Islamophobia Influencies Democracies

Protesters hold copies of the Quran as they demonstrate in front of the Consulate General of Sweden after Rasmus Paludan, leader of Danish far-right political party Hard Line, burned a copy of the Quran near the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm, in Istanbul, Turkey, January 22, 2023. [Umit Bektas/Reuters]

Earlier this week in the Hague, in an act that made America’s right-wing politicians look like paragons of religious tolerance, Edwin Wagensveid, the Dutch leader of the far-fight Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West (PEGIDA) group, publicly desecrated a copy of Islam’s holy book and published a video of the hateful act on social media. This followed an incident over the weekend in which Rasmus Paludan, leader of the Danish far-right party Stram Kurs (Hard Line), burned a Quran near the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm.

Signalling that the incidents in Sweden and the Netherlands are part of a coordinated campaign of hate speech, as he tore and crumpled a page from the Quran, Wagensveld said, “Soon, there will be registrations for similar actions in several cities”. “Time to answer disrespect from Islam with disrespect,” he added,

On cue, and as the provocateurs intended, protests erupted across the Muslim-majority world. Western leaders then responded by lecturing Muslims on the subtleties of free speech and “respect” for diverse opinions.

Beyond this familiar pattern of Islamophobic provocation-Muslim rage-Western condescension, do such acts of provocation targeting vulnerable minorities have any effect on the societies in which they occur? Should non-Muslims living in Western societies care if a holy book they don’t believe in is used in a hateful publicity stunt?

Yes, they should. Because the propagation of Islamophobia makes democracies less free and less safe – not only for Muslims, but for everyone.

I lead research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU), a Washington, DC-based non-partisan think tank that provides research and education about US Muslims and the policies that affect them.  READ MORE...

Eating Dog Meat

Medan, Indonesia – For civil servant Silas Sihombing, the reasons for eating dog meat could not be much simpler.

“Today I’m eating dog because I’m hungry,” Sihombing told Al Jazeera in between mouthfuls of grilled dog meat at Lau Dimbo Simalem restaurant in Medan, North Sumatra.

“And look, it’s making me sweat. Dog will do that, the meat makes you feel hot.”

Dog meat restaurants are found all over Medan, where the Indigenous Batak people are known for their taste for the protein.

About 7 percent of Indonesians are estimated to eat dog meat, according to Dog Meat Free Indonesia, a group that campaigns against the dog meat trade.

Although 87 percent of Indonesia’s 270 million people are Muslim and view dog products as haram, or forbidden, in the same way as pork, about 9 percent of the population is Christian.  READ MORE...

Telemarketers

I was sitting on the couch this morning writing an article for this blog and received a call and since I was not watching FOX NEWS on Cable TV, I could not tell what number was calling us but the answering machine's female voice spoke something that I could not understand.  My wife, who was in the water closet (that is to say bathroom) called out:  "who was calling?"  My response was "I could not understand what was said."  With that comment and expecting another question, I got up off the couch and walked over to where the telephone was to check out the list of previous callers by pressing the CID key twice. 

Harry Chapin

The call was from Chapin, SC and I called out to my wife, "It was Chapin, South Carolina,"  and "wasn't there a singer named Chapin?  I believe the song was 'Cats in the Cradle,'"  Still in the water closet, she responded, "No that was Cat Stevens."  Not accepting her response, I looked it up on the internet and told her...  "no,. it was Harry Chapin."
pausing for a second or two, I said,

My first thought after this conversation exchange was the fact that I had always liked the song 'Cats in the Cradle,' because it reminded me of my relationship with my father and the subsequent relationship with my daughter.

Cat Stevens

My second thought was that I had always liked Cat Stevens also who was famous for his song, 'Peace Train.'  The song was released in 1971 when I was still in the military and the Vietnam War was still active in the minds of most Americans.

I remember that Cat Stevens disappeared from the music scene and I always thought maybe that he had died from a drug overdose or something...   but, I was WRONG...  and later discovered that Cat Stevens had become a Muslim and changed his name to Yusof Islam and began writing and singing Islamic songs...