Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

‘New study shows US Muslims are extremists’ (unlike Debbie Schlussel)

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Debbie Schlussel“The message of the just-released Pew Research Center study on ‘Muslim Americans’ is clear … America hasn’t moderated Islam or its adherents. Islam has made America[‘s] Muslim residents more extreme, just as with its European counterparts. Wealth and education and opportunity and freedom have done nothing to moderate them….

“The study shows that even from 2000-2007, 18% of Muslims are still immigrants – significantly up from the 1980s. Why – after 9/11 – are we letting one in five Muslims in America in from countries and a religion that hate us? It isn’t news to me. But it should be disturbing, nonetheless, that we have a policy of affirmative-action immigration for the religion of 19 hijackers and assorted worldwide beheaders, homicide bombers, and rioters.”

US pundit Debbie Schlussel (herself well known as a beacon of moderation who renounces all forms of extremism) writes at debbieschlussel.com, 23 May 2007

Read the Pew Center report here.

See also BBC News, muslimmatters.org and Abu Aardvark.

The poll result that has been flagged up by right-wing US pundits is that, in response to the question “Can suicide bombings of civilian targets to defend Islam be justified?”, 15% of those aged 18-29 said that such attacks were sometimes or often justified, 11% that they were rarely justified, and 69% that they were never justified (overall the figures were 8%, 5% and 78% respectively). This is the source of all those headlines claiming that 26% of young US Muslims are potential terrorists.

However, when members of the general American public were asked in a November-December 2006 poll (pdf here) whether “bombing and other types of attacks intentionally aimed at civilians” were justified, 24% replied that such attacks were sometimes or often justified, while 27% said they were rarely justified, and only 46% said they were never justified.

Which, applying the same calculation, means that 51% of all Americans are potential terrorists.

Australian Muslims slam ‘divisive’ test

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslims are outraged that prospective citizens will have to acknowledge the Judeo-Christian tradition as the basis of Australia’s values system. Australia’s peak Muslim body said the proposed citizenship question was disturbing and potentially divisive. Australian Federation of Islamic Councils president Dr Ameer Ali said the “Abrahamic tradition” or “universal values” would be less divisive ways of describing the nation’s moral base.

Dr Ali was backed by Democrats senator Lyn Allison, who said the answer to the question was highly debatable. But Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews stood firm on the merit of the question. Mr Andrews said Australia’s Judeo-Christian heritage was indisputable historical fact. But Health Minister Tony Abbott confused the issue, saying the modern Australian values system was secular, or of no particular religion.

Herald Sun, 19 May 2007

FBI agent threatened Muslim student at University of Calfornia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Nearly a year after a top FBI official said the agency does not monitor students at UCI, police are investigating an incident in which a Muslim student says he was threatened by a federal agent. The incident occurred Monday night in view of campus police and dozens of Muslim student spectators, who were helping to disassemble a large wooden representation of the wall that Israelis have built in occupied Palestine.

Orange County Register, 18 May 2007

OIC deplores Islamophobia, discrimination against Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers (ICFM) on Thursday adopted the “Islamabad Declaration”, deploring the bogey of Islamophobia and discrimination against Muslims.

“We condemn the growing trend of Islamophobia and systematic discrimination against the adherents of Islam. We call upon the international community to prevent incitement to hatred and discrimination against the Muslims and take effective measures to combat defamation of religions and acts of negative stereotyping of people based on religion, belief or ethnicity,” the declaration said.

Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri read out the declaration at the concluding session, chaired by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. “We request the Secretary General to continue the OIC initiatives to effectively counter Islamophobia through discussions and debates at various international fora,” it said.

IRNA, 17 May 2007

Bernard Lewis’ latest call to arms

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Bernard Lewis’ op-ed piece in the May 16, 2007 issue of the Wall Street Journal deserves swift rebuttal. This is the same man who advised President Bush prior to the Iraq war that the only language Arabs understood was the language of force. While Presidents may self-select advisors who tell them what they want to hear, these advisors bear as much responsibility, specially when they pose as ‘experts’…. Lewis’ op-ed article is a call to arms against Islam.”

Badruddin Khan writes in Counterpunch, 17 May 2007

In an article entitled “Islam’s War for World Mastery” Efraim Karsh takes up Lewis’s arguments. He writes:

“Mr. bin Laden and other Islamists’ war is not against America per se but is rather the most recent manifestation of the millenarian jihad for a universal Islamic empire, the umma. As the preeminent world power for quite some time, and the only remaining superpower after the collapse of the Soviet empire, America blocks the final realization of this goal and hence is a natural target for aggression. In this sense, the House of Islam’s war for world mastery is a traditional, indeed venerable, quest that is far from over.”

New York Sun, 18 May 2007

Eurabia is a dystopian nightmare, says author Philip Jenkins

Posted on by Bob Pitt

batyeorPhilip Jenkins, author of God’s Continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe’s Religious Crisis, answers questions from his publishers. Asked “Where is Eurabia and what do you think it will look like?” Jenkins replies:

“Eurabia is a dystopian nightmare land where white Europeans have very few children while their Muslim neighbors have many, so that Muslim immigrants swamp traditional Europe, making it what Bernard Lewis calls ‘part of the Western Maghreb’. I have real problems with the idea because I think it’s based on shaky demography, but also because it recalls for me so many nativist campaigns in bygone years – against Catholics in nineteenth century America, Jews in early twentieth century Britain, and so on.

“It is quite possible that in sixty or eighty years, some fifteen or twenty percent of Europeans might have family roots in Muslim countries, but that is quite different from assuming that they will all be stereotypical ‘Muslim fanatics’, or even Muslim at all. My guess is that Muslims in Germany will be very German, Muslims in Britain very British, and so on. By all means, let Europe and the United States suppress extremists and violent radicals, but that’s quite different from panicking over people who happen to be from the Middle East or South Asia.”

VirtueOnline, 17 May 2007

Rehashing Orientalist cliches

Posted on by Bob Pitt

MHQ“Worse than classical Orientalists are modern American writers who rehash classical Orientalist cliches but who lack the rigor, erudition, knowledge, and language skills of classical Orientalists.

“This guy is a good example. So much of the treatment (especially on page 15) is so far off but have no time to elaborate. You read this article and you think that Zarqawi is the Prophet of Islam, and not Muhammad.”

As’ad AbuKhalil responds to the article “Muhammad: The Warrior Prophet” by one Richard A. Gabriel, in the military history magazine MHQ.

The Angry Arab, 17 May 2007

Venue withdrawn over line on Islam

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mosques and MiraclesThe controversial Christian conference on the “threat” of Islam has lost its Christchurch venue after sponsors expressed unease at the tone of the seminars. The move has drawn scorn from some Christians who see it as kowtowing to political correctness and “Muslim outrage”.

The Mosques and Miracles conference was to be held at Spreydon Baptist church, but negative publicity surrounding the event had caused church management to reconsider. In March, Muslim leaders condemned Mosques and Miracles as “a conference of bigots” after the organiser, Murray Dillner, said Islam made a society “implode” and had a mind-set to “take over the world”.

Spreydon Baptist senior pastor Murray Robertson said sponsor pressure had triggered the decision. “A number of the people who support our community work said they weren’t comfortable with the position. Part of their brief is to not support groups that are intolerant. We had no control over the content of the conference and we felt we were taking a whole bunch of hits for something we had nothing to do with. Spreydon Baptist Church wishes to make it quite clear that we are not anti-Muslim in our attitudes.”

A Christchurch minister, who declined to be named, said he felt the church leaders who made the decision had “wimped out”. “Since when have Christians getting together in Christchurch to discuss world issues of religion and society been dictated to by Muslim outrage? I think it’s very sad and a bit sinister.”

The Press, 17 May 2007

Update:  See also coverage at Dhimmi Watch.