The straw man of the famous post 9/11 slogan, "Not every Muslim is a terrorist but every terrorist is a Muslim" was debunked by a 2005 FBI report.
It showed that only 6% of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil from 1980 to 2005 were carried out by extremists calling themselves Muslims. But one group - the Republican Party - has sustained the Islamophobic rhetoric, nonetheless.
So I wonder if Muslims would rally outside the Republican convention this week carrying a banner stating, "Not all Republicans are Islamophobes but all Islamophobes are Republicans." Trust me. The data supports it.
A new poll conducted by the Arab American Institute asked the attitudes of voters, analyzed along party lines, towards different religious groups, including Arabs and Muslims. Overall, 57% of the Republican voters viewed all Muslims unfavorably in comparison to 29% Democrats who expressed a similar opinion. When it came to American Muslims, 47% of Republicans, in contrast with 23% Democrats, held an unfavorable view.
Ok, let's put it this way: Nearly all Islamophobes are Republicans. Happy now?
Islamophobia in America is not innate. Rather it's the fruit of a decade long hysteria against Muslims generated by a largely Republican machine. A machine comprising of Republican pundits, conservative funders, media conglomerates and fiery politicians.
By pundits, I mean the likes of Ann Coulter who boldly asked Muslims to "take a camel" instead of flying on a plane and Sean Hannity who compared Islam with Nazism. Others such as media personality Glenn Beck, Middle East Forum President Daniel Pipes, televangelist Pat Robertson, Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer, and activist Pamela Geller also mesmerized millions with their imagery of the Muslim terrorist next door.
Then comes the funding component. Fear Inc., a 2011 report by the Center for American Progress, showed that seven conservative charitable groups provided $42.6 million to the Islamophobic think-tanks between 2001 and 2009.
This fear is then packed and loaded, not on camel backs, but on the blatantly Islamophobic media airwaves like The Rush Limbaugh Show, The Savage Nation, The Mark Levin Show, and the infamous O'Reilly Factor. A plethora of websites, blogs, forums, and chain emails then copy and paste the fearful images - ad nauseum.
Republican politicians like Allan West, Michelle Bachmann, Peter King, Sarah Palin, and almost every Republican Presidential candidate in the 2012 primaries save Ron Paul, are then given the megaphone to add trust to this fear mongering. But here is the rub: according to Gallup, 90% of Americans don't even trust these politicians.
You can't help but wonder: Why is it that nearly all Islamophobes are Republicans?
Probably some "data girl" - as Carl Rove calls one of his staff members - in a cubicle reckoned that the American Muslim vote bank is better bashed, than embraced. The theory is simple. Muslim youth? Tell them to take a camel. Muslim communities? Link them with creeping Shariah. Muslim Congressmen? Question their loyalty. Do it consistently and it will galvanize the conservative base.
In a tight race, such analysis is fractured and flawed. A 2010 Pew Report estimated that nearly 2.6 million Muslims live in the United States, with Ohio, Michigan, and Virginia among the top ten states with the largest Muslim population. An en bloc Muslim vote, therefore, could have a huge impact in these swing states. Just look at the 2012 Presidential elections in France where 93% of French Muslims voted for Hollande, enabling him to beat Sarkozy. By securing 96% of the Black votes, President Obama did the same in 2008.
My close friends are Republican and my favorite American President is Lincoln. And frankly, I like many of the Republican Party's core values; what I don't like lately is their Islamophobic posture. Just as the Latinos don't like their anti-immigration policies, and the Blacks don't like their racial stereotyping. Just as the LBGT communities don't like their stance on gay marriage, and the women don't like their idea of a legitimate rape.
So the 2012 Republican voices should stop telling me to "take a camel" and worry instead about the American Muslim vote - united against them. Who knows? It might prove to be the straw that breaks the camel's back.
A version of this piece was originally published in the Washington Post.
Dr. Faheem Younus is a clinical associate professor at the University of Maryland. He teaches courses about Islam at the University of Baltimore. He can be reached at Faheem.Younus@gmail.com
Follow Dr. Faheem Younus on Twitter: www.twitter.com/FaheemYounus
Wajahat Ali: HuffJummah: 'The People of America': A Religious Sermon
Russell Simmons: Cleansing the Hatred From Within
Matt Zencey: Sarah Palin and the Eastwood/Obama 'Empty Chair'
Shahnaz Taplin-Chinoy: Enemies of Diversity Are the Enemies of This Great Nation
Letters: Islamophobia and terror
Islamophobes discover “DNC Muslim Prayer Jihad”?
Why American Politicians Should Take Islamophobia Seriously: One Week In ...
Islamophobia in the US: New York Anti-Islam Hate on the Rise
Islamophobia is a meaningless term designed to denigrate anybody, but specifically Republicans in this article, who dares point out the direct connection between Islam and violence against anybody the Islamic religion finds objectionable. How many millions of Christians, Jews, and gays have been killed by Muslims in terrorist attacks. And how many Muslims have Muslim terrorists killed simply because they weren't radical enough and dared to embrace democracy or anything else associated with the western world. Islamophobia indeed.
Only if you accept the FBI's inclusion of acts of hooliganism and vandalism by groups like ELF. Globally, Islamic terrorism has been responsible for well over half of the deaths attributed to terrorism since 1970. It's still rare and is perpetrated by those who hold a fringe ideology not accepted by most Muslims, but you can't deny the link between violent terrorist acts and Islam.
Of course, if you're cynical, you could claim the US and the West have brought it on themselves by propping up oppressive regimes that breed militant Islamic backlash (Iran, Israel), directly supplying and training jihadists to counter the communists (Afghanistan), destabilizing countries allowing radical Muslims to gain a foothold (Somalia, Iraq), not to mention dumping ka-jillions of dollars into Wahhabbist coffers because of an insatiable addiction to petrol.
Islamophobia can also arise from experiencing firsthand what actually occurs when Muslims gain a majority in a society or constitute a large minority yet feel their religion is being oppressed. Most Americans have not lived in areas like this, but "phobia"/fear is an appropriate reponse.
The most damaging hindrance to the Muslim community is actually Islam.
Recent studies have shown that prenatal development can be impaired by mothers' Ramadan fasting, causing lasting damage with lifelong effects, including learning disabilities.
"We use the Islamic holy month of Ramadan as a natural experiment in fasting and fetal health. In Michigan births 1989-2006, we find prenatal exposure to Ramadan among Arab mothers results in lower birthweight and reduced gestation length. Exposure to Ramadan in the first month of gestation is also associated with a sizable reduction in the number of male births. In Census data for Uganda, Iraq, and the US we find strong associations between in utero exposure to Ramadan and the likelihood of being disabled as an adult. Effects are particularly large for mental (or learning) disabilities."
Abstract:
http://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/14428.html
Research paper:
http://www.nber.org/papers/w14428.pdf
Most Muslim women still engage in Ramadan fasting even when pregnant, regardless of any possible exemption. In consequence there are thousands of tragic cases every year of easily avoidable prenatal damage to Muslim children with lifelong consequences.
The Muslim community, for the sake of their own children, should exclude ALL women from engaging in Ramadan fasting, regardless of age or any other consideration. This is clearly the most effective and most humane way to bring an end to prenatal damage due to mothers' Ramadan fasting.
Islam allows pregnant women to skip fasting and make up for it after their pregnancy is over. Here is a verse from Quran:
[2:185] The prescribed fasting is for a fixed number of days, but whoso among you is sick or is on a journey shall fast the same number of other days; and for those who are able to fast only with great difficulty is an expiation — the feeding of a poor man. And whoso performs a good work with willing obedience, it is better for him. And fasting is good for you, if you only knew.
"Sick" is a subjective term and deliberately used to give an individual the control to decide.
Quran then declares pregnancy as state of weakness..."[31:14] And We have enjoined on man concerning his parents — his mother bears him in weakness upon weakness, and his weaning takes two years — ‘Give thanks to Me and to thy parents. Unto Me is the final return.
Now if women still do it, thats an individual's wrong decision. Not Islam wrong teaching.
Even if a woman does intend to avoid fasting during pregnancy, weeks can go by, after a woman conceives, before she realizes that she is pregnant. If she is fasting during these days, lasting damage may be done. In fact, if you read the paper, you will see that it may actually be in the early embryonic stages of gestation that a developing baby is most highly vulnerable to damage.
Furthermore, there may be times when a woman does not wish to admit or draw attention to the fact or possibility that she is pregnant. Would you want to let some cases of prenatal damage continue to occur, just because the mother didn't want to consider or to admit that she was pregnant?
For these reasons, the appropriate way to prevent damage to unborn babies due to fasting is to exclude all women of any age from engaging in Ramadan fasting. Otherwise, some cases of damage will still occur.
i'm a liberal and an atheist. i'm opposed to islam, as it is the most anti-liberal ideology on earth. any ideology that kills people that want to leave it has no place in the modern world. liberals need to wake up to this.
this is happening in europe right now. liberals are seeing that years of making excuses for islam, and listening to people cry PHOBIA whenever the truth is told, has led to a world of problems they could never imagine. not to mention australia as well.
that's not happening in america. everybody should be aware of the threat of islam, both liberals and conservatives.
"Greeks and other people of the Balkans usually resisted the conquest of their lands, and therefore faced the fate of the conquered, which was determined according to the principles of the Qur’an. This meant they were either killed, compelled to convert to Islam or required to pay the so-called protection tax. If they paid the protection tax (also called the jizya), they could keep their faith but were relegated to the status of a second-class citizens. If the population willfully surrendered they were granted selected privileges. 7 [footnote: Papaloulia, Vasiliki. The Legacy of Jihad —The Impact of Devshirme on Greek Society. Prometheus Books, pages 560-61.] “The fact that the Ottomans, in the case of voluntary surrender, conceded certain privileges, one of which was exemption from this heavy burden, indicates that its measure was understood as a penalization for the resistance of the population and the devshirme was an expression of the perpetuation of the state of war between the conqueror and the conquered.” 8 [see fn. above]
Anestos Canelides, author of "The Balkan Wars,"
article in
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2010/09/devshirme-muslim-scourge-on-christians.html
I'm atheist, a green party member, and if your answer is yes, an islamophobe.
muslims like you make excuses, and say islam has nothing to do with it. that the problem is with translation, culture, context, poverty, israel, colonialism. that anybody with a problem is a crazy person with a phobia.
the problem is that muslims like you are out on the streets when israel fires a rocket in response to daily terror attacks, but are nowhere to be seen when cartoonists are attacked, girls are arrested for "burning" korans, when women are married off at 9 years old in accordance with the sharia.
so, this isn't really "detesting" these people. and i don't know who you think you're fooling. because it's not me.
Let's give credit where credit is due.
Speaking the truth about Islam is not a manifestation of "Islamophobia" or any other kind of phobia - no matter how many times Islamic apologists try to tell us it is.
American NGOs have doctors working in Pakistan while it's own physicians chase western wealth.
Is that Islam?
There is nothing mutually incompatible with being left-wing and Islamophobic, as Joseph Stalin demonstrated.