Warning: This thread is all about Muslims and Labels

[Mathloom]

You might think I'd have become used to it by now. Well, I haven't. When I started writing for a living, I never imagined I'd be the victim of such personal, such Islamophobic, attacks, on a near-daily basis. On joining the New Statesman in 2009, I was promptly subjected to an online smear campaign, involving a series of selectively edited videos of speeches I'd delivered in front of groups of Muslim university students several years ago. I was accused of being a "secret" member of the extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, and a "dangerous Muslim ****head" in the "same genre" as the Nazis. The post that sticks in my mind is from the blogger who referred to me as a "moderate cockroach" whose Islamic faith was "no different from the Islam of Abu Hamza, Abu Qatada, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Anjem Choudary or any of the 'tiny minority' of Islamic terrorists who believe that Islam must dominate, no matter what the cost". Three years later, as I leave the New Statesman to join the Huffington Post UK, little seems to have changed. "Huffington Post's new UK political director brings pro-Iran baggage," screamed the headline on the Fox News website back in late May. My "baggage"? I once publicly praised a fatwa from Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, forbidding the production of nuclear weapons. Shame on me! Another ultra-conservative US news website, the Washington Free Beacon, referred to me as the "HuffPo's house jihadi". The mere mention of the words "Islam" or "Muslim" generates astonishing levels of hysteria and hate on the web. As one of only two Muslim columnists in the mainstream media – the other being the Independent's Yasmin Alibhai-Brown – I have the dubious distinction of being on the receiving end of much of it. In August 2011, for instance, I wrote a light-hearted column in the Guardian on Ramadan, examining how Muslim athletes cope with fasting while competing. The article provoked an astonishing 957 comments, the vast majority of which were malicious, belligerent or both. As one perplexed commenter observed: "There is much we might criticise Islam for … but to see the amount of hatred being spewed on this thread on an article about something as innocuous as fasting really makes one wonder." Indeed. ..... If Muslims such as Warsi, Khan, Ahmed and me are all secret extremists, who are the moderates? That, of course, seems to be the implicit, insidious message: there aren't any. ....... To say that I find the relentlessly hostile coverage of Islam, coupled with the personal abuse that I receive online, depressing is an understatement. There have been times – for instance, when I found my wife curled up on our couch, in tears, after having discovered some of the more monstrous and threatening comments on my New Statesman blog – when I've wondered whether it's all worth it. Perhaps, a voice at the back of my head suggests, I should throw in the towel and go find a less threatening, more civilised line of work. But that's what the trolls want. To silence Muslims; to deny a voice to a voiceless community. I shouldn't have to put up with this abuse. But I will. I have no plans to let the Islamophobes win. So, dare I ask: who's with me?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...omment+is+free)

Personally, I object to the "who's with me?" line of thinking since most people fall into the "not with you and not against you" category. Polarizing position to take, and polarization contributes to the problem he faces.

If he holds himself out as a Pro-Muslim Muslim, then I think the "criticism" he receives should be somewhat expected, though still inappropriate. Initially I thought that this is relatively not that bad since there are lots of non-Muslim groups receiving this type of "criticism", so the notion that this is Muslim-related seemed weak. But then I realized probably all those groups have valid reasons to feel exactly as this guy does, and none of them should accept this behavior on the basis that it happens to others.

He's correct about this IMO: for better or worse, there seems to be a persistent and dramatic shift in perception about the appropriateness of seriously throwing labels like "militant", "islamist", etc at any person perceived to be Muslim. Some things have now broken the barrier of appropriateness and orbit on the flexible border of political correctness.

I think the bolded paragraph also speaks volumes. There is a large but unorganized movement to label every moderate Muslim a potential extremist, every extremist a convicted criminal, and every non-practicing Muslim an acceptable Muslim. This is particularly sickening. I think this movement is steered by long-time racists and bigots who have now found a movement they can join where their behavior is not only tolerated, but praised as nationalism or patriotism or genuine interest in helping Middle Eastern victims of Middle Eastern terrorism.

This topic is particularly discouraging to me because I'm weeks away from applying for further studies and I was considering journalism.

[Rocketman95]

Mods, please sticky.

[rhadamanthus]

Great post.

[glynch]

Mathloom, after the exchanges on this forum I am surprised that you may be surprised.

Based on your numerous excellent posts on this forum I would urge you to consider journalism. As you know it is not well paying at the moment.

Yes, you will catch more flack than Jeffrey WASP. Like a young Muslim attorney I work with you will have a second job to always represent your faith, whether you want to or not, but you have much to contribute

[SamFisher]

I'm looking for the thread about Muslin Lapels. I guess I took a wrong turn....

[Azadre]

I strongly anyone interested in how this bit of labeling came about to read Ansary's book.

Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes

[Mathloom]

Originally Posted by glynch Mathloom, after the exchanges on this forum I am surprised that you may be surprised. Based on your numerous excellent posts on this forum I would urge you to consider journalism. As you know it is not well paying at the moment. Yes, you will catch more flack than Jeffrey WASP. Like a young Muslim attorney I work with you will have a second job to always represent your faith, whether you want to or not, but you have much to contribute

Thanks for the kind words!

To be honest the last thing I want is to use journalism to represent a faith, but I completely appreciate what you're saying. My interest in journalism is not a crusade against anti-Islamic journalism, rather it's a crusade against the slowly-dying standards in the journalism industry as a whole.

I also feel that the younger people in the world need to rediscover journalism and its fundamental utility. IMO there are few areas where 2 or 3 policy changes can achieve such a dramtic shift in bringing people's wishes closer to fruition. More importantly, I think the dominant owners in the journalism industry have a disproportionate power over people such that we can't treat them like regular people/corporations. It's amazing that we've seen in the tobacco industry the consequences of a colluding oligopoly, but we ignore the possibility of the same problem re-occuring in the journalism industry where the consequences are potentially far worse.

So while I do defend Muslims more often than anyone else, I HOPE that it's a product of knowing Muslims and their faith better than the average non-Muslim in a time of their weakness. I HOPE that if it were a different decade, my principles would lead me to defending Jesus, blacks, native americans, south americans, cubans, vietnamese, buddhists, jews, whoever is in need of it in that decade. I'm in the awkward stage of my life where I want nothing more than to help people who need help, but find myself constantly pre-occupied defending my own genetics and my personal beliefs and my own oppressors. But it's not new, this is what opposers of apartheid, opposers of slavery, opposers of war on vietnam went through. This is what supporters of apartheid, slavery, and invasion subconsciously want - to keep you sifting through the BS.

As for journalism not paying well, I've rented my soul out for some years now trying to save enough money so that I can do something I'm passionate about. So while I have to sit in my car for a few minutes every day taking deep breaths reminding myself that my mind is for rent and not for sale, and that there are people in far far far less fortunate circumstances, I hope it will all be worth it soon.

[AroundTheWorld]

That article is a whiny piece of self-victimization. Someone who praised Khomeini considers himself moderate? Like praising Hitler for building some highways...

The thing is, everyone considers themselves moderate. This guy is not.

[glynch]

Originally Posted by AroundTheWorld The thing is, everyone considers themselves moderate. This guy is not.

sort of like you consider yourself sort of a moderate critic of the Muslim religion

[glynch]

Originally Posted by Mathloom Thanks for the kind words! I'm in the awkward stage of my life where I want nothing more than to help people who need help... As for journalism not paying well, I've rented my soul out for some years now trying to save enough money so that I can do something I'm passionate about. So while I have to sit in my car for a few minutes every day taking deep breaths reminding myself that my mind is for rent and not for sale, and that there are people in far far far less fortunate circumstances, I hope it will all be worth it soon.

Sounds like you need to do something a lot closer to what you believe in. I don't know your situation, but error on the side of going for it.

Good Luck. It seems you have a lot to offer.

[AroundTheWorld]

Originally Posted by glynch sort of like you consider yourself sort of a moderate critic of the Muslim religion

You are blinded by your ideological leanings. You will excuse anything because of it, and you will demonize anyone who fits the profile of someone who should be demonized.

Now, regarding the guy whose whiny, self-victimizing rant Mathloom posted (no wonder he posted it - they both like to portray themselves as victims of "Islamophobia" (which is a total misnomer)), before anyone goes and says "great post", "should be stickied", blablabla, it might be a good idea to do some research on this person.

The guy has gone on record with the following statements (among others):

Comparing non-Muslims to animals:

We know that keeping the moral high-ground is key. Once we lose the moral high-ground we are no different from the rest of the non-Muslims; from the rest of those human beings who live their lives as animals, bending any rule to fulfil any desire.

http://www.indianpanorama.com/karnat...p?vid_id=12422

Calling atheists "cattle"

The kaffar, the disbelievers, the atheists who remain deaf and stubborn to the teachings of Islam, the rational message of the Quran; they are described in the Quran as, quote, 'a people of no intelligence', Allah describes them as; not of no morality, not as people of no belief – people of 'no intelligence' – because they’re incapable of the intellectual effort it requires to shake off those blind prejudices, to shake off those easy assumptions about this world, about the existence of God. In this respect, the Quran describes the atheists as 'cattle', as cattle of those who grow the crops and do not stop and wonder about this world.

http://images.spectator.co.uk/rodlid...or-islam.thtml

Claiming that Israel causes anti-Semitism

Does Israel "cause" anti-Semitism? That's what the numbers seem to suggest

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/di...sm-israel-rise



And then he goes on to whine that any criticism of him is "Islamophobia" (that ridiculous propaganda word), that he is not considered a moderate?

What a whiny, self-pitying, lying biatch.

[adeelsiddiqui]

Originally Posted by AroundTheWorld That article is a whiny piece of self-victimization. .

lol

[Bandwagoner]

Before I started clicking on these threads I had a very favorable image of Muslims. First exposure was in undergrad studying in the computer lab at all hours and almost tripping over them praying cause I was so tired. He actually apologized to ME later which is the exact opposite of blame share.

Hopefully the crazy, butthurt ones we have on the forum represent the vast minority.

[AroundTheWorld]

Originally Posted by CaseyH Hopefully the crazy, butthurt ones we have on the forum represent the vast minority.

Yes, hopefully. It doesn't quite seem like they are a minority on this forum, though.