique these
representations, as well as explore ways in which academics might contribute
to an improved understanding and contextualisation of jihad in public
discourse. Continue reading Rethinking Jihad conference →

Sour note for American Muslims in election campaign

Election 2008, Islam in America, Islamophobia, Journalism and Media

Sour note for American Muslims in election campaign

By Michael Conlon, Religion Writer, Reuters, October 21, 2008

CHICAGO (Reuters) – These are uneasy times for America’s Muslims, caught in a backwash from a presidential election campaign where the false notion that Barack Obama is Muslim has been seized on by some who link Islam with terrorism.

The Democratic White House candidate, who would be the first black U.S. president and whose middle name is Hussein, is a Christian. Son of a Kenyan father and white American mother, he spent part of his childhood in largely Muslim Indonesia.

The idea Obama is Muslim has circulated on the Internet for months, presented by some as a fact to reinforce the position that Obama is not a suitable candidate for the White House.

Not since the election of John Kennedy as the first Catholic U.S. president in 1960 has the faith of a White House hopeful generated so much distortion, said about 100 “concerned scholars” and others who have signed an October 7 proclamation aimed at countering Islamophobia they say is on the rise. Continue reading Sour note for American Muslims in election campaign →

Colin Powell defends Obama

Election 2008, Islamophobia, Journalism and Media

On Meet the Press Sunday, retired General Colin Powell endorsed Senator Obama for President. In so doing he made an eloquent plea defending Senator Obama from the Islamophobia. It was not just that Obama has been falsely called a Muslim, but the injustice done to American Muslims who have proudly served their country. Here is what Powell said:

I’m also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, “Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.” Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, “He’s a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists.” This is not the way we should be doing it in America. Continue reading Colin Powell defends Obama →

McCain and Palin Are Playing With Fire

Afghanistan, Election 2008, Islamophobia, Literature

McCain and Palin Are Playing With Fire

By Khaled Hosseini, The Washington Post, Sunday, October 12, 2008; B05

I prefer to discuss politics through my novels, but I am truly dismayed these days. Twice last week alone, speakers at McCain-Palin rallies have referred to Sen. Barack Obama, with unveiled scorn, as Barack Hussein Obama.

Never mind that this evokes — and brazenly tries to resurrect — the unsavory, cruel days of our past that we thought we had left behind. Never mind that such jeers are deeply offensive to millions of peaceful, law-abiding Muslim Americans who must bear the unveiled charge, made by some supporters of Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin, that Obama’s middle name makes him someone to distrust — and, judging by some of the crowd reactions at these rallies, someone to persecute or even kill. As a secular Muslim, I too was offended. Obama’s middle name differs from my last name by only two vowels. Does the McCain-Palin campaign view me as a pariah too? Do McCain and Palin think there’s something wrong with my name? Continue reading McCain and Palin Are Playing With Fire →