A comparison of Islam versus "Islamism" that explains why one is not synonymous with the other, coupled with an examination of the resurgence of Islamophobia.
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The West’s View on Islam/Muslims: Islamophobia?Amira Daghache
This research paper will take a deeper look at the West’s view of Islam and asks questions whether it’s all Islamophobia or something deeper. It details how it started, who’s encouraging it and why, who’s benefiting from it, how it’s viewed in other mediums, how it affected Muslims, who are the most prominent public figures fighting it and how it become different in recent years.
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The West’s View on Islam/Muslims: Islamophobia?Amira Daghache
This research paper will take a deeper look at the West’s view of Islam and asks questions whether it’s all Islamophobia or something deeper. It details how it started, who’s encouraging it and why, who’s benefiting from it, how it’s viewed in other mediums, how it affected Muslims, who are the most prominent public figures fighting it and how it become different in recent years.
Stereotyping, Muslim Stereotyping & Islamophobia by Abid ZafarAbid Zafar
This presentation is related to the Stereotyping, Muslim Stereotyping and Islamophobia Factors which are specifically designed for Muslims in the Western Media by the great help of American Right wing Politicians and Think Tanks as well...
A short overview of the concept of Islamophobia, using the Runnymede Trust definition and 5 closed points, together with a brief definition as anti-Muslim prejudice. Also some discussion of how Islamophobia is a form of description that overlaps with (and is a form of) racism. Part of the course on the Challenges of Multiculturalism that I am developing on Udemy.
Muslims in the Media: Room for Moderation?Heather Risley
This is a final paper for a George Washington University course I took in 2011. It is composed of a research design for a content analysis project looking at how Muslims have been portrayed in American media over time. The actual research was not carried out, but the paper provides a roadmap for how one might investigate this issue.
Presentation prepared for a series of lectures on Fundamentalism for PS 240 introduction to Political Theory at the University of Kentucky, Spring 2007. Dr. Christopher S. Rice, Instructor.
Following US president Donald Trump’s ascension to power, the world has seen a sharp rise in hate crimes against Muslims and other minorities.
A 2016 Georgetown University report documented the effects of Trump’s campaign rhetoric on his supporters. Whilst 2015 saw the sharpest increase in documented hate crimes (180 offences), new reports continue trickling into various watchdog sources.
As Trump fights to keep his travel ban in place and various US officials begin dialogue with foreign nationals, many are keeping a watchful eye on events surrounding the Muslim world.
The Charlie Hebdo, Bataclan, German Christmas Market, Orlando gay nightclub and other violent terrorist attacks have compounded societal divisions, spurring bitter resentment between various denominations of Western society, with secular and moderate Muslims caught in the crossfire.
Many are unsure as to how to ameliorate the crisis. Sections of the Left have tried to accommodate refugees fleeing hostile war zones within the MENA region, whilst far-right factions have pushed for legislation to close the borders and stave off further terrorist attacks. With no end in sight, all sides remain vigilant against new provocations.
The following SlideShare attempts to explain the root causes of Islamophobia.
About ALLRIOT:
Allriot is a sweatshop-free statement t-shirt website. We don't mince the words we say, or the designs we print.
This month we're taking on Islamophobia with our ACLU fundraiser campaign - #ThisMeansLove.
In light of Führer Trump’s disgraceful visa ban on six Muslim countries, we’ve decided to try a little ‘social experiment’ in order to expose the reactions of people towards Muslims, in the US, UK and elsewhere.
Your mission, should you accept, is to engage others by wearing it for a few days, especially in crowded places such as workplaces, malls, concerts, and throngs of bustling, open-mouthed gawkers, etc.
Try different methodologies. Lollygag. Hug your local Sheik. Flash mob (the more, the merrier). Most importantly, just be yourself, but stay safe. Record your observations using our template, either via a journal, blog, social media, video, or with an old-fashioned pen and paper.
In return, you’ll get some kickass free stuff, vouchers, a spot on our social media. The first 20 people to submit their entries will get a full reimbursement on their purchase.
50% of all will be donated to ACLU.
Good luck and happy hunting!
This Means Love t-shirt: https://www.allriot.com/shop/means-love-anti-islamophobia-t-shirt-0
Full Islamophobia Explainer: https://www.allriot.com/lets-talk-about-islamophobia
#ThisMeansLove fundraiser: https://www.allriot.com/this-means-love
Stereotyping, Muslim Stereotyping & Islamophobia by Abid ZafarAbid Zafar
This presentation is related to the Stereotyping, Muslim Stereotyping and Islamophobia Factors which are specifically designed for Muslims in the Western Media by the great help of American Right wing Politicians and Think Tanks as well...
A short overview of the concept of Islamophobia, using the Runnymede Trust definition and 5 closed points, together with a brief definition as anti-Muslim prejudice. Also some discussion of how Islamophobia is a form of description that overlaps with (and is a form of) racism. Part of the course on the Challenges of Multiculturalism that I am developing on Udemy.
Muslims in the Media: Room for Moderation?Heather Risley
This is a final paper for a George Washington University course I took in 2011. It is composed of a research design for a content analysis project looking at how Muslims have been portrayed in American media over time. The actual research was not carried out, but the paper provides a roadmap for how one might investigate this issue.
Presentation prepared for a series of lectures on Fundamentalism for PS 240 introduction to Political Theory at the University of Kentucky, Spring 2007. Dr. Christopher S. Rice, Instructor.
Following US president Donald Trump’s ascension to power, the world has seen a sharp rise in hate crimes against Muslims and other minorities.
A 2016 Georgetown University report documented the effects of Trump’s campaign rhetoric on his supporters. Whilst 2015 saw the sharpest increase in documented hate crimes (180 offences), new reports continue trickling into various watchdog sources.
As Trump fights to keep his travel ban in place and various US officials begin dialogue with foreign nationals, many are keeping a watchful eye on events surrounding the Muslim world.
The Charlie Hebdo, Bataclan, German Christmas Market, Orlando gay nightclub and other violent terrorist attacks have compounded societal divisions, spurring bitter resentment between various denominations of Western society, with secular and moderate Muslims caught in the crossfire.
Many are unsure as to how to ameliorate the crisis. Sections of the Left have tried to accommodate refugees fleeing hostile war zones within the MENA region, whilst far-right factions have pushed for legislation to close the borders and stave off further terrorist attacks. With no end in sight, all sides remain vigilant against new provocations.
The following SlideShare attempts to explain the root causes of Islamophobia.
About ALLRIOT:
Allriot is a sweatshop-free statement t-shirt website. We don't mince the words we say, or the designs we print.
This month we're taking on Islamophobia with our ACLU fundraiser campaign - #ThisMeansLove.
In light of Führer Trump’s disgraceful visa ban on six Muslim countries, we’ve decided to try a little ‘social experiment’ in order to expose the reactions of people towards Muslims, in the US, UK and elsewhere.
Your mission, should you accept, is to engage others by wearing it for a few days, especially in crowded places such as workplaces, malls, concerts, and throngs of bustling, open-mouthed gawkers, etc.
Try different methodologies. Lollygag. Hug your local Sheik. Flash mob (the more, the merrier). Most importantly, just be yourself, but stay safe. Record your observations using our template, either via a journal, blog, social media, video, or with an old-fashioned pen and paper.
In return, you’ll get some kickass free stuff, vouchers, a spot on our social media. The first 20 people to submit their entries will get a full reimbursement on their purchase.
50% of all will be donated to ACLU.
Good luck and happy hunting!
This Means Love t-shirt: https://www.allriot.com/shop/means-love-anti-islamophobia-t-shirt-0
Full Islamophobia Explainer: https://www.allriot.com/lets-talk-about-islamophobia
#ThisMeansLove fundraiser: https://www.allriot.com/this-means-love
Islam is a religion of peace,but radicals have changed its preaching. Can one considered jihad as a just war? Since its inscribed in the Holy Koran.As such,this presentation give some of the reasons why a certain groups (mostly Muslims) have developed new ideologies.
Initially published on 19 October 2006 in Buzzle
Excerpt:
The Muslim countries' upper middle-classes are the venomous enemy of the West.
The worst failure of America is not Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and/or the perpetuation of the Palestinian problem. The worst failure is America's inability to accurately and timely identify the enemy.
The secret enemies of the Americans are their interlocutors.
1. The terrorists are just hands that commit criminal acts.
2. The extremist sheikhs are the owners of the factories that produce terrorists.
3. The bogus-universities that prepare the extremist sheikhs belong to the states, the supposedly US-friendly administrations that strive to help solve all problems with Israel (what a laugh!), while controlling the anti-Zionist local populations!
4. These states belong to the upper middle classes of the Muslim countries; the said social classes represent only a small portion of the society, i.e. the businesspeople, the managers and the directors, the professors and the army generals. As social class, they do not represent more than 2 to 3% of the entire population of each country-factory of Islamic Terrorism.
These people are the Muslim businesspeople, who routinely meet the experts of Microsoft and Intel, Vodafone and France Telecom; these are the traders who contact Toyota and Ford, the professors who hypocritically denounce Ossama Bin Laden, the generals who want to buy military aircraft spare parts, the actors and the singers who are dressed like average people in the streets of San Francisco, Napoli, Sydney and Amsterdam.
The clash of civilizations and the advancement of terrorismFernando Alcoforado
The terrorist attack in Paris on November 13 near past whose responsibility was assumed by the Islamic State (EI or ISIS) seems to confirm the prediction of Samuel Huntington, exposed in the book O Choque de Civilizações (The Clash of Civilizations) (HUNTINGTON, Samuel. O Choque de Civilizações (The Clash of Civilizations). Objetiva, 1997). According to the theory proposed by Huntington, there was an imminent risk of a clash between the eight civilizations, classified as Western, Islamic, Confucian Buddhist, African, Shinto Nippon, Slavic-Orthodox, Hindu and Latin American, and such conflict would take place in the period post-Cold War. The conflict between these cultures so different was inevitable because of the differences between these civilizations, especially that concerning the particular values of each. Huntington points out a particularly profound divergence between the Western and Islamic civilizations.
Model of Health: Are Islamic Approaches to Healthcare Viable for the Develope...Danika Tynes, Ph.D.
Model of Health: Are Islamic Approaches to Healthcare Viable for the Developed World? by Danika Tynes. In the West, perceptions of Islam are molded by popular discourse, media assumptions, and Western-oriented scholarly inquiry (Heyneman, 2004). Among those portrayals, discussion primarily revolves around “us vs. them,” “good Muslims vs. bad Muslims,” civilizational identities, geopolitics, and political Islam, with a close eye on current events in Egypt, Syria, Yemen, and other majority Muslim states (ibid; Huntington, 1999). Across the board, Islam is assumed to be characteristic of underdevelopment and almost synonymous with lack of modernity with little to no contribution to the modern world or how it is shaped (Esposito, 1999). However, just as modernity cannot be ignored by developing countries, the influence of the globalization of Islam cannot be shut out. In spite of these prevailing considerations of Muslim countries, this paper contends that the United States (i.e., a component and influencer of Western civilization) may be adopting several core Islamic principles in its healthcare reform and may do well to better understand the cultural characteristics that underlie the natural state of health that is a way of being in the Muslim communities that continue to grow. Herein, health policies of Muslim countries will be compared to those of the United States (U.S.).
Nations are more similar in their focus on healthcare than any other function of government and the inclusion of morality in policy is more likely to appear in healthcare than any other realm (Carpenter, 2012). Islam purports that one’s health is a significant priority and it is one’s obligation to treat the body well, such as to eliminate parasites from pork in the diet, eschew liquor to maintain awareness of divine action at all times, or take proper medications when the need arises (Heyneman, 2004). Key messages delivered through Islam, such as the focus on preventive care over curative care, ambulatory care over hospitalization, and public care organizations over private ones are premises that are newly being adopted in major legislation in the United States (ibid). Islam’s attention to the connectedness between policy and religion as displayed in its guidance for healthcare, may provide some insights into the current transformations in global healthcare. This paper will review Islam’s religious references and guidance to achieving better health, document health policies enacted within Muslim countries, and compare such polices to those being implemented in the United States (U.S.). The research will seek to unfold whether commonalities exist and a framework can be started based on central tenets that could lend to a global healthcare structure that is not polarized by civilizational differences. Using case studies and longitudinal data on key healthcare indicators, this research will explore commonalities and divergences in health in the U.S. and in Arab nations.
[Ambassador Hassan] Speech: Presentation by Ambassador S. Azmat Hassan (Ret.)...GlobalPeaceFoundation
Date: Dec. 6th 2013
Session: Interfaith Partnerships: Faith and Diversity: Toward a Global Ethic for Inclusive and Moderate Societies
Speaker: Ambassador S. Azmat Hassan; Former Pakistani Ambassador to Malaysia, Syria and Morrocco, Islamic Republic of Pakistan
Political Islam and its discrimination with Salafism in contemporary ages: fi...malisahmad
Political Islam and its discrimination with Salafism in contemporary ages: fields, opportunities and challenges
Author
Mahmud Fallah (graduated from Qum Seminary and Ph.D student in political sciences)
The Present Predicament of African Universities: Confronting the Burden of t...elegantbrain
An analysis of the historical antecedents of the present predicament of African universities. Key words: African higher education, African universities, colonial education, history of African universities
Foreign Aid and Higher Education in Africa: With a Special Focus on the Role ...elegantbrain
Foreign aid and the development of higher education in Africa, with a special focus on the role of the World Bank. Subheadings: The Association of African Universities; World Bank; The "Basic Needs" Approach; The Bank and the Economic Place of Africa in the Global Arena; The Bank, the State, and Structural Adjustment; Higher Education from the Perspective of Educational Planning; Human Capital Theory; The Pseudo-economics of Economics of Education.
Rural Development and Educational Reform: With Specific Reference to a Develo...elegantbrain
A book-length study undertaken many years ago of rural development and educational reform in Zambia. However, many of the issues it raises remain, sadly, of relevance to this day against the backdrop of newer and seemingly insurmountable consequences of globalization, rapid population expansion, steeply spiraling class-based inequality; massive environmental degradation; and climate change.
University of Zambia Student Political Activism: Select Materials on the 1976...elegantbrain
University of Zambia Student Political Activism: Select Materials on the 1976 Events, Part 7
Contents:
1) Government of Zambia Gazette Notification of Detention Orders. (University of Zambia Faculty and Students Detained: George Siemensma, Lionel Ronald Cliffe, Robert Vincent Molteno, Fanwell Roy Makungu, Keith Nalumango, Mulenga Dereck Chewe, Mubita Gilbert Mwiya, Ernest Cholwe Beyani, Tentani Mwanza, Maketo Keith Maketo, Mbwayu Joseph Likokoto, Paulsen Himwiinga, Alexander Kamanga, Guy David Stokes, Samuel Simon Miyanda, Simuchoba Sibanze, Munyonzwe Hamalengwa, Vincent Muskanya)
2) President Kenneth Kaunda’s Broadcast to the Nation on the State of Emergency
3) Amnesty International-U.K. (Report on the UNZA Detentions)
4) Application for Writ of Habeas Corpus (for Lionel Ronald Cliffe) by Legal Counsel Ali Mohamed Hamir
5) Amnesty International Urgent Action: Prisoner of Conscience Hunger Strike (Y. Lulat)
6) Declaration of Hunger Strike by Detainee Y. Lulat
University of Zambia Student Political Activism: Select Materials on the 1976...elegantbrain
University of Zambia Student Political Activism: Select Materials on the 1976 Events, Part 6
Contents:
1) Defence of University of Zambia Detainees (Brief Chronology of Events);
2) A Message from Five Released Detainees
3) Statement by UNZA Faculty on the Detention of Lionel Cliffe (Robert Molteno, Anna Attridge, M. R. Bhagavan, Muna Ndulo, Jonathan Momba, Y. Lulat, D. Longhi, etc.)
4) Statement by Detainee Y. Lulat on the Genesis of the UNZA Crisis
5) State of Emergency Declared in Zambia
6) Zambian Political Prisoner (Y. Lulat) Begins Hunger Strike
7) Detained Zambian Lecturer Starts Hunger Strike
University of Zambia Student Political Activism: Select Materials on the 1976...elegantbrain
University of Zambia Student Political Activism: Select Materials on the 1976 Events, Part 5
Contents: Unsigned Chronology by Faculty on Events of 1976 at UNZA
University of Zambia Student Political Activism: Select Materials on the 1976...elegantbrain
University of Zambia Student Political Activism: Select Materials on the 1976 Events, Part 4
Contents:
1) (Chronology of ) Events at the University of Zambia, January-February 1976;
2) (Chronology of ) Events at the University of Zambia, February-March 1976;
3) News clipping: Lecturer Held in Zambia, Shaken by Ordeal;
4) UNZASU Statement on the General Strike Declared by the Students;
5) Senior Staff Association Resolution;
6) Public Statement Signed by 72 members of UNZA Staff;
7) Statement by the Univeresity of Zambia Council on the General Strike by the Student Body;
8) Statement to the Sub-Committee (Chaired by Professor James T. Craig) by Professor E. B. E. Ndem
University of Zambia Student Political Activism: Select Materials on the 1976...elegantbrain
University of Zambia Student Political Activism: Select Materials on the 1976 Events, Part 3
Contents:
1) UNZASU (University of Zambia Students Union) Open Letter to Comrade Frank Chitambala;
2) UNZASU Statement on Angola Issued on the Occasion of a Demonstration Held in Support of MPLA (and in Opposition to UNITA and FNLA);
3 )Frantz Fanon Club Communique in Support of MPLA—The People Power;
4) Statement on the Zambia Daily Mail Editorial by the Vanguard;
5) UNZASU Publicity Secretary’s (F. R. Makungu) Statement on Frank Chitambala’s Charges;
6) Statement by the Student Vanguard on the Reactionary and Racist Lecturer, Dr. Kasuka Mutukwa;
7) These So Called Marxist Revolutionaries;
8) Statement on the Ndem-Mutukwa Axis (Ojukwu Ndem);
9) UNZASU Statement (on the UNIP Governments Angola Policy) by UNZASU President Alexander Kamanga
University of Zambia Student Political Activism: Select Materials on the 1976...elegantbrain
University of Zambia Student Political Activism: Select Materials on the 1976 Events, Part 2
Contents:
News Clippings on the UNZA Student Crisis and Related Developments: Zambia now Under the Full State of Emergency; Varsity Lecturers are Deported after Detention (Lionel Cliffe, George Siemensma, Robert Molteno, Klaus van den Berg); Lecturer No. 2 Held; University Closed; 2 More Lecturers Held by Police (Robert Molteno, Dario Longhi); Lecturers Incited UNZA Strike, Charge Students (M.S.M. Chanda, F.B. Mumba, Muleya Kashewe); Zambia University; Lecturer (Lionel Cliffe) Fights to Free Student (Y. Lulat); Free Varsity Detainees, Says PI’s Lecturer; Detained UNZA 15 Released; Detained UNZA Lecturer Released; UNZA Students were Misguided Says President; Prisoners of Conscience: Zambia: Y. Lulat; Torture Threat to Zambia Lecturer (Robert Molteno); There are CIA Agents at UNZA (Says Lecturer Robert Molteno); Three Student Union Leaders Sit on the UNZA Senate (Y. Lulat, Baleni Khumalo, Phidelis Lucheme); Students Want Detainees Brought to Court
University of Zambia Student Political Activism: Select Materials on the 1976...elegantbrain
University of Zambia Student Political Activism: Select Materials on the 1976 Events, Part 1University of Zambia Student Political Activism: Select Materials on Pre-1976 Events. (Part 1)
Contents:
1) Is the Unzasu Spirit Dying? Article by Peter D. Machungwa;
2) One Party State, statement by UNZASU Executive;
3) The Murder of Amilcar Cabral, Statement by UNZASU Executive;
4) Press Release on NRDC Student Crisis, by the UNZASU Executive;
5) Letter to UNZASU by HART chairman, Treveor Richards, New Zealand (Halt All Racist Tours Movement)
6) Press Statement on One Party Participatory Democracy, by UNZASU.
University of Zambia Student Political Activism: Select Materials on the Pre-...elegantbrain
University of Zambia Student Political Activism: Select Materials on the Pre-1976 Events, Part 5
Contents:
Article by Donald Rothchild Published in Transition: “The Beginning of Student Unrest in Zambia.”
University of Zambia Student Political Activism: Select Materials on the Pre-...elegantbrain
University of Zambia Student Political Activism: Select Materials on the Pre-1976 Events, Part 5
Contents:
1) Independent Opinion Poll on the University Crisis Conducted by Students Michael Burawoy and Masautso Phiri
2) Response by Masautso Phiri to Criticism of the Poll by “Campus Eyes”
3) Anonymous Critique of the Opinion Poll
4) Critique of the Opinion Poll by Kamoyo Mwale
5) Response to Kamoyo Mwale by Masautso Phiri
6) Results of the Opinion Poll
University of Zambia Student Political Activism: Select Materials on the Pre-...elegantbrain
University of Zambia Student Political Activism: Select Materials on the Pre-1976 Events, Part 3
Contents:
1) Welcome Address by the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Professor L.K.H. Goma, to Readmitted Students.
2) Discussion Paper Sponsored by the Ad Hoc Student-Staff Committee by Political Science Faculty Member Robert Molteno on the University Crisis
03062024_First India Newspaper Jaipur.pdfFIRST INDIA
Find Latest India News and Breaking News these days from India on Politics, Business, Entertainment, Technology, Sports, Lifestyle and Coronavirus News in India and the world over that you can't miss. For real time update Visit our social media handle. Read First India NewsPaper in your morning replace. Visit First India.
CLICK:- https://firstindia.co.in/
#First_India_NewsPaper
04062024_First India Newspaper Jaipur.pdfFIRST INDIA
Find Latest India News and Breaking News these days from India on Politics, Business, Entertainment, Technology, Sports, Lifestyle and Coronavirus News in India and the world over that you can't miss. For real time update Visit our social media handle. Read First India NewsPaper in your morning replace. Visit First India.
CLICK:- https://firstindia.co.in/
#First_India_NewsPaper
Acolyte Episodes review (TV series) The Acolyte. Learn about the influence of the program on the Star Wars world, as well as new characters and story twists.
Here is Gabe Whitley's response to my defamation lawsuit for him calling me a rapist and perjurer in court documents.
You have to read it to believe it, but after you read it, you won't believe it. And I included eight examples of defamatory statements/
‘वोटर्स विल मस्ट प्रीवेल’ (मतदाताओं को जीतना होगा) अभियान द्वारा जारी हेल्पलाइन नंबर, 4 जून को सुबह 7 बजे से दोपहर 12 बजे तक मतगणना प्रक्रिया में कहीं भी किसी भी तरह के उल्लंघन की रिपोर्ट करने के लिए खुला रहेगा।
El Puerto de Algeciras continúa un año más como el más eficiente del continente europeo y vuelve a situarse en el “top ten” mundial, según el informe The Container Port Performance Index 2023 (CPPI), elaborado por el Banco Mundial y la consultora S&P Global.
El informe CPPI utiliza dos enfoques metodológicos diferentes para calcular la clasificación del índice: uno administrativo o técnico y otro estadístico, basado en análisis factorial (FA). Según los autores, esta dualidad pretende asegurar una clasificación que refleje con precisión el rendimiento real del puerto, a la vez que sea estadísticamente sólida. En esta edición del informe CPPI 2023, se han empleado los mismos enfoques metodológicos y se ha aplicado un método de agregación de clasificaciones para combinar los resultados de ambos enfoques y obtener una clasificación agregada.
An astonishing, first-of-its-kind, report by the NYT assessing damage in Ukraine. Even if the war ends tomorrow, in many places there will be nothing to go back to.
2. Page 1 of 13
Islam, Islamism, and Islamophobia:
A Clarification
Abstract
There is considerable confusion among policy makers, as well as the corporate media (not to mention the masses)
between their shallow comprehensions of Islam the religion and a religio-political nationalist ideology known, for want
of a better term, as Islamism. (A result of this confusion is unsuccessful strategies—including the so-called “war on
terror,” which, tellingly, shows no signs of abetting as of this writing, years later—to deal with the rise of this ideology
and its political consequences). This confusion has been fueled by the virulent reemergence of Islamophobia in the West,
and its diffusion to such other parts of world as India, Kenya, the Philippines, Burma, Nigeria, and Israel. (What is more,
Islamophobia is also spreading, with the encouragement of the West, among the secularist elites of even those countries
where Islam is the dominant religion, such as Pakistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Algeria, and Egypt.)
We live in an age where mass media can deliver news about events from almost any corner of the planet to,
literally, the palm of your hands even as they are happening in real time. This development, thanks to the
leaps and bounds achieved in the development of information technology, is absolutely unprecedented in
human history. Yet, if one were to assume that with this kind of technological progress there would be a
greater degree of enlightenment among the masses about the world around them—be it locally, nationally,
or globally—then one would be hard-pressed to find evidence in support of such a logical assumption. The
problem is that news delivery, for the most part, is still managed by the “information gatekeepers” who
own/control the corporate mass media. One of the topics that has dominated the news headlines (especially
in the West) with considerable regularity in recent years has been the religion of Islam and its alleged
association with terrorism, pointing to the power of the gatekeepers to inflict misinformation and
disinformation on the masses that has been the ironic hallmark of the amazing growth in the technological
prowess of the corporate mass media to deliver news and information. What follows is an attempt to expose
the extent of this misinformation/ disinformation that characterizes this topic, to the detriment in the long-
run of the security of us all.
Islam, Islamism, and Islamophobia
The reemergence of the West’s misguidedly unhealthy obsession with the religion of Islam, or what it thinks is
Islam—especially in the period after that horrific terrorist tragedy in the United States that has come to be
known as 9/11 and the resulting so-called “war on terror” that the United States and its Western allies
launched—demands analysis of what is really at issue behind this obsession.1
It will be argued here that
1
There now exists thousands of books on this event that involved the hijacking of four planes by suicide
bombers, who claimed to profess Islam, and their use as missiles (two in New York, and one in Washington,
D.C.—the third was foiled and ended in a crash south of Pittsburgh), with devastating consequences, in
terms of lives lost. Consequently, those who would like guidance on what to read about this event, its
consequences, and its significance, will find the following books (but only when considered together)
helpful: Ahmed (2005); Ahmed and Forst (2005); Anonymous (2004); Chermak, Bailey and Brown (2003);
Dudziak (2003); Holbein (2005); McDermott (2005); Marlin (2004); Nguyen (2005); and Qureshi and Sells
(2003).
3. Page 2 of 13
there is considerable confusion among policy makers, as well as the corporate media (not to mention the
masses) between their shallow comprehensions of Islam the religion and a religio-political nationalist
ideology known, for want of a better term, as Islamism. (A result of this confusion is unsuccessful
strategies—including the so-called “war on terror,” which, tellingly, shows no signs of abetting as of this
writing, years later—to deal with the rise of this ideology and its political consequences). This confusion has
been fueled by the virulent reemergence of Islamophobia in the West, and its diffusion to such other parts of
world as India, Kenya, the Philippines, Burma, Nigeria, and Israel. (What is more, Islamophobia is also
spreading, with the encouragement of the West, among the secularist elites of even those countries where
Islam is the dominant religion, such as Pakistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Algeria, and Egypt.)
Islam versus Islamism
While the explication of what Islamophobia is will be undertaken later below, to begin with, Islamism, in
brief, refers to the highly distorted interpretation of the practices and role of the religion of Islam currently
in vogue among the ignorant and the extremists in the Islamic world (and among the Muslim diaspora in the
West). It is important to stress, as Roberts (2003) reminds us, that Islamism should not be conflated with so-
called “Islamic fundamentalism.” In fact, the latter does not really exist because all Muslims who practice
their religion are in a sense “fundamentalists.” Why? This is because the Qur’an is unlike the Bible (hence
the fallacy of the analogy between Christian fundamentalism and so-called Islamic fundamentalism) in that
the Qur’an is primarily a constitutional document prescriptive in intent—whereas in contrast the Bible is
essentially a historical document. In other words, to be a fundamentalist in Islam is to adhere to the true
tenets of Islam, it does not imply a form of “anti-scientific eccentricity appropriate to fundamentalist
Christianity,” as Roberts puts it (p. 4), where the objective of the Christian fundamentalist is essentially the
advocacy of the literal truth of creationism as it appears in the Book of Genesis.
So, what then, to go now into greater detail, is Islamism? It refers to the belief among some sections of
Muslims that it is possible and necessary to dissolve the division between church and state (or more
correctly between mosque and state) that currently exists almost throughout the Islamic world—with the
exception of one or two instances (such as Iran). While in theory that may be so, in practice it has amounted
to merely a call to replace the current secular authoritarianism of the praetorian oligarchies that dominate
(what are virtually) police states that make up a large part of the Islamic world with an equally virulently
brutal authoritarianism of a theocracy with a matching horrendous anti-Islamic human rights record (vide
the experiences of Islamist rule in countries such as Afghanistan, Iran, and Sudan—and perhaps one may
also add to the list in parts of, albeit for brief moments, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, and the DA-ISH-
controlled Iraq and Syria, etc.). The problem is not just a question of good intentions gone awry, but it’s one
that is an outcome of a fundamental theoretical weakness emanating from the refusal by the ulama (also
spelled ulema, which refers to the body of Islamic scholars who claim expertise in Islamic theology) to
grapple with what Islam has to say on such critical questions as representative government, human rights,
constitutional checks and balances, social inequality, economic exploitation, the nation-state, the modern
world economy, science and technology, and so on—not in terms of airy-fairy nostalgic references to the
caliphates of the past (capped with the usual escapist lines like “God knows best” or “God will take care of
it”), but in terms of real, practical, day-to-day program of action today.
No Islamist has yet come up with a single example of what a concretely viable Islamic constitution, one that
can be implemented in the modern world of today, would look like. The problem is highlighted by Lazarus-
Yafeh (1995: 175) when he accurately observes about the ulama “It is a puzzling historical fact that although
4. Page 3 of 13
Islam produced some of the greatest empires the world has ever known, the ulama eschewed for centuries
the issues of the political and constitutional structure of the state and preferred, much like the sages of the
small, dispersed Jewish people, to deal in great detail with such problems of the divine law as prayers and
fasting or purity and impurity.” There are two related conjectural explanations one may hazard to offer here
for this circumstance: One, is that in Islam a political tradition arose where the executive and the legislative
branches of government were considered to be subordinate—at least nominally if not always in practice—to
the judiciary (since the latter drew its legitimacy from the scriptures). Yet, as we all know, in the context of
the complexity of the modern world of today the judiciary, by itself, lacks the wherewithal to be able to fully
confront the complex daily tasks of modern governance. Two, is that in its early caliphal history, Islam was
perceived to have been ruled by God-fearing and just rulers (even if autocratic) who obeyed Islamic law, the
effect of which was to obviate the thorny task of grappling with the issue of devising a political system with
the potential to neutralize an unjust and oppressive ruler should one emerge in the future (that is a
democratic political system). At the same time, there arose a tradition of almost blind obedience to those in
charge of the state. In other words, on the issue of political authority, while Islamic doctrine evolved to
include injunctions for obeying authority, it had little to say in practical terms on what to do if that authority
was unjust or non-Islamic because the issue of democracy simply did not enter the equation, especially in a
context where Islam did not recognize the separation of church and state.
However, even when in later times it became absolutely necessary to confront these thorny issues, especially
following the emergence of Western imperialism in the post-Columbian era, the ulama were still found
wanting. The reason this time was a peculiar dialectic that had emerged where the traditional refusal by the
ulama to accord importance to awail (the “foreign” sciences) in the curricula of madrasas—religious-oriented
multi-purpose educational institutions—as they insisted on hewing to the traditional categories of
mnemonic knowledge as a response, ironically, to the increasing irrelevance of Islam in matters of a modern
industrial economy and state in a post–1492 Western-dominated global arena, in turn, continued and
continues to reinforce this irrelevance.
To put the matter differently, the political failure of Islamism (wherever it has taken root today) stems from
the fact that it has emerged as a political enterprise of an essentially flag-waving anarchic and intolerant
nationalist identity politics bereft of concrete Islamic proposals to address the very problems that are at the
root of the rise of Islamism (and this failure one must stress is not because Islam is wholly incapable of
supplying these proposals, but for lack of intelligent philosophic analyses of how Islam can provide the
answers to the problems of governance in a modern world). Perhaps, Moore (1994) comes closest to the mark
when he defines Islamism as “a political ideology akin to nationalism and should be viewed primarily as an
abstract assertion of collective identity.” He further explains: “Like nationalism, it may harbor a variety of
contents or purposes. Consequently it may take many forms, depending on the social and political contexts
in which it is expressed. Like nationalism in a colonial situation, however, it becomes a vehicle for collective
action when alternative channels are suppressed or lose their legitimacy” (Moore 1994: 213). For more on
Islamism see also these sources: Beinin and Stork (1997), Ciment (1997), Entelis (1997), Naylor (2000),
Sonbol (2000), and Wickham (2002).
Now, one does not have to be a rocket scientist to quickly determine what such a misguided form of religio-
political nationalism (fomented by power/glory-seeking messianic charlatans) among a sizable segment of
the oppressed and dispossessed can lead to. In a context of decades upon decades of political and economic
marginalization, locally and globally, that also often involves a relentless assault on their human rights and
dignity, not to mention their constitutional rights, by what is usually a compradorial kleptocratic praetorian
oligarchy, aided and abetted by the West in its relentless effort to hegemonically dominate the planet—
against the backdrop of access to affordable instantaneous communication technology that is global in
5. Page 4 of 13
scope—the slide into violent barbarism in such circumstances may not appear to be inexplicable after all.
(Viewed strictly from the perspective of Islamism itself, this development is highly ironic given that an
important element of Islamism, by definition, is self-righteousness and piety, and Islamic piety—unlike
Christian piety of the Crusader era or even the modern imperialist era—does not brook terrorism of any
kind.) Under these circumstances, the Islamophobic notion that “Islamist” terrorist attacks are the work
primarily of Muslim religious zealots is a foolhardy notion that we all subscribe to at our own peril.
(Consider: the majority of those who executed 9/11, as in the case of the recruits of DA-ISH today, were
not even remotely religious at all. See also Reuter [2015] on the role of the secularists from Iraq's former
Saddam Hussein regime in the rise of DA-ISH.)
In reality, September 11, 2001 was an explosive catalyst—militarily taking the form of the so-called “war on
terror” (incorporating the much vaunted “shock-and-awe” strategy concocted by the
Rumsfeld/Cheney/Bush triumvirate that in the end turned out to be the wholesale massacre of civilians by
means of aerial bombardment and euphemistically dubbed “collateral damage” to cover up what it really
was: a crime against humanity worthy of a case before the International Criminal Court)—for the reworking
of the effort by Western-dominated international corporate capital to push for an ever-expanding global
Western hegemonic project in alliance with the compradorial kleptocratic praetorian oligarchies as it marches to the
beat of its own internal logic of relentless accumulation. However, one must be forcefully reminded that this
effort predated September 11, 2001, by centuries and which has come to be known as imperialism. Therefore,
the “war on terror” should be correctly viewed on one hand as chimerical in its stated objective, at least as it
is currently constituted, and on the other as little more than an extension of this historically rooted
continuous effort at Western global hegemony. Considered from this perspective, one is left with no other
logical recourse but to view events such as September 11, 2001—however repugnant they may be to all who
abhor terrorist violence—as a not-so-surprising response to this ongoing hegemonic project. Especially
when one is reminded that the focus of this effort, in its more sensationalist manifestations, has in recent
times appeared to be the lands and peoples (Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chechnya, Iran, Iraq, Kashmir, Muslim
China, Palestine, Philippines, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, etc.) of a once proud civilization that continues
to live on in its fully glory, even if only mythically in the realm of collective memory. What is more, their awareness of
empirical evidence everywhere of their civilization’s long journey into the twilight of history (in terms of
determinative global influence), that began centuries ago—allegedly, at the hands of the very people who are
the current architects of this hegemonic project—only serves to enrage. Therefore, an authentic “war on
terror” would call not for the Islamophobic remaking of Muslim national identity (which is being executed
at great cost, in terms of both lives lost and monies expended), but the termination of the hegemonic
project itself.
Islamophobia
Having explained the difference between Islam the religion and Islamism as the deeply misguided religio-
political nationalism, we are now left with considering the matter of Islamophobia. One can begin by noting
that relations between Islam and the West date back almost to the beginning of the founding of Islam in the
7th century; however, the West’s view of Islam has almost always been through the lens of what may be
called Islamophobia. And this continues to be true today. (See, for example, the Islamophobic article
authored by Wood (2015) popularized by ultra-right zealots, as well as critiques of it by Dagli (2015);
Haqiqatjou and Qadhi (2015); and Jenkins (2015). For a historical perspective, see also Hillenbrand (2000),
and Meserve (2008).) So, what then is Islamophobia? It refers to a variant of racism (much like anti-Semitism)
that rests on essentialist stereotypes that foster an irrational distrust, fear or rejection of Islam and those
6. Page 5 of 13
who are Muslims (or thought to be Muslims).2
While Islamophobia dates back almost to the period of the
founding of Islam, as just noted, in recent times it has received considerable currency and legitimacy
(especially in the West with the complicity of much of the Western corporate media, as well as academics
and government officials—often hiding behind “freedom of speech” slogans) following the 9/11 tragedy in
United States. Read, for example, Sandra Silberstein’s well-received book, War of Words: Language, Politics and
9/11 that not only documents how language can be commandeered in the service of objectives that go well
beyond simple communication, but also provides an illuminating window into the mechanics of the
construction of ideologies of war (such as the current replacement of the Cold War, with the “War on
Terror”). Of particular relevance is her last chapter (titled “Schooling America: Lessons on Islam and
Geography”), in which she demonstrates how an opportunity, in the aftermath of 9/11, to mount a genuine
effort to provide the U.S. citizenry (and the rest of the planet that subscribe to such U.S. television news
channels as CNN) with an objective introduction to Islam—in terms of its history, basic tenets, and its far
from insignificant role in the genesis of modern Western civilization—was, instead, often subverted to
produce a caricatured image of Islam and Muslims well-suited to the task at hand of manufacturing a new
global enemy to replace the one of yesteryear, communism. As she explains: “The geography [of Islam]
Americans learned post 9/11 was of a particular sort. This was not a benign travelogue of cultural and
historical highpoints. Rather, instruction focused on the military, political, and economic self-interest of the
United States as it became involved in a region in which several of the countries were presented as
dangerous and incompetent. And the metaphors used to describe this area were often military” (p. 149).
(For additional sources on Islamophobia, past and present, see: Ahmed (2013); Allen (2010); Helbling
(2014); Kundnani (2014); Lyons (2012); Meer (2014); Omidvar and Richards (2014); Rane, Ewart, and
Martinkus (2014); Shyrock (2010); Trudeau (2015); and Van Driel (2004).)
It should be pointed out that from the perspective of the Muslims living in Western countries, Islamophobia
has also involved government sponsored projects to reconstruct the Muslim identity by suggesting
implicitly, and sometimes explicitly, that Islam is a primitive and backward religion practiced by a backward
peoples (the darkies) that is intrinsically violent and terrorism prone. Such an essentialist view, of course, is
not only false but completely neglects to consider the historical truth, as those intimately familiar (in a
scholarly sense) with both the history and practice of Islam know quite well, that its appearance on the stage
of human history marked an important turning point toward the better for much of the Afro-Eurasian
ecumene (and indirectly the rest of the world). It is not simply that Islam was marked by such deeply
progressive ideas as education and social welfare as constituting the responsibility of the state (baitul mal), or
that a highly inegalitarian class-fractured society was unjust (zakaat), or that an economic system that rested
on unbridled capitalism was anti-democratic (laws of equity governing commerce), or that the conduct of
war be based on principles akin to those agreed to at the Geneva Convention of 1864 and its later
incarnations, or that reciprocal obligations between the state and the citizenry be constitutionally codified
(dhimma), or that seeking knowledge (ilm) was an exceptionally worthy attribute, and so on, long, long before
such ideas came into vogue elsewhere, but that without the Islamic civilization it is quite conceivable that
there would be no Western civilization as we know it today.
2
It ought to be mentioned here that sometimes one gets the sense as one travels around Europe and North
America that the issue is not Islamophobia but what may be called “Arabophobia,” where the age-old racial
hatred of Arabs is trundled out under the pretext of a “freedom of speech” criticism of Muslims. Of course,
ignorance is also tied in because there is a lack of conscious awareness that not all Arabs are Muslims and
vice versa. (On Muslims and the “freedom of speech” issue that the Charlie Hebdo tragedy in France
highlighted see the excellent address (Trudeau, 2015) by the celebrated U.S. cartoonist Garry Trudeau—of
the Doonsbury comic strip fame—at an award ceremony.)
7. Page 6 of 13
European modernity was a generalized expression of a dialectic between the development of science and
technology on one hand, and on the other, socioeconomic transformations that led to that momentous
event—when seen through the eyes of Europe—the Columbian project of 1492 (without which Europe
would never have achieved modernity). This dialectic was characterized by such developmental markers as
the invention of gunnery, the birth of the Copernican revolution, the invention of the printing press, the
undertaking of voyages of exploitation, the emergence of mercantile capitalism and commercial law, and so
on. Yet, one of the central factors that helped to facilitate this dialectic was Islam. That is, at both levels—
modernity in general and the development of science and technology in particular—the hand of Islam was
both catalytically and causatively present. How so? Through the Muslim invasions of Spain in the eighth-
century and Italy in the ninth-century, and later through the Crusades against the Muslims unleashed by
Europe at turn of the eleventh-century (that would last, if one includes the final stages of the Spanish
Reconquista—the fall of Granada in 1492—well into the fifteenth-century), Europe would learn much
(theories and methods) and take much (artifacts and products) from the Islamic civilization that would
prove absolutely decisive in its eventual quest for a sea route to the East and all the consequences that
would ensue for Europe’s journey to modernity. To drive home this point, consider, as Huff (1993: 48)
reminds one, for example, that during the 700-year period marked by the eighth to almost the beginning of
the fifteenth-century, “Arabic science was,” in his words, “probably the most advanced science in the world,
greatly surpassing the West and China.” He continues: “In virtually every field of endeavor—in astronomy,
alchemy, mathematics, medicine, optics and so forth—Arabic scientists (that is, Middle Eastern individuals
primarily using the Arabic language but including Arabs, Iranians, Christians, Jews, and others) were in the
forefront of scientific advance. The facts, theories, and scientific speculations contained in their treatises
were the most advanced to be had anywhere in the world, including China.” Grant (1996) makes a similar
point, stating: “Contrary to prevailing opinion, the roots of modern science were planted in the ancient and
medieval worlds long before the scientific revolution of the seventeenth-century. Indeed, that revolution
would have been inconceivable without the cumulative antecedent efforts of three great civilizations: Greek,
Islamic, and Latin. With the scientific riches it derived by translation from Greco-Islamic sources in the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Christian Latin civilization of Western Europe began the last leg of the
intellectual journey that culminated in a scientific revolution that transformed the world.” (For more, on the
Islamic contributions to “Western” civilization see also Al-Khalili (2011); Freely (2010); Appendix I in Lulat
(2005); Lyons (2010); Mansur (2013); Masood (2009); and Reeves (2013). Additionally, those who would like
to probe this subject even further would do well to explore the excellent series titled “The New Edinburgh
Islamic Surveys” edited by Carole Hillenbrand and published by Edinburgh University Press.)
The question that emerges here, however, is this: Is the problem of Islamophobia simply one of ignorance
and misunderstanding? Or is there something more going on in that Islamophobia is a symptom of a wider
problem: the use of ideologies of prejudice in Western societies to underwrite domination and exploitation,
internally and externally? The answer is that it’s the latter. That is, Islamophobia, whether in its past
(Crusader era) or current (“war on terror”) guises, is not an aberration, but tied up with the construction of
the Euro-Americo-Australasian identity. It is one of several ideologies of the “Other” that aims to render
non-European peoples as merely “resident aliens” of this planet and which has been so instrumental in
justifying and explaining both the past and the current global domination by the West.
Finally, by way of a coda to this exegesis: The stock-in-trade of the Islamophobe includes, of course,
deliberate historical amnesia. So, as a word of caution for the practicing (and aspiring) Islamophobes of
today, here are two examples from recent European and North American historical experiences that should
give pause to the essentialist analyses that is their stock in trade on all matters that concern Islamism (and
Islam). First, on the matter of barbarous violence against the innocent: we saw a similar development in the
8. Page 7 of 13
preceding century (albeit in slightly dissimilar circumstances) on a massive scale in Europe with the rise of a
different form of virulently extreme nationalist ideology—but performing the same role—called fascism.
Under the aegis of this ideology, the fascists would eventually unleash a global reign of terror taking the
form, on one hand, of the Second World War in which tens of millions would perish across the planet, and
on the other, the construction of a racially-inspired primitive but large-scale barbarous killing machine in
which the gas chamber became the trademark. (Reminder: Nazism is a variant of fascism.) Second, on the
matter of the misuse of religion for unsavory political purposes: those familiar with the place of religion in
the U.S. are well aware of how religion, in this case Christianity, can be misused for deeply nefarious
purposes—and here reference is not to the Ku Klux Klan, whose ideology represents another perversion of
Christianity but of a different kind. No, reference here is to the permeation of U.S. national political life
with a highly corrupted form of Christianity (even though the principle of separation of Church and State is
constitutionally enshrined), that not only preaches that the inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven would be
the wealthy but enjoins the working classes to demonstrate Christian piety by not organizing against capital
for the betterment of their lives. The huge distortion of Christ’s teachings that is involved here can be seen
by considering some of the relevant passages from the Bible:
12. And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the
temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold
doves, 13. And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer;
but ye have made it a den of thieves. (Matthew 21:12-13; King James Bible)
21. Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the
poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. 22. But when the
young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions. 23.
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter
into the kingdom of heaven. 24. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. (Matthew
19: 21-24; King James Bible)
Is it any wonder that the loudest Bible-thumpers, who tend to populate the former slave-holding states of
the U.S. South (sometimes referred to as the “Bible Belt”), are also proselytizers of unabashed jingoism,
militarism, extreme right-wing conservatism, intolerance to racial/ethnic diversity, and laissez-faire
capitalism. That there is this deeply perverse theological marriage between a highly distorted reading of the
Bible and the corporate capitalist agenda is no mere coincidence. It has been deliberately engineered by
segments of corporate capital with the cooperation of a corrupt mercenary clergy. In fact, as Professor
Kevin Kruze shows us in his book, One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America,
the process began in the 1930s in response to the basket of economic measures that were ushered in by the
administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt in the wake of the Great Depression (itself a horrific "gift" from
the capitalists) and which came to be known as the New Deal. U.S. corporate capital then, as now, was not
willing to leave unchallenged any significant measure adopted by the U.S. government that would safeguard
the masses from the harsher predatory tendencies of capitalism—a mandate of the New Deal program.
Clearly then, whether it’s the use of barbaric violence in the name of a political or economic ideology or the
horrendous misuse of religion, neither is the exclusive preserve of the purveyors of Islamism (of which DA-
ISH is its latest extremist barbaric incarnation). The truth is that among the tragedies of the human race, a
supposedly intelligent species, is its incredible capacity for unfathomable evil in the service of this or that
ideology. Throughout history, the Euro-peoples of the Western countries have engaged in more than their
9. Page 8 of 13
fair share in such evil. Only deliberate historical amnesia would fail to remember the savage violence of the
Christian Crusaders against the ordinary people ethnically different from themselves they encountered
(Muslim, Christian, and Jew alike) as they rampaged through the Middle East over a period of several
centuries, beginning in the 11th century;3
or the horrendous systematic tortures and killings by burning
characteristic of the Spanish Inquisition that began in the late 15th century (targeting primarily Jews and
Muslims); or the four centuries of Western imperialism that arose in the immediate aftermath of the 1492
Columbian project—most especially in its settler colonial form—that was accompanied by great barbaric
brutality, including enslavement and genocide on a scale that remains unrivalled to this day. And who can
forget the horrendously stomach-churning violence that marked lynchings in United States in the 19th and
20th centuries. More recently, consider also the period of the Cold War that involved frequent armed
violence against civilians perpetrated by the United States and its allies in many countries around the world,
from Angola to Vietnam—as a result, thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians would die. At the
same time, one may also draw attention to the emergence of domestic terrorist violence in the 1960s
through to 1980s in countries such as the United States (Weather Underground), Italy (Brigate Rosse or Red
Brigade), and the then West Germany (Baader-Meinhof Gang). (In United States, other examples include
the assassination of U.S. presidents and other political leaders; the Unabomber’s terrorist activities, the
Oklahoma City bombing; the Centennial Olympic Park bombing; and the anti-abortion terrorism.) And
then, in Europe, there is Bosnian War of the early 1990s that saw all manner of savagery and brutality (in a
mini-replay of the atrocities of the Nazi-era Europe) as thousands of civilians were slaughtered or forced out
of their homelands. Needless to say, none of these examples of barbarism in which millions would die had
anything to do with Islamism! One other thought: does the use of torture on the darkies of foreign lands,
innocent or otherwise, or blowing them up—women and children included—with remotely-controlled
planes (drones) count as terrorism? (For sources on the foregoing examples see: Aust and Bell (2009);
Ciment (2011); Claster (2009); Gordon (2014); Gott (2011); Gregg (2014); Jefferis (2011); Hancock and
Wexler (2014); Hashmi (2012); Headrick (2012); Henningfeld (2012); Honigsberg (2009); Hybel (2010);
Kakel (2013); Lieberman (2013); Martinez (2012); Mastnak (2002); McCoy (2007); Motadel (2014);Nobel
(2010); Orsini and Nodes (2011); Paul and Yeager (2012); Scahill (2013); Singh (2013); Totten, Bartrop, and
3
Compare, for example, the orderly arrival of the Muslims in Jerusalem in 638 C.E. with the mind-numbing
horrifying carnage inflicted by the Crusaders when they stormed its walls on July 15, 1099 (See, for example,
Murray [2009]; and Albert of Aachen [2013]). Respect for human rights by Muslims, strange it may appear
from the vantage point of today, was integral to armed conflict in the past. Consider, for instance, the quote
below from a farewell address by the first Caliph of Islam, Syeddina Abu Bakr, delivered before the first
Muslim expeditionary force to depart Saudi Arabia (on its way to do battle with the much feared army of
one of the superpowers of its day, the Byzantine Empire) following the death of Prophet Muhammed. As
Salahi (2004:5) points out, the rules of engagement—which long predated the Geneva Conventions—that
the Muslim armies of that period were assigned paid great heed to human rights (and this in an age when
“war meant what it means to all humanity today: a wave of senseless, careless, indiscriminate destruction”).
Learn the following ten points and always bear them in mind: Do not do any act of treason to your
community or to yourselves; and never betray anyone. Do not disfigure a dead body. Never kill a
child, an elderly person, or a woman. Do not destroy or burn any date farm, and never cut down a
fruit tree. Do not slaughter a sheep, cow or camel except for your food. You will come across some
people who devote themselves to worship in hermitages, so leave them alone to do what they please.
(from Salahi 2004: 5).
10. Page 9 of 13
Jacobs (2008); and Vollers (2006). See also the report on drones by the Stanford International Human
Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic and the Global Justice Clinic at NYU School of Law (2012).)4
References
Ahmed, Akbar S. and Forst, Brian. (2005). After Terror: Promoting Dialogue Among Civilizations. Malden, MA: Polity.
Ahmed, Akbar S. (2013). The Thistle and the Drone: How America's War on Terror Became a Global War on Tribal Islam. Washington,
D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.
Ahmed, Nafeez Mosaddeq. (2005). The War on Truth: 9/11, Disinformation, and the Anatomy of Terrorism. Northampton, MA: Olive
Branch Press.
Albert of Aachen (2013). Albert of Aachen's History of the Journey to Jerusalem. (Translated by Susan B. Edgington) Farnham, Surrey,
U.K.: Ashgate.
Al-Jazeera Media Network (2014). “Palestine Remix: Explore the Story of Palestine. Take Our Content and Use Our Creative
Remix Tool to Re-Edit Our Films. Create Your Own Palestine Story.” Freely viewable online documentaries:
http://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/PalestineRemix (Accessed 3/12/2015)
Allen, Christopher. (2010). Islamophobia. Farnham, U.K.: Ashgate.
Anonymous. (2004). Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror. Washington, DC: Brassey’s.
Aust, Stefan, and Bell, Anthea. (2009). Baader-Meinhof: The Inside Story of the R.A.F. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Beinin, Joel, and Stork, Joe, eds. (1997) Political Islam: Essays from the Middle East Report. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Chermak, Steven; Bailey, Frankie Y.; and Brown, Michelle, eds. (2003). Media Representations of September 11. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Ciment, James. (1997) Algeria: The Fundamentalist Challenge. New York: Facts on File.
Ciment, James, ed. (2011). World Terrorism: An Encyclopedia of Political Violence from Ancient Times to the Post-9/11 Era (Three
Volumes). Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.
Claster, Jill N. (2009). Sacred Violence: The European Crusades to the Middle East, 1095-1396. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto
Press.
Dagli, Caner K. (2015). “The Phony Islam of ISIS: The Group's Interpretation of the Religion is Not Literal. It is Not Serious.
And Saying Otherwise Puts Muslims in an Impossible Situation.” The Atlantic [online edition].
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/02/what-muslims-really-want-isis-atlantic/386156 (Retrieved April 10,
2015)
4
For those who may be interested in seeing audio-visual material of relevance to some of the points made
in this exegesis, they can see these documentaries: The Day the Universe Changed (episode 2)—In the Light of the
Above (BBC television, 1985); Islam: Empire of Faith (PBS television, 2000); Memory of the Camps (PBS
television—Frontline, 1985); Occupation 101 (2006)—together with documentaries totaling more than 20
hours of viewing time titled “Palestine Remix” from Al-Jazeera Media Network (2014); The Rise of ISIS (PBS
television—Frontline, 2014); Science and Islam (BBC television three-part documentary, 2010); When the Moors
Ruled in Europe (BBC television, 2005); and Why We Fight (2005).
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Dudziak, Mary L., ed. (2003). September 11 in History: A Watershed Moment? Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Entelis, John P. (1986) Algeria: The Revolution Institutionalized. Boulder, CO: Westview.
Freely, John. (2010). Light from the East: How the Science of Medieval Islam Helped to Shape the Western World. London: I. B. Taurus.
Gordon, Rebecca. (2014). Mainstreaming Torture: Ethical Approaches in the Post-9/11 United States. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gott, Richard. (2011). Britain’s Empire: Resistance, Repression and Revolt. London: Verso.
Grant, Edward. (1996). The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages: Their Religious, Institutional and Intellectual Contexts.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gregg, Heather S. (2014). The Path to Salvation: Religious Violence from the Crusades to Jihad. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska
Press.
Hancock, Larry J., and Wexler, Stuart. (2014). Shadow Warfare: The History of America's Undeclared Wars. Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint
Press.
Haqiqatjou, Daniel and Dr. Qadhi, Yasir. “What is “Islamic”? A Muslim Response to ISIS and the Atlantic.” Muslim Matters [online
publication]. http://muslimmatters.org/2015/02/23/what-is-islamic-a-muslim-response-to-isis-and-the-atlantic (retrieved April
10, 2015)
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