Islamophobia | Multicultural Meanderings

Ethan Cox: More Islamophobia in Quebec | National Post

2014/02/05 Leave a comment

Valid commentary on the tragic case of a women who died when her scarf became caught up in a Montreal metro escalator:

In the case of such a human tragedy, should we not put aside the petty political point-scoring, and the scarcely-veiled racism, for long enough to acknowledge that a woman died, a fact equally tragic no matter what religion she practiced? Ultimately, the responsibility was on the Journal’s editors to exercise restraint, rather than reach for the most inflammatory headline available to them. Instead, they emptied a jerry-can of gasoline all over the tinderbox that is Quebec today, and lit a match. (For those who’d suggest that a complaint to the Quebec Press Council may be in order, no such luck — Quebecor withdrew from that voluntary oversight mechanism several years ago.)

Comments on social media, such as one which celebrated the death and expressed hope it would lead Muslims to learn their lesson about not wearing the hijab in Quebec, are indicative of the prejudice stirred up by this case. Another said simply enough “one less terrorist in Quebec.”

It’s time to take a stand against the creeping scourge of Islamophobia, which is a problem not only in Quebec, where the odious tone of the debate regarding the so-called Charter of Values has put it under a spotlight, but across the country. Because at the end of the day, a scarf is just a scarf, and how it was worn should matter as little as its colour in responding to a tragic accident.

Ethan Cox: More Islamophobia in Quebec | National Post.

Filed under Charte des valeurs québécoise, Multiculturalism, Religion Tagged with Ethan Cox, hijab, Islamophobia, Quebec

WHEN DOES CRITICISM OF ISLAM BECOME ISLAMOPHOBIA? | Pandaemonium

2013/11/18 Leave a comment

Good opinion piece by Kenan Malik on trying to provide some criteria for distinguishing between legitimate public debate and discussion and when this crosses over into islamophobia. Similar discussions and criteria take place with respect to criticism of Israeli policies and antisemitism:

Much of the problem arises from the way that the debate about Islam is filtered through the lens of the ‘clash of civilizations’, the claim that there is a fundamental civilizational difference between Islam and the West that will, in the words of Samuel Huntingdon, the American political scientist who popularized the term, set the ‘battle lines of the future’, unleashing a war ‘far more fundamental’ than any ignited by ‘differences among political ideologies and political regimes’. The ‘clash of civilizations’ is a threadbare argument, but it is part of a genuine academic debate. It is also the frame through which the ‘otherness’ of Muslims is established, a frame within which both popular discussion and the arguments of the bigots, including tellingly those of Islamists, have developed.

The academic arguments need challenging. So do popular perceptions, and the arguments of the bigots, too. The academic debate is clearly distinct from the popular discourse which in turn is separate from the claims of the bigots. Yet not only does each shade into the other, but the academic debate also provides the intellectual foundation for both the popular discussion and for the arguments of the bigots.

WHEN DOES CRITICISM OF ISLAM BECOME ISLAMOPHOBIA? | Pandaemonium.

Filed under Hate crimes, Multiculturalism, Religion Tagged with clash of civilizations, islam, Islamophobia, Kenan Malik, Samuel Huntingdon

Islamic fundamentalism: Stories of zealotry | The Economist

2013/08/30 Leave a comment

Short review of Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here: Untold Stories From the Fight Against Muslim Fundamentalism, by Karima Bennoune. Captures some of the harrowing and destructive stories of fundamentalist excess. Quote:

She is not alone in noticing that Western responses to Islamic troubles often fall into one of two traps: they either blame the religion or blame the West for stunting the Muslim world. But this raises the question of what an appropriate response to Islamic travails should look like. Ms Bennoune seems to imply that the West would do well to encourage non-fundamentalist readings of Islam. If the weed of fundamentalism cannot be uprooted, then it is wise to make sure that the other plants in the garden are in good health.

Islamic fundamentalism: Stories of zealotry | The Economist.

Filed under Multiculturalism, Religion Tagged with fatwa, fundamentalism, islam, islamic fundamentalism, Islamophobia, Karima Bennoune, muslim fundamentalism