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Islamic organizations regularly accuse non-Muslims of "Islamophobia," a fear and disdain for everything Islamic. On May 17, this accusation bubbled up again as foreign ministers from the Organization of the Islamic Conference called Islamophobia "the worst form of terrorism." These ministers also warned, according to the Arab News, that this form of discrimination would cause millions of Muslims in Western countries, "many of whom were already underprivileged," to be "further alienated." In America, perhaps the most conspicuous organization to persistently accuse opponents of Islamophobia is the Council of American Islamic Relations. CAIR has taken up the legal case of the...

Not every harassment against Muslims comes out of Islamophobia. Secular, nationalistic, but not religious are the Quebecers. The founder of CAIR-CAN reflects on how the nature, culture, and history of Quebec make it hard for Muslims to live normally in the province.The latest high-profile incident involved the expulsion of five Muslim girls, aged 10 to 14, from a Tae kwon do tournament, by Quebec sports officials who ruled their hijab to be against regulations of the sport, in spite of the fact that hijab-clad Muslim women have competed worldwide in this martial art without any incident. In the neighboring province...

<p>The gravest terrorist threat in the world today is Islamophobia, foreign ministers of the Organization of the Islamic Conference said this week.</p> <p>The ministers described Islamophobia as a deliberate defamation of Islam and discrimination and intolerance against Muslims.</p> <p>“The linkage of terrorists and extremists with Islam in a generalized manner is unacceptable," the ministers said.</p>

Muslim groups in US should battle Islamophobia by explaining how America, Islam in fact share same values Published: 05.12.07, 15:15 / Israel Jewish Scene After six Muslims were arrested this week for plotting a terrorist attack on an American army base I heard an interview with a representative of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). He was expressing concern for the safety of his community and thus stressing that these six were in no way representative of Islam or American Muslims and he criticized the media for portraying them as such. As a Jew who has suffered from anti-Semitism I...

NORTHRIDGE - The Muslim university student was listening to his biology professor when the lecture sharply digressed from evolution. "Don't talk to Muslims about religion," the California State University, Northridge, teacher reportedly said. "Because they turn to a different animal." The unidentified student reported the incident to CSUN's Muslim Student Association, which sent a letter to university President Jolene Koester, demanding that the teacher apologize and that the university conduct sensitivity training. "The school needs to provide a safe environment for our students' education," said Zabie Mansoory, Muslim association president. "It is a biology class, for God's sake. Religion shouldn't...

...The [CAIR Policy Bulletin] noted that Muslims in the West have been viewed as outsiders and Islam as the "other." The result, according to CAIR, is that the West has put up barriers, "stereotypical assumptions and misguided pronouncements regarding beliefs, attitudes and customs," making integration of Muslims into Western civic and political systems more difficult. The report also claims that anti-Muslim rhetoric permeates American society...

LONDON -- Jewish people are four times more likely to be attacked in Britain because of their religion than Muslims, according to figures compiled by the police. One in 400 Jews, compared with one in 1,700 Muslims, are likely to be victims of faith-related hate attacks every year. The figure is based on data collected over three months in police areas accounting for half the Muslim and Jewish populations of England and Wales. The crimes range from assault and verbal abuse to criminal damage at places of worship. Police forces started recording the religion of faith-related hate-crime victims only this...

GENEVA - People of all faiths are invited to celebrate the Muslim holy month of Ramadan with a night of dinner, devotion and dialogue, hosted by Hobart and William Smith Colleges. On Thursday, the Colleges will host an interfaith meal and discussion. Organizers hope the evening will inspire more events to promote inter-religious understanding. Attendees are encouraged to fast during the day and donate their lunch money to tsunami relief efforts. The food will be potluck, and Imam Yahya Luqman, of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Rochester, will speak about keeping the faith in America. Luqman will speak at 5 p.m....

I am a bigot, a Klansman "with higher-thread-count sheets," the "enemy within," part of "the rotten core of American extremists" who are making it harder for moderate Muslims "to recapture their own faith." So says Ralph Peters, retired military man, establishment conservative and eternal optimist. In a commentary in the September 7th New York Post, Peters went postal on those who believe (in his words) "that Islam can never reform, that the violent conquest and subjugation of unbelievers is the faith's primary agenda." Us Islamophobes fantasize about the "Protocols of the Elders of Mecca," imply that Muslims are "evil and...

by Mark Finkelstein September 9, 2006 - 09:07 America, you ignorant Islamophobes! Alright, maybe it's not all your fault. Your anti-Muslim attitudes have been "stoked" by "inflammatory rhetoric" from . . . President Bush. That was the basic message of a segment narrated by Ron Claiborne this morning entitled "9/11 Remembered: Islamophobia" on ABC's Good Morning America. ABC made a weak case for the existence of widespread 'Islamophobia' in America. Let's imagine, for example, that 19 Jews had flown planes into iconic buildings in, say, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan - or France, for that matter. What do you think would befall...

ARLINGTON, Va. - Iran's former president decried a wave of "Islamophobia" that he said is being spread in the United States by fear and hatred of Islam in response to terror perpetrated by Muslims. "In the crime of 9/11, two crimes were committed," Mohammad Khatami said. "One was killing innocent people. The second crime was masking this crime in the name of Islam." Under smothering security, with dozens of uniformed police and plainclothes American security personnel provided by the State Department, Khatami spoke Friday night at an event sponsored by the Council on American-Islamic Relations called "The Dialogue of Civilizations:...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - American Muslims still face high levels of hatred and suspicion nearly five years after the September 11 attacks and political leaders and the news media are mostly to blame, Muslim leaders said on Friday. "During the last five years the Muslim community has been scrutinized by almost all branches of the government and the media to the extent that more than half a million Muslims have been directly touched by this process," said Abdul Malik Mujahid, chairman of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago. "They continue to face dehumanization and a great trend of Islamophobia,"...

17 August 2006, 11:26Holocaust caricature exhibition will provoke Islamophobia - Russian human rights activists Moscow, August 17, Interfax - Russian human rights organizations have stated that the Holocaust caricature exhibition in Tehran will entail an upsurge of Islamophobia and called on the Iranian authorities to close it down. In an appeal to the Iranian embassy and the UN office in Moscow, they called ‘to listen to the public voice and to close down the exhibition in order to prevent unrest throughout the world, to prevent the prerequisites for Islamophobia’. ‘The caricatures mocking the Holocaust tragedy amounts to jeering at the...

Our common peace and security depend more on mutual understanding than demonisation. We, Muslims and non-Muslims, have all been victims of global terrorism, in New York, Madrid, London, Bali and Amman. And yet, five years after 9/11, the war on terrorism is seen by many Muslims as a war on Islam. As Islamophobia and xenophobia grow, the critical distinction between religious extremism and mainstream Islam is increasingly blurred. How do we break out of this cycle of ignorance? ....... Islamophobia is a threat to our democratic way of life. This cancer should be as unacceptable as anti-semitism. Pluralism and tolerance...

Why we can never lump anti-Islamism or Islamophobia with racism & general bigotry. Without condoning violence of any kind, let's not have a blurry picture on the most understandable feelings in the west. Whether it's in Denmark, Netherland, Russia, UK, Australia or US, heck! even France, we can not let the unique intolerance to those that are intolerant to all of us be lumped into 'any racism' or just 'any bigotry'. What's different about Islamophobia than "general pure racism" that there are so many ( http://thereligionofpeace.com ) serious LEGITIMATE reasons (global victims) behind anti-Islamism. It has more to do with...

Special educational needs teacher Phil Cadman handed in his notice after governors at Abraham Guest High School in Orrell voted to reinstate disgraced classroom assistant Christopher Causey. Mr Cadman, 36, told the Evening Post: "I have taken this action because I was not prepared to work in a school alongside a convicted racist. The decision to allow him to continue to work at the school is fundamentally wrong." Causey, 27, a learning mentor who provides individual support to pupils in the classroom, racially abused and spat at an Asian man during a road rage incident. He was convicted of racially...

Dubai Ports Worls to divest itself of all American interests

SHARJAH — One of the reasons for the lack of effective lobbying in the West by Arab and Muslim governments is the personal interests of some authoritarian regimes in the Islamic world, an international expert on religious and international affairs and Islamic Studies told Khaleej Times yesterday. Professor John Esposito of Georgetown University, USA, and Founding Director of the Centre for Muslim Christian Understanding: History and International Affairs at the Walsh School of Foreign Service, made the statement ahead of his lecture on Christian-Muslim relations at the American University of Sharjah (AUS) on Sunday. “Some of the authoritarian regimes have...

Well, it's true that the average 25-year-old does not feel about homosexuality the way his great-grandfather felt at that age. In that sense, there is indeed a "rising tide." But the salient feature of tides is that they go out again. Whatever their appeals to virtue, inevitablist theories of history are always the weakest--the notion that progress is a ratchet effect, moving irreversibly in one direction. On September 10, 2001, for example, not many commentators in North America or Europe paid much attention to the views of Islamic lobby groups. The idea that whether something does or does not cause...

The stakes are too high, and the nobility of our effort is too great. Kill the deal, Mr. President.

"...displays of Islam’s violent intolerance have been coming thick and fast the last few decades, and can be found on every page of history going back to the 7th century, when Islam began its expansion with the blood of several hundred decapitated Jews."

Dubai Ports World is not a security threat. And the UAE is a friend. The brouhaha surrounding the Bush administration since it gave the green light to a United Arab Emirates company slated to manage six major U.S. ports has nothing to do with homeland security. Allow me to give this episode its proper name: Islamophobia. This UAE company - Dubai Ports World - is a commercial administrator. They are not a security company, and should the deal go through they will not be in charge of security at a half-dozen U.S. ports. That responsibility remains tight in the...

The American journalist H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) once said: “The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one’s time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.” So, here we are, defending Ken Livingstone, the extreme-left London Mayor.

(CNSNews.com) -- An Australian politician's comments about Muslims wanting to live under Islamic law (shari'a) has focused attention on the push by Muslim minorities in some Western countries to establish enclaves where Islamic norms and laws hold sway. In a controversial speech Thursday, Australia's federal Treasurer Peter Costello said Muslim immigrants not willing to embrace Australian values should leave, and that anyone wanting to live under shari'a might feel more comfortable living in countries where it is applied, such as Saudi Arabia or Iran, "not in Australia." Keysar Trad, president of the Sydney-based Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, accused Costello...

The European Commission criticises a daily newspaper's Mohammed cartoons for opening the door to hate and radicalisation After months of silently observing, the leadership of the European Commission has weighed in on the Danish debate over daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten's decision to publish caricatures of Muslim prophet Mohammed. The Commission's vice-chairman, Franco Frattini, called the newspaper's decision to publish the twelve cartoons as 'thoughtless and inappropriate' in a time when animosity towards Islam is on the rise. 'Honestly, these kinds of drawings can add to the growing Islamophobia in Europe,' Frattini said. 'I fully respect the freedom of speech, but, excuse...

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on Friday, in a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, voiced Iran's concern over the increasing human rights violations of the US and Islamophobia in the West. In a letter to the UN secretary-general submitted by Iran's Permanent Mission to the UN, Mottaki criticized the US for its hidden prisons established all over the world, particularly in European states, and its use of torture in the interrogation of prisoners in such prisons, particularly terrorist suspects, as well as the increase in Islamophobia and mistreatment of Muslims in the West. Mottaki, in his letter, also called...

To judge from the way the weekend's box office is breathlessly reported in the news bulletins on Monday morning, more people seem to be interested in movie grosses than in the movies. Evidently, Hollywood's now recovered from this summer's all-time record "box office slump." Or at any rate news stories about the box office slump have themselves slumped. In a breathless dispatch on the opening weekend of ''Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,'' the Associated Press reported that ''the latest Potter movie led a lineup that helped reverse the Hollywood box-office slump." I wouldn't say the boy wizard and...

Iran on Thursday warned against growth of Islamophobia in certain countries particularly in the European ones, saying it could entail the danger of confrontation of religions and civilizations. Iran's Representative to the UN General Assembly's third Commission, Mostafa A'laie, was addressing the Commission on the importance of fighting racialism. "Since the 9/11 incident, a new wave of discrimination, violation of civil rights and hatred of Muslims has emerged in many of the Western communities. "This unpleasant trend has been intensified after the 8/7 terrorist attacks in London, leading to loss of lives on certain occasions," he said. Quoting the UN...

Islamophobia? by Daniel PipesNew York Sun October 25, 2005An Islamist group named Hizb ut-Tahrir seeks to bring the world under Islamic law and advocates suicide attacks against Israelis. Facing proscription in Great Britain, it opened a clandestine front operation at British universities called "Stop Islamophobia," the Sunday Times has disclosed.Stop what, you ask?Coined in Great Britain a decade ago, the neologism Islamophobia was launched in 1996 by a self-proclaimed "Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia." The word literally means "undue fear of Islam" but it is used to mean "prejudice against Muslims" and joins over 500 other phobias spanning virtually...

New Epithet for Islamic Terrorist: "Somali Pirate" By Debbie Schlussel Congratulations to the media! They've just developed a new way to avoid saying "Islamic terrorist." You've, no doubt, heard the news story of Islamic terrorists from Somalia trying to hijack a cruise line, off the coast of Africa, this weekend. The men were armed with assorted weapons, including guns and grenade launchers. But the media called them "Somali pirates." Guess what religion virtually all Somalis are? Hint: It begins with an "I," ends with an "M," and has "SLA" in the middle. Here's another hint: The leader of the "Somali...

Associated Press LONDON -- Muslim leaders and scholars met at London's largest mosque to condemn the July 7 terrorist attacks in the British capital, saying the perpetrators violated the Quran by killing innocent civilians and that no one should consider them martyrs. But the 22 imams and scholars stopped short of condemning all suicide bombings, saying those that target occupying forces in countries such as Israel and Iraq are sometimes justified. "There should be a clear distinction between the suicide bombing of those who are trying to defend themselves from occupiers, which is something different from those who kill civilians,...

A Muslim man has been beaten to death outside a corner shop by a gang of youths who shouted anti-Islamic abuse at him, the Guardian has learned. Kamal Raza Butt, 48, from Pakistan, was visiting Britain to see friends and family. On Sunday afternoon he went to a shop in Nottingham to buy cigarettes and was first called "Taliban" by the youths and then set upon. Nottinghamshire police described the incident as racially aggravated, not as Islamophobic, angering Muslim groups and surprising some senior officers. They say it was not connected to a backlash against Muslims following the London bombings,...

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 4/26/05) - CAIR is pleased to announce that former Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim will be the keynote speaker at its “Islamophobia and Anti-Americanism: Causes and Remedies” conference in Washington, D.C. Ibrahim will speak at the May 14th conference banquet. WHEN: Friday, May 13 to Sunday, May 15, 2005 (Conference Banquet, Saturday, May 14) WHERE: Sheraton Premiere at Tysons Corner, 8661 Leesburg Pike ~ Vienna, VA (703-448-1234) To view a complete conference program or to register online, go to: http://www.cair-net.org/2005conference/ CAIR's 2005 annual conference brings together scholars, researchers, religious leaders, and community activists to discuss issues related...

In an article yesterday, the journalist and Islamic apologist Stephen Schwartz defined "Islamophobia" this way: Notwithstanding the arguments of some Westerners, Islamophobia exists; it is not a myth. Islamophobia consists of: • attacking the entire religion of Islam as a problem for the world; • condemning all of Islam and its history as extremist; • denying the active existence, in the contemporary world, of a moderate Muslim majority; • insisting that Muslims accede to the demands of non-Muslims (based on ignorance and arrogance) for various theological changes, in their religion; • treating all conflicts involving Muslims (including, for example, that...

UN to monitor defamation of Islam Ehtasham Khan in Geneva | April 13, 2005 00:05 IST The United Nations' Commission on Human Rights on Tuesday adopted a resolution to monitor defamation of religions, particularly Islam. The votingªon the resolution took place at the ongoing 61st session of the UNCHR in Geneva, Switzerland. Thirty-oneªcountries voted in favour of the resolution, 16 voted against and five abstained from voting. United States, United Kingdom and Israel voted in the negative. Russia and China voted in favour of the resolution. India was among those who abstained. The resolution was pushed forward by Pakistan on...

January 27, 2005 14:52 PM Make Them Understand Our Point Of View, Says Abdullah PUTRAJAYA, Jan 27 (Bernama) -- Mindful of the rise of "Islamophobia" especially in the western world, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Thursday urged Islamic countries to take steps to gain the trust and confidence of the non-Muslim world. He said that Muslim governments, scholars and the more informed Muslims in society had the obligation and responsibility to correct misperceptions about Islam, including on "jihad", both among the ummah and in the wider world. Abdullah said that the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) should...

There is much talk of post-election reorganization and rethinking among demoralized liberals, especially in matters of foreign policy. They could start by accepting that the demise of many of their cherished beliefs and institutions was not the fault of others. More often, the problems are fundamental flaws in their own thinking — such as the ends of good intentions justifying the means of expediency and untruth, and forced equality being a higher moral good than individual liberty and freedom. Whether we call such notions “political correctness” or “progressivism,” the practice of privileging race, class, and gender over basic ethical considerations...

The United Nations has a justly deserved reputation for catering to extremists of every sort and for entertaining not only extremism but distortion as part of its everyday fabric. Nowhere was this more on display than at the recent seminar on ‘Islamophobia,’ forced upon an all-too-willing UN in exchange for holding a seminar on anti-Semitism earlier in 2004. Conceived as part of a series on “unlearning intolerance,” the seminar aimed to confirm prejudices of the Islamic world toward the West, and especially the United States, as the sources of all Islam’s failure and weakness. The tone was set from the...

Before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the word "Islamophobia" was not part of American vocabulary. Now, more than three years later, the fear of Muslims or their potential link to terrorism has permeated the American psyche. Austin Muslim Nahid Khataw would have described herself as shy and introverted in the past, but now she considers herself outgoing, even an activist. "I feel like I'm more confident now than I was before," she said. Khataw and her friends began spreading the word about Islam to clarify misconceptions. "I've done quite a bit, and I would like to see and go...

In a cross-cultural clash of family values, Muslim parents at a downtown school want the Toronto District School Board to exclude their children from discussions of same-sex families. But at a meeting last night, board officials refused to exclude Muslim students at Market Lane Public School from what the board calls "anti-homophobia education." To allow some students to be removed from those discussions would violate the rights of children of same-sex parents, board officials said. While the board has a policy to consider accommodation based on religious rights, "religious beliefs do not trump human rights," said Patricia Hayes, a rights...

"Raising barriers to any particular religion does not fit in with Europe's shared values" Jan Peter Balkenende, Dutch Prime MinisterDutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende has said Islamophobia must not affect the possibility of Turkey's entry to the European Union. Speaking at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, he attacked Muslim groups, which he said were sowing hatred, and promised new anti-terror measures. Mr Balkenende was outlining the plans of the Dutch presidency of the European Union over the next six months. The newly enlarged parliament is meeting for the first time this week. BBC European affairs correspondent William Horsley says...

TERROR FEARS HIT ASIANS Police have been accused of falling foul of Islamaphobia after worrying stop and search figures. The number of overall searches increased dramatically, with the amount of Asians targeted up by more than 300%, according to new figures. The alarming results are the first to be published by the Government since 2001 when new police powers under the Terrorism Act came into force. Asian leaders condemned the figures as proof that Islamaphobia is rife in Britain. Massoud Shadjareh, spokesman for the Islamic Human Rights Commission derided the rise. He said: "We are quite appalled. This proves what...

TEL AVIV, Israel, June 11 (UPI) -- A Palestinian couple frustrated over their inability to marry approached Israeli lines hoping to be shot together, it was reported Friday. Soldiers suspected the couple were not militants and held their fire, the Yediot Aharonot newspaper said on its Web site. The couple in their late 20s have been friends for six years and upon questioning, told officials they could not marry because of a dispute between their families, a military source told United Press International. They decided suicide was their only option. They approached the Kfar Darom settlement early Wednesday. The woman...

UK Muslims split over mosque terror letterBy Arthur Neslen in London Thursday 01 April 2004, 3:45 Makka Time, 0:45 GMT A controversial letter sent out by the Muslim Council of Britain to over 1000 mosques has split the country's Muslim community, with some communal leaders saying it would increase Islamophobia. The letter urges congregations to report any suspicions they might have about other worshippers to the police. "Islam categorically forbids violence and killing of innocents, let alone indulging in violence which can cause death and mayhem," it says. "We therefore urge you to observe the utmost vigilance against any mischievous...

Grover Norquist: Conservative Exposed as Terrorist Sympathizer/Enabler There's an incredible story brewing in Washington that is too hot for the networks to touch. Grover Norquist, whom most conservatives know as Executive Director of the College Republicans, boardmember of the NRA, and head of Americans for Tax Reform, has been exposed as helping Muslim groups and individuals who finance and support Islamic terrorism gain access to the Bush White House. Norquist has also been exposed as the founder of the Islamic Insitute, a group believed to be funded by foreign governments, Wahhab Islam elements in Saudi Arabia, and U.S. Muslim...

On BeliefSteven WaldmanIn Defense of Pat Robertson Pat Robertson and others are right about Islam being a violent religion. Look at the evidence for yourself. Pat Robertson recently drew attacks from Muslim groups for calling Muhammad a "wild-eyed fanatic," among other things. Robertson, as usual, states the case in excessively inflammatory terms. But it must be said that Robertson’s basic critique of Islam as an inherently violent religion is accurate. This may not be politically correct to say, but one need only examine evidence. Islam is not only violent in its current practice but at its core--which is to say...

In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful CAIR ACTION ALERT #347 FOX NEWS ALLOWS ATTACK ON PROPHET MUHAMMAD Sean Hannity fails to challenge Pat Robertson's Islamophobic rhetoric (WASHINGTON, D.C., 9/19/02) - CAIR today expressed concern about what it says is a pattern of anti-Muslim bias by Fox News Channel citing Wednesday night's "Hannity & Colmes" program as an example of how the network promotes anti-Muslim hate. On that program, host Sean Hannity seemed to encourage televangelist Pat Robertson in his venomous attack on Islam and on the Prophet Muhammad. About the Prophet Muhammad, Robertson said: "This man was...

Please note that this is a user submitted article, and has not been commissioned by IranMania. It is 'user opinion'. IranMania does not accept responsibility for the accuracy of submitted articles. By: R. Ebrahimi During a trip I met a female American tourist. It was the time of hostage taking of Western tourists in the Philippines by members of Islamist commando Abu-Sayaf. This young lady asked me if I was feeling responsible… I didn’t understand what she wanted to insinuate. Responsible for what and for whom? She then explained to me: “as a Muslim, you should feel responsible for what...