Did Muslims overreact? I think not. I, however, believe that they could have done better to make their case against Maher and others of his ilk. You cannot call someone a racist without determining which race(s) he/she is maligning. This would mean that in order for “Islamophobia” to have the same impact as “anti-Semitism” in the public sphere (if that is the real goal), Muslims would need to acknowledge that they are not merely a religious but also a racial category. This is already very much implied by the use of the term Islamophobia, since it points to “white” assumptions about Islam and Muslims. In other words, Islamophobia references racism since, in the U.S., “Muslim” is used as a racialized term: “non-Christian people from the east with brown and olive (non-white) skin color.” But so far, relying on Islamophobia instead of “anti-Muslim racism” has backfired on Muslims since it doesn’t clarify how important race is to the kinds of acts referenced by Islamophobia. More needs to be done to demonstrate how Islamophobia is, in fact, racism. - Abdullah Bin Hamid Ali (Zaytuna faculty)
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 18:00:01 +0000
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