Religion Dispatches
…r sell alcohol. Or, rather, al-cohol, I should say. One possible reason an Arabic word is used to describe a beverage the majority of Arabs are not supposed to imbibe is that Muslim scientists made huge advances in chemistry and passed their terminology on to Europe. 15. The Most Expensive Housing in America Anthony Janszoon (1607–1676) had a lot of money, so the Dutch wanted him to stay in New Amsterdam (see #7), but his half-Dutch, half-Spanish,…
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…ho, being the victims of anti-Semitism, have little or no sympathy for the Arabs; whether citizens of Arab countries, Israeli citizens, or inhabitants of the West Bank. Finally, and most interestingly, the Haredim, or Ultra Orthodox. This group, mostly descended from Eastern European Jews, were traditionally (and confusingly to outsiders) actually anti-Zionist and not engaged in Israeli politics at all. The Haredi accepted that it was Zionism that…
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…en the philosopher insists on stating that the Holocaust remains “an incomparably greater crime” than most of the events it is compared to. Yet, the Shoah is not such an abstraction that it prohibits itself from being abused in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. To make this point, Zizek notes how often the Holocaust is appealed to when progressives issue standard platitudes concerning Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians. Stating that the pl…
Read More…well before 1880, “some of who had been there as long as any of the native Arabs.” Contrary to Harris, Chamseddine explains that, “Presenting the colonization of Palestine as being a religious rivalry …wipes away the existence of these multidimensional histories…including the cultural and intellectual dimensions, which coloured life for all those in Palestine” The chief evidence of this genocidal objective of the Palestinians/Muslims that Harris a…
Read More…ur, Advocacy and Civic Engagement Coordinator for the National Network for Arab American Communities, about the anti-Muslim New York City subway ads, the threat of domestic terrorism, the “Innocence of Muslims” film, and Islamophobia in the presidential campaign. In the clip below, we discuss Newsweek’s “Muslim Rage” cover story, and how the magazine’s invitation to Twitter to use a #MuslimRage hashtage turned to mockery of Newsweek. What’s more,…
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…lians, damning them to death along with the militants in their midst. Anti-Arab racist rhetoric is common in Israeli politics. Recent comments by a Member of Knesset and whip of the religious Jewish Home party – key members of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s governing coalition – were especially heinous. In a Facebook post published a month ago, Ayelet Shaked advocated for the killing of “the entire Palestinian people… including its elderly and its wom…
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…when we consider widespread abuse directed at people profiled as Muslim or Arab—a response that began before the second bomb had even exploded. But I think we should be cautious about attempts to frame the Boston bombings, or for that matter any profound act of violence, mainly as a failure of (or an injunction toward) “interfaith cooperation.” There are four questions worth raising: 1. What other dynamics of power move out of focus when celebrat…
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…cally about being Muslim. The ethnic humor is stock. Substitute “Jew” for “Arab” or “Indian” and it feels like a Jackie Mason schtick. For Preacher Moss, his material did not talk about the immigrant experience, but aside from a few quips on Americans being afraid of Blacks and Muslims, his material still felt dated, like it was coming from his days writing for “In Living Color.” The fact is, in America “Muslim” is being transformed into a race. I…
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…, Buber told the Zionist Congress that the outcome of the incipient Jewish-Arab conflict “depends entirely on us,” on the attitude chosen by the Jews. Even earlier, Gandhi told the Indian nationalist movement much the same thing: Their own choices had led them into suffering and only their own choices, not those of the colonizers, would lead them out of colonialism into independence. At a more philosophical level, both agreed that any situation, n…
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…to take a strong stand.” Gutless European leaders (as well as many in the United States) imposed an arms embargo that crippled the defensive capacities of the war’s primary victims. It was not until the July 1995 massacre at Srebrenica, in which some 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed over three days, that the international community was pushed into action. We are coming up on the 17th anniversary of that attack, and already there is concern t…
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