{"id":25587,"date":"2015-03-21T17:18:59","date_gmt":"2015-03-21T16:18:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/?p=25587"},"modified":"2015-03-21T17:19:21","modified_gmt":"2015-03-21T16:19:21","slug":"25587","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/25587\/","title":{"rendered":"Integrating Muslim Neighbors?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is Islam Bashing a Lucrative Industry?<\/p>\n

The US-based Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life predicts that over the next two decades, Muslims will make up 26.4% of the world\u2019s population of 8.3 billion people. This means that the worldwide Muslim population will have grown by 25% at the end of 2030.<\/p>\n

However, while the population of Muslims in the West is growing, a fear of Islam as an ideology is increasing. This has sometimes resulted in aggressive and discriminatory measures against Muslims, which compels some scholars and thinkers to warn against the rise of \u201cIslamophobia.\u201d The belittling and mocking of Islamic beliefs, the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad \u2014 often in popular culture and the media \u2014 indicate that Muslims face a serious challenge: How to continue living in Western societies peacefully, while being on the receiving end of hate crimes, the denigration of their faith and the restriction of social freedoms.<\/p>\n

Nathan Lean is an American scholar and writer, who has investigated Islamophobia extensively.\u00a0 Lean believes that Islamophobia is a lucrative \u201cindustry\u201d that wins skyrocketing salaries for those who promote and contribute to it.<\/p>\n

Nathan Lean:<\/strong> An unfortunate consequence of the War on Terror was that it operated on the premise of a \u201cforeign enemy, domestic threat.\u201d While the Bush and Obama administrations went to great rhetorical lengths to avoid conflating the actions of extremists with the peaceful majority, the policies they put in place reinforced the notion that the religion of Islam, and by extension all Muslims, deserved special scrutiny.<\/p>\n

Thus, we see a plethora of examples of religious discrimination in the name of national security: The NYPD collaborated with the CIA to spy on Muslim communities in New York, in some cases designating entire mosques as \u201cterrorist organizations\u201d; the FBI paid informants to infiltrate mosques and entrap Muslim worshippers \u2014 in one California case, the informant was instructed to sleep with Muslim women; the State Department, in concert with federal immigration offices, delayed or denied visa, passport and citizenship applications based on nothing more than the applicant\u2019s name or country of origin; Congress held a series of McCarthy-esque hearings on \u201cradicalization\u201d of American Muslim communities that produced no evidence such a thing was occurring; and more recently, the White House announced its \u201cCountering Violent Extremism\u201d program, which unlike its broad name, has a narrow focus on the Muslim American community.<\/p>\n

Lean:<\/strong> Charlie Hebdo<\/em> and Jyllands-Posten<\/em> had the \u201cright\u201d to publish their cartoons. But having that right does not mean that what they did was right. In Western societies, free speech is fast becoming a weapon. We don\u2019t fight for<\/em> it as much as we fight with<\/em> it.<\/p>\n

Free speech is about as sacred to most people as are their religious values: When it works for them, they embrace it. When it doesn\u2019t, they reject it.\u00a0 Interview on Muslim Bashing<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Muslim<\/a><\/p>\n

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Is Islam Bashing a Lucrative Industry? The US-based Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life predicts that over the next two decades, Muslims will make up 26.4% of the world\u2019s population of 8.3 billion people. This means that the worldwide … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,23,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corruption","category-entrepreneurs","category-finance"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t