Tag: Islamophobia

Society & Culture

Islamicate Literature — a Tool to Tackle Islamophobia

 Islamophobia is a long standing, deeply entrenched, global issue. Growing bodies of research point to the proliferation of Islamophobia cases across the globe in recent years. It disrupts civil society at many levels, from anti-Muslim policies to heightened tensions and hate crimes, including the increased bullying of Muslim children. One of the core causes of Islamophobia is ignorance, which is often fueled by stereotyped and negative portrayals of Muslims in media and popular culture.   Continue reading Islamicate Literature — a Tool to Tackle Islamophobia

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Shorts

Why the Likes of Naseeruddin Shah Are in the Wrong

Muslims under the rule of the Indian state are perhaps facing their worst crisis in the seven decades of the country’s existence. India has not only failed to put an end to massacres of it’s religious minorities, it has doubled down and democratically awarded a pogromist with the most powerful office in the land. Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took power in the summer of 2014, dozens of Muslim men have been lynched. Laws and policies that threaten the statehood of Muslims have been enacted (National Register of Citizens and Citizenship Amendment Act). In addition, abolition of article 35 (a) has enabled settler-colonialism in the Muslim-majority Kashmir, part of a UN-recognized disputed region. Continue reading Why the Likes of Naseeruddin Shah Are in the Wrong

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Politics

Will ‘Hindutva’ Only Yield Oppression and Genocide?

India has witnessed another two  murders of Muslim men in a week. Asif Khan, a gym trainer from India’s Haryana state was lynched by a Hindutva mob while returning home after buying medicine. A week later, 17-year-old Mohammad Faisal died in police custody, sustaining heavy injuries after he was arrested for allegedly violating coronavirus restrictions. The incident took place while he was selling vegetables outside his home in the Uttar Pradesh district. These men are some of the hundreds of innocent men lynched or burned to death by a Hindu mob. As a victim of this hate, Faisal is the face of Hindutva state violence on Muslims. These killings have become normalized in a highly radicalized society, which often hails the murderers as “heroes.” [1] Continue reading Will ‘Hindutva’ Only Yield Oppression and Genocide?

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Shorts

The Sanitized Legacy of Nawal El-Saadawi

Egyptian feminist Nawal el-Saadawi has been the focus of hundreds of commemoration posts highlighting her combat for women’s rights after her passing on March 21. Her sanitized legacy overshadows the less celebratory aspects of her activism. An Islamophobe and supporter of the Rabaa Massacre, Saadawi is not being put under enough scrutiny.  Continue reading The Sanitized Legacy of Nawal El-Saadawi

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Society & Culture

British Muslims and the Challenge of Multiculturalism

Over the last 20 years, the Muslim community in the United Kingdom has grown to over 2 million people. According to significant studies, the increasing population of British Muslims is one of the main reasons for British success on the political and economic levels, as well as the continued development of British society. However, British Muslims are still viewed by many as an unfriendly or hostile minority causing trouble and creating schisms within British society. This article will examine the favourable and unfavourable perspectives towards British Muslims in the United Kingdom and will shed light on the efforts and willingness of the Muslim community to integrate within British society. Continue reading British Muslims and the Challenge of Multiculturalism

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Politics

Forming a Muslim Political Identity in a Populist West

These elections clearly demonstrate that Muslims are stuck between two political ideologies that both refuse to acknowledge them. Whilst populists like Le Penn and Trump make their disdain for Muslims and Islam clear, liberals like Clinton and Macron hide their distaste for Islam. Their belief in Western supremacy leads to policies that target Muslims’ lives and freedoms in their country and around the world. While there is a legitimate debate regarding voting for the lesser of two evils, Muslims are clearly divided in the correct approach to national politics. According to an exit poll conducted by the Associated Press, 35% of Muslims voted for Trump in the 2020 US election. With national politics  being unable to provide Muslims in the West with a robust platform for effective change, the method by which they should engage politically is up for debate. Continue reading Forming a Muslim Political Identity in a Populist West

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Society & Culture

Islamophobic Narratives: Meccan and Medinan Resistance

The Kunta federation played an important political and economic role in Maghribi history. Shaykh Bāy al-Kuntī founded a great number of zawiyas (religious schools) and sent missionaries to preach Islam in the Middle Niger and Western Saharan regions. Bāy al-Kuntī called people to jihad against the carnal soul, which the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ designated the greater jihad, as well as the return to the fundamental sources of Islamic jurisprudence. He believed he was the mujaddid (one who brings renewal) of the thirteenth century whom Allah called upon to restore the umma to its glorious past not only in West Africa but throughout the whole Muslim world. [1] The wide range of territories that encompassed his influence is said to be the largest area ever to come under the wing of an African Muslim without military conquest.  Continue reading Islamophobic Narratives: Meccan and Medinan Resistance

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Society & Culture

Paranoia of Islam in Literary Orientalism

As Islamophobia pervades the world, invading minds and infecting intellect, Muslims have arisen as a target for collective crucifixion and condemnation. It’s a tradition of hate with a hoary past, the complexities of which can be navigated through a sustained investment in critical thinking. Amidst the tumult of the Lebanese Civil War and the Iranian Revolution, the Islamist uprising in Syria, and the Arab-Israeli conflict, emerged Edward Said’s groundbreaking work: Orientalism. The book unmasks how Western literature and scholarship have created a civilizational binary through the presentation of the Orient (the East) as the cultural antonym of the glorious West. Continue reading Paranoia of Islam in Literary Orientalism

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