What the Right Doesn’t Want You to Know About Muslims

Posted on Monday, October 22, 2007 at 8:59 pm
Category: Unitarian Universalism - General

Rightwinger David Horowitz and his Terrorism Awareness Project has declared this week “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week,” and launched a hateful campaign on college campuses. (Inside Higher Ed has more details).

The Muslim Public Affairs Council has produced a short booklet, “What You Need to Know About Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week.” The handbook is written primarily for Muslim students, and provides suggestions on how to respond to the campaign. It also provides quotations from David Horowitz, which I am excerpting here:

“…They have the body of a human being,
but their mind no longer has the freedom of forming an
independent judgement… Thus while having the body
of the Human being, a Moslem who unquestioningly
follows the Quran, behaves like a soulless beast who
has forsaken his/her capacity of independent thinking.”
(“Mohammed Atta”, 12/11/02)

“There has been lots of talk in American media about
a difference between ‘moderate’ and fundamentalist
Muslims… there is no theological or cultural distinction
between the two.” (Michael Anbar: “Where are the
Moderate Muslims?”, 5/2/03)

This is ugly stuff. Horowitz aims to dehumanize Muslims, and convince non-Muslims that all Muslims are fundamentalist. This is the message that many Americans are being exposed to about Islam, and for some, it may be the only message about Islam that they are hearing.

Horowitz is a hatemonger, and a liar.

Islam is like all of the other major world religions — it has adherents that are peaceful, loving and committed to freedom, as well as adherents that are violent, hateful, and committed to oppressing others.

A great starting place for learning more about Muslim leaders who are committed to freedom and equality is Omid Safi’s book Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender, and Pluralism, a collection of essays from progressive Muslim intellectuals. On page 3 of his introduction to the book, Safi explains:

At the heart of a progressive Muslim interpretation is a simple yet radical idea: every human life, female and male, Muslim and non-Muslim, rich or poor, “Northern” or “Southern,” has exactly the same intrinsic worth…A progressive Muslim agenda is concerned with the ramifications of the premise that all members of humanity have this same intrinsic worth because, as the Qur’an reminds us, each of us has the breath of God breathed into our being.

This is not the vision of Islam that college students will be hearing about during “Islamo-Fascism” Awareness week—unless fair-minded people speak up.

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5 Responses to “What the Right Doesn’t Want You to Know About Muslims”

Xavier Ashe
October 22nd, 2007 21:03
I don’t know enough about his campaign to know one way or another…. but how would you suggest we teach people about fundamentalist? Muslim, Christian, or Scientology, there has to be a way that we can warn impressionable mind that these craziest exist out there. Like I said, I am not necessarily defending this guy, but I understand the intent.
Shelby
October 23rd, 2007 09:54
Hi Xavier,

Thanks for commenting. It is possible to teach the history and sociology of religious fundamentalism without asserting that ALL people of a particular religion are extremists.

A course on Islam in the contemporary world could cover not only extremist movements in Islam, but also moderate and progressive movements. Or, a panel discussion on religious movements that use violence could include experts on several of the world’s religions, who can explain extremist movements without implying that all people in a given religion are violent.
Bill Baar
October 23rd, 2007 10:48
Liberal Christians haven’t done a very stand up job when it comes to standing up with Liberal Muslims. MEMRI does it.

I’m betting you can count on one hand the number of references to any liberal Islamic writers on the UU blogs.

A nice start for UU’s would be a response to the Muslim Scholars call for dialogue.

We UU’s have something to offer.

It’s a shame we don’t join in the dialogue.
hafidha sofia
October 23rd, 2007 13:18
Uggh.
Shelby Meyerhoff
October 23rd, 2007 21:48
Hi Bill, Thanks for your comment. I’m glad you pointed out the opportunity for Unitarian Universalists to engage in dialogue with Muslim thinkers; this is a chance for us to extend a hand of friendship, and also to learn more about another faith tradition.

I did some research on MEMRI after following your link. It looks as though the organization is more slanted than it might at first appear. Here is some of the info I found on Wikipedia:

Brian Whitaker, the Middle East editor for the Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom, has been one of the most outspoken critics of MEMRI, writing: “My problem with Memri is that it poses as a research institute when it’s basically a propaganda operation,”[5] and that “the stories selected by Memri for translation follow a familiar pattern: either they reflect badly on the character of Arabs or they in some way further the political agenda of Israel.”[4]

Laila Lalami has written that, “There are three general observations that can be made about MEMRI’s work. One is that it consistently picks the most violent, hateful rubbish it can find, translates it and distributes it in e-mail newsletters to media and members of Congress in Washington. The second is that MEMRI does not translate comparable articles published in Israel, although the country is not only a part of the Middle East but an active party to some of its most searing conflicts. For instance, when the right-wing Israeli politician Effi Eitam referred to Israel’s Palestinian citizens as a “cancer,” MEMRI did not pick up this story. The third is that this organization is now the main source of media articles on the region of Islam, a far greater and far more diverse whole than the individual countries it lists.”[21]