October 9, 2014
Truthdig.com

The Rise of the New, Liberal Islamophobia

by Sonali Kolhatkar

The recent television kerfuffle involving "Real Time" host Bill Maher and guest Sam Harris over whether Muslims are bad people because their religion is, in the words of Harris, "the mother lode of bad ideas," is symbolic of the new American Islamophobia.

Muslim-bashing has become a popular sport several times over the last decade and a half, most notably in the months after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks; after the election of Barack Obama; over the proposal for the so-called Ground Zero mosque; and now with the rise of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. But this time, it's not just members of the extreme right, such as Rep. Michele Bachmann and presidential wannabe Herman Cain, equating Islam with terrorism. . . .

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[To become a Muslim, one need only profess, "There is no god but God; Muhammad is the Messenger of God."--"The Truth About Islam" -- Prophet Muhammad

"First they came ..." -- Martin Niemoller (1892--1984)

"War Is A Racket" -- General Smedley Darlington Butler, 1933

"Islamic Values: Sayings of The Prophet Muhammad" -- Sir Abdullah Suhrawardy, January 1941

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["This is a memo that describes how we're going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran."--Wesley Clark, "Seven Countries in Five Years," Democracy Now, March 2, 2007]

When the Moors (Muslims) Ruled Europe, October 17, 2009

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[Iran (1980, 1987-1988), Libya (1981, 1986, 1989, 2011), Lebanon (1983), Kuwait (1991), Iraq (1991-2011, 2014-), Somalia (1992-1993, 2007-), Bosnia (1995), Saudi Arabia (1991, 1996), Afghanistan (1998, 2001-), Sudan (1998), Kosovo (1999), Yemen (2000, 2002-), Pakistan (2004-) and now Syria.--Glenn Greenwald, "How many Muslim countries has the U.S. bombed or occupied since 1980?," firstlook.org, November 6, 2014]

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[When Republican Ben Carson declared Muslims unfit to be president, he crossed a line that historians say no major White House hopeful has breached since the 1940s - openly expressing prejudice.--Michael Finnegan, "Ben Carson's open bias against Muslims a sign of coarse times," rawstory.com, September 30, 2015]

[Taqiyya (together with a related concept, kitman) refers to the "covering up" or hiding of one's faith in the face of life-endangering oppression.--Brian A. Catlos, "What paranoid anti-Muslim bigots like Ben Carson don't understand about 'taqiyya'," rawstory.com, October 26, 2015]

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Khaled A Beydoun, "Being a Muslim under Trump is risky. That's why many are hiding their identity," independent.co.uk, March 30, 2017

[A survey of law enforcement ranked sovereign citizens, not Islamic terrorists, as the most pressing terrorist threat--Oliver Conroy, "They hate the US government, and they're multiplying: the terrifying rise of 'sovereign citizens'," theguardian.com, May 15, 2017

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[He convincingly argues that throughout the existence of the United States, there has always been a legal framework in place that defines Islam and Muslim identity as incompatible with Americanness.--Mariam Elba, "How Islamophobia Was Ingrained in America's Legal System Long Before the War on Terror," theintercept.com, May 6, 2018]

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[Research by the University of Alabama shows attacks by Muslims receive an average of 105 headlines, others just 15--Mona Chalabi, "Terror attacks by Muslims receive 357% more press attention, study finds," theguardian.com, July 20, 2018]

Arnold R. Isaacs, "American Islamophobia's Fake Facts," tomdispatch.com, July 31, 2018