Inter-Culturalism

A Salvo at Islamophobia from Unlikely Quarters

By |

As if we haven’t had enough unexpected twists in the Oslo tragedy, a fascinating op-ed on Islamophobia by none other than Abe Foxman (“Norwegian attacks stem from a new ideological hate – The Washington Post”) of the Anti-Defamation League appeared in yesterday’s Washington Post. I don’t often find myself agreeing with Mr. Foxman on issues involving Muslims – though I certainly share his concerns about the use of anti-Semitism as a political tool by Muslim extremists — but I think he is to be applauded for this principled and thoughtful warning about the growing threat of Islamophobia. Most interestingly, Foxman explitly explores the profound parallels between this new hate and the age-old “Socialism of Fools” that the ADL exists to fight. Abe Foxman: “Norwegian attacks stem from a new ideological hate” – The Washington Post
It is especially heartening to see one of the most prominent fighters against anti-Semitism call out hate-spewing Islamophobes for what they are, an in language that makes their deep affinities with traditional anti-Semites crystal clear. Foxman writes of hardline Islamophobia:
These ideas are no longer geographically isolated.

Culture

What passes for anthropological analysis in the MSM

By |

During a decade spent in the Beltway, I was periodically flabbergasted by the striking provincialism of ostensibly highly educated, well traveled and professionally accomplished individuals when discussions turned to the Muslim world. Frankly, in some people, when question of Muslims come up certain parts of the human brain seem to simply cease to operate, with consistency, common sense and rigor temporarily going out the window as a result. Thus, a variety of anachronistic attitudes and essentializing stereotypes return from the dustbin of intellectual history, until a modicum of socio-historical rigor (or at least caution) is restored when attention shifts to some more “normal” and less exoticized community. Peter Hart points out an especially egregious recent example of this phenomenon on the invaluable FAIR Blog:
The end of a Wall Street Journal article (7/14/11) on a new report on Afghan deaths highlights the peculiarity of their culture:
Of civilian casualties, 2 percent were caused by night raids, slightly down from last year, with 30 fatalities, the report says. Night raids have been a contentious issue between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and U.S. military officers and civilian leaders. The raids are sensitive in Afghanistan, because foreign soldiers burst into civilian homes, where strangers are unwelcome in the country’s conservative Islamic traditions.

Healing Israel/Palestine

If the “Irvine 11” are to do time, what about Tea Party organizers?

By |

Criminal charges have been filed against the “Irvine 11” — the ring leaders of a large group of Muslim students at University of California, Irvine who repeatedly disrupted a speech by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren last February, sparking outrage – which could result in 6 months of prison time. This draconian and unprecedented overreaction raises a host of issues and is being criticized by many in the UC Irvine community. Joseph Serna writes in the The Los Angeles Times (4/16/11):
Orange County prosecutors didn’t flinch Friday when a group of university student activists charged with disturbing an Israeli ambassador’s speech last year at UC Irvine brought more than 60 supporters with them to court. Instead, prosecutors filed a motion at the hearing to release grand jury transcripts from their investigation and handed out copies of court filings they said illustrated point by point how the students – “the Irvine 11” – conspired to disrupt Ambassador Michael Oren’s speech at UC Irvine on Feb. 8, 2010, then tried to cover it up.

Christianity

Infiltration and revisionism in Texas

By |

The New York Times ran an engrossing and very timely look back in February at the momentous yet curiously under-reported battles that have been waged for decades in the Lone Star State over the religious, scientific and political message of its school textbooks. The stakes are a lot higher than you might guess. Given the endless complaints one hears on the Right of the tyrannical hold on American intellectual life enjoyed by liberal “cultural elites”, you’d never guess that in matters of curriculum most schools in America are far less affected by multiculturalist educators in the Manhattan or San Francisco than evangelical activists in Dallas or Austin. Yet, according to the Times article, thanks to the state’s buying power and the difficulty other states fortuitously have in adopting natural rival California’s exactingly customized curricula, Texas finds itself unexpectedly the national trendsetter in the domain of public school textbooks. The issue of Texas’ influence is a touchy one in education circles.

General News

How not to read Scripture

By |

A little post-holiday levity. TIME has a photo essay on the storied history of the AK-47 and I had to share this incongruous photo from Somalia.
Read the accompanying blurb below and then inspect the weapon.

Buddhism

Food for thought for Quran-bashers

By |

Sometimes as a Muslim I feel suspect that the simplest, most effective way to begin to answer the many burning questions Westerners have about Islam and Muslims isn’t to give them a Quran or even the most erudite and engaging book on Islam. For many living in our postmodern world, such a discussion needs to start far closer to home, with a crash course in Western religious history and the basic ideas of the Judeo-Christian Tradition. Not only is that often a necessary remedial measure, but in this day of –to borrow an inspired metaphor once applied to U.S.-Iranian relations–“mutual Satanization” I think it is for many probably the only way to begin this critical conversation. As an undergrad studying French in the early 1990s, I took a class on the Francophone literature of Quebec. Until recently in most Western societies literature was riddled with references to and assumptions of familiarity with the Bible, and this was especially true of Quebec’s literary output thanks to the province’s tradition of being *plus catholique que le pape*.