Category Archives: Islamophobia

The Great Chain of Being Racist

Election 2008, Islamophobia, Journalism and Media, Luke R. E. Publican, Terrorism Issue

Let’s start with the Bible. “Whatsoever a man soweth,” says the King James Version, “that shall he shall reap.” I doubt the Apostle Paul would mind if this verse was clarified for 2008 as “Whatsoever a politician sayeth, that shall he also reap bigtime.” For the past week, as Wall Street was dodging fire and brimstone economic news, the McCain/Palin campaign let loose the doggone attack dog one-liners, claiming that Obama was “pallin’ with terrorists,” mocking the idea of an American with a middle name of Hussein, and asking rhetorically “Who is Barack Obama?” For the vast undercurrent of racist attitudes in America this was red heifer meat, fear mongering in raw form. So who do at least a few (and it seems more than a few) of those listening to McCain and Palin think Senator Obama is? Why, he’s an Arab, of course.

To his credit, John McCain stepped back from the flames of the fire he himself set and set the record straight that his opponent is a “decent man” and a family man and not a scary man. To his discredit, this racist comment is the logical conclusion of many who have listened to his “I am John McCain and I approve this ad” campaign spin. While the government was scrambling to bail out the major financial institutions, in some of the redder side roads off Main Street the Straight Talk Express was spewing out Rove-driven poisonous carbon-copy monoxide. Continue reading The Great Chain of Being Racist →

New Website on Islamophobia in the 2008 Election

Election 2008, Ethics, Islam and Christianity, Islam in America, Islam: Introduction, Islamophobia, Journalism and Media, Teaching Resources


[The following statement has been issued by a number of scholars of Islam and Muslim societies to set the record straight on the unfortunate Islamophobia in the current U.S. election. For the statement webpage and a list of the scholar supporting the statement, as well as further resources on the false claim that Senator Obama is a stealth Muslim and distribution of the Islamophobic film “Obsession”, click here.]

Statement of Concerned Scholars about Islamophobia in the 2008 U. S. Election Campaign

Not since the election of John F. Kennedy in 1960 has the religious faith of a U.S. presidential candidate generated so much distortion as the false claims generated by extremist critics that Senator Barack Obama, the candidate of the Democratic Party, is a stealth Muslim. This is part of an Islamophobic hate campaign that fuels prejudice against Americans who practice their Islamic faith and Muslims worldwide. As scholars of Islam and Muslim societies and concerned citizens for a fair and honest electoral process, we wish to set the record straight.

1. Senator Obama has spoken eloquently and widely of his Christian faith and shared his personal beliefs in public forums during the campaign on religious values in American life, including a Compassion Forum on April 13 and a Saddleback Forum on August 16.

2. Senator Obama carries the same exact name as his father, Barack Hussein Obama, who was considered to be an agnostic and not a practicing Muslim by the time he met Senator Obama’s mother. Senator Obama’s mother did not convert to Islam, nor was he raised as a practicing Muslim while growing up in Indonesia and Hawaii.

3. The claim that Obama would be considered an “apostate” by Muslims is false. The vast majority of Muslims accept the Qur’anic message there there is no compulsion in Islam (Qur’an, 2:256). Since Senator Obama was not raised as a Muslim, he cannot be held accountable for the religious status of his father.

4. The politically motivated attack on Senator Obama as a radical Muslim is part of an Islamophobic prejudice in this campaign against American Muslims as anti-American and unfit to hold public office. During the primary season several candidates fueled resentment of all Muslims in politicizing the terrorist attack of 9/11. Recently the anti-Muslim propaganda film Obsession has been sent as an unsolicited DVD to voters in several states. It does not matter if a political candidate is Muslim or Jewish or Catholic or Mormon or Baptist. The President of the United States serves all its citizens, regardless of their religious beliefs. As a state senator and United States senator, as well as in his two books, Senator Obama expresses his belief in the separation of church and state, while accepting the need for greater dialogue between members of all faiths.

5. Regardless of your final choice for the voting booth on November 4, the decision should be based on the crucial issues facing the nation and the individual character of each candidate rather than spurious hate speech that demonizes the faith of some eight million citizens of the United States and more than a billion adherents worldwide.

Obsession isn’t a perfume

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Election 2008, Film and Video, Islamophobia, Terrorism Issue

by Adam Shatz, London Review of Books, 9 October, 2008

If you live in an American swing state you may have received a copy of ‘Obsession’ in your Sunday paper. ‘Obsession’ isn’t a perfume: it’s a documentary about ‘radical Islam’s war against the West’. In the last two weeks of September, 28 million copies of the film were enclosed as an advertising supplement in 74 newspapers, including the New York Times and the Chronicle of Higher Education. ‘The threat of Radical Islam is the most important issue facing us today,’ the sleeve announces. ‘It’s our responsibility to ensure we can make an informed vote in November.’ The Clarion Fund, the supplement’s sponsor, doesn’t explicitly endorse McCain, so as not to jeopardise its tax-exempt status, but the message is clear enough, and its circulation just happened to coincide with Obama’s leap in the polls.

The Clarion Fund is a front for neoconservative and Israeli pressure groups. Continue reading Obsession isn’t a perfume →

Anti-Obsession Medicine

Election 2008, Film and Video, Islamophobia, Journalism and Media

[As reported in an earlier post, the Islamophobic pseudo-documentary ‘Obsession’ has recently been sent out in key states on behalf of the Palin/McCain/Lieberman campaign. Now there is a website devoted to debunking the film’s prejudicial claims and slanted propaganda. This is called Obsession with Hate, a project of the “Hate Hurts America” campaign. See the website for details, but here is an excerpt…]

What is ‘Obsession’?

Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West is a 2005 anti-Muslim propaganda film put together by controversial anti-Muslim figures to further the perceived divide between Western and Muslim audiences. 28 million copies of the DVD were recently distributed by a mysteriously-funded entity by the name of the Clarion Fund with the help of 70 US newspapers in a curious and unprecedented campaign. This large distribution, particularly given it was targeted to swing states in the current elections cycle, piqued the interest of many, especially civil rights watchdogs.

Why is ‘Obsession’ a hate film, can we deny that radical violent Muslims exist? Continue reading Anti-Obsession Medicine →

The Push to ‘Otherize’ Obama

Apocalypse Watch, Election 2008, Islamophobia


Examples of the Islamophobic hate campaign against Senator Obama

[Webshaykh’s Note: The following op ed column by Nicholas Kristof should set off alarm bells in all concerned citizens, especially Muslims. The ugly Janus of racial prejudice and religious bigotry is on full display. I invite comments on what we as concerned citizens and scholars can do to combat this Islamophobic hate, which will not go away after the election, no matter who wins. To paraphrase a wise saying, the only thing needed for such Islamophobic evil to prevail is for the rest of us to do nothing. I invite all who read this to send me comments on how best to counteract this hate. If you know of good resources online or in publications, please let me know.]

The Push to ‘Otherize’ Obama

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, The New York Times, September 20, 2008
Here’s a sad monument to the sleaziness of this presidential campaign: Almost one-third of voters “know” that Barack Obama is a Muslim or believe that he could be.

In short, the political campaign to transform Mr. Obama into a Muslim is succeeding. The real loser as that happens isn’t just Mr. Obama, but our entire political process.

A Pew Research Center survey released a few days ago found that only half of Americans correctly know that Mr. Obama is a Christian. Meanwhile, 13 percent of registered voters say that he is a Muslim, compared with 12 percent in June and 10 percent in March.

More ominously, a rising share — now 16 percent — say they aren’t sure about his religion because they’ve heard “different things” about it. Continue reading The Push to ‘Otherize’ Obama →

Obsession: Potent, Powerful, Provocative

Danish Cartoon Controversy, Election 2008, Film and Video, Islam and Christianity, Islam in America, Islamophobia, Journalism and Media

Potent, powerful, and provocative. That’s what Nordstrom department stores have to say about Obsession, Calvin Klein’s cologne for men. These qualities are shared, no doubt, by another Obsession, a DVD currently being distributed by the Clarion Fund (http://clarionfund.org/), a nonprofit shell organization devoted to propagandizing against Islam. Subtitled “Radical Islam’s War Against the West,” copies of Obsession have been distributed as “paid advertising” in dozens of American newspapers, including the Charlotte Observer and the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Desperate for cash, traditional print media are not very fussy about their advertisers these days. Ann Caulkins, the publisher of the Charlotte Observer, told the paper’s religion reporter that the DVD met the newspaper’s criteria for ads: “We’re all for freedom of expression, freedom of speech. This is in no way reflecting our opinions, but it is something we allow,” she said, adding that the newspaper would not allow material that is racist, profane, or “offers graphic images of body parts,” which at least distinguishes the paper from anything in the CSI television franchise. Continue reading Obsession: Potent, Powerful, Provocative →

Pro-McCain Group Dumping 28 Million Terror Scare DVDs in Swing States

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Election 2008, Film and Video, Islam and Christianity, Islam in America, Islam in Europe, Islamophobia, Israel, Terrorism Issue


Sally Lopez of Lemoyne, PA displays a copy of the DVD that came in the mail.

by Erik Ose, The Latest Outrage, September 12, 2008

This week, 28 million copies of a right-wing, terror propaganda DVD are being mailed and bundled in newspaper deliveries to voters in swing states. The 60-minute DVDs, titled “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West,” are landing on doorsteps in a campaign coinciding with the 7th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Funding is coming from a New York-based group called the Clarion Fund, a shadowy outfit whose financial backers are The program was originally shown on Fox News in the days leading up to the 2006 mid-term elections, and right-wing activist David Horowitz toured the country screening the film on college campuses during 2007. Mainstream religious groups have called Obsession biased and divisive. It cuts between scenes of Nazi rallies and footage of Muslim children being encouraged to become suicide bombers. Continue reading Pro-McCain Group Dumping 28 Million Terror Scare DVDs in Swing States →

Pox Britannica

Islam in Europe, Islamophobia, Journalism and Media

The Shameful Islamophobia at the Heart of Britain’s Press

When a tabloid newspaper reports that a ‘Muslim hate mob’ is daubing abuse, can we believe them?

By Peter Oborne
The Independent, Monday, 7 July 2008,

On the morning of 7 October 2006 The Sun newspaper splashed a dramatic story across its front page. The story – billed as exclusive – concerned a callous and cynical crime committed by Muslims. A team of Sun reporters described in graphic detail how what the paper labelled a “Muslim hate mob” had vandalised a house near Windsor. The Sun revealed that “vile yobs hurled bricks through windows and daubed obscenities. A message on the drive spelled out in 4ft-letters: ‘Fuck off ‘.”

One Tory MP, Philip Davies, was quoted venting outrage at this act of vandalism. “If there’s anybody who should fuck off,” Davies was quoted as saying, “it’sthe Muslims who are doing this kind of thing. Police should pull out the stops to track down these vile thugs”.

The Sun left its readers in no doubt as to why the outrage had been committed. Local Muslims were waging a vendetta against four British soldiers who hoped to rent the house on their return from serving their country in Afghanistan. The paper quoted an army source saying that: “these guys have done nothing but bravely serve their country – yet they can’t even live where they want in their own”. Continue reading Pox Britannica →