More on the "Ground Zero" "mosque" and on hatred of Muslims in general
Beyond the wankage on atheism, which I thought deserved its own post, there's a lot going on to discuss. For the most part, I don't have original and lengthy commentary, just a bunch of links and some remarks thereon.
Aside from the black guy in the do-rag getting harassed by the teatwerps (thanks, razor_zedge), there's the drunken douchebag who wandered into a Queens mosque and pissed on a prayer rug, and this sign that was nailed to a mosque in California.
And, of course, Michael Enright's slashing of the throat of a Muslim cab driver, Ahmed H. Sharif, after asking whether Sharif were Muslim. The 21-year-old film student had been working with an interfaith/multicultural organization that supports the Cordoba House project. He'd also filmed a documentary in Afghanistan and, from the sound of it, came back with PTSD. Classmates of his have also said he has a "bad, bad drinking problem," and he has been said to own a diary which he filled with anti-Muslim sentiments. Enright been transferred to a psychiatric ward pending his court appearance on Monday morning.
The connections, amply documented, between the anti-Cordoba House activists, a neoconservative lobbying firm, and the "King of Birthers."
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf: Not quite the "radical" Pam Geller would have you think."His work on tolerance and religious diversity is well-known and he brings a moderate perspective to foreign audiences on what it's like to be a practicing Muslim in the United States," State Department spokesman P. J. Crowley said Tuesday. He added that the department's public-diplomacy offices "have a long-term relationship with" Rauf - including during the past Bush administration, when the religious leader undertook a similar speaking tour.
See that TPM Muckraker link for more details. Also see this NYT piece about Sufis in general.
Narratives about subversion and contamination in the Park51 controversy. Amanda Marcotte focuses on Pam Geller and Frank Gaffney "outing" Muslims who work as bureaucrats and who were presumably not hiding their religious beliefs.I found the entire narrative behind this kind of action alarming, because the insinuation is that these people weren’t “out” as Muslim before. Which is a way for Gellar [sic] to reinforce the narrative that Islam is a subversive force that hides itself, basically the same narrative that flying monkey wingnuts used about communism in the red-baiting days. The notion that communists were hiding themselves and working undercover in the government made everyone suspect in the eyes of wingnuts, which is why John Birchers believed that Eisenhower was a communist agent. The parallels between the beliefs about Eisenhower/communism and Obama/Islam should be immediately apparent.
"More Listening, Less Shouting" examines anti-Muslim sentiment from a Muslim-American perspective. Part 1, Part 2.
Here is a good post illustrating the difference between critiquing Islam and Muslims and demonizing them. The author states flatly that he does not know enough about the religion to write an authoritative "Islamophobia 101" post. I also highly recommend this comment therefrom, written by a non-American Muslim living in a Muslim country:Reading arguments where people were quoting the Quran or Hadith (saying of the Prophet) to argue that all muslims believe so and so or such and such. It is a little surreal to find yourself and your family, your friends, your community and basically most of the people who have ever met in your life, from the guy who bags my groceries at the store, to the traffic cop who helped me park today, to my boss at work, to my mother-in-law, all being put under a microscope and being analyzed in this kind of way. What do they really believe? How do they really think? Can we classify them as moderate? Or Extreme? WHAT JUDGEMENT SHALL WE PASS UPON THEM? Quote some random Hadith and then ask, does this mean they all want to destroy us?
The first time I was told in a discussion on some forum about how I hate America because American troops were stationed in Saudi Arabia and that this desecration of land I held dear had driven me to a murderous rage, I disputed with the person who had said this, and he turned around and quoted some Hadith I had never heard before to prove his point. Then I made a mistake, instead of going into some longwinded sociological analysis about texts and the changing meanings and reinterpretation of texts with different emphasis given to different sections and meanings across different societies and different time periods, I questioned how important this Hadith this was in actually shaping people’s views. The guy came back with a quote from some western scholar (I guess it was a scholar) in some western textbook that categorically stated that this Hadith was very crucial in shaping the attitudes of Muslims towards the west….
Well, that was me told!
The two comments immediately following it, by Mandolin (who is an atheist), are worthwhile as well in terms of illustrating the difference between criticizing religions and discriminating against/demonizing people.
Fred Clark satirically apologizes for all the violence committed by white Protestant men. You can tell by the size of the ensuing discussion that the satire has gone over many people's heads. Despite the excellent remarks therein by Kit Whitfield and Izzy (and a few others), I don't really recommend reading the thread.
Although I will point out that Whitfield has linked to this page and this one and told a troll, "These are links to lots, and lots, and lots of Muslims denouncing terrorism. You want to see Muslims opposing violence, go look. There's plenty of them."
Unlocked.
Aside from the black guy in the do-rag getting harassed by the teatwerps (thanks, razor_zedge), there's the drunken douchebag who wandered into a Queens mosque and pissed on a prayer rug, and this sign that was nailed to a mosque in California.
And, of course, Michael Enright's slashing of the throat of a Muslim cab driver, Ahmed H. Sharif, after asking whether Sharif were Muslim. The 21-year-old film student had been working with an interfaith/multicultural organization that supports the Cordoba House project. He'd also filmed a documentary in Afghanistan and, from the sound of it, came back with PTSD. Classmates of his have also said he has a "bad, bad drinking problem," and he has been said to own a diary which he filled with anti-Muslim sentiments. Enright been transferred to a psychiatric ward pending his court appearance on Monday morning.
The connections, amply documented, between the anti-Cordoba House activists, a neoconservative lobbying firm, and the "King of Birthers."
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf: Not quite the "radical" Pam Geller would have you think."His work on tolerance and religious diversity is well-known and he brings a moderate perspective to foreign audiences on what it's like to be a practicing Muslim in the United States," State Department spokesman P. J. Crowley said Tuesday. He added that the department's public-diplomacy offices "have a long-term relationship with" Rauf - including during the past Bush administration, when the religious leader undertook a similar speaking tour.
See that TPM Muckraker link for more details. Also see this NYT piece about Sufis in general.
Narratives about subversion and contamination in the Park51 controversy. Amanda Marcotte focuses on Pam Geller and Frank Gaffney "outing" Muslims who work as bureaucrats and who were presumably not hiding their religious beliefs.I found the entire narrative behind this kind of action alarming, because the insinuation is that these people weren’t “out” as Muslim before. Which is a way for Gellar [sic] to reinforce the narrative that Islam is a subversive force that hides itself, basically the same narrative that flying monkey wingnuts used about communism in the red-baiting days. The notion that communists were hiding themselves and working undercover in the government made everyone suspect in the eyes of wingnuts, which is why John Birchers believed that Eisenhower was a communist agent. The parallels between the beliefs about Eisenhower/communism and Obama/Islam should be immediately apparent.
"More Listening, Less Shouting" examines anti-Muslim sentiment from a Muslim-American perspective. Part 1, Part 2.
Here is a good post illustrating the difference between critiquing Islam and Muslims and demonizing them. The author states flatly that he does not know enough about the religion to write an authoritative "Islamophobia 101" post. I also highly recommend this comment therefrom, written by a non-American Muslim living in a Muslim country:Reading arguments where people were quoting the Quran or Hadith (saying of the Prophet) to argue that all muslims believe so and so or such and such. It is a little surreal to find yourself and your family, your friends, your community and basically most of the people who have ever met in your life, from the guy who bags my groceries at the store, to the traffic cop who helped me park today, to my boss at work, to my mother-in-law, all being put under a microscope and being analyzed in this kind of way. What do they really believe? How do they really think? Can we classify them as moderate? Or Extreme? WHAT JUDGEMENT SHALL WE PASS UPON THEM? Quote some random Hadith and then ask, does this mean they all want to destroy us?
The first time I was told in a discussion on some forum about how I hate America because American troops were stationed in Saudi Arabia and that this desecration of land I held dear had driven me to a murderous rage, I disputed with the person who had said this, and he turned around and quoted some Hadith I had never heard before to prove his point. Then I made a mistake, instead of going into some longwinded sociological analysis about texts and the changing meanings and reinterpretation of texts with different emphasis given to different sections and meanings across different societies and different time periods, I questioned how important this Hadith this was in actually shaping people’s views. The guy came back with a quote from some western scholar (I guess it was a scholar) in some western textbook that categorically stated that this Hadith was very crucial in shaping the attitudes of Muslims towards the west….
Well, that was me told!
The two comments immediately following it, by Mandolin (who is an atheist), are worthwhile as well in terms of illustrating the difference between criticizing religions and discriminating against/demonizing people.
Fred Clark satirically apologizes for all the violence committed by white Protestant men. You can tell by the size of the ensuing discussion that the satire has gone over many people's heads. Despite the excellent remarks therein by Kit Whitfield and Izzy (and a few others), I don't really recommend reading the thread.
Although I will point out that Whitfield has linked to this page and this one and told a troll, "These are links to lots, and lots, and lots of Muslims denouncing terrorism. You want to see Muslims opposing violence, go look. There's plenty of them."
Unlocked.