Islamophobia

Is the US intimidating the media?

By:
Published May 16, 2013, in Islamophobia

As the justice department seizes AP’s phone records, we discuss the aggressive pursuit of whistleblowers in the US. 

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Outrage is being expressed at what the American Civil Liberties Union has called “an act of press intimidation” and an “unacceptable abuse of power” by the Barack Obama administration.

In May last year, the White House announced it had intercepted a plot to detonate an explosive on a plane headed for the United States.

The al-Qaeda plan had originated in Yemen but a target had not yet been decided. The twist was that the would-be suicide bomber was actually a CIA agent, and the attack never happened.

http://www.aljazeera.com/Media/Images/ico_quote_left.png

 

 

This appears to be an
unauthorised leak .
probably because the
White House and
Justice department
were upset that
information on this
investigation leaked
out 24 hours before
they wanted it too .
which is really petty
and strange .
-Jesselyn Radack,
whistleblower and
lawyer

http://www.aljazeera.com/Media/Images/ico_quote_right.png

But it was not the US government that released details of the plot; it was a news agency.

When the Associated Press (AP) discovered the story, it initially agreed to White House and CIA requests to withhold the information, as the operation was said to still be underway.

The news organisation eventually broke the story on the 7 May 2012, a day before the official announcement was made.

Ever since, the US government has wanted to know the identity of the AP’s sources. And now it appears the hunt has intensified.

Last Friday, the Department of Justice told the AP it had secretly obtained the phone records from more than 20 lines assigned to the media company and its journalists.

Without any advance warning, home, office and mobile phone records were seized, covering all outgoing calls made in the two months before the bomb attack plot was revealed. The department did not explain why.

The AP was not impressed. The news agency has asked the justice department to return the subpoenaed phone records and destroy all copies.

The Obama administration has a history of pursuing whistleblowers. It has already brought six cases against people it suspects have leaked classified information, and there may still be more to come.

So, why has the Obama administration been so aggressive in its approach? And what alternatives do whistleblowers have under such conditions?

To discuss this, Inside Story Americas, with presenter Shihab Rattansi, is joined by guests: Jesselyn Radack, National Security and Human Rights director at the Government Accountability Project, who is also a former government whistle-blower; and Kim Zetter a senior reporter at Wired magazine.

Force-feeding detainees in Guantanamo

 

We have called on the
US government to put
an end to this crisis at
the Guantanamo Bay
. among other things
by resolving the
situation of those who
are held there and
have no reason to be
held there. But also
particularly to ensure
that those who are on
hunger strike be
treated in accordance
with the human
dignity …and
specifically we called
on the US not to force-
feed them.
– Juan Mendez , UN
special rapporteur on
torture

In Guantanamo Bay, a hunger strike by at least 100 detainees at the US detention centre is well into its third month.

Al Jazeera has obtained documents which outline the US military’s standard operating procedure for force-feeding those refusing food.

According to the documents, the standard operating procedure, says: “When consent cannot be obtained, medical procedures that are indicated to preserve health and life shall be implemented without consent from the detainee.

“When a prisoner is force-fed the Guard force shackles detainee and a mask is placed over the detainee’s mouth to prevent spitting and biting, he is then escorted to a chair restraint system, and appropriately restrained by the guard force.

“The feeding tube, of 3.3mm in diameter, is passed via the nasal passage into the stomach … the tube is secured to the nose with tape.”

The documents claim that “feeding can be completed comfortably over 20 to 30 minutes”.

The detainee is then placed in a dry cell where he cannot access water. If the detainee vomits or attempts to induce vomiting “he will remain in the restraint chair for the entire observation time period during subsequent feedings”.

The documents advise: “In event of a mass hunger strike, isolating hunger striking patients from each other is vital to prevent them from achieving solidarity”. The documents also reveal that the military and not the medical staff have final say over who is force-fed.

So, what is the significance of the information contained in these documents? And why has the US chosen such radical alternatives?

To discuss this, Shihab Rattansi speaks to Juan Mendez, the UN special Rapporteur on torture.

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Greeting card turns veiled Muslim doll into terrorist doll

By:
Published May 6, 2013, in Islamophobia

FD Editor’s Note:  Bigotry alive and well in the USA…imagine if they tried this with an African American doll as a slave, or maybe one of the Black Panthers?  It wouldn’t fly, so why does it now because it’s against Islam?  Why is being an islamophobe politically correct these days?

By

In the latest sign of rising Islamophobia in the country, the seven-million strong American Muslim community was shocked at the fabrication of a birthday card that depicts a veiled girl doll as a suicide bomber who’ll “Blow Your Brains Out.”

Featuring a photo of a Muslim doll with a Hijab, the talking bubbles placed on top of the doll’s photo read, “The Talking Doll, Pull string for message, if you dare,” and “She’ll Love You To Death! She’ll Blow Your Brains Out!”

  “The unmistakable message behind the “humor” is that   even the most peaceful looking Muslims are synonymous and exchangeable with terrorists,” according to Ahmed Rehab, Executive Director of the Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The controversial card was available until it sold out Friday at a Chicago card and novelties store.

The store’s owner credited the Boston Marathon bombing for boosting sales and said Saturday he plans to reorder the $2.95 suicide bomber card “because they’re selling well.”

The controversial card is based on an actual doll designed by Desi Doll Company called “Aamina, the Muslim Doll.”

The doll teaches kids religious greetings and sayings in Arabic and Urdu with messages like “Assalamu Alaikum”   (the Muslim greeting that means peace be upon you) and “Let’s play together insha’Allah,” (meaning if God wills it.)

The doll was the brainchild of an entrepreneurial mother of three in the hopes of better teaching her kids Urdu and Arabic

“The joke is that if you wear a hijab, you’re a terrorist — it’s that primitive,” said Ahmed Rehab. “It’s an ugly stereotype. Muslim women who wear the hijab face dirty looks, catcalls and even abuse — and it’s connected to irresponsible “jokes’ like this.”

In an op-ed for The Chicago Monitor, Rehab wrote that the mother of three who founded Desi Doll Co. probably would never imagine her “laudable endeavor could be twisted into such a bigoted excuse from humor to by another entrepreneur who does not seem as concerned with the message he would be conveying to his own children.”

“Islamophobic generalizations and negative stereotypes often hit those who are most visibly perceived as Muslim, and women wearing the Hijab are often the group hit the hardest,” he said.

Noble Works publisher Ron Kafi, who claims to have created the bomber doll card, says on the company website that “Political humor, religion and current events are among the themes to which NobleWorks gives a sick, provocative and sometimes controversial spin.”

Also on the NobleWorks website is a personal message from Ron Kanfi. “I can only imagine folks and friends,’ writes Kanfi, “who receive or read our cards, can help but wonder as to whether laughing is the appropriate thing to do. But as our motto goes: “F**k ‘em if they can’t take a joke!”‘

Sun Times quoted the Chicago store selling the controversial card as saying that “This isn’t Hallmark — we’re not a politically correct store.” He would not give his name. He said he doesn’t see anything wrong with offering “dark humor” that presents “commentary on what is happening in the world today.”

Since the 9/11 attacks on the United States, many Muslims have complained of facing discrimination and stereotypes in the society because of their Islamic attires or identities. A recent report by the umbrella Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has found that Islamophobia in the US is on the rise.

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A Wiser America

By:
Published April 30, 2013, in Islamophobia

Naomi Wolf

NEW YORK – When America absorbed the bombings at the Boston Marathon, what was striking was what did not happen. Twelve years after the attacks of September 11, 2001, the country was saddened, but it was also better informed.

There was little of the rampant jingoism, get-them-at-all-costs bloodlust, constant speechifying, and flag-waving that followed the 2001 attacks. Perhaps most remarkable was the absence of reflexive Islamophobia and of the willingness to fight any war – even the wrong war in the wrong country for the wrong reasons – against the supposedly culpable “other.”

Instead, this time, Americans’ sadness was mingled with cynicism and suspicion. The country is warier of being manipulated. While Americans certainly mourn the dead and support the city of Boston, there has been a kind of penetration into the national consciousness that, after the 2001 attacks, America’s leaders used the bogeyman of terrorism to encroach on individual rights, fund almost every conceivable domestic-security boondoggle, and advance the self-interested agendas of the defense and surveillance industries.

Even conservative, Fox News-watching Americans have become aware, in a way that was not the case in the aftermath of the 2001 attacks, that America has created its own “blowback.” The spin that worked so well back then – that the attacks occurred because “they hate our freedoms” – does not ring true anymore.

Americans know that a million refugees have fled Iraq; the Oscar-nominated documentary Five Broken Cameras and other media have shown how the United States contributes to the brutalization of Palestinians – a major driver of “jihad,” or what the US State Department calls “extremism”; US soldiers have repeatedly been implicated in war crimes; and Jeremy Scahill’s book Dirty Wars, which details targeted assassinations by the US around the world, has hit bookstores.

In short, while no one condones violence against innocents like that suffered by the victims at the Boston Marathon, Americans are far more aware than they were 12 years ago of their own slaughter of innocents around the world. Their self-image is no longer that of the “good guys,” against whom an act of violence is mad and inexplicable.

Americans also are more aware of how such attacks are used to justify abuses of their own rights. Immediately, the bombings began to be cited by some leaders as a call to limit constitutional rights. Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham have called for the surviving suspect, Dzokhar Tsarnaev, to be labeled an “enemy combatant” and shipped to Guantánamo Bay – an idea that many Americans find chilling.

Other responses appall many in the US as well. The fact that Tsarnaev, despite his many requests, was not initially informed of his right to remain silent and be represented by an attorney – normally a required part of any US arrest – caused considerable anxiety. The panicky public response that permitted the establishment of GITMO is no more. Americans recognize that a violation of anyone’s rights threatens the rights of all.

Notable, too, are the conspiracy theories this time around. Most Americans probably do not actually believe that the bombing was a “false flag” event, perpetrated by others than the Tsarnaev brothers; rather, the conspiracy theories seem to show how jaded Americans have become about their government’s approach to “terror.”

After all, US leaders lied about so much in the aftermath of the 2001 attacks. They lied about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction; lied about why Iraq had to be attacked, and then about the course of the war there; and the head of the federal Environmental Protection Agency at the time, Christie Whitman, even lied about the air quality in lower Manhattan after the attack, leading thousands of New York City children to suffer from severe respiratory problems.

Of course, reliance on fear and misdirection may still be part of official strategy. With Dzokhar Tsarnaev in custody and his brother dead, the next round of stories reported on alleged “sleeper cells” and planned attacks that had been thwarted by America’s security services. The Boston Globe, for example, ran an article about the man – identified only by his first name, Danny – whom the brothers carjacked three days after the attack. Danny claimed that the only word of the brothers’ conversation that he understood was “Manhattan,” and that the terrorists had asked him if his car could leave the state – say, to get to New York. The Globe’s one-source report proved nothing – and was unverifiable by other reporters or citizens – but it suggested much, leading to a spate of equally unverifiable reports that New York had been targeted.

Other recent “terror”-related reporting has been as flimsy. In Charles Savage’s recent account of the Guantánamo “uprising,” The New York Times credulously reproduced the “arsenal” that GITMO officials showed reporters in a video still. The “weapons” were allegedly made from mop handles and nail files – objects that, as I know from having reported from Guantánamo, are literally impossible for any detainee to obtain. The prisoners are housed far from anything like mops or other cleaning articles; they are given no chores to perform; and they receive no mail.

In swallowing the official account without skepticism – Savage did not ask where any of these items may have come from – The New York Times has apparently learned nothing from its badly flawed reporting on Saddam’s supposed WMD.

Fortunately, most Americans have learned from the past, and this was reflected in the public response this time around – sadness, yes, but also some wisdom. Perhaps Americans have moved closer to understanding that they can and must fight terrorism in a civilized way, as free and thoughtful people.

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Fox Ignores Mosque Attacks To Lash Out At Holder For Warning Against Boston Backlash

By:
Published April 30, 2013, in Fox (Faux Spews Islamophobia) "News", Islamophobia

ERIC BOEHLERT

Malkin Mocks “Phantom Threats” Of Hate Crimes

Fox News and other conservatives are busy attacking Attorney General Eric Holder for assuring the public that law enforcement will not tolerate any acts of violence or discrimination in the wake of the Boston Marathon terror attack. But their latest feigned outrage ignores that hate crimes against Muslims are a very real concern. 

Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly covered the story on the April 30 edition of America Live, hosting Fox contributor Michelle Malkin, who mocked the “phantom threats of hate crime epidemics that have never happened.” (This was the second straight day Kelly had devoted a segment to expressing outrage about Holder’s common sense comments.) 

Other conservatives lashed out at Holder for his vow to defend religious minorities in America.

Fox’s weird attempt to push back against Holder’s pledge fit nicely into Fox’s frequently anti-Muslim programming. It also highlighted how little interest Fox has in the larger issue of anti-Muslim violence.  

I noted last week how Fox News remains largely blind to acts of right-wing extremist terror and political violence because that storyline doesn’t fit into the cable channel’s preferred narrative about Muslim terrorists, or Fox’s eagerness to assign collective blame onto the Muslim-American community.

And when it comes to Muslim houses of worship, Fox’s main concern in recent years has been to demonize those trying to build new Islamic centers in the U.S., and also how to bug them. That lack of attention and concern may explain the network’s outraged response to Holder’s comments. There is clearly cause for concern, though.

From Salon, August 14, 2012, recounting a string of seven attacks that occurred within an 11-day span:

Teens were arrested on hate crime charges for taunting worshipers by throwing eggs and oranges and shooting bb pellets at a mosque in Hayward, Calif. Vandals defaced the Grand Mosque of Oklahoma City with paintballs, and, in an especially malicious incident, women hurled pig legs at a mosque site in Ontario, Calif., while people were leaving the temporary prayer space.

According to FBI crime statistics, the number of anti-Muslim hate crimes fell from 481 in 2001 to 107 in 2009. In 2011 though, the number of incidents jumped back up to 157. 

The good news is that according to press reports there have not been many retaliatory acts since the Boston bombing. But that doesn’t mean Holder’s comments were out of line. And that doesn’t mean mosques haven’t been regular targets in recent years. For Kelly to dub Holder’s comments “controversial” just shows how little attention Fox has paid to acts of religious violence and vandalism.

Here’s a recent timeline:

  • Dearborn MI, January 2011: A man is arrested with a vehicle full of explosives he intended to use to blow up a local mosque. 
  • Queens, NY, January 2012: A Molotov cocktail was thrown at an Islamic center. The suspect reportedly told police he intended “to inflict as much damage as possible and take out as many Muslims and Arabs as possible.”
  • Lombard, IL, August 2012: An acid-filled bottle was thrown at an Islamic school during the nighttime Ramadan prayers.
  • Joplin, MO, 2012: The local mosque burned to the ground one month after it was the target of an arson attack.
  • Toledo, OH, September 2012: Authorities ruled that a gasoline fire on the main floor of the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo was the result of an arson attack.
  • San Antonio, TX, November 2012: A man was arrested for threatening to kill as many people as possible at the Islamic Academy of San Antonio.
  • Fremont, CA, December 2012: A man entered the Ibrahim Khalillullah Islamic Center and threatened to shoot everyone.
  • Fayette, GA, January 2013: The windows of a Muslim house of prayer were shot out at 2 a.m.
  • Oklahoma City, OK, April 2013: Vandals spray-painted racial slurs on the walls of the American Muslim Association. 

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WorldFest Founder/CEO Hunter Todd Searches Fest Attendee’s Bag “Because She Is a Muslim.”

By:
Published April 30, 2013, in Islamophobia

Update: We just received a statement from Hunter Todd about the event in which he confirms that he did search the backpack of a woman because she was wearing a hijab and says he had to do it to protect his audience. Find his entire statement at the end of this post.

Last weekend marked the end of the 46th annual WorldFest. The film festival, third oldest in North America, bills itself as a “competitive International Film Festival” and lists as part of its mission/vision statement a desire to “add to the rich cultural fabric of the city of Houston.” The actions last Saturday of festival founder/CEO Hunter Todd would appear to show that every vision has its limits.

According to a widely distributed blog entry by writer Amanda Rudd, which quoted a Facebook post by the author’s brother, Todd insisted on searching the bag of a Muslim student (and only her bag) when a fire alarm went off at one of the “master classes” he was introducing at the Westchase Marriott. When asked why he was searching the student’s bag, Todd responded, “[B]ecause she is a Muslim and a suspicious character, now sit down.”

Mike Rudd, the student who confronted Todd writes in his Facebook post:

Before the morning seminar at WorldFest this morning, everyone was gathered in the seminar room for the lectures start when the hotel’s fire alarm went off. The founder and director of WorldFest, Hunter Todd, told everyone to stay in the room before he went to a Muslim UH student and classmate of mine, and demanded to search her bag. She tried to show him her pass to prove she was supposed to be there, but he demanded to search every single pocket of her bag anyway. I’d like to add he did so with a great deal of rudeness and attitude. She complied and showed him the her bag, after this he walked off and didn’t ask to search any of the dozens of other bags in the room.

 

Another student at the seminar, who prefers to remain anonymous, pointed out the student in question was wearing a hijab and niqab, and added:

He demanded to search her bag, even after she had shown him her VIP Gold Pass to the festival. This young woman was also a University of Houston student, and she complied with Todd’s request. She started with the back pocket, then he rudely and condescendingly said “There’s another zipper.” She showed him the contents of her entire backpack while I watched, stunned. Afterwards, he walked back to the front of the room without questioning or addressing anyone else in the crowded seminar.

 

Rudd, apparently alone among those in attendance, objected to Todd’s behavior. Todd’s response (according to the other student):

“You’re the kind of person I hate the most – an obnoxious little bastard. Now sit down or I’ll have you thrown out.” Rudd answered, “All right, that’s fine,” and pulled out his phone to call our professor for advice. Todd freaked out, lunged at Rudd, grabbed him with both hands and tried to take his phone.

 

Rudd states at this point he left the room to avoid further escalation. His next step was to call WorldFest and lodge an official complaint about Todd’s behavior. The phone was answered by a woman named Kathleen, but the conversation quickly went south. Again, according to Rudd:

I told her I was calling to file a complaint about a racial incident involving their founder and director and asked her what her position was at WorldFest. Ignoring this, she asked my name. I told her I would not give my name until she told me what position she held. More rudely she said “you called us now tell me your name”. I told her that in this situation I would not give her my name or any info when I did not know who I was talking with. This is when she yells loudly in the the phone “TELL ME YOUR NAME RIGHT NOW!”

 

Rudd says he hung up and started contacting members of the press about the incident. “Kathleen” may be Kathleen Haney-Todd, WorldFest’s program director and wife of Hunter Todd.

As of this writing, Todd has not responded to emails asking for a comment. WorldFest’s Twitter account (@worldfest) has been silent since 10:21 AM Saturday. Curious, considering Sunday was the last day of the festival, marked by the annual Consular Regatta at the Houston Yacht Club.

As a member of the Houston film community, I’m not sure which depresses me more: that the man in charge of an allegedly “international” film festival is capable of an act of such obvious xenophobia and religious profiling, or that out of a class of over 50 people, only one person stood up to challenge him.

Update: When we first heard back from Hunter Todd, he complained that we hadn’t given WorldFest sufficient coverage this year and questioned why we would highlight something like this. He also said he would get back to us with a statement later in the day. This is his latest statement to us:

Sir:

We are running a film festival, not constantly checking Email and FaceBook… we have a very small staff and are totally involved in producing a fine film festival… what are you attempting to do, destroy me and/or the film festival?

This entire episode is insane… After a false evacuation alarm… and the appearance of a single individual Hijab (eye slit only) clad individual without any friends, sitting up front in the room… I was only concerned for the safety of our many guests.. she was carrying a large dark backpack that was heavy and fully loaded… upon a brief inspection, it turned out to be 3-4 water bottles… I was extremely polite and thanked her after the 60-second interchange… there was nothing else to it. This entire issue has been created by the Rudd individual.

Mr. Rudd either has some perverse agenda or is highly misguided. He refused to talk with me later outside the seminar room… he seemed to want to have it out – right there and right then. He refused two request to step aside, rudely confronting me with angry accusations and outburst. I was only trying to start the delayed seminar.

I was referring to your lack of interest in the film festival, until something unpleasant comes along. I will long remember how you have treated me and the festival. Mr. Rudd is being quite disingenuous. He has never mentioned the complete circumstances.

Sincerely,

JHT

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Open letter to Asra Nomani: Stop Enabling Islamophobia

By:
Published April 28, 2013, in Islamophobia

Yesterday I published a blog, called “5 dumbest things said about the Boston Marathon Explosions: Fox News, Asra Nomani, (some) Republicans”

Fox News

One of the items that I had listed was about a post by the Muslim journalist for Washington Post, Asra Nomani, in which she had cited the uncle of the brothers suspected in the Boston Marthon bombing as noting that the elder brother, Tamerlan, had started to say “Insha’allah” more frequently.    Ms. Nomani extrapolated that the frequency of saying “insha’allah” (“God-willing”) in Arabic was a red flag for “radicalization,” something that I problematized in my blog.

Well, that didn’t go over too well with Ms. Nomani, and she wrote back a response on my comments section.

Here is my open letter to her.  Yes, I do question her political acumen and judgment in forming alliances with the most vicious of Islamophobes.

*********************************

Dear Asra,

Salam alaykum.

You have known me to have been a supporter of you, I might have even been thanked in a book of yours at some point.  Insha’allah, as you say, I can be a person who cares about compassion.   So why would someone like me, whom over the years you yourself turned to for information and support about gender justice, now critique you?

Asra, it is because over the last few years, and now again, you are on the wrong side of history, on the wrong side of justice.

Yes, I do care about compassion, and hope to live my life based on it. (So help me God.) But my compassion always starts out on the side of those who are marginalized and unfairly maligned.  Over the last few years, time and again you have stood with those who hate and persecute the Muslim community.

Do you understand that when you take an anecdotal comment from Uncle Ruslan about saying “insha’Allah” and narrativize it to a comment about radicalization of the whole Muslim community, you are providing fuel for fear-mongering about Muslims?  There are millions of people who say, and frequently say, insha’allah and masha’allah.  I am one of them. You are carelessly associating that with “radicalization.”

[Do you need a reminder of this environment of paranoia?  Do you remember the episode of the plane that was turned back simply because two passengers were speaking in Arabic?   By what logic is speaking Arabic (something that more than a hundred million people around the world do, including Muslims, Jews, and Christians) a crime?   This is the world we live in Asra.  You are not helping.]

Asra Nomani: Washington Post pundit
Asra Nomani: Washington Post pundit

Asra, this is not an isolated issue, and I would not have included you for an isolated episode.    Sadly, there is a pattern of you standing with Islamophobes and against justice for years now.  More on that in a second.

I don’t know what is in your heart. That is between you and God.  Here is what I do know:  you have become an enabler for those who persecute the American Muslim community.   You not only went to the absurd “hearing” that Peter King put together, you spoke out again and again in favor of it.   You know who wasn’t there?   Law enforcement folks, who have talked again and again about how helpful the American Muslim community has been in providing them with tips to identify the few terrorist plans there have been.  The one law enforcement person who was called refuted King’s fear-mongering.

Who applauded it?  Robert Spencer, Steve Emerson, Frank Gaffney.  All noted Islamophobes.  Who else applauded it?  You did Asra.

What do I mean when I say you have become an enabler?  Imagine a hearing on race issues when there is no African-American presenter, or on gender issues when there are no women present.    Not many people would pay it much attention, rightly seeing through it.    King and his ilk “need” a few token Muslims who are wiling to go along with their inaccurate scapegoating of a whole community.  Far from merely reporting on issues—something as a journalist of course it’s your right—you ended up presenting there and writing in its support again and again.   You enabled the appearance of legitimacy for a hearing that had none.    If you have the time to look up what it means to be a “native informant,” do.  [Start with Fatemeh Keshavarz's masterful Jasmine and Stars, and then read Hamid Dabashi.]   Read up on the history of the civil rights era, and see what people like Malcolm X said about people who enable this type of oppression.  I won’t use those words here, but I trust you know where to find them.

Who else presented in those hearings, Asra?  Zuhdi Jasser did, the guy who narrated the awful, racist, and inaccurate “documentary” Third Jihad.   Yes, the same Third Jihad produced by the “Obsession” people that I wrote the expose on.    Who organized this hearing?  Peter King, the same guy who says “we have too many mosques in this country.”    And what did King do?  He proclaimed you and Jasser as “the real face of American Muslims.”  Yes, he needs you and Jasser to give him the very last veneer of legitimacy.

If you want to find a person’s sense of justice, don’t just look at the words that come out of their mouth.   Look at where they stand.     Look to see on which side of justice and injustice they stand.    And Asra, you chose to stand on the side of Peter King and folks who cooperate with—rather than stand up to—the worse of the worst Islamophobes in the country.

If one cared about issues of violence committed by Muslims—and I do—one would wok at what is actually effective:  religious leaders in this country who provide deeper and more effective religious instructions, vibrant mosque communities that are integrated and welcoming, cooperating with law enforcement in those cases where are individuals (not communities) post a threat, etc.   The threat of Muslim violence come not from inside these mosques and communities, but for the most part from individuals who are inspired by online lectures of “shaykhs” from overseas who use the context of US aggressions and wars to radicalize the youth.  Is that a challenge?  Of course it is.   How do we respond?  Not by holding the Muslim community by collective guilt, but by building up the kind of healthy, grassroots, on the ground level initiatives.    And by keeping it in perspective, and to notice the actual trends, as these folks have done.

Peter King Hearings

You want to report on threat presented by Muslim extremists, do.  It’s your right and your privilege.   But to talk about by tracing it only to literalist readings of the Qur’an instead of also pointing out the entrapment operations where the FBI plants someone in a mosque to turn people over and then arrests them is not merely dishonest, it is politically ignorant.    I should have used the words like politically ignorant, naïve, and simplistic instead of idiotic in my blog.    My apologiest for the word idiotic.  I stand by the politically ignorant, misguided, and naïve.

What was your response, Asra, to these hearing?   To write “Profile Me, Please!”

Really, Asra?
If you yourself want to be profiled, be my guest Asra. But you are writing on behalf of the efforts to racially and religiously profile a single community.   How do I say this kindly?    Our legal system is based on holding individuals accountable for their actions, not collective and communal blame/profiling.   So no to “driving while black”, no to “studying while Muslim”, or whatever.  No to profiling any community on basis of religion, ethnicity, class, race, etc.   Yes to holding individuals accountable and responsible for their own actions.   You yourself are protected by your visibility, American citizenship, and status.  The same will not be true for other Muslims.

And Asra, you have also supported profiling Muslims by comparing the Muslim community with the KKK and Colombian drug-dealers?
Really, Asra?

Here is what you said:

“Indeed, just as we need to track the Colombian community for drug trafficking and the Ku Klux Klan for white extremists, I believe we should monitor the Muslim community because we sure don’t police ourselves enough.”

Should I even comment on that?  Comparing a whole religious community with the KKK?

When the hateful pastor Terry Jones burned the Qur’an, you—who always talk about how Muslim communities deflect responsibility—turned the blame away from him and instead on Muslims:

“Qurans are being burnt because we, as Muslims, haven’t dealt sincerely and intellectually with very serious issues that certain Quranic passages raise, particularly in the West.”

You know that quite a few of us have in fact spent a few decades exploring all possibilities of resistance to hateful interpretations of Islam.  But when you get someone like Terry Jones, the proper moral response is not to blame the Qur’an or Muslims, but to put the blame where it belongs:  on his own hate.

So who stood with you Asra in this case? Robert Spencer.   When the most hateful Islamophobes in the country are applauding you Asra, does that give you pause to stop and reflect on where you stand?

Asra, anyone can quote 4:135.  It’s also one of my favorite verses.    So we are not called to be unequivocal cheerleaders for the community, nor a reflexive defender of the community.  In fact, to do so is to precisely engage in the homogenizing of the community that I have critiqued.  No, what we are called to do is to stand up for justice.   That is what I am critiquing you on Asra:  over the last few years, you have time and again stood against justice, for racial and ethnic profiling, for absurd hearings that demonize Muslims, against inclusion of Muslims in the mosaic of American religiosity.  You have stood against justice, and with vicious haters and the token enablers.

This is your track record Asra.  These are people who stand with you.   These are all the sides of injustice and hatred that unfortunately have ended up with you lining up on the wrong side.

I know how you tend to respond to criticisms:  highlight the very personal nature of some online comments against you, and to talk about how Muslims have failed to take responsibility for the actions of a few crazies.   I urge you to pause, reflect, and think about where you want to stand.     Life is long, and insha’allah we can all use the remaining breaths we have working for something that is good and beautiful.  I hope you do that, insha’allah.

I wish you all the best, and actually do hold you in my prayers that you combine what is best in you with an aware and just political commentary.

May God bless you and yours,

Omid

p.s.   I am no longer a facebook “friend” with you.  After your comments over the last few years, I de-friended you on FB. So if you want to engage me in conversations, feel free to do it here.

**************************

In the interest of thoroughness, Ms. Nomani wrote me back and stated:  ” I stand by the positions that I have taken with a clear conscience and a clean heart.”

Rather than reflecting on her cooperation with Islamophobic forces, she stated:  ”As it stands, you have now joined the ranks of the uncles who try to put down a woman by being patronizing, belittling and bullying.”

 

Here was my parting comment to her:

Dear Asra,
Wa alaykum al-salam.

Glad to hear your conscience and heart are clear to you. As to your political acumen and judgment in lining up with Islamophobes, I think we (me, civil rights advocates, and the overwhelming majority of Muslim community members) are going to radically disagree on that, and insha’allah the judgment of history will help us figure out who was standing on the side of justice and who was enabling injustice and oppression.

May God bless you, and lead you to a better place than where you are today.

I guess we are done here.
Goodbye.

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10 Most Racist Tweets About Boston Marathon Bombing

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Published April 27, 2013, in Boston Incident, Islamophobia

By Elizabeth Plank

The horrific Boston Marathon bombing has devastated the nation. Events like these remind us that humanity can really be the worst. As the entire country is mourning and trying to piece the tragic events together, some people prefer use this opportunity to spur racist tweets on the Internet. I guess everybody’s way of coping is different. 

After the New York Post infamously reported that a Saudi national was being held in custody (which is either really true or really false), Twitter exploded with Islamophobic hate.  

Although there’s still some confusion surrounding the details of the bombing, that hasn’t seemed to stop people about being confused about their Islamophobia. Here are the 10 most racist tweets we found about the shooting today.

1. Wondering if the Arabs are dancing right now is totally the first thing that went through my mind too.

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2. I just had to Google Camel Jockey. Sorry. I’m Canadian. #Merikah!

3. Anyone else thinks this guy should apply for a job at The New York Post?  

4. I’m pretty sure zero people were celebrating with camel piss, but who knows!? 

5. Ouh! This one mixes Islamophobia, racism, and conspiracy. What an over-achiever!

6. Westboro chimes in. Obviously.

7. Thank god someone is relying on common sense!

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8. I’m glad someone finally decided to be derogatory to women too. Now we’re all equally offended!

9. Fox News contributors say the darndest things! He later said that it was totally sarcasm.  HAHA! No, I’m not angry. I’m just laughing on the inside.

 

10. Remember when George Bush kept us safe? Me neither. 

Special thanks to the lovely Twitterati and PolicyMic super stars who helped me spot these gems! Did you spot any horrible tweets? Let me know on Twitter: @feministabulous

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Following Boston Attacks, Uptick In Islamophobia, Gestures Of Tolerance

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Published April 27, 2013, in Boston Incident, Erik Rush, Islamophobia

By Richard Solash

WASHINGTON — Politicians, pundits, and average Americans alike are trying to make sense of the April 15 Boston bombings and how two young ethnic Chechen immigrants were seemingly drawn to terror. Just how the country should respond is a question that looms large. 

From some corners, the result has been an uptick in Islamophobic rhetoric. Others, meanwhile, are countering with messages of inclusivity.

Erik Rush was among the first of several conservative commentators who drew criticism for their reactions.

In the hours following the attack, days before the suspects’ identities were revealed, he implied in a tweet that the perpetrator was from Saudi Arabia. A Saudi national had been declared a “person of interest” by authorities in the immediate aftermath of the bombing but was soon cleared.

When asked by another Twitter user if Rush was automatically blaming a Muslim, he responded, “Yes, they’re evil. Let’s kill them all.”

He later said he was being sarcastic.

On April 22, one week after the bombings, former U.S. Congressman Joe Walsh (Republican-Illinois) told the news channel MSNBC that “we’re at war, and this country got a stark reminder last week again that we’re at war. Not only should we take a pause when it comes to our immigration, we need to begin profiling who our enemy is in this war: young Muslim men.”

 
After the attacks on September 11, 2001, the New York Police Department conducted surveillance of entire Muslim neighborhoods. The FBI also implemented intelligence-gathering operations targeting Muslim and other ethnic communities.

Critics branded those programs unconstitutional, while authorities said they were acting under national security provisions.

On April 23, Bob Beckel, a host on the right-leaning Fox News network, said, “I think we really have to consider…that we’re going to have to cut off Muslim students from coming to this country for some period of time so that we can at least absorb what we’ve got, look at what we’ve got, and decide whether some of the people here should be sent back home or sent to prison.”

On April 26, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (Republican-California) chaired a hearing in the House Foreign Affairs Committee titled “Islamist Extremism in Chechnya: A Threat to the U.S. Homeland?” In his concluding statement, he said, “I hope we all work together against a religion that will motivate people to murder children.”

‘There Has Been A Pattern’

While vocally condemning the attack, several Muslim-American organizations have also decried the spike in Islamophobic sentiment and the scattered reports of verbal or physical intimidation of Muslims that have followed.

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at an interfaith memorial service for the victims of the Boston bombings in Boston on April 18.

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at an interfaith memorial service for the victims of the Boston bombings in Boston on April 18.


Nasser Weddady is the civil rights outreach director at the Boston-based American Islamic Congress, which advocates interfaith understanding and human rights. He says the uptick in rhetoric follows a pattern that U.S. Muslims have had to live with since September 11, 2001.

“Ever since [then], yes, there has been a pattern,” Weddady says. “Whenever events [occur] involving terrorism or, at times, Muslim perpetrators, there is a backlash and there’s a rise [in Islamophobia]. It’s not ad hoc or spontaneous, because there are some quarters that have been clearly trying to paint all Muslims as potential terrorists — and it’s generally these quarters that contribute to the rise of that feeling.”

But Weddady also says he has received “a supportive tidal wave that is coming from civic groups, from ordinary citizens, and also from government officials in recent days.”

“Based on the reactions I got from speaking at the interfaith service last week here in Boston, I believe greatly that most Americans are making the distinction between individuals and whole communities,” he says. “They realize that ultimately, bomb shrapnel does not discriminate.”

At the April 18 service, U.S. President Barack Obama offered a similar message.

“In the face of cruelty…we’ll choose friendship, we’ll choose love,” he said.

Several more interfaith services and events celebrating the diversity of Boston are scheduled in the coming weeks.

Messages Of Support

Almut Rochowanski, the cofounder of the New York-based Chechnya Advocacy Network, a volunteer group that works with Chechen-Americans, says she has received messages of support following the bombing and decided to share them online.

“There was an article in ‘The New York Times’ about how Chechens in the U.S. feel and a handful of people started writing [to us] with messages saying, ‘We’re Americans and we are your friends. Don’t be afraid. We want to meet you. We welcome you to our country,’” Rochowanski says. “Because I knew how Chechens [in the United States] and in Chechnya — how they recoiled from what had happened and how embarrassed and ashamed they were — I put a Facebook group together and I said, ‘Look, that’s how Americans are reacting.’ A lot of Chechens responded very positively to that.”

One Arab-American who requested anonymity offered this conclusion to RFE/RL:

“I think every terror attack since 9/11 has been a test for this country’s tolerance, and I understand that,” he said. “This time is no different, and some do better than others.”  

 
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Resolution of the 4th International Conference on Islamophobia at UC-Berkeley: ON FRANCE

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Published April 26, 2013, in Islamophobia

Resolution of the 4th Annual International Conference on Islamophobia at UC-Berkeley in Support of French Muslims and Opposing Islamophobic Discourses in France

growing-islamophobia-by-latuff2

“Creeping Islamophobia”

Whereas; for the last ten years, Islamophobia has increased in an alarming way all over the world.

Whereas; every year, the Annual International Conference on Islamophobia at UC-Berkeley confirms the global perverse and continuing problem of Islamophobia.

Whereas; France is one of the countries in the world where racism against Muslims has increased the most. In the name of secularism, women’s rights, the defense of Republican values, and the struggle against terrorism, Islamophobic discourses affect all spheres of the French society (politics, media, intellectual debates, economics, etc).

Whereas; the French state itself – the judicial, legislative and executive powers – from the higher to the bottom levels of the French public administration has become a promoter of Islamophobia. The March 2004 law against the veil is at the heart of public legitimization of discriminatory practices against Muslims.

Whereas; on July 22, 2012, the United Nations’ Human Rights Commission condemned the French state for violation of religious freedom.

Whereas; the 2012 Annual Report of the United Nations’ Human Rights Commission has confirmed the increasing number of anti-Muslim aggressions in France within a context of state racism. Women are the main target of these aggressions. According to the report of the Collectif Contre l’Islamophobie in France, the Islamophobic aggressions against Muslim women increased dramatically in 2012.

Whereas; recently the French state islamophobia manifested with a strong force once again in the form of the recent heated controversy over the debate on Child Care female workers where a Superior Court cancelled the firing of a women day care worker using the veil as the rationale or the case of the exclusion of a middle school student from school for using a bandana and having a “too long skirt,” confirm that the political issues at stake is not a defense of laicism or freedom of expression including “the right to criticize religion.” What is at stake today in France is the political will to marginalize any Islamic expression of identity in the public sphere and to exclude populations that affirm its Muslim identity.

Whereas; after Nicolas Sarkozy administration, characterized by an innumerable series of offenses against Muslim, Islamophobic state policies promises to multiply under the presidency of François Hollande:

1) A Bill proposal submitted to the National Assembly on January 16th to promote the principle of religious neutrality towards childcare workers and in childcare centers for pre-school aged children.

2) Announcement by the President of a law to guarantee laicism in the working environment and spaces.

Whereas; while discrimination is still in place and sustained by the state, the collective called Mamans Toutes Egales continue to defend many mothers that use the veil and are excluded from chaperoning fieldtrips and After School Programs. We concretely affirm the right of Muslim women to use the veil as an expression of their specific cultural and religious identity to participate in public life, to work, to get involved in the schooling of their children that is being violated.

Whereas; the French state discourse that the principles and values of the Republic are being threatened by the use of the veil and the religion of one of the most discriminated communities in France and Europe today (Muslims) sounds absolutely ridiculous.

Therefore, let it be resolved; that the 4th Annual International Islamophobia Conference at UC-Berkeley, being committed to anti-racist principles, strongly condemn the new islamophobic laws announced by the French government that structurally creates an untouchable category in the form of veiled Muslim women.

Furthermore, we call on the French government and the political leadership to adhere to the articles and spirits of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by affirmatively embracing the Muslim minority and to take the needed steps to repeal all exclusionary laws that discriminate and problematize and otherize Muslims as a group.

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Juan Cole: Terrorism and the other Religions

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Published April 26, 2013, in Islamophobia

by Juan Cole (Informed Comment)

Juan Cole

Juan Cole

Contrary to what is alleged by bigots like Bill Maher, Muslims are not more violent than people of other religions. Murder rates in most of the Muslim world are very low compared to the United States.

As for political violence, people of Christian heritage in the twentieth century polished off tens of millions of people in the two world wars and colonial repression. This massive carnage did not occur because European Christians are worse than or different from other human beings, but because they were the first to industrialize war and pursue a national model. Sometimes it is argued that they did not act in the name of religion but of nationalism. But, really, how naive. Religion and nationalism are closely intertwined. The British monarch is the head of the Church of England, and that still meant something in the first half of the twentieth century, at least. The Swedish church is a national church. Spain? Was it really unconnected to Catholicism? Did the Church and Francisco Franco’s feelings toward it play no role in the Civil War? And what’s sauce for the goose: much Muslim violence is driven by forms of modern nationalism, too.

Continues…

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