Mideast News & Politics

“The Savage Speaks:" The Psychology of the Anti-Muslim Hate Ad

Hateful advertisements calling Muslims “savages” appeared recently in ten New York City subway stations. Now, they’re in the metro stations of the nation’s capital. The posters, which read, “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Defeat Jihad. Support Israel,” remind me of what it was like to be an Iranian kid growing up in America, after the 1979 Iranian revolution—not always a Norman Rockwell picture. I was shot at with BB gun bullets, our car was shot with real bullets, I was sometimes called the “N word” (well, really the “Sand N” word), and I resorted to fisticuffs on more than one occasion. You see, responding to bullies who asked questions like, “Hey Eye-rainian, do ya wanna box?” with maybe pithy, but probably really just butter-knife wit retorts like “No thanks, I have a box at home,” didn’t always settle the matter.

“Heaven on Earth”: A Conversation About Shari’a with Author Sadakat Kadri

What is the Shari’a? How has it been interpreted in history? And, where is the Shari’a a powerful force in the world today? Sadakat Kadri answers these questions in his provocative new book, Heaven on Earth: A Journey Through Shari’a Law from the Deserts of Ancient Arabia to the Streets of the Modern Muslim World (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012). His study is based on a rigorous examination of Islamic sources, and extensive travels in South Asia, Iran and the Middle East.

Last Encore at the United Nations: Netanyahu and Ahmadinejad Square Off

“I speak on behalf of an angry people...” — Mahmoud Abbas at the 67th UN General Assembly address.

The yearly orations and political posturing at the disempowered assembly hall of the United Nations are over. Once again the elected and non-elected leaders of the new world order used their thirty minutes in the sun to lecture, to scare, to grandstand, to remind, and in the case of the Palestinians, to implore for justice in front of a powerless yet sympathetic audience which has been forced to turn its attention to phantom warnings of one non-existent bomb by a madman in the Middle East.

And I don’t mean Ahmadinejad.

Everything You Need to Know About Islam and Divorce

Perhaps no other practice is so despicable in any society than the halala (some say “hilla” or “hulla”) system that is being practiced in parts of the Muslim world. This is a system that entitles a divorced wife to return to her husband, if both husband and wife so desire, but only after marrying another person and after that person divorces her. The practice is antithetical to the very worldview and egalitarian spirit of the Quran.

UC Irvine's Muslim Student Union Battles Injustice: Part Three

In Part 1, we met the UC-Irvine MSU, whose political outspokenness is inspired by their faith. In Part II, we see how participating in the group gives its young members confidence and awareness of their unity with Muslims around the world. In Part III, we find that their activism helps them deal with negative perceptions of Muslim Americans.

In The Face of Anti-Muslim Prejudice, A Call for A Peaceful Response

Over the past two weeks, violence and protests have spread from Libya and Egypt to over two dozen countries, leaving dozens dead, including a U.S. Ambassador and other U.S. diplomats. The film that allegedly spurred these events has been the centerpiece of a raging debate about the use of free speech and the response from people targeted by those exercising their free speech.

UC-Irvine Muslim Student Union Battle Injustice: Part Two

In Part 1, we met the UC-Irvine MSU, whose political outspokenness is inspired by their faith. In Part II, we see how participating in the group gives its young members confidence and awareness of their unity with Muslims around the world. In Part III, we find that their activism helps them deal with negative perceptions of Muslim Americans.

It was half way between a "busy MSU day." The group already held a teach-in to raise awareness of the repression of activists in Syria, and it still had another protest about Syria coming up, along with a presentation on Shariah to end the day. Having been refreshed by mid-day prayer, Aminah Galal, the group's vice president, picked up lunch and headed to the Da'wah table, also known as the "Ask a Muslim" booth.

UC-Irvine's Muslim Student Union Battle Injustice: Part One

Aminah Galal counted 100 audience members at the presentation on Shariah law. It was a good turnout, and most, she noted, weren't members of University of California – Irvine's Muslim Student Union (MSU), which hosted the event.

But as Galal, vice president of the MSU, finished counting, the Q&A turned confrontational. Five of the six who asked questions were from a Christian ministry called Truth Defenders, and to them, true Muslims wouldn't accept the speaker's flexible interpretation of Shariah.

"You are misrepresenting the religion that you say to profess," said Louis Lionheart, the group's leader.

From her perch at back of the auditorium, Galal shrugged her shoulders, covered by a long black dress. A green and blue patterned hijab framed her round face. "I'm used to it," she said, her eyes tired under thin-rimmed glasses.

Since 9/11, the Muslim American community has struggled to respond to the perception of Islam as a threat. Muslim leaders frequently are questioned for their beliefs and affiliations. In the most noteworthy recent case, Michele Bachmann and four other Republicans in Congress accused Huma Abedin, aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and other Muslims in the government of being disloyal to the United States.

While other Republican leaders defended Abedin's integrity, young Muslims such as Galal have grown to expect an Islamophobic reaction when they step into the public sphere. And the UC-Irvine MSU is not afraid of expressing opinions; it is entering its last quarter of university probation for its role in a protest that got some of its members convicted of two misdemeanors one year ago this month.

Though most Muslim Americans might not risk arrest for their beliefs, the groups' answer to Islamophobia suggests a potential path for the community: embracing activism as essential to their identities as both Muslims and Americans. Over three parts, this article will look at one day in the life the MSU to explain what the MSU is, how the group shapes its members, and how activism helps them respond to Islamophobia.

The UC-Irvine MSU gained international notoriety in 2010 after 10 young Muslim men shouted down Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren in protest of what they see as Israel's unjust treatment of Palestinians. The students, known as the Irvine 11 (an 11th student also was arrested), were convicted in September 2011 for plotting to and disrupting a public meeting. The MSU remains under university probation until December 2012.

The prosecution's case painted the MSU as rude teenagers, if not angry extremists with a history of anti-Semitism. But the MSU and their supporters saw the conviction as a consequence of Islamophobia—proof that Muslim Americans aren't accepted as legitimate political actors, especially on an issue as sensitive as Israel/Palestine. Though the case might seem like a setback—like 9/11 before it—it spurred the 20-year-old MSU to a new level of political maturity. Where there's injustice, Islam inspires them to speak out, and they'll defend their ability to do so at any cost.

“There’s a rights-based narrative around this particular form of protest that I think is different than the education, public outreach narrative that has marked the MSAs (Muslim student associations) in a post-9/11 period," says Lori Peek, a sociologist at Colorado State University and author of Behind the Backlash: Muslim Americans After 9/11.

The outspokenness of the UC-Irvine MSU is unique, according to Edina Lekovic, director of policy and programming at the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC). Still, the group's experiences reflect the reality of Muslim American life after 9/11.

The MSU is affiliated with a national network of student associations, started in 1963 to provide Muslim students with a prayer community on college campuses. Muslim groups often define the college life of their members, just as fraternity and sororities do for other students. At UC-Irvine, the MSU hosts a constant flow of activities—weekly meetings, religious classes, and social events. Between academic classes, MSU members gather in lounges at the Cross Cultural Center, and members live together off campus. About 200 people are somewhat involved, while 80 to 100 students are very active members, Galal estimates.

As at other schools, Galal says, the Muslim community at UC-Irvine grew in numbers after 9/11 and has stayed strong since. In the past 10 years, the Muslim American community was the second fastest growing religious group in the United States, according to the 2012 Religious Congregations and Membership Study. Today, 2.6 million people are associated with mosques, up 1 million since 2002. The growth isn't just from immigration and births. The negative reaction to Islam after 9/11 led Muslims to strengthen their religious identity and join Muslim organizations in greater numbers, according to Peek.

Galal's family moved to Irvine in 2002, as she went into eighth grade, in part to join a Muslim community. In their old city, Santa Monica, her mother had been spat on and told to "go home" in the wake of 9/11. "They didn't want us growing up in that negative environment," Galal says.

Her brother matriculated at UC-Irvine, and through him Galal was introduced to the MSU. "I really admired how people I knew in MSU didn't hide their identity as Muslims," she says. She donned the hijab around the same time, her mother assured that Galal would keep it on in the face of adversity.

Muslim student groups tend to focus on educational, service or community building activities rather than political activities, says Lekovic. In the wider community, mosques, too, aim "to be a religious space rather than political space," she says.

UC-Irvine's MSU also started as a prayer group, but with a defiant streak. At the 20th anniversary gala, a founding member explained how undergrads broke off from the grad student-led MSA because women were forced to remain behind a barrier during worship. Today, the group gathers for three of the five daily prayers in an open space between a tree and vending machines outside the Cross Cultural Center.

The group's spiritual unity is inseparable from its political activism. “If you see an injustice, you should change it with your hand; if you cannot, then speak against it; if you cannot, then you should hate it in your heart, but that is the weakest level of faith,” MSU members say, quoting the same Hadith, or saying of the Prophet, to explain their commitment to justice.

The MSU is most contentious when it speaks out against Israel, but in 2012 its biggest concern was Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad brutally cracked down on his citizens in the wake of pro-democracy protests. The same day as their Shariah event, the MSU held multiple events to raise awareness about the Syrian situation. Their Shariah expert, Ammar Kahf, also is an expert in Syrian politics and gave a lunchtime lecture on recent events, while MSU members tried to attract the attention of passers-by by posing as victims of Assad in the middle of the campus' busiest pedestrian walkway.

Galal, at the bottom of the steps that double as seating, left her morning class early for the talk. She's always cared about injustice, but before joining the MSU she didn't know what she could do about it. "Sometimes I feel like I've learned so many more life skills in the MSU than I have in just going to class," says the history major, in her final year at UC-Irvine.

After Kahf concluded, Galal stretched up to the microphone and thanked him, urging her listeners to return for another protest that afternoon.

By then, it was time for prayer—a welcome break, Galal says. "If it's a busy MSU day, it's a chance for me to remember why am I doing what I'm doing. It's that constant reminder of that religious obligation of enjoining the good and forbidding the evil. All our activism is based on our religion."

This piece is part of a three-part series by Megan Sweas. Read Part II and Part III.

Submitted by Megan Sweas

Photo Credit: Mauro Parra-Miranda

Old Habits Die Hard: Patronage and the Egyptian Parliament

Egypt’s People’s Assembly has historically served as a rubber-stamp parliament. It had little power to challenge Egypt’s former president, Hosni Mubarak, not that it wanted to do that in the first place.

As the late Anthony Shadid illustrated through the example of Kamal al-Shazli, members of parliament played a key role in the Mubarak regime’s extensive patronage network. Parliamentarians, often ambitious and wealthy elite (who were thus the most threatening to the regime), were instead co-opted by the regime by the prospect of gaining access to government services, which they could then distribute to the highest bidder.

Campaign 2012: Domestic Issues Trump Foreign Policy Concerns

When Michael C. Hudson and I began penning an article on the foreign policy implications for the Middle East under the next presidential administration, we wanted to underscore an issue neglected in a campaign season defined by the economy. Soon enough, our issue and region of choice were brought to the forefront by the shocking deaths of American diplomats in Libya and the rapid spread of small-scale but dramatic demonstrations outside US embassies throughout the Muslim world. It is an unfortunately sensational storyline. Featured are an anti-Semitic/Islamic fraudulent expat, a soft-core porn director, and a preacher of vitriol on the one hand, and opportunistic politicians maximizing the anti-Western sentiment of their (in some cases overly-militarized-thanks-to-the-West) followers. Add to that an exploitative Republican presidential candidate, significant Islamophobia, and a deleterious 24-hour news cycle, and we have a production nearly as distasteful as the film that started it all.