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Panel: Advancing Religious Literacies: Exploring Islam through the Cultural Studies Method
The loud discourse on Islam in the United States today marks Muslims as a threat, embroiled in pre-modern sensibilities, and unable to participate in democratic societies. These articulations are often made by recycling colonial and oriental images of Muslim women as oppressed and Muslim men as violent, with objects such as the hijab and the figure of the terrorist at the center. This rise of Islamophobic commentary has resulted in myriad incidences of bullying, teasing, and direct violence against teachers and students who identify, or are read by others, as Muslims. All this points to the lack of understanding about Islam and…
Outrageous!
A Muslim teacher in a public school in Ohio kept a Qur’an on his desk and refused to remove it after repeated requests. As a form of discipline he branded a student with a star and crescent moon. I can’t believe that this isn’t generating more outrage. It’s a clear violation of church and state separation, he’s sounds unbalanced, and it’s clearly the result of a faith that demands a public declaration of itself and imposition on others. Oh, wait, sorry, it was a Christian, with a Bible, and he branded a cross. Nothing to see here. Perfectly normal and…
The lies of islamophobia – Le Monde diplomatique – English edition
The lies of islamophobia – Le Monde diplomatique – English edition. The Song of Roland, an eleventh century rendering in verse of an eighth century battle, is a staple of Western Civilization classes at colleges around the country. A “masterpiece of epic drama,” in the words of its renowned translator Dorothy Sayers, it provides a handy preface for students before they delve into readings on the Crusades that began in 1095. More ominously, the poem has schooled generations of Judeo-Christians to view Muslims as perfidious enemies who once threatened the very foundations of Western civilization. The problem, however, is that…