How the Right Manufactures Fear of Muslims

[Clarakore]

As part of the healing process we will naturally have to undergo it is great to keep a clear perspective, for some to understand why others feel so opposed to certain groups, for others to understand why they themselves might hold on to hatred for others, when we all know hatred produces more destruction and forgiveness leads to healing.

We as individuals have to decide how much of our opinion is ours and how much is influenced by the media, the internet, and others. Just think bank to your first memories and thoughts you ever had of Muslims and compare them to the ones you hold now. Have they changed? Would you share with us your perceptions after brief introspection?

Other questions are: Are you comfortable with these thoughts now? Do you find them healthy? Are they based on actual knowledge and relationships with Muslims or based on the media and popular narrative? And, do you really want peace?

In another thread dealing with the American tragedy of Boston and how one person chooses to express and cope with it, it was clear the this is not just an American issue but has been globalized, quite a few from England will not forgive the attack on us in America. Of course many in England dabble in the view that Muslims just want to take over their country and they also have to deal with them as immigrants, so as usual many immigrants live with less in dodgier quarters while natives might not have to, and would view them as being from the gutter and have greater cause to be prejudiced, or even if they are less well off themselves they see Muslims as competition and not being in the same boat as them. They also base their views on 7-11 as we do on 9-11 which causes great fear and anxiety. That is understandable but should we allow all that to control us in the end and dictate how we will dialogue and treat other fellow human beings? Or we will further dehumanize others and call them animals and treat them as such?

Even animals deserve our utmost respect and care BTW and a way to see where any society is in the way of enlightenment is to see how they treat animals.

Now this hatred has an origin, it is not natural, it won't always be with us, and this is just one view and not the whole truth of the matter that the premise of this book presents.

The origin of this hatred can be scientifically charted through polls in one instance but will in the future be better explained.

Human beings are wired to be aware of difference. It is natural part of human nature to forge various social alliances that foster senses of “us,” the insiders, in distinction to “them,” the outsiders. Problems arise when the outsiders become the enemy, and they further function in such a way that one’s individual and collective identity is created by way of opposition to the other. In the United States, this dynamic is all too frequently found in the post-9/11 environment in regards to Islam, where a cottage industry portrays Islam as a monstrous entity, wholly a religion of violence, pursuing terrorism and the overthrow of the US Constitution to be replaced with “sharia law.” The result of this narrative is a frighteningly large number of people adopting “Islamophobia,” an irrational fear of Muslims and the Islamic religion.

Nathan Lean discusses the phenomenon of right-wing construction of Islamic monstrosity in his volume The Islamophobia Industry: How the Right Manufactures Fear of Muslims. The book reveals the astonishing success this industry has had in shaping negative public opinions about Islam. While one might expect that anti-Muslim sentiments was high among Americans shortly after the attacks of 9/11, Lean shares Pew Research Center polling data wherein “59 percent of Americans had a favorable opinion of Muslims just two months after the collapse of the Twin Towers.” Further, a few months later, “45 percent of Americans” held “views of Muslims that were generally positive.” However, through the prolific distribution of its message through various forms of media, the right-wing Islamophobia industry was influential in shaping strongly negative opinions of Islam. In 2002, hate crimes against Muslims increased by 1600 percent, and in 2004, 46 percent of Americans “believed that Islam was more likely than other religions to encourage violence.”

How did this industry begin? Who and what make up some of its major elements? How have the media, and especially the Internet, helped carry the message of Islamic monstrosity? And perhaps most disturbingly from an Evangelical perspective, why have Evangelicals been a segment of the population all too eager to receive and perpetuate this message? Lean’s Islamophobia provides answers to these and many other important questions, which represents one of the most significant political, cultural, religious, and theological challenges of the 21^st century.

http://johnwmorehead...a-industry.html

What are ways evangelical Christians and others could change the unhealthy climate we are all contributing to and forge a better world?

What are ways evangelical Christians and others could maintain the state of affairs that bring more harm than good to us all as a species?

Edited April 22, 2013 by Leave Britney alone!

[Ashotep]

I really don't think the right has to manufacture fear of Muslims. They do that all by themselves when they set off bombs killing innocent people or run planes into buildings or stone their own sister or wife to death.

[Ealdwita]

Hilander has posted my view most succinctly!

[ciriuslea]

I'm an atheist and my views on Islam and Muslims was moulded by the media, not having much contact with Muslims and especially during and after the SAS embassy siege in London, the amount of negativity towards Islam in the media only really has one effect. It would be interesting to be Muslim for a day in a Middle eastern country to see it from their perspective, Palestine or Afghanistan where they have more reason to hate other than seeing and hearing choice reporting from media groups with an agenda.

I can't comprehend the religious ferver being an atheist, that these extreme groups have but I think we could almost certainly take away the religious aspects and be left with a very similar situation in the world,

[spartan max2]

or a large part of it could be from bombings and planes flying in to buildings...

[redhen]

We as individuals have to decide how much of our opinion is ours and how much is influenced by the media, the internet, and others. Just think bank to your first memories and thoughts you ever had of Muslims and compare them to the ones you hold now. Have they changed? Would you share with us your perceptions after brief introspection?

First memories of Muslims? History books, films and news. From history I understand how Islam spread, by the sword. Films (like Khartoum) were just adventure stories to me. Muslims in the news started with the 6 day in 1967 when Israels neighbours gangbanged the fledgling state, not the first time or the last. News stories kept piling up, Black September, Munich, hijackings, bombings, and it keeps getting worse.

Other questions are: Are you comfortable with these thoughts now? Do you find them healthy?

I guess once a military man, always a soldier. Someone has to step up and defend their democratic nations. So I see militant Islam through the lens of history, specifically military history. All these mujahedin terrorist attacks could not have taken place without the monetary and political backing of oil based economies. BP and other oil companies should have blown up every oil well in the middle east before they pulled out. Oh, well, too bad, now we pay for it.

Are they based on actual knowledge and relationships with Muslims or based on the media and popular narrative?

No not based on intimate relations with Muslims, then again most of our knowledge comes second hand.

And, do you really want peace?

Yes but not at any price.

Of course many in England dabble in the view that Muslims just want to take over their country and they also have to deal with them as immigrants, so as usual many immigrants live with less in dodgier quarters while natives might not have to,

Really? Abu Hamza (old hooky) has been living in a £million tax payer funded house for years.

They also base their views on 7-11 as we do on 9-11 which causes great fear and anxiety. That is understandable but should we allow all that to control us in the end and dictate how we will dialogue and treat other fellow human beings? Or we will further dehumanize others and call them animals and treat them as such?

I don't think anyone here is advocating internment camps or worse.

Even animals deserve our utmost respect and care BTW and a way to see where any society is in the way of enlightenment is to see how they treat animals.

Absolutely! So when are we going to outlaw atrocities like Halal and Kosher slaughter practices?

Now this hatred has an origin, it is not natural, it won't always be with us, and this is just one view and not the whole truth of the matter that the premise of this view presents.

Hatred? No I don't hate Muslims in general, I fear some of them though, i.e. Islamophobia.

[+and-then]

Christians have 3 inalienable beliefs that are sacred - Jesus is the son of God, He died on a cross and was resurrected to life on the third day. Ask any Muslim about these tenets and they will at best say we are mistaken... usually they become VERY derogatory. That said, I know a few Muslims and hate none of them. But to be asked to accept their religion as a truth is antithetical to all a Christian believes. And for any person - for the sake of some misguided attempt at tolerance - to overlook the damage done in the name of Islam in the past 3 decades is naive at best. Read their holy books. Compare the commands of Muhammad to the commands of Christ. Choose which system you would want to live under but leave that same choice available to all others. Being a peacemaker is a noble thing. But there has to be at least SOME reciprocity for peace to take hold.

[Grandpa Greenman]

I feel the same about all the Abrahamic religions, I have no use for any of them. Y'all want to walk that path fine, but leave me out of it, thanks. I care not for your books. You can toss them back in the hole you found them for all I care.

[Clarakore]

Another view is that Islam is a valid path as are paganism, secular humanism, and others.

The view which disgrees with religious pluralism is definitely part of the problem. Far too many (but not all) Christians also walk away from their holy book with a message of hatred and exclusion and that itself is the problem.

Below is part of the solution.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2013/04/17/iraq-children-boston_n_3104058.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2013/04/19/from-kabul-to-boston-with-love_n_3116885.html

Edited April 23, 2013 by Leave Britney alone!

[+Liquid Gardens]

I really don't think the right has to manufacture fear of Muslims. They do that all by themselves when they set off bombs killing innocent people or run planes into buildings or stone their own sister or wife to death.

"I really don't think anyone has to manufacture fear of black people. They do that all by themselves when they murder and steal and are in prison in numbers far beyond their proportion of the population (in the US)"

"I really don't think anyone has to manufacture fear of men. They do that all by themselves with the appallingly high percentage of women who have been sexually assaulted, or when they blow up federal buildings or become serial killers."

"I really don't think anyone has to manufacture fear of Christians. They do that all by themselves when they let their children die because they believe in healing through prayer, or when they commit holocausts/genocides, or when they would like us to make certain sexual activity illegal unless it conforms to the wise teachings from Bronze Age relationship counselors."

I don't think it's even necessary for the right to manufacture fear although I agree they've been known to willingly participate; I think it's enabled at least as much by the tendency to come to very simplistic tidy 'answers' or resolutions to complicated events, to indulge in 'othering'. The point of my quotes above is to hopefully show how ridiculous, in my view, it is to fear or blame everyone in a group just because of the bad actions of a minority of them (with the exclusion of women fearing men and assault, that justifies caution at the very least, it's far too prevalent).

And in the US, I don't know how else to term the fear of Muslims except as 'irrational'. It's weird, we've currently got three white crazed dudes awaiting trial for separate, well-publicized shooting sprees, each of which arguably caused as much 'damage' as the Boston Bombing, but I do think there's something more innate going on that might lead people to fear more because of that bombing than those shootings. I tend to think that way myself, but it falls apart when I start stepping through the logic; yes, there are some Muslims who are violent and want to punish the US in service to their twisted version of Islam, but I don't see why that 'basis' for violence is any more threatening than white guys with a grudge/mental illness and easy access to guns. If you want to fear a random group you should choose geriatric drivers, they are far more likely to harm you then Muslims. American Muslims have far more to fear from everyone else than everyone else has to fear from them.

[Zaphod222]

The premise of the question is ridiculous. "The Right" (whatever that is) does not need to "manufacture" fear of muslims; the muslim terrorists themselves do that quite well.

To the contrary, Western politicians, both right and and left, are doing their best to remove the "islam" part from "islamic terrorism" because of their silly politicial correctness.

As for your photos: funny. Especially the burkha creatures. Try to think for yourself: Would they even know what Boston is? Remember, in radical islam, women need and receive no education.

[Clarakore]

That women and children from countries war torn by our policies, who will see much more tragedy than the average American, are still able to extend love to us is the antidote to attitudes as displayed in the post above.

[Zaphod222]

"I really don't think anyone has to manufacture fear of black people. They do that all by themselves when they murder and steal and are in prison in numbers far beyond their proportion of the population (in the US)"

"I really don't think anyone has to manufacture fear of men. They do that all by themselves with the appallingly high percentage of women who have been sexually assaulted, or when they blow up federal buildings or become serial killers."

Another hamfisted attempt to mislead. For your information: Islam is neither a race nor a gender. It is an ideology, and not one that one should take lightly.

Would you be similar non-chalant about Nazism? Is "fear of nazism" manufactured, or is it simply a logical reaction to the content of nazism?

[Merc14]

You seem to be eaten up with rage at the right, Britney and it is funny that you see yourself as a caring and empathetic person yet choose to use this tragedy as a weapon against your political foes. Maybe you are a bit delusional but regardless, any group that screams "God is great!" when they squeeze the trigger on the bomb and blow up a room full of school kids doesn't need the American right to make people hate them. I wonder how you would react if the same bombers were screaming "Worship Jesus!" when they blew up that room full of kids? Methinks you'd be singing a different tune.

[redhen]

To the contrary, Western politicians, both right and and left, are doing their best to remove the "islam" part from "islamic terrorism" because of their silly politicial correctness.

Ah but political correctness, aka cultural Marxism, is a left wing strategy. Go figure.

[Zaphod222]

Ah but political correctness, aka cultural Marxism, is a left wing strategy. Go figure.

The fascists had their own political correctness. It is only in modern Western society that the left has brilliantly and successfully adopted the strategy.

Personally I find the love affair between the political left and radical islam a sight to behold. Do the leftists dreamers not realize that in a Shariah society they would be among the first to lose their heads? Talk about useful fools...

Edited April 23, 2013 by Zaphod222

[Zaphod222]

Just curious: Why is it that Britney can post huge photos here, but when I try to post a small one, it is refused with the message "post too short"? Weird.

[Merc14]

Just curious: Why is it that Britney can post huge photos here, but when I try to post a small one, it is refused with the message "post too short"? Weird.

The ugliest avatar gets to post the biggest photos.

[Clarakore]

How are you posting images? Through the forum attachment function or through a direct link using IMG tags? I use tinypic.com and IMG tags. Hope that helps.

[Zaphod222]

How are you posting images? Through the forum attachment function or through a direct link using IMG tags? I use tinypic.com and IMG tags. Hope that helps.

OK, I try again. Here is a lovely photo for you:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8023985/Freedom_go_to_hell_50.jpg

[+Liquid Gardens]

Another hamfisted attempt to mislead. For your information: Islam is neither a race nor a gender. It is an ideology, and not one that one should take lightly.

Perhaps you just missed the point. The point is not whether the trait by which some are 'grouping' people is immutable or not, the point is, or let's just put it as a question to you, to what degree is it logical to hold everyone in a group responsible for the actions of a part of that group? 'Murder non-believers' is no more a necessary part of being a Muslim than 'go on a shooting spree' is part of being a white man.

Would you be similar non-chalant about Nazism? Is "fear of nazism" manufactured, or is it simply a logical reaction to the content of nazism?

Are there some good, peace-loving Nazis I don't know about? Is there anything non-heinous in nazism? I don't know for sure, but I fear you are making the error that is summed up pretty well by John Esposito, super-expert Islamic scholar, from the font of all wisdom and bs, wikipedia: "Esposito emphatically argues against what he calls the "pan-Islamic myth". He thinks that "too often coverage of Islam and the Muslim world assumes the existence of a monolithic Islam in which all Muslims are the same." To him, such a view is naive and unjustifiably obscures important divisions and differences in the Muslim world."

[Zaphod222]

Perhaps you just missed the point. The point is not whether the trait by which some are 'grouping' people is immutable or not, the point is, or let's just put it as a question to you, to what degree is it logical to hold everyone in a group responsible for the actions of a part of that group?

Nobody holds "everyone" in a group responsible. But the ideology which the groups shares by definition must be subject to scrutiny.

'Murder non-believers' is no more a necessary part of being a Muslim than 'go on a shooting spree' is part of being a white man.

Non sequitur. Islam is not a race; stop trying to imply that. Conversely, if e.g. the abortion bomber Rudolph blows up abortion clinics, his radical christian beliefs are very much questioned. Do you object to that too?

By the way, murder of non-believers is very much described directly in the Koran and the Haddiths.

Are there some good, peace-loving Nazis I don't know about?

Actually, there are plenty. The vast majority of Nazi party members were not concentration camp guards, they were simply ordinary sheep, following the easiest path. Especially once party membership became practically mandatory. Does that make Nazism OK? No? So why try this argument on islamism?

Is there anything non-heinous in nazism? I don't know for sure, but I fear you are making the error that is summed up pretty well by John Esposito, super-expert Islamic scholar

Please! Maybe next you come up with Karen Armstrong? John Esposito is an infamous islamist apologist. If you want reputable sources, how about reading some critical experts, including moderate muslims such as Bassam Tibi or Irshad Manji.

And, of course, you might start reading islamic sources directly. That will be an eye-opener.

[Merc14]

Nobody holds "everyone" in a group responsible. But the ideology which the groups shares by definition must be subject to scrutiny.

Non sequitur. Islam is not a race; stop trying to imply that. Conversely, if e.g. the abortion bomber Rudolph blows up abortion clinics, his radical christian beliefs are very much questioned. Do you object to that too?

By the way, murder of non-believers is very much described directly in the Koran and the Haddiths.

Actually, there are plenty. The vast majority of Nazi party members were not concentration camp guards, they were simply ordinary sheep, following the easiest path. Especially once party membership became practically mandatory. Does that make Nazism OK? No? So why try this argument on islamism?

Please! Maybe next you come up with Karen Armstrong? John Esposito is an infamous islamist apologist. If you want reputable sources, how about reading some critical experts, including moderate muslims such as Bassam Tibi or Irshad Manji.

And, of course, you might start reading islamic sources directly. That will be an eye-opener.

Spot on. The vast majority of Muslims aren't radicals but they have been silenced by the violent minority which has been aided in their depravities by the politically correct "useful idiots" of the left. Silly nannies, like britney here, are so filled with guilt that when attacked they blame America rather than point a finger at a growing worldwide problem. Britney is a moral and likely physical coward who believes that self flagellation will assuage the anger of the attackers but doesn't have one iota of the mindset of the people he is trying to appease. Truly disgraceful behavior

Edited April 23, 2013 by Merc14

[F3SS]

^ I liked that while I was still reading it.

And you're right. They will cut his head off on live tv before he can finish saying I love you to them...

[Zaphod222]

I'm an atheist and my views on Islam and Muslims was moulded by the media, not having much contact with Muslims and especially during and after the SAS embassy siege in London, the amount of negativity towards Islam in the media only really has one effect. It would be interesting to be Muslim for a day in a Middle eastern country to see it from their perspective, Palestine or Afghanistan where they have more reason to hate other than seeing and hearing choice reporting from media groups with an agenda.

Your experiment would be more enlightening for you if you tried to live for a day as a Jew, a Christian, a Buddhist, a declared atheist, an apostate, or a homosexual in a Middle Eastern country.

Of course, in the ones that practise Shariah, the last experience would be a short one, indeed.

Edited April 23, 2013 by Zaphod222