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الإسلاموفوبيا
تسود الإسلاموفوبيا جميع مستويات الحياة الأمريكية ، من اليمين إلى اليسار ، ومن المتدينين إلى الملحدين ، يعتقد من يسيطر عليهم هوس الإسلاموفوبيا أن كل مسلم حقير أحمق ، وإرهابى مخرب.
إن هذا الكتاب هو نقد لاذع من الكاتب "ستيفن شيهى" للإمبراطورية ، ولكيفية خدمة الإسلاموفوبيا لأهداف الإمبراطورية ، فما هى إلا موجة ذعر غمرت الذات الأمريكية وتغلغلت فيها ، ففى أعماق الذات الأمريكية ثمة خيال مصاب بجنون الارتياب والعظمة ، وفقاً لتحليل علماء النفس الأمريكيين أنفسهم والذين ذهبوا إلى أن مفهوم "الآخر" قد استغل من أجل تنقية الهوية الأمريكية وإضفاء المثالية عليها ، الأمر الذى يعمل على ترسيخ نموذج (نحن / هم) المعيارى فى ثنائيات (الخير مقابل الشر) التبسيطية..
فمشاعر الإسلاموفوبيا جلية فى قطاعات عديدة من المجتمع الأمريكى ، تنفثها الوسائط الإعلامية ، ومراكز الأبحاث والخبراء المزعومون ، والأكاديميون المغرضون ، واللوبيهات ، وتنظيمات النشطاء..
إن هذا الكتاب هو نقد لاذع من الكاتب "ستيفن شيهى" للإمبراطورية ، ولكيفية خدمة الإسلاموفوبيا لأهداف الإمبراطورية ، فما هى إلا موجة ذعر غمرت الذات الأمريكية وتغلغلت فيها ، ففى أعماق الذات الأمريكية ثمة خيال مصاب بجنون الارتياب والعظمة ، وفقاً لتحليل علماء النفس الأمريكيين أنفسهم والذين ذهبوا إلى أن مفهوم "الآخر" قد استغل من أجل تنقية الهوية الأمريكية وإضفاء المثالية عليها ، الأمر الذى يعمل على ترسيخ نموذج (نحن / هم) المعيارى فى ثنائيات (الخير مقابل الشر) التبسيطية..
فمشاعر الإسلاموفوبيا جلية فى قطاعات عديدة من المجتمع الأمريكى ، تنفثها الوسائط الإعلامية ، ومراكز الأبحاث والخبراء المزعومون ، والأكاديميون المغرضون ، واللوبيهات ، وتنظيمات النشطاء..
380 pages, Paperback
First published January 15, 2010
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August 30, 2024
Think of the Middle Ages as the time when the Church suppressed the knowledge of classical Greece. Islamophobes won’t tell you how Arab-Islamic scholarship kept civilization going for those seven hundred years while Europeans were busy burning witches, and not bathing. This transfer of classical Greek knowledge was happening at Islamic universities in Cordova, Toledo, Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo, Fez, Isfahan, and Khorason. The Crusades were quests for Middle East plundering and control of Levantine trade centers like Tyre, Acre and Jaffa. We were all told that Gutenberg gave the world moveable type, but not that Chinese Pi Sheng invented moveable type well before Gutenberg in 1041.
After 9/11 the spigot for Islamophobia was opened wide and you could say anything: two days after 9/11 Ann Coulter said, “we should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.” Fun Fact: To date, not one person has gone to a plastic surgeon and said, “Make me look like Ann Coulter.”
After the fall of the Soviet Union, Orientalism and Arabophobia were merged together to form political Islamophobia - where we are today. It’s not uncommon for US liberals to point fingers and say “anti-Semite” but you will never see a US liberal call anyone an Islamophobe as a symbol of disparagement. That’s a job for progressives. Sheehi says we should think of Islamophobia in the US as “Orientalism on steroids.” Sheehi also says,“The first Muslims in the United States were enslaved Africans (p.39).”
The end of the Cold War meant the US needed another faux enemy other than the Russians to now keep our military Keynesianism humming along. The answer was (you guessed it) Islamophobia. The evil Russians (Boris & Natasha) of yore were quickly replaced in US culture by menacing Arabs who refuse to shave.
Women & Islam: First, note that Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism are equally misogynist. Islamophobes won’t tell you how “Islam granted rights to women that pre-Islamic or indeed European culture of ensuing centuries did not permit, or that the veil is an import from Sassanian and Byzantine cultures.” Nor will they willingly remind you that chastity belts and witch-burnings were Christian born and had nothing to do with Islam. Did you notice that US foreign policy doesn’t have much of a history in actually empowering women in Arab countries – but it sure is a great way to get neoconservative Republicans, evangelicals, feminists and liberals to stand down each time we invade an Arab country – “join us! we are invading a sovereign nation to liberate the women!” - pushing the “Muslim men oppress women” trope on the airwaves to justify invasion and occupation.
Fareed Zakaria’s schtick is pretending the ONLY solution for Muslim countries is adopting a free-market economy, privatization, with trade liberalization and structural adjustment of Arab closed societies. The economist Michael Hudson would call that solution financial warfare, and a great way for Muslim countries to commit economic suicide. Neoliberalism is a death sentence for the recipient, and Sheehi says the neoliberal prattle that comes out of Zakaria’s mouth shows either ignorance or dishonesty (p.81). Turncoat Muslims for hire (like Hirsi and Maji) “refuse to acknowledge the importance of women in the life of Muhammad (including Khadijah and Aisha)”.
A common Islamophobic saying is that Arabs only understand force. Given that the US has invaded more countries since WWII than the rest of the world’s nations combined, it is hard not to laugh when told this. The saying means, the US can always use force against them; force is all they understand, wink, wink. Islamophobia’s first job is US political dominance globally – the US wants to be seen as the world’s protector, so it has an incentive to find villains to combat. Zakaria, Lewis and Huntington want you to believe Muslims are “downtrodden” by their regimes, but they will never mention the active role the US had in financing those regimes that oppress. So successful is US Islamophobia that “polls have found that almost half of Americans surveyed support restricting civil liberties of Muslims in some way.”
US Islamophobic Justice: “After 9/11, 5,000 legally documented Arabs and Muslims were interned, most without charge. Many were ‘held in secret and tried in secret’, deported or subjected to extraordinary rendition.” Human Rights Watch says after 9/11, “anti-Arab hate crimes spiked 1700 percent.” After 9/11, once fringe views became seemingly normalized: Michael Savage said Arabs were “non-human” “racist, fascist bigots” who should be nuked. Fun Fact: Michael Savage (who runs the Savage Nation) changed his name from Michael Weiner or he’d now be more appropriately named Weiner Nation. Pause to realize there is a parallel between post-9/11 Islamophobic public rants and rallies in the US, and Nazi anti-Semitic German mass-hysteria in the late 1930’s - see Michele Malkin’s book “In Defense of Internment.” In addition, a lot of prominent academics like Rashid Khalidi and Saree Makdisi suddenly and repeatedly felt the sting of Islamophobia (see Sami al-Arian story).
Campus Islamophobia: On campuses today is “CAMERA on Campus Magazine” which instructs members on how best to troll anyone on your campus sympathetic to Palestinians and shut down all dialog that ain’t Hasbara. CAMERA also works together with Christian student associations to create maximum shame for those who dare question Israel; this is easily done by lodging a formal complaint w/ school administration officials while pretending you don’t feel safe on campus, in a letter to the campus newspaper.
Stuff Obama Fans Will Never Tell You: Obama comically redefined 50,000 US troops in Iraq as “non-combat” troops., and then escalated the conflict while also increasing Afghanistan civilian deaths. In Pakistan, he authorized drone and covert agents to kill civilians in Pakistan. He legitimized extraordinary renditions and then failed to prosecute those US officials violating international law. At US black sites he allowed detention and torture, while depriving “victims and their families of legal recourse in the United States.” Relabeling civilian victims as “enemy combatants” was another Obama era get-out-of-jail free card. Not one US liberal complained when Obama became a fan of extra-judicial executions of American citizens (Himmler would have approved) and also “authorized special forces to be deployed secretly to 75 countries, most of which are Muslim, in his own ‘war on terror’.” US progressives wondered why not one liberal posted public concern when Obama executed a 16-year-old US citizen for future crimes. If Putin murdered a 16-year-old Russian for future crimes, it would be US news big time. The joys of hypocrisy. And Obama’s boy toy Eric Holder then made it (Holder vs. Humanitarian Law Project) illegal to teach any organization (that the US calls terrorist) how to resolve disputes through international law. If you hate terror, why would you deliberately punish people who work to make “terror” groups abide by international law? Wouldn’t that be your goal? …unless you NEED enemies.
“Hilary (Clinton) has been a stalwart supporter of Israel (and pantsuits) for decades including a vocal defender of Israel’s Apartheid Wall in Palestine. Moreover, she cheered on the Israelis during their rapacious 2006 destruction of Lebanon” saying, “Israel is standing for American values as well as Israeli ones.” That’s like Jeffrey Dahmer saying he was “standing for his values as well as John Wayne Gacy”.
Fun Facts: The US embassy in Baghdad is largest embassy in the world – it’s the size of Vatican City and was a compelling $700 million statement to Iraqis (and the world) – we are NEVER leaving …yet another sovereign nation. The mission of the Trilateral Commission is “to maintain Western economic and political hegemony.” The mission of the Bilderberg Conference is “keeping the West at the crest of capitalist hegemony.”
Sheehi adds, “targeting Muslims is an attempt to break solidarity within the world of Brown and Black peoples, who may not share the same religion, but share the same adverse effects of global capitalism.” This book’s main argument is that US Islamophobia would never have gotten this far if ANY other religion in the US was subjected to so many untruths by mainstream media. This book is only about US Islamophobia and also acts as a field guide that will introduce you to these Muslim hating douchebags: Daniel Pipes, Bernard Lewis, Fareed Zakaria, David Horowitz, Samuel Huntington, Hirsi Ali, Irshad Manji. Completists might be sad there’s no examples of Islamophobic twaddle from Bill Maher and Ben Shapiro, but - you can’t have everything.
Great book, I learned a lot, as you can see. This was my 52nd Book Essay for 2024, so I’m now done for 2024, and will now begin reviewing for 2025, and then post them here on Goodreads beginning 1/1/25.
After 9/11 the spigot for Islamophobia was opened wide and you could say anything: two days after 9/11 Ann Coulter said, “we should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.” Fun Fact: To date, not one person has gone to a plastic surgeon and said, “Make me look like Ann Coulter.”
After the fall of the Soviet Union, Orientalism and Arabophobia were merged together to form political Islamophobia - where we are today. It’s not uncommon for US liberals to point fingers and say “anti-Semite” but you will never see a US liberal call anyone an Islamophobe as a symbol of disparagement. That’s a job for progressives. Sheehi says we should think of Islamophobia in the US as “Orientalism on steroids.” Sheehi also says,“The first Muslims in the United States were enslaved Africans (p.39).”
The end of the Cold War meant the US needed another faux enemy other than the Russians to now keep our military Keynesianism humming along. The answer was (you guessed it) Islamophobia. The evil Russians (Boris & Natasha) of yore were quickly replaced in US culture by menacing Arabs who refuse to shave.
Women & Islam: First, note that Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism are equally misogynist. Islamophobes won’t tell you how “Islam granted rights to women that pre-Islamic or indeed European culture of ensuing centuries did not permit, or that the veil is an import from Sassanian and Byzantine cultures.” Nor will they willingly remind you that chastity belts and witch-burnings were Christian born and had nothing to do with Islam. Did you notice that US foreign policy doesn’t have much of a history in actually empowering women in Arab countries – but it sure is a great way to get neoconservative Republicans, evangelicals, feminists and liberals to stand down each time we invade an Arab country – “join us! we are invading a sovereign nation to liberate the women!” - pushing the “Muslim men oppress women” trope on the airwaves to justify invasion and occupation.
Fareed Zakaria’s schtick is pretending the ONLY solution for Muslim countries is adopting a free-market economy, privatization, with trade liberalization and structural adjustment of Arab closed societies. The economist Michael Hudson would call that solution financial warfare, and a great way for Muslim countries to commit economic suicide. Neoliberalism is a death sentence for the recipient, and Sheehi says the neoliberal prattle that comes out of Zakaria’s mouth shows either ignorance or dishonesty (p.81). Turncoat Muslims for hire (like Hirsi and Maji) “refuse to acknowledge the importance of women in the life of Muhammad (including Khadijah and Aisha)”.
A common Islamophobic saying is that Arabs only understand force. Given that the US has invaded more countries since WWII than the rest of the world’s nations combined, it is hard not to laugh when told this. The saying means, the US can always use force against them; force is all they understand, wink, wink. Islamophobia’s first job is US political dominance globally – the US wants to be seen as the world’s protector, so it has an incentive to find villains to combat. Zakaria, Lewis and Huntington want you to believe Muslims are “downtrodden” by their regimes, but they will never mention the active role the US had in financing those regimes that oppress. So successful is US Islamophobia that “polls have found that almost half of Americans surveyed support restricting civil liberties of Muslims in some way.”
US Islamophobic Justice: “After 9/11, 5,000 legally documented Arabs and Muslims were interned, most without charge. Many were ‘held in secret and tried in secret’, deported or subjected to extraordinary rendition.” Human Rights Watch says after 9/11, “anti-Arab hate crimes spiked 1700 percent.” After 9/11, once fringe views became seemingly normalized: Michael Savage said Arabs were “non-human” “racist, fascist bigots” who should be nuked. Fun Fact: Michael Savage (who runs the Savage Nation) changed his name from Michael Weiner or he’d now be more appropriately named Weiner Nation. Pause to realize there is a parallel between post-9/11 Islamophobic public rants and rallies in the US, and Nazi anti-Semitic German mass-hysteria in the late 1930’s - see Michele Malkin’s book “In Defense of Internment.” In addition, a lot of prominent academics like Rashid Khalidi and Saree Makdisi suddenly and repeatedly felt the sting of Islamophobia (see Sami al-Arian story).
Campus Islamophobia: On campuses today is “CAMERA on Campus Magazine” which instructs members on how best to troll anyone on your campus sympathetic to Palestinians and shut down all dialog that ain’t Hasbara. CAMERA also works together with Christian student associations to create maximum shame for those who dare question Israel; this is easily done by lodging a formal complaint w/ school administration officials while pretending you don’t feel safe on campus, in a letter to the campus newspaper.
Stuff Obama Fans Will Never Tell You: Obama comically redefined 50,000 US troops in Iraq as “non-combat” troops., and then escalated the conflict while also increasing Afghanistan civilian deaths. In Pakistan, he authorized drone and covert agents to kill civilians in Pakistan. He legitimized extraordinary renditions and then failed to prosecute those US officials violating international law. At US black sites he allowed detention and torture, while depriving “victims and their families of legal recourse in the United States.” Relabeling civilian victims as “enemy combatants” was another Obama era get-out-of-jail free card. Not one US liberal complained when Obama became a fan of extra-judicial executions of American citizens (Himmler would have approved) and also “authorized special forces to be deployed secretly to 75 countries, most of which are Muslim, in his own ‘war on terror’.” US progressives wondered why not one liberal posted public concern when Obama executed a 16-year-old US citizen for future crimes. If Putin murdered a 16-year-old Russian for future crimes, it would be US news big time. The joys of hypocrisy. And Obama’s boy toy Eric Holder then made it (Holder vs. Humanitarian Law Project) illegal to teach any organization (that the US calls terrorist) how to resolve disputes through international law. If you hate terror, why would you deliberately punish people who work to make “terror” groups abide by international law? Wouldn’t that be your goal? …unless you NEED enemies.
“Hilary (Clinton) has been a stalwart supporter of Israel (and pantsuits) for decades including a vocal defender of Israel’s Apartheid Wall in Palestine. Moreover, she cheered on the Israelis during their rapacious 2006 destruction of Lebanon” saying, “Israel is standing for American values as well as Israeli ones.” That’s like Jeffrey Dahmer saying he was “standing for his values as well as John Wayne Gacy”.
Fun Facts: The US embassy in Baghdad is largest embassy in the world – it’s the size of Vatican City and was a compelling $700 million statement to Iraqis (and the world) – we are NEVER leaving …yet another sovereign nation. The mission of the Trilateral Commission is “to maintain Western economic and political hegemony.” The mission of the Bilderberg Conference is “keeping the West at the crest of capitalist hegemony.”
Sheehi adds, “targeting Muslims is an attempt to break solidarity within the world of Brown and Black peoples, who may not share the same religion, but share the same adverse effects of global capitalism.” This book’s main argument is that US Islamophobia would never have gotten this far if ANY other religion in the US was subjected to so many untruths by mainstream media. This book is only about US Islamophobia and also acts as a field guide that will introduce you to these Muslim hating douchebags: Daniel Pipes, Bernard Lewis, Fareed Zakaria, David Horowitz, Samuel Huntington, Hirsi Ali, Irshad Manji. Completists might be sad there’s no examples of Islamophobic twaddle from Bill Maher and Ben Shapiro, but - you can’t have everything.
Great book, I learned a lot, as you can see. This was my 52nd Book Essay for 2024, so I’m now done for 2024, and will now begin reviewing for 2025, and then post them here on Goodreads beginning 1/1/25.
October 3, 2018
تسود الإسلاموفوبيا جميع مستويات الحياة الأمريكية من اليمين إلى اليسار ،ومن المتدينين إلى الملحدين ..يعتقد من يسيطر عليهم هوس الإسلاموفوبيا أن كل مسلم "حقيرٌ أحمق" وإرهابي ومخرّب.
-مشاعر الإسلاموفوبيا جلية في قطاعات عديدة من المجتمع الأمريكي،تنفثها الوسائط الإعلامية ،ومراكز الأبحاث و"الخبراء" المتفقهون المزعومون ،والأكاديميون المغرضون ،واللوبيهات وتنظيمات النشطاء .
-ليست الإسلاموفوبيا إيديولوجيا سياسية في حد ذاتها كما أنها ليست دوما منعزلة ،بل هي تشكيل إيديولوجي جديد تم التعبير عنه باكتمال انهيار الاتحاد السوفييتي . لاترجع أصول الإسلاموفوبيا إلى إدارة بعينها أو أحد المفكرين ،أو الفلاسفة ،أو النشطاء ،أو إلى أي منفذ إعلامي ،أو مجموعة مصالح خاصة،أو مركز أبحاث ،أو حتى قطاع اقتصادي ،او صناعي ..هذا على الرغم من أن كل هؤلاء مسؤولون بأسلوب جمعي عن نشر التنميطات الخبيثة المعادية المسلمون ، والمعادية للعرب ،وعن تداول تلك المعتقدات من أجل تطبيع هيمنة الولايات المتحدة الإقتصادية ،والسياسية على هذا الكوكب وتبريرها.
-مشاعر الإسلاموفوبيا جلية في قطاعات عديدة من المجتمع الأمريكي،تنفثها الوسائط الإعلامية ،ومراكز الأبحاث و"الخبراء" المتفقهون المزعومون ،والأكاديميون المغرضون ،واللوبيهات وتنظيمات النشطاء .
-ليست الإسلاموفوبيا إيديولوجيا سياسية في حد ذاتها كما أنها ليست دوما منعزلة ،بل هي تشكيل إيديولوجي جديد تم التعبير عنه باكتمال انهيار الاتحاد السوفييتي . لاترجع أصول الإسلاموفوبيا إلى إدارة بعينها أو أحد المفكرين ،أو الفلاسفة ،أو النشطاء ،أو إلى أي منفذ إعلامي ،أو مجموعة مصالح خاصة،أو مركز أبحاث ،أو حتى قطاع اقتصادي ،او صناعي ..هذا على الرغم من أن كل هؤلاء مسؤولون بأسلوب جمعي عن نشر التنميطات الخبيثة المعادية المسلمون ، والمعادية للعرب ،وعن تداول تلك المعتقدات من أجل تطبيع هيمنة الولايات المتحدة الإقتصادية ،والسياسية على هذا الكوكب وتبريرها.
April 20, 2012
3.5. Excellent insight into the origins and continuing "supports" for contemporary Islamophobia in the U.S. Occasionally seemed a bit disorganized, though.
February 27, 2014
excellent book, well planned and executed explanation of the politicization of islamophobia. would recomment to all studying islamophobia or us/foreign policy in the middle east.
December 17, 2017
Very book, however Americans are victims of the media...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews