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As I work on my research on Islamophobia, I tap into a variety of resources. While journal articles provide the academic research knowledge that I need, I also use tools like Google Alerts to keep track of trends. Recently, two articles popped up in an I email I received from Google Alerts. One is titled “FBI Data Shows No Epidemic of Islamophobia in USA” and is hosted by a site called The Propagandist. It is an interesting, but wrong, interpretation of recently released FBI hate crime statistics for 2010. In The Propagandist article, the author refered to 2010 hate crime statistics and decided that Islamophobia is not a problem by comparing it to rates of anti-Jewish hate crimes. The article then went on to minimize anti-Islamic crimes. This is a very limited view of the data so I took all the FBI reports and charted the results.
All of the data charts below are compiled from Table 1 of the FBI hate crime reports. As the data shows, after the attacks of September 11th, attacks against Muslims increased 1500%. While it did lower starting in 2002, it is still higher today than before September 11th, 2001.
Figure 1 shows anti-Jewish and anti-Islamic crimes by the number of victims. In order to easily see the trend, I added Figure 2, which shows a trendline that anti-Jewish crimes appear to have a downward trend, while the anti-Islamic trend is increasing. Figures 3 and 4 focus on Incidents instead of victims.
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- FBI Hate Crime Data Figure 1
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- FBI Hate Crime Data Figure 2
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- FBI Hate Crime Data Figure 3
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- FBI Hate Crime Data Figure 4
In addition, according to the author (actually the video clip), the term “Islamophobia” “didn’t even exist a few years ago”, this is not correct. According to Rana (2007), the term “emerged as a new term in the 1970′s and “became popular for European anti-racist activities in the 1980′s and 1990′s”. This determines that the term, “Islamophobia”, is about 40 years old.
To be fair, The Propagandist article stated that anti-Jewish crime rates were higher. While this is true in terms of incidents and victims, the rest of the comments are not correct.
The second article? Well, that is located at CommentaryMagazine.com, and it also attempts to discredit Islamophobia by comparing it to rates of anti-Jewish crimes.
References
Rana, J. (2007). The Story of Islamophobia. Souls, 9(2), 148-161. doi:10.1080/10999940701382607
I have visited the Occupy Wall Street protesters at Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan several times since the sit-in first started many weeks ago. When the protests began I thought it would not have the energy to continue, but it has and this has surprised me. I thought about setting up an anti-Islamophobia table for a few days to spread the word, but, I felt that this arena was not the best place for research – I admit that I was wrong. Delegations from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Islamic Leadership Council arrived at the park and held prayers. In fact, other groups have also held prayer sessions. Faith has now become part of the movement and it will be interesting to see how things continue to develop.
What I find most interesting are resources that Interfaith Worker Justice has put together. They have released a Congregational Discussion Guide for those who are of Christian, Jewish, or Muslim faith.
One of my favorite books is How democratic is the American Constitution? by Robert A. Dahl. Dahl questioned the belief that most Americans share, that the United States Constitution is perfect and was created by superior men. I would love to know what the framers of the Constitution (the term Dahl uses to refer to the Founding Fathers – the former group didn’t include the signers of the Constitution ) have to say. I am sure they would be happy with how New York City government has handled the protesters and concerned about how the local government in Oakland, California has addressed the issue.
Right before I left for my trip to Washington, DC this weekend I found out about a new Islamic Heritage Museum that started in April 2011, so decided to stop by. It’s a nicely set-up museum which appears to be part of an Islamic school. I was warmly greeted by one of the founders, Amir Muhammad. After walking around for a few minutes I spoke to him about my research dissertation on Islamophobia. I was then given a very gracious and lengthy tour of the museum materials. I was very impressed with his knowledge and pleasurable demeanor (not every curator can make a museum interesting). I explained that I wanted to interview imams in NYC and he recommend a few names in NYC. Much of what I saw matched my research regarding the main fact that Muslims were in the United States before there even was a United States. The museum is full of great exhibits (some from the Revolutionary War to the great boxer Muhammad Ali on a Wheaties Box) so I highly recommend visiting. So why the rise of Islamophobia recently? I think it has been slowly growing. According to Mazrui (2004), Muslims in America were on par with the values in American society – for example: Muslims do no consume alcohol and America went through its prohibition stage, however, this eventually changed. In the 1950′s pre-marital sex was frowned upon in the United States, as it is in the Muslim faith. This also changed with the sexual revolution of the 1960′s and 1970′s. At this point, the Islamic faith and American values were not running very parallel as they had in the past. In the 1970′s with issues in the Middle East and the desire for more oil consumption, the United States started to play more active roles in the Middle East. This created and continues to create a great deal of conflict on many different levels. These facts combined with a growing Islamic community (as my committee Chair mentioned, maybe Muslims are more visible than in the past) may be the contributing factors to the Islamohopbia that we see in the United States. The research continues.
References
Mazrui (2004). Islam and the United States: streams of convergence, strands of divergence. Third World Quarterly, 25(5), 793-820.
I found an interesting website today while conducting research on racism called Muslim Self Portraits . It’s an interesting project, take a look. 
The Transportation Safety Administration has made me nervous now. I wasn’t very concerned about the body scanners, the metal detectors, or hand wand, but a new security measure has me concerned. To be honest, my concern could be because I just finished a great book entitled “The Giver” by Lois Lowry which has the feeling of George Orwell’s “1984″, bu
t, I don’t really think that’s it. So here it is: the TSA is starting a new program called Screening Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT). According to the article in CNN, the idea is that a trained TSA officer will talk to passengers as they go through security at an airport and as “they talk with passengers, the officers will try to spot potentially high-risk travelers by looking for suspicious behavior and facial expressions of tension, fear or deception”. My first reaction was: you have got to be kidding me. The TSA has stated that there will be no type of profiling, and I believe them for the most part. But as some law enforcement agencies are hiring questionable anti-terrorism experts who also make biased claims against Muslims (Walid Shoebat is one according to CNN), anti-terrorism training has me very nervous. A few weeks or months of training will help spot a terrorist by looking and then talking with them? I have to see this in action. As all of this is happening as law enforcement found a vial of Ted Bundy’s blood from the 1970′s and they are adding it to a DNA crime database. George Orwell is turning over in his grave.
Desert News reports on the press release from Discovery and indicated that the Learning Channel (TLC) has produced a new show called “All American Muslim”. According to the press release “[t]hrough these families and their diverse experiences, we will explore how they blend their values and traditions with everyday life in America, providing insight into their culture with care and compassion”. TLC has has some interesting programming in the past, but, the focus seems to be unique circumstances such as “Little People, Big World ” (mom and dad are 4 feet tall), “19 Kids and Counting” (the title says it all), and “Sister Wives” (polygamy). According to the press release “All-American Muslim” will
“bring audiences inside Dearborn, Michigan, a mid-sized industrial city that is also home to the largest mosque in the United States. Following the daily lives of five Muslim American families, each episode offers an intimate look at their customs and celebrations, as well as the misconceptions, conflicts and differences they face outside-and within-their own community”.
Shows like this remind me of The Kardashians, and that makes me nervous. The Kardashians don’t really offer much, if any, insight into the rich Armenian culture and a strong bond it has with Christianity. I hope that “All-American Muslim” will be a part of positive social change, and maybe create some new pop culture stars that can speak about their rich Muslim culture. According to research I have read , “Islam as a whole is viewed as a lifestyle”(El Kacimi, 2008, p. 2 ). The study by El Kacimi (2008) was a “precursor for further scholarly researches that seek to find new ways of solving the tensions between the Muslim population and the rest of American society” (p.7). I hope TLC doesn’t overlook the important fact of Islam as a lifestyle.
References
El Kacimi, S. (2008). Identity and social integration: Exploratory study of Muslim immigrants in the United States. Thesis, The Claremont Graduate University.doi:3308400.
Posted on the New York Times:
Several days ago the NY Times reported that the attackers in Norway were terrorists with Islamic backgrounds (notice that I didn’t say Islamic terrorists) and the comments then began to build on this single bit of information. Some of the posters from yesterday made comments that Islam was being held back by these terrorists, but, does anyone say that today about the KKK in the United States or the current terrorist in Norway that is Christian? Probably not since several news outlets, politicians, and bloggers have decided that Islam is public enemy number one. Those who are anti-Islam and continue to categorize millions of people into terrorists or members of an “old fashioned” religion are pawns of what I believe was part of Osama Bin Laden’s plan, for everyone to turn against Islam. Why would he want this? Because his followers would be energized and his popularity would grow. I am currently studying the issue of Islamophobia in New York City pre and post 9/11 for my PhD dissertation. Thousands of pages of research interviews and information show several commonalities, one of which is the role of media in encouraging fear and misinformation. Let’s think about it.
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