#Current Affairs
The School to Prison Pipeline and #IStandWithAhmed

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By Margari Aziza Hill
When 14-year-old Sudanese American Muslim Ahmed Mohamed brought a homemade clock to MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas, he thought he was going to impress his engineering teacher. Another teacher heard the device and reported it to the police. Yet, the school was not evacuated, as is standard procedure in similar situations. And no one showed up with a “Hurt Locker” style suit to dismantle the device. Instead, Ahmed Mohamed was handcuffed in front of his classmates, taken to a juvenile detention center where he had a mug shot taken and was interrogated without his parents or legal representation. Ahmed was charged for a non-violent crime — a hoax bomb.
Pictures reveal a shocked child wearing a NASA shirt in handcuffs. As reports spread, the story went viral, garnering a personal invitation from Barack Obama to the White House as well as tours to MIT, his dream school, and a scholarship fund. While anti-Muslim bigotry was the trigger for Ahmed’s arrest, had his case not gathered widespread support he might have been a victim of the school to prison pipeline that plagues Texas. The struggle against the unjust incarceration of youth in Texas still remains. This case demonstrates the ways in which anti-Muslim bigotry, anti-Black racism, and the juvenile criminal justice system worked against Ahmed.
Criminalizing Students
Some Muslims, such as Khalid Hamideh, a representative of the Islamic Association of North Texas, don’t fault the school or police for their response, “Under the current climate that exists in this country, you can’t really blame them because when they see something like that, they have to react.” He puts the blame on politicians who created a climate of fear. However, knowing it was not a bomb, the school’s response raises a lot of questions. Ahmed was arrested for a hoax bomb, which is a reflection of a larger problem of criminalizing students.
Khaled Beydoun writes for Al-Jazeera:
“Muslim American youth are not spared from Islamophobia and its policing dragnet. Although an excellent student, with no record of insubordination, Mohamed’s otherwise pristine record was instantly extinguished by the threat his Muslim background posed. Reality was trumped by the school’s imagined threat of terror, converting a loved student into a perceived radical. Ahmed is also Sudanese American, raising the likelihood that anti-Black racism overlapped with Islamophobia to cast him as suspicious and threatening.”
In an MSNBC interview, Ahmed affirms Beydoun’s analysis, “I felt like I was a criminal. I felt like I was a terrorist. I felt like all the names I was called…in middle school I was called a terrorist, called a bomb maker; just because of my race and religion.” He had already internalized the racist and anti-Muslim narrative.
Anti-Muslim and Anti-Black
Anti-Muslim bigotry is an important feature of this case, however it is also important to consider the ways in which anti-Blackness may have played a part. Hind Makki, a Sudanese American interfaith educator who develops and delivers trainings with diverse communities on civic integration through interfaith action, anti-racism education and youth empowerment, tweeted, “I just want to make sure that Ahmed’s Blackness isn’t erased in the discourse over bullying of Muslim children.”
In fact, many people misidentified Ahmed and assumed that he was South Asian rather than the child of African immigrants. Some insisted that Ahmed was Brown because Islam is racialized as a “Brown religion”. Before, Brown pride meant Latinos, but increasingly South Asians have embraced the term Brown as an ethnic identifier. Brown has become an amorphous category often linked to Latinos, South Asians, and sometimes Arab. In the discussion about the case both non-Black Muslims and non-Muslim Black people spoke, as Sudanese Americans, to argue about Ahmed’s identity. When we can embrace the intersecting identities of Sudanese Americans, we can see how Muslim, African, Arab, Black, and American identities can overlap in ways that dismantle monolithic notions of what it means to be Muslim and American.
Kameelah Mu’min Rashad, University of Pennsylvania Muslim chaplain and founder of Muslim Wellness, writes, “If one lacks a nuanced understanding of how racism, white privilege/supremacy and anti-Blackness operates in this country, ones analysis of Islamophobia will inevitably be incomplete and flawed.”
Focusing on hysteria and rhetoric overlooks how racial and religious profiling in law enforcement disproportionately affects Black and Latino youth, and makes African American Muslim children especially vulnerable to the heavy hand of policing. For example, Minnesota’s Somali community has been subject to a Counter Violent Extremism program, with basic social services now framed as “crime prevention”. One program tracks their school absences. CVE programs stigmatize Muslims as likely to commit acts of violence and a grant program from the Department of Homeland Security supports social services programs that aim to thwart terrorism. In many ways, the teachers and law enforcement in Irving did exactly what these programs are outlined to do. They did so, maybe not out of anti-Muslim bigotry, but due to existing policies. This is why we, as a community, have to look at legislation and procedures.
Considering Mohamed’s race and the bigoted association of Blacks with crime, the punitive measures taken against him become even more salient. Samiha Rahman, a Bangladeshi Ph.D. student wrote:
“The Ahmed Mohamed case is an example of Islamophobia, but let’s not forgets that it’s also an example of the school-to-prison pipeline – where youth of color are more likely to face harsh punishments for minor offenses in school, where Black boys and girls, even in elementary school, are arrested and detained by police officers. Ahmed Mohamed is a Black Muslim student, and that means he is affected by Islamophobia AND the racist school-to-prison pipeline that disproportionately targets Black youth. #IStandWithAhmed.”
According to the ACLU, “Today, more than 170 Texas school districts have their own police department.” Students have been arrested and many, like Ahmed, have not received due process. The 2010 Texas Appleseed report states, “… in some districts, African American students are being punished 50 times more than white students.”
Implicit bias that penalizes skin tone and phenotype often plays a part in harsher punishments in school and in the criminal justice system. According to Frontline’s Sara Childress, “In Texas, failure to attend school, or truancy, is a criminal offense punishable by fines up to $500, plus court costs.” According to the Department of Justice, children in Mississippi are swept into the court system with their constitutional rights often violated. Throughout the country, children are exposed to policing techniques used for adults, and those who come from marginalized and underserved communities often plead guilty in cases where they are innocent. Yet, because of their background and the nature of their alleged crimes, our community does not rally on their behalf.
Speaking Out Against Injustice
By looking at the deeper structural issues that led to Ahmed’s arrest, we can speak out against injustice affecting multiple communities, Muslim and non-Muslim. This is part of our mandate, to speak out for justice whether against rich or poor:

O you who have believed, be persistently standing firm in justice, witnesses for Allah, even if it be against yourselves or parents and relatives. Whether one is rich or poor, Allah is more worthy of both. So follow not [personal] inclination, lest you not be just. And if you distort [your testimony] or refuse [to give it], then indeed Allah is ever, with what you do, Acquainted. (4:135)
When we understand the overlapping oppression, we can connect with others who are just as affected. This can lead the Muslim American community to form important alliances with communities who are just as affected by unjust policies.
According to the blog The World Is What It Is, “The common experiences with race will push people of color together and in conflict with whites, resulting in a common interminority identity.” While Sudanese Americans are a small segment of the American-Muslim community, they reflect important intersecting identities that can bring attention to anti-Black, anti-Arab, and anti-Muslim bigotry. However, when we focus on Muslim exceptionalism and fail to see anti-Muslim bigotry as an extension of structural racism, we miss important moments of connecting the Muslim community’s struggles with other oppressed groups. By broadening our vision we can move beyond striving for acceptance, and work towards justice that will uplift Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
Margari Aziza Hill is a co-founder and Programming Director of Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative. She holds a masters from Stanford University. She is currently researching colorism in Muslim education.
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Margari Aziza Hill is co-founder and Programming Director of Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative (MuslimARC), assistant editor at AltM, co-founder of Muslims Make it Plain, and columnist at MuslimMatters. She is on the Advisory Council of Islam, Social Justice & Interreligious Engagement Program at the Union Theological Seminary and winner of the 2015 MPAC Change Maker Award. She has nearly a decade of teaching experiences at all levels from elementary, secondary, college level, to adult education. She earned her master’s in History of the Middle East and Islamic Africa from Stanford University in 2006. Her research includes colonial surveillance in Northern Nigeria, anti-colonial resistance among West Africans in Sudan during the early 20th century, and race in Muslim communities. She is also a freelance writer with articles published in Time, SISTERS, Islamic Monthly, Al Jazeera English, Virtual Mosque (formerly Suhaibwebb.com), and Spice Digest. She has given talks and lectures in various universities and Muslim communities.



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Lumping an entire people together for collective punishment, reveling in their suffering, and sniggering at their food choices isn’t an exercise in science, Sunnah, or compassion. It’s good, old-fashioned orientalism.
In the eight weeks since it was identified, the 2019 novel coronavirus has infected nearly 12,000 people in China alone, 200 of whom did not survive. Symptoms are flu-like in nature, and global side effects include acute, apparently contagious… racism.

Online, in Muslim as well as non-Muslim spaces, social media feeds are sniggering “Eww, you eat gross things! Of course you’ll get gross diseases!” In the midst of this human tragedy, orientalist tropes about the Chinese are being sloppily repackaged as health concerns over the coronavirus, and served with a side of bat soup.
Yes, bat soup.
The coronavirus in question is found in bats, and thanks to the scientific expertise of social media, videos of Chinese people consuming anything from bat soup to baby mice and rats are popping up as “proof” of the disease’s cause.

However the coronavirus made the jump from bats to humans, the initial source of the outbreak seems to have originated from the Wuhan Seafood market, where a number of employees and a few shoppers were the first casualties to the infection. The 2019-nCoV is moving from person to person the same way the flu does, and what a person eats – or doesn’t eat – has no bearing on whether they contract the virus or not.
In an article titled, No, Coronavirus Was Not Caused by ‘Bat Soup’–But Here’s What Researchers Think May Be to Blame, Health.com writes:
“Coronaviruses in general are large family of viruses that can affect many different species of animals, including camels, cattle, cats, and bats, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In rare cases, those viruses are also zoonotic, which means they can pass between humans and animals—as was the case with Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and severe acute respiratory system (SARS), two severe coronaviruses in people.
Initially, this novel coronavirus was believed to have started in a large seafood or wet market, suggesting animal-to-person spread, according to the CDC. But a large number of people diagnosed with the virus reportedly didn’t have exposure to the wet markets, indicating that person-to-person spread of the virus is also occurring. However, it’s still possible that the novel coronavirus began with an infected animal at the market—and then went on to person-to-person transmission once people were infected.”
Being uncomfortable with things you’ve never considered edible before isn’t necessarily a racist reaction. When my husband told me he ate a chocolate-covered cricket once, I hid my toothbrush for a week, but that’s not what’s happening right now. There is a deadly virus threatening a group of people, and the internet sees fit to make fun of them. Why? Because orientalism.

Orientalism is the “intellectual” framework through which Western societies create a clear and permanent line between Western superiority and “Oriental” inferiority. If orientalism were an Instagram filter, it would take any picture of any person, event, or thing, and distort its appearance to be “other,” and in some way inferior.
Orientalism is the “intellectual” framework through which Western societies create a clear and permanent line between Western superiority and “Oriental” inferiority. If orientalism were an Instagram filter, it would take any picture of any person, event, or thing, and distort its appearance to be “other,” and in some way inferior.Click To TweetThe inferiorizing feature is step one, because in order to position yourself as a winner, the other guy has to be a loser in some way.
The otherizing is the step 2, and both steps are important because if you say that your little brother is a loser, in the end you’re still family and you’ve got his back. This would be inferiorizing, but not otherizing.
But if you say that other kind of guy is a loser, then you have no common ground. And when the other kind of guy is in trouble, you need only gloat and make nasty comments on Twitter. That’s inferiorizing with otherizing. Orientalism can be loosely translated as US vs THEM, normal versus weird, and local versus invasive foreign, or exotic.
The otherizing of orientalism is so subconsciously embedded in people that it even creates auditory illusions to maintain the “otherization” of the subject being viewed. As crazy as that sounds, everyone has their own experience. Mine for just last month played out as follows. A homeless man approached my window and said “Ma’am, do you have two dollars?”
I smiled and responded to him, “I have exactly two dollars!”
As I dug around for my wallet, he cocked his head and said, “Your accent. There’s something different about it. Something… foreign, exotic?”
“It’s Chicago,” I said, handing him two dollars.
He blinked a few times. “What’s Chicago?”
“My accent. It’s Chicagoan. English is my first language. My accent is from Chicago.”
He narrowed his eyes at me suspiciously, this gatekeeper of Chicagoness. “What part of Chicago?”
“North side, Lincolnwood area,” I said. “I grew up on Devon Ave.”
“Pulaski Park!” he beamed, pointing to himself. “I’m from Chicago too!”
We smiled at each other, basking for a moment in our mutual Chicagoness. Then I waved and drove away, adding his insistence of my exotic“otherness” to the dozens of other peoples’ who have heard my perfectly flat, perfectly blandly midwestern accent and perceived something foreign. I call that one “hearing with your eyes.”
I have lost track of people who have tried to insist that I have an accent. One woman even went so far as to imply that I was lying about being a native English speaker, that I must have some other first language, because there’s “Something else in there, I can hear something foreign! But you’re very articulate though.”
Compliments like “You’re so articulate!” or “You’re so different!” give you partial credit for your exceptionality, while still discrediting every other member of your general race, religion, region, or hemisphere. The left-handed compliment has a long history, and follows a predictable pattern. Take, for example, this excerpt from The Talisman, a crusade-genre fiction published in 1825.
In this scene, our gallant, invading knight finds himself unable to defeat the enemy “Saracen,” aka – Muslim defender of the Holy Land. In grudging admiration, the knight concedes:
“I well thought…that your blinded race had their descent from the foul fiend, without whose aid you would never have been able to maintain this blessed land of Palestine against so many valiant soldiers of God. I speak not thus of thee in particular, Saracen, but generally of thy people and religion. Strange it is to me, however, not that you should have the descent from the Evil One, but that you should boast of it.”
Translation: “Your people and your religion are the spawn of satan, but not you. I speak not thus of thee in particular. You’re so cool for Muslim!” Spoiler alert: turns out it’s Salahuddin.

From the crusades to colonialism to America’s chronic invasion of Muslim lands, the misrepresentation of people from Over There is both a cause and effect of policy decisions. Orientalism creates the “bad guys” necessary to justify the “good guy” response by “proving” the bad guys to be so weird, inferior, and intrinsically bad that it becomes necessary to call for the good guy cavalry. That gives the good guys permission to take over the resources that the bad guys are too incompetent to manage anyway, and overthrow the governments they’re too stupid to run, and free the women that they’re too barbaric to appreciate.
One excellent reference on this is Dr. Jack Shaheen’s brilliant documentary Reel Bad Arabs, which summarizes a hundred years of Hollywood’s orientalist portrayal of “Arab Land,” a mythical, exotic, treacherous, incompetent, and seductive place, whose capital city is apparently Agrabah which, in 2015, a public policy poll found that 30% of GOP voters were in favor of bombing.
Another side effect of orientalism is the refusal to allow for individual accountability and the insistence on collective blame. “Western” men who harm and oppress women are rightly labeled as jerks and abusers who don’t represent Western morals, ethics, or ideals through their individual actions. Same for white racists, extremists, and criminals in general.
However, Muslims jerks who do the same are awarded representative status of the entire Muslim population (1.9 billion) and Islamic tradition (1441 years). The perception as all Muslim men based on only the worst of them seems ludicrous on paper, and such generalizations are no longer acceptable to make about race, but are still perfectly popular to make about minority religious groups.
Orientalism enables the belief that Muslims are terrible terrorists who are terrible to their women. If they say otherwise, it’s because their religion is terrible and lying about it is part of the religion too. They don’t deserve their own lands or resources, they’ll just use them for more terribleness. We should go in there and save them from themselves! And also, make lots of predictable, idiotic romance novels and movies in which a poor, beautiful Oriental Female is rescued through the power of Love and Freedom. Because just as violence is the natural state of the Muslim man, oppression is the natural state of the Muslim woman. Miskeena. Habibti.

Human beings can be horrible to each other. No ethnic, religious, or racial group is any exception. The problem arises when individual horribleness is elevated to collective attribution, and that collective attribution is used to justify collective punishment, as well as collective suffering.
When millions of Americans get sick from the flu, and tens of thousands die every year, why aren’t we making fun of the weird things that white people eat? Like Rocky Mountain Oysters (which are bull testicles) and sweetbreads (which are bits of an animal’s pancreas and thymus glands)?Click To TweetWhen millions of Americans get sick from the flu, and tens of thousands die every year, why aren’t we making fun of the weird things that white people eat? Like Rocky Mountain Oysters (which are bull testicles) and sweetbreads (which are bits of an animal’s pancreas and thymus glands)? What about snails, frog legs, crawfish, chocolate covered ants, and those tequila-inspired lollipops with an actual worm candied in the center?
The filtering effect of orientalism means that our weird foods – be it maghz masala and katakat– are quirky and fun, but their weird foods are disgusting and totally cause to celebrate infectious disease.
If the tables were turned and a deadly coronavirus originated from say, Saudi Arabia, would it be alright to ridicule Muslims for what they ate, or how they lived? What if that specific coronavirus actually originated in camels.
Yes, camels. The Islamophobic internet would have a field day with that one. Yes, we ride camels and prize camels and even eat camels – and they’re delicious I might add – but if a deadly virus originated from camels, found its way into humans in the Middle East, and from there caused death and destruction in other countries- would it be our fault? Would we deserve scorn? Would the suffering and death of our people be justified by how “gross” it is that we eat camels, even if only a few us actually do, and the rest of us prefer shawarma?
Pause for dramatic emphasis. Open the Lancet. Read.
“Human coronavirus is one of the main pathogens of respiratory infection. The two highly pathogenic viruses, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, cause severe respiratory syndrome in humans and four other human coronaviruses induce mild upper respiratory disease. The major SARS-CoV outbreak involving 8422 patients occurred during 2002–03 and spread to 29 countries globally.
MERS-CoV emerged in Middle Eastern countries in 2012 but was imported into China.
The sequence of 2019-nCoV is relatively different from the six other coronavirus subtypes but can be classified as betacoronavirus. SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV can be transmitted directly to humans from civets and dromedary camels, respectively, and both viruses originate in bats, but the origin of 2019-nCoV needs further investigation.
The mortality of SARS-CoV has been reported as more than 10% and MERS-CoV at more than 35%.”
MERS-CoV, or Middle East Respiratory Syndrome –Coronavirus emerged in 2012, traveling from bats to camels to humans, killing 35% of the people who contracted it. It originated in Saudi Arabia and found its way across the continent all the way to China. So could the Chinese internet have been justified in ridiculing our deaths because we ate camels?
Could they legitimize posting “gross” videos of whole, pit-roasted camels? Could they say it was science, not racism, as they moved on to our other “gross” foods, like locusts and the dhab lizard?
Read more about the Sunnah of the Dhab Lizard.
Locusts and lizards have as much to do with MERS-CoV as mice and rats have to do with 2019 novel coronavirus, but doesn’t our grossness in general mean we deserve our fate?
No, it doesn’t. Making fun of what people eat isn’t science, epidemiology, or the sunnah. It’s racism, and it is hugely disappointing to see Muslims hurt others with to the same tropes that are used to hurt us.
No, it doesn’t. Making fun of what people eat isn’t science, epidemiology, or the sunnah. It’s racism, and it is hugely disappointing to see Muslims hurt others with to the same tropes that are used to hurt us.Click To TweetOrientalism is alive and kicking both of our communities in the teeth — Chinese and Muslim – but to further complicate the matter, there’s the ongoing genocide of the Uighur Muslims in China, and that’s rooted in orientalism too.
The Chinese government has imprisoned 3 million Muslims in concentration camps, a number equal to the entire Muslim population in America. It is not unexpected that some people wishfully assume the 2019 novel coronavirus epidemic to be the comeuppance that the Chinese government deserves for its cruelty, but that’s sad and wrong on many, many levels.


People cheering the coronavirus on fail to understand a few very big, very important things about the situation. I will list them, because the internet is no place for subtlety and these points have to stand out for those who would sail over the entire article so they can trash it in the comments. They are as follows:
- The entire population of China is no more responsible for the actions of its government than you are for yours. If you hate Donald Trump, his border wall, the separation of families, the Muslim Ban, cuts to medical benefits, and corruption in general but STILL live in America, then you understand that a great, frustrated, and powerless mass of citizens can have little to no effect on its government’s choices. Such is politics. Such is life. Such is China too.


This guy is all our fault specifically. So I hope we all die of the flu.
- The coronavirus’s lethality is exponentially higher in people with poor health and weak immune systems. Like the flu, the coronavirus is overwhelmingly most lethal to children and elderly. The coronavirus is not targeted at, nor limited to the Chinese leadership for its crimes against humanity. Unfortunately, that is not how epidemics work.
- The spread of Coronavirus – like all respiratory infections – is greatly accelerated through close living quarters as well as poor sanitation and hygiene. The 3 million Uighur Muslims interred by the Chinese government are imprisoned in distressingly cruel, cramped, and unhygienic conditions. Their close proximity as well as population density mean that if the virus makes it into the captive population, hundreds of thousands – if not millions of Muslims – would die. Don’t root for the coronavirus. It does not discriminate based on religion or race, even if you do.
And now we come full circle. When Muslims ridicule the Chinese for “being gross,” they are simply echoing the same racist, Orientalist talking points that labeled the Chinese – and later the Japanese – as the “Yellow Peril,” a filthy, faceless, monolithic mass deserving all of our scorn and none of the individual considerations that we insist on for ourselves.
Given the abuse that Muslims have been subject to by orientalist tropes, it should make us all the more aware of its dangerous cultural impact. We know what it’s like to be looked down on, laughed at, and blamed for our own suffering. We know what it feels like to have our foods gagged at, our accents mocked, and our cultural clothing turned into Halloween costumes.
Worse still, we know, very painfully and very currently, what it looks like for an entire people to be treated as a disease in and of themselves. China has declared Islam to be a contagious disease, an “ideological illness,” and on this very basis is it holding 3 million Muslims hostage. In an official statement loaded with situational irony, the Chinese Community Party officially stated,
“Members of the public who have been chosen for reeducation have been infected by an ideological illness. They have been infected with religious extremism and violent terrorist ideology, and therefore they must seek treatment from a hospital as an inpatient.
… There is always a risk that the illness will manifest itself at any moment, which would cause serious harm to the public. That is why they must be admitted to a reeducation hospital in time to treat and cleanse the virus from their brain and restore their normal mind … Being infected by religious extremism and violent terrorist ideology and not seeking treatment is like being infected by a disease that has not been treated in time, or like taking toxic drugs … There is no guarantee that it will not trigger and affect you in the future.” – source
The dangers of racism and orientalism are real, and the victims number the millions. Knowing how much damage orientalism causes in our community, we must commit to never, ever stooping to the same ideologies that are used to justify our own oppression. No matter how many bats people eat, or how evil their government can be, people are individual people. We stand on equal footing, equally deserving of respect, compassion, and acknowledgement of our humanity.
The Orientalist mindset that diminishes and distances us from each other strips us of our dignity, whether we are its victim, or its the perpetrator. Such racism is antithetical to the Prophetic compassion and mercy that Islam demands from us as Muslims. When Muslims celebrate the suffering of innocent people as some sort of epidemiological revenge for the suffering of innocent people, that’s not Islam.
That’s prejudice.
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Changing the factual past in an attempt to gain political authority is one of the paradoxes of modern populism, where the target audience is presented a twisted and fake past as a nostalgic idealistic image. Populist politicians reminisce publicly about the benefits and pleasures of the days of yore, where facts often have to make room for emotions.
This false representations of a national past on a micro-level is internationally recognizable, but it nonetheless becomes increasingly apparent on a macro-level. The modern European continent is such an example, where right-wing populism is rapidly gaining ground and threatens to achieve political successes.
The populist branch within the Flemish Nationalist thought lends itself particularly to such interpretations of the past, and makes severe historical mistakes in an attempt to uphold and protect that history.
Historically speaking, there’s no truth in an independent Flanders based on the territory of the current Flemish Region. The historical and geographical Flanders is the areas designated as Zealand, East- and West-Flanders and French-Flanders all the way up to Dunkirk. The provinces of Antwerp and Flemish Brabant belonged historically to the duchy of Brabant, and the modern-day province of Limburg was a patchwork of small governments under influence of the Holy Roman Empire, the largest of which was the County of Loon, part of the Prince-Bishopric of Liège.
And yet, nostalgic references are made to the Battle of the Golden Spurs, the County of Flanders and the Flemish Lion by right-wingers. These are mere emotional ideals for a people desperately in search of its own identity amidst a rapidly changing world.
That all of this “past” needs to be taken with a grain of salt. The average Limburgian shares less history with his West-Flemish countryman than with someone from Liège, often doesn’t matter any more.
It’s emotional support, and a form of political opportunism.
Das Abendland
In an almost romanticized narrative, Europe is presented as the so-called Abendland, the Evening Land, a common territory inhabited by people and societies that share a homogeneous cultural unity and a common history. It’s from this populist utopia that the resistance grows against the so-called illusion that Europe was partly formed by external influences and ideas from other continents around the world. It’s from this outset that an isolationist and supremacist historical thinking is pursued. It doesn’t come as a surprise that such theories aren’t only wrong on a historical level, but form an acute danger that threatens to separate people, based on ghosts from the past and vague ideals.
This Eurocentric thinking, in which Europe is considered the initiator and not the receiver, persists throughout colonial and post-colonial European thought. Besides, this trend is also observable in our modern Western high school system, where education tends to look at human history through a purely European lens, as if it was the exclusive result of the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations, Christianity, the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. Years of history classes are being taught within this framework, offering students just a limited amount of tools to effectively look beyond their own geographical and historical area. This is disastrous for the 21st century’s educational system. Such outdated curriculum only serves the interests of populists and idealists.
The history of the several African civilizations, more focus on the earliest states of the Fertile Crescent and some time on the rise and development of the United States were severely lacking during my high school experience, and I had to wait until university to be taught these subjects. What I found most lacking, however, was any in-depth attention for the complex relationship between Europe and the Islamic World.
The Absent Crescent

Albanian Muslims in traditional clothing – 1873
The narrative that Europe is the sole result of a Judeo-Christian tradition with roots in ancient Greek and Roman antiquity needs to be swept aside, once and for all. By no means was there in Europe at any point up until the Second World War an example of cultural, religious or social unity. On the contrary! The continent has always been a patchwork of warring tribes, feudal kingdoms and modern nation states that had in most cases little more in common than their shared geographical position on the European land mass.
More than one third of Europe was under strong Islamic influence for several centuries; in the west, the Iberian Peninsula known as al-Andalus and in the east, Greece and the Balkan all the way up to Vienna. Important Islamic cities like Cordoba, Granada, Sarajevo and Istanbul are still standing in all their glory as we speak, effectively forming visual and tangible landmarks of the Islamic presence on the European continent. This part of history and its influence on modern Europe, however, is predominantly kept silent in the rich historical corpus this continent possesses so abundantly, just as much as in the average high schools so paramount in the formation of our youngest generations.
It is mere randomness that determined that Judaism and Christianity, both religions arisen from Semitic societies, are considered to be European and Islam, which equally emerged from a Semitic society, to be non-European. The fact that European Muslim scientists and philosophers like Ibn Zuhr, al-Zahrāwī, Ibn Rushd or Ibn-Ẓafar al-Ṣiqillī were often much more relevant to modern European science and philosophy than the ancient Greek and Roman thinkers, is long forgotten.
True European Islam
This Islam, that was equally and simultaneously influenced and touched by the proximity and contact with other European people, constitutes true European Islam, i.e. the Islam that grew on the European continent and which left its mark on the future development of states influenced by its presence.
That abhorrent mixture of Islam and liberal, secular and humanist ideals that people nowadays wish to propagate as ‘European Islam’ by presenting it as an acceptable alternative of the Islamic religion within Europe is in my opinion nothing more than a product of the European superiority thinking and undoubtedly also the inferiority complex lots of immigrants suffer from. European Islam predates all of this politicized circus for several centuries, and doesn’t need any dilution or mixing in order to be accepted as European.Click To TweetThat abhorrent mixture of Islam and liberal, secular and humanist ideals that people wish to propagate as ‘European Islam’ by presenting it as an acceptable alternative of the Islamic religion within Europe is nothing more than a product of a European superiority complex and undoubtedly also the inferiority complex lots of immigrants suffer from. European Islam predates all of this politicized circus for several centuries, and doesn’t need any dilution or mixing in order to be accepted as European.
People like Ivan de Veenboer and Jan Janszoon probably don’t immediately ring a bell, and yet they were among the first Dutch Muslims who actively served as seafarers under the Ottoman Empire.
Ivan de Veenboer was an infamous Dutch corsair who sailed the Mediterranean Sea and converted to Islam somewhere at the start of the 17th century. He received the honorary title of ‘Sulaymān-Reis’ from the Dey of Algiers and was promoted to captain and commander of the Algiers corsair fleet, a promotion that heralded a highly successful career. His chief mate was another Dutch corsair, Jan Janszoon. He converted to Islam as well, and assumed command as Murād-Reis over the Fleet of Salé, a powerful squadron of seventeen privateers under Ottoman command. The word Reis is a derivative of the Arabic word for commander, raʾīs, and was given as an honorary title.
In 1566, the Ottoman Empire — under Sulaymān the Magnificent — as the sole foreign power offer its aid to the Dutch rebels of William of Orange. The Protestant Dutch were involved in a violent rebellion against Catholic Spain, and found an ally in the Ottomans. In 1574, Selīm II took Tunisia from the Spanish Empire in a successful attempt to lower the Spanish pressure on the Low Lands.
The History of the Geuzen
The Geuzen, the Dutch guerrilla and privateering forces who opposed the Spanish Catholics during the Eighty Years’ War, wore a badge with the inscription: “Rather Turkish than Pope.” When the village of Sluis fell under control of the Dutch rebels in 1604, they found several Muslims among the Spanish galley slaves. The Dutch immediately chose to grant them their freedom and to transport them to the shores of North Africa as a sign of gratitude towards the Ottomans.
The Ottoman Caliph Aḥmed I asked the Dutch revolutionaries to send him an ambassador, effectively becoming one of the first world leaders to recognize the sovereignty of the Dutch Republic.Click To Tweet
The Ottoman Caliph Aḥmed I asked the Dutch revolutionaries to send him an ambassador, effectively becoming one of the first world leaders to recognize the sovereignty of the Dutch Republic. That ambassador’s name was Cornelius Haga, who arrived with a delegation in Istanbul in 1611. In 1612, he agreed on a very advantageous trade agreement with the Turks, exempting the Dutch from several taxes. Haga remained at the caliph’s court until 1639.
It’s regrettable that such examples are barely covered when speaking about the history of Europe, even in high school. This point of view can build a much broader insight among students with regard to the role of Islam and the Muslims in Europe.
Missed Opportunities and Right-Wing Historians
The fact that the average history lesson doesn’t speak a word about the complex relationships between European nations and Muslim empires, like the Umayyads and Abbasids, is a missed opportunity. In particular because the global history of the European nations can’t be detached from these Muslim empires and vice versa.
The fact that the average history lesson doesn’t speak a word about the complex relationships between European nations and Muslim empires, like the Umayyads and Abbasids, is a missed opportunityClick To TweetFrom Islamic Andalusia and Sicily through the Crusades all the way up to the Ottoman support for Ireland during the Great Famine, European states constantly existed in interaction with neighboring Muslim countries. Keeping silent about all of this benefits only the far-right populist establishment. Right-wing historians, like the Belgian Wim Van Rooy, go as far as denying the entire Islamic civilization and all of its achievements throughout the centuries, calling it an invention of 20th century Arab Gulf states.
The fact that the historical role played by Islam in Europe is reduced to an absolute minimum in popular modern historiography only contributes to a wrong understanding of the current question of Islam in the West. Islam existence on the continent has a long history, and didn’t just slip through the net as a result of mass immigration after the Second World War, as claimed by several populists.

Many prominent Muslims lived on the continent in the early 90’s. Let’s take the example of Evelyn (Zainab) Cobbold was a Scottish noblewoman who converted to Islam after having spent several years in Algiers and Cairo. The 65 year old was, as a matter of fact, by 1933 the first British Muslim woman that ever performed the pilgrimage (Ḥajj) to Mecca.
British writer and journalist Marmaduke (Muḥammad) Pikthall, praised by great writers like H.G. Wells and D.H. Lawrence, converted to Islam publicly in 1917. In 1930, he published an English translation of the Quran, and in 1936 he was buried in the Muslim section of the famous Brookwood cemetery in London.
Sir Archibald (ʿAbdullāh) Hamilton, Etienne Dinet, Claude Alexandre de Bonnevalle, the Hungarian Jozef Bem and even the younger brother of Vlad Dracul, Radu, were all early European converts to Islam, and the list is much longer.
Can’t all of this be considered a common part of European history?
Mahomets Gesang
Goethe known for his love and fascination for the poetry of Saʿdī al-Shīrāzī, dedicated a poem of his to the Prophet Muḥammad
Mahomets Gesang, Song of Muhammad.
The Irish playwright and critic George Bernard Shaw didn’t make his admiration for the Prophet Muḥammad
much of a secret as well. His famous quote still emits a serene respect: “I have always held the religion of Muhammad in high estimation because of its wonderful vitality.” In the January 1933 issue of the Lahore The Light magazine in which he made this comment, Shaw added that “he forecast that within a century, Islam would be the religion of Europe.”
According to him, Islam was dismissed for centuries by Europeans as pagan heresy and nonsense, depicted as the embodiment of evil, but 18th and 19th century thinkers like Goethe, Gibbon and Carlyle brought a positive change in how Islam is viewed. All four of these thinkers, including Shaw, deviated from the contemporary traditional European historiography and observed instead the Middle-East, the Greek-Orthodox Church and the development of Islam. Not only did they get to know the Prophet Muḥammad as a religious symbol, but as an efficient political leader and a genius strategist.
Connection Instead Of Polarization
This entire message, however, won’t ring a bell to most, including Muslims themselves. It’s a message that gets lost amidst the deafening sound of disinformation, political opportunism and populist interests. If this information would be made into a new standard of European historiography and common knowledge, both in school as in public, more connections and mutual understanding will grow as opposed to the rising polarization of today.
Teach students to make connections. Teach them to look at the bigger picture, to understand the historical reality that nations simply need to interact with each other in order to survive, apart from culture or religion.Click To TweetTeach students to make connections.
Teach them to look at the bigger picture, to understand the historical reality that nations simply need to interact with each other in order to survive, apart from culture or religion. No one fell from Mars and left his mark on earth. Everything we can observe today arose as the result of a long historical process. When our newest generations then learn to think and reason inclusively and see the shared collectiveness of our world history, they’ll walk the Earth with an open-mind and they’ll be less inclined to think in terms like “supremacy” or “exclusivity”.
The last thing I want to do with this long read is to preach and to sum up lists of “how good Islam is”. No, but I do wish historical justice in the ugly face of the contemporary mass-populism. I want to demonstrate that the Islamic religion forms an integral part of European history, and that this religion can just be European as well, without the need to substitute its norms and values.
I want to demonstrate that the Islamic religion forms an integral part of European history, and that this religion can just be European as well, without the need to substitute its norms and values.Click To TweetWe don’t need to search for a European Islam, because it already exists for centuries.
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Peter
September 22, 2015 at 12:15 AM
It is all very nice for Muslims to play the victim card at every opportunity, when something wrong happens in the western world to a innocent Muslim. However, disgraceful the situation this poor child was placed into, it has not happened in a vacuum.
Where a significant percentage of the Muslim community around the world, is doing its best in instill fear in non Muslims, the silent majority of Muslims cannot constantly pull out the victim card, when the environment of fear has been created deliberately by their fellow Muslims.
If you cry the victim, yet do nothing to stop the source of this fear, then you are part of the problem, not the solution.
I remember the scenes of Muslims all around the work dancing in the streets, on 9/11. I remember the scenes of Muslim riots over cartoons. I have seen first hand on the streets of Sydney, Muslims rioting holding signs saying death to the no believers. 30 second search on the internet shows 1000’s of videos of Muslims chopping off heads and blowing people up.
The fear of Muslim bombing and terrorism by non Muslims, is not one without any basis in fact.
When Muslims truly start holding their fellow Muslims accountable, when Muslims truly acknowledge that they have in effect, contributed to this problem. Then they can claim victim status in matters like this.
The discrimination that Black Americans face every day, the same types of discrimination that Black Aboriginals face in Australia, are not denied by the parties concerned. In the US, There are vast numbers of Black police officer, Lawyers, and community leaders not only trying to stop the not only the actually discrimination, but the root causes.
The Muslim community seems to constantly ignore its role in causing terrible situations like this to occur.
Until then, it does not ring true to the wider society at large, that Muslims are in denial of their own limitations, yet cry loudly only at others. It is called hypocrisy.
Muslim
September 22, 2015 at 9:35 AM
Brother Peter Please Watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDTPEw9yX2k (at 6:07 there is an error in the translation. It is supposed to be Oh Allah! send your blessings on (Prophet) Muhammad
You are right to an extend. But we cant ignore the factors that contributed to the rise of extremism. Just check out and compare how many suicide attacks and other crazy attacks in the name of Islam took place before and after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.
I am in no way supporting extremism. And I am a strong adherent of Islam. And we firmly believe that if any person whether muslim or non muslim is killed unjustly then the culprit will be severely punished by God on the Day of judgment. Such is the justice of God. Maybe you haven’t seen how many muslims are trying to correct the corrupted mind set of extremism which has crept into some minds. I can assure you there are many Muslims who try to spread the true teachings of Islam and are trying to get back the extremists into their senses.
Its not an easy job though. Every time these extremists are told to fear God and not to get into extremism, their response is “look at what the U.S. has done to the innocent people in the Muslim lands, they have killed so many helpless men, women and children”. Now our religion teaches us one wrong cannot justify committing another wrong.
But these people put their emotions ABOVE their religion which is why things get out of hand and they take the wrong path.
So, really to wipe out extremism effectively the wrongful oppression by U.S, and other countries should stop. Because in reality this a cycle. One oppression giving rise to another kind of oppression.
And you are right there were people who danced around when the attack happened on WTO. One of my seniors in University told us during an Islamic workshop that when he was not a practicing Muslim, he and his friends celebrated when the WTO happened. But he said he regretted doing that after he started learning more about Islam. The point I want to make is that we have many Muslims disconnected from their religion spiritually and morally. So these people are the ones who usually respond in such ignorant ways.
I pray and hope that God makes you and people around the world, both Muslims and non Muslims understand the true values of Mercy and Justice this religion holds, to the extent that killing or injuring an innocent animal without any legitimate purpose is a crime.
M.Mahmud
September 22, 2015 at 11:29 PM
Greetings Peter
It is not our issue that you are deaf to the day and night toil and struggle that Muslims exert to command good and forbid evil among ourselves. You are not among us and thank God we are not answerable to people who are not aware of our communities let alone our hearts and deeds.
We also publicly condemn criminals and have done so day and night year after year.
We are not answerable to you in the slightest so assume us truthful or assume us liars, our efforts are for the next life not for your pleasure.
When we condemn evil publicly someone comes out and says ” why don’t I hear Muslims condemning evil?”
The answer is that he was prevented from hearing it or he does not want to hear it and so our words fell on deaf ears.
Or it is actually heard and then it is said sarcastically “oh sure OF COURSE they are condemning evil or “these may condemn injustice but what about the rest?” or “sure they condemn it but they are not truly following their religion rather the criminals are.”
It has become apparent that some will oppose Islam an Muslims no matter what and fall into deafness or denial when confronted with the truth. And we are called hypocrites?
Do not worry. Whether you think us guilty or you think us innocent is irrelevant. We are only to fear our Lord and we answer to Him alone. Our failure or success in commanding what is right is for our Lord to assess. So do what you do we will do what we are commanded to do.
Peace
September 29, 2015 at 11:36 PM
Greetings M. Mahmud
What do you mean you are not answerable to non-Muslims in the slightest? Yes you are actually! As citizens of the world Muslims are accountable and need to be responsible neighbors to the rest of the world. Do you think this is about pleasure. No it is about Muslims taking their responsibilities seriously.
Mahmaud Its good to hear you publicly condemn criminals and strive for goodness and peace. Long may Muslims continue to do this and may God Bless them.
You say a common response is “oh sure OF COURSE they are condemning evil or “these may condemn injustice but what about the rest?” or “sure they condemn it but they are not truly following their religion rather the criminals are.” There is good reason for this sarcasm Mahmud. Muslims and Islam appear confused and lacking unity on these issues.
Where are the rallies similar to any thing in the West where millions walked the streets protesting against the actions of Western leaders? Where are your mass rallies protesting against Muslim radicals? Muslim web sites I view have little to say. The common response appears to be the defensive victim.
pam
September 30, 2015 at 7:46 AM
@Muslim Ameen, Ya Rabb.
Mahmud
October 6, 2015 at 2:12 AM
Hello Peace. No, we aren’t answerable to you in the slightest. Yes we are global citizens but if we are going to start on this, you have far, far more public condemning to do then we do.
It is an absolute insult to expect us to condemn terrorist groups when we are their number one combatants and number one victims. Furthermore, considering your crimes in the world far outweigh ours, it truly is saddening you are playing the offense defense(asking us to condemn-where do we see your big rallies against terrorism?)
And why should we bother any more rallies when all we will get are sarcastic responses? You claim these responses are valid(they are not) and then ask why you don’t see us rallying…and yet when we do really this is the response we receive.
It really is a no win situation when we subject ourselves to your demands which we are not beholden to.
This “skepticism” of yours is entirely invalid-the real purpose of asking these questions is to put Muslims in a terrified state to constantly seek to fulfill your demands. To put us in a box and distract us-please, end the double standards if you don’t want defensive responses to your clearly offensive speech.
“Muslims and Islam appear confused and lacking unity on these issues.”
Rather, nonbelievers are either confused, or, more likely, downright disingenuous. We are not obliged to publicly condemn any more than we are at the moment. We have done enough. If you have not heard, it is your failure to hear and not our failure to condemn it loudly enough.
Peace
October 6, 2015 at 8:24 PM
Hello Mahmud
Muslims not answerable to us? Muslims not answerable or beholden to the non Muslim world?
This arrogant thinking contributes to the Islamic fascist thinking so prevalent in OUR world today.
What public is condemning “us” Mahmud? And by the way, just who is “us” ? Who do you think I am representing Mahmud? The public I represent is the same public that rallied in Paris after the Charlie Hebdo shootings. More than a million people marched through Paris as a result. That is the public I represent.
Yes I am well aware Muslims are the number one combatants and number one victims. All the more reason for Muslims to cease their denial and anti western defensive projections and combat their Islamic fascist ilk on all fronts.
Our crimes out weigh yours ? Really Mahmud ? Name them. Lets play God shall we? Bring out your scales and let’s weigh up.
Why should you bother to condemn your own? This is a typical lazy and defensive response that seems so prevalent in Islam. So what is your motivation Mahmud? Are Muslims really that overly sensitive about sarcasm.
Scepticism of mine ? An attempt to put you in a box and distract you? Islam is well distracted enough it seems. Again this is simply more of the same old victimised Muslim conspiracy theory that keeps you in your box of distractions.
Non believers confused? Really? You’re the ones with many of your brethren calling for an Islamic Caliphate while others call for democracy. You are the ones with many proposing Islamist militant action while others of you cite Islam as “the religion of peace”. And you say we are confused.
You say you have done enough and there is a failure of “us” to hear. To hear what Mahmud? The fighting in Syria that continues?
The cries of the non Muslim Nigerian girls taken into slavery by Boko Haram?
The cries of Muslim refugees clambering over each other to reach stable, non-Muslim, European democracies.
A failure to hear the cries of your failed “Arabic Spring”?
I suspect you are more intent and spend more time on blaming the West rather than taking assertive action and spending an equal or more amount of time reforming your own.
And you have the cheek to call us disingenuous. Its time Islam woke up Mahmud. If not the same Islmo – fascist mind is set to continue.
Tadar
September 23, 2015 at 8:14 AM
Check out InfoWars.com
Pam
September 24, 2015 at 9:42 PM
@Peter, let me guess, you’re a white man…
Exactly what percent of Muslims are terrorists? Even if it were as high as 5%, which I doubt, that’s 95% of Muslims who are NOT engaged in evil acts and mayhem. The facts are that we DO have a huge racism problem in this country. We DO have people being fed a constant diet of Islamophobia and fear.
The school to prison pipeline is a huge problem for poor people. Did you know what a powerful lobby the for-profit prison industry is in Washington?
Continue to hate and fear Muslims if you must, but please read Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson to give you a window into our criminal injustice system.
Peace
September 30, 2015 at 1:24 AM
Pam
Exactly what percentage of Muslims remain quiet about the violent actions of their brothers. What percentage of Muslims secretly sympatise with the radicals. What percentage of Muslims spend more of their time criticising the West rather than their own. What do you know about the justice system in Iran or Saudi Arabia ?
Muslim
September 22, 2015 at 9:45 AM
Also please watch this interview on CNN https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftERxTcjykM
Peace
September 30, 2015 at 1:59 AM
Greetings Muslim
I agree with you. I also pray and hope that God makes you and others both Muslims and non Muslims understand that killing or injuring an innocent without any legitimate purpose is a crime.
Good to hear you do not support extremism and Gods justice for the innocent.
Pleased to hear that Muslims are trying to correct the corrupted mind set of extremists.
You say “compare how many suicide attacks in the name of Islam took place before and after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq and look at what the U.S has done to the innocent Muslims”. I think you will find the motivation for the Islamofascists is as much about world domination in the name of Islam as it is about self defense.
Why did the US invade Afghanistan and Iraq? The US invaded Afghanistan as an act of self-defense after 911. Self-defense against the Islamists of Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban.
The US invasion of Iraq to remove the tyrant dictator Saddam Hussein was and still is more debatable. However, remember it was in the context of fear after 911, the threat of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction that Saddham Hussein had previously used against his own people. Saddham Hussein had proved himself to be a threat to stability of the region.
Pam
September 30, 2015 at 6:40 AM
@Peace, it’s a common problem to compare your ideal with someone else’s reality.
How do you ,”know” how many Muslims secretly support terror? I’ve read many many denunciations of terror by individuals, scholars and organizations. These do not get air play or attention from Faux news and their ilk. The sad truth is I don’t know of one Muslim majority country whose gov’t is living up to the ideals of islam. But my country, the U.S. is not living up to its Constitution either. And another truth is that if you’re a person of color, that will impact you a whole more than if you’re a middle class white person.
Admitting this and trying to advocate for justice does not make one a bad American or a sympathizer with radical ideology.
Peace
October 13, 2015 at 3:27 AM
Hello Pam
Exactly how does anyone know how many Muslims secretly support terror? Obviously range of opinion exists on a continuum.
What percentage of Muslims are active terrorists?
What percentage of Muslims sympathise with terrorists?
What percentage of Muslims actively distrust the non-Muslim world no matter what?
What percentage of Muslims see no possibility of integration between Islam and the non Muslim world ?
What percent see their religion as secondary to the non Muslim society they live in?
And what percentage of Muslims just couldn’t care less, either way?
No one really knows. To talk about 5 percent as terrorists and 95 percent as peace loving is simplistic and misleading.
In terms of denunciations Im sure you are correct. Im sure there are denunciations of terror by Muslim individuals, scholars and organizations. Im aware of Maajid Nawaz in the UK and the good work he does. I must add however that he has had much media and political attention from support. Even having met with President George W Bush Jnr.
Most of what I have heard however is Muslim commentators taking a victimised defensive position and blaming the west for Islamic radicalism. I’ve been following Muslim web sites for years and that’s what I see.
These commentators you speak of. Where are they ? Are they in the West or in Muslim majority countries where the ground swell of radicalism exists ?
Yes I agree Pam, we must all actively advocate for justice.
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Peace
September 29, 2015 at 11:28 PM
My sympathies to Ahmed Mohamed. Yes the Texan justice system does have a reputation for heavy handedness. Interesting that there is a Black Policeman in the photo. I wonder what he thinks of it all ?
Interesting that Muslims such as Khalid Hamideh blame “politicians for creating a climate of fear. “ I agree with Peter. I blame the fascists like ISIS, the Boston bomber, Osama Bin Laden, Al Queda, Boko Haram and Muslim radicals walking down trains in Europe with machine guns.
Good to hear Muslim writers on this post condemning criminals and not supporting extremism. The Surah quoted is interesting in its speaking out against Injustice.
O you who have believed, be persistently standing firm in justice, witnesses for Allah, even if it be against yourselves or parents and relatives. Whether one is rich or poor, Allah is more worthy of both. So follow not [personal] inclination, lest you not be just. And if you distort [your testimony] or refuse [to give it], then indeed Allah is ever, with what you do, Acquainted. (4:135)
Regarding racism and human rights it’s interesting that Muslim commentators like Khalid Hamideh,K Hind Makki, Samiha Rahman, etc speak out strongly against the US when racism and human rights abuses are far more common and extreme in Muslim majority countries. Arabs are well known for their inherent racism. Look at the North Sudanese Arab Muslim persecution of non Muslim blacks for example. Look at the atrocities that Indonesia and Islamist militias were responsible for in Timor.
We all need to take responsibility for ourselves and start with our communities.
Mahmud
October 6, 2015 at 2:17 AM
The USA aided the Indonesians in the Chinese genocide. The USA has committed many, many massive slaughters around the world.
Interesting Peace we don’t see you condemning the sick slaughter of the United States but we see you condemning Muslims. Why the double standards? End this hypocrisy.
Peace
October 6, 2015 at 8:19 PM
To Mahmud
The Muslim Indonesians were responsible for the Timorese genocide. Muslim nations have committed many, many massive slaughters around the world. The Mulim Ottomans slaughtered more than a million Armenians. Why the double standards? End this hypocrisy.
STEPHEN PAUL DELSOL
September 22, 2015 at 11:50 AM
THE SCHOOL-TO-PRISON PIPELINE
The start of the pipeline is the DISCIPLINARY CODE.
All the BEHAVIORS in it are NEGATIVE. These are labeled as MISDEMEANORS and FELONIES.
Resource Officers are employed to ‘police’ the CODE! Officers are accountable to no one; and great abuse of power takes place.
Students are first and foremost CITIZENS with CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS. Their rights are not acknowledged, defended and promoted by SCHOOL BOARDS, PRINCIPALS, TEACHERS, RESOURCE OFFICERS, and DEPARTMENTS OF JUVENILE JUSTICE.
When WHITE STUDENTS commit misdemeanors principals usually phone their parents or involve administrators and guidance counselors. The problems are dealt within the school.
When STUDENTS OF COLOR commit the SAME MISDEMEANORS, like ‘disturbing the lesson’ teachers call the RESOURCE OFFICER.
The STUDENTS OF COLOR are HANDCUFFED, irrespective, of the misdemeanor, in full view of their peers. They are put into a van or police car and driven to the DEPARTMENT OF JUVENILE JUSTICE and LOCKED UP IN A CELL.
The STUDENTS are not told what their CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS are and they are not represented by an Attorney.
They remain locked up for 24 hours before coming before a SOLICITOR, who DECIDES whether the OFFENSE is SERIOUS enough to be seen by a JUDGE. On average, between 55-60% of these cases are DISMISSED.
THEY ARE USING A SLEDGE HAMMER TO CRACK A NUT!
The PUNISHMENT does NOT FIT the CRIME! It’s UNFAIR! It’s UNJUST!
Over 60% of those PUNISHED in this way are STUDENTS OF COLOR.
STATE Governor, Legislatures, School Boards, principals, teachers, Departments of Juvenile Justice, and especially, RESOURCE OFFICERS are well AWARE of this UNJUST and RACIST SYSTEM and are DOING NOTHING about it.
The PEOPLE IN POWER, who CLAIM to CARE and protect children from HARM are DESTROYING hundreds of thousands of the LIVES of STUDENTS OF COLOR!
What are YOU going to do about it?
farooq
September 22, 2015 at 11:56 AM
jazakallah khayr
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Umm hadi
September 23, 2015 at 12:51 PM
Takabbal Allahu minna wa minkum
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Susan
October 4, 2015 at 8:15 PM
Jazakum Allahu khairan for a most relevant article.
The author wrote that when “we focus on Muslim exceptionalism and fail to see anti-Muslim bigotry as an extension of structural racism, we miss important moments of connecting the Muslim community’s struggles with other oppressed groups. By broadening our vision we can move beyond striving for acceptance, and work towards justice that will uplift Muslims and non-Muslims alike.” This is absolutely true. We are witnessing structural racism and Islamophobia play out on both domestic and international fronts. It is no coincidence that the US has only 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of the world’s incarcerated, who are primarily Black. For every one White male that goes to prison, there are 17 Black males and 5 Latinos. For decades, our national policies such as the so-called War on Crime, War on Drugs and No Child Left Behind (Obama’s The Race To The Top) have been systematically funnelling Black youth out of the country’s worst, most under-funded schools into prison. Meanwhile, the so-called War on Terror has resulted in the horrific annihilation of one in ten Iraqis and the emergence of ISIS in the wake of the hell on earth that is used to be Iraq and has spilled over into Syria. What would we, in the United States do if another country bombed us to bits and killed one-tenth of the population? It is time for the Muslim community to stand against injustice whereever it manifests. The case of Black Muslim Ahmed Mohamed underscores that the struggles for justice are both many and one.
Peace
October 6, 2015 at 8:17 PM
Hello Susan
Yes I agree structural racism is an evil. Also part of the reason for the higher numbers of minorities being incarcerated is due to being socio economically disadvantaged in society they have a offending rate.
However Im not sure why you are bringing the war in Iraq and ISIS into this. This is just fudging the issues. Please remember the war on terror started due to the Islmo- fascist agenda of the likes of Osama Bin Laden and his Al Queda brothers wanting world domination for Islam. This was more than just self defence for them. They will never be satisfied until the black flag of Islam flies over every capital of the world.
Why did the US invade Afghanistan and Iraq? The US invaded Afghanistan as an act of self-defense after 911. Self-defense against the Islamic fascists of Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban.
The US invasion of Iraq to remove the tyrant dictator Saddam Hussein was and still is more contentious. However, remember it was in the context of fear after 911, the threat of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction that Saddham Hussein had already used against his own people. Saddham Hussein had proven himself to be a threat to stability of the region.
In the West after the Iraq invasion there were massive rallies in Western cities (tolerated by Western Governments) of millions of people protesting the war. Where are the rallies similar to anything like this in Muslim majority countries? Where are your mass rallies protesting against Islamic fascism?
Please don’t blame the US for ISIS Susan. ISIS is as a result of the failed “Arab Spring”, the inherit violence found in the Quran and Hadith, the Sunni Shiite divide, and the confusion of authority that currently exists in Islam.
You say the US has only 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of the world’s incarcerated. Really? What do you base this on?
Aafia
October 16, 2015 at 5:26 PM
I really appreciate the Quranic reference.
jajakAllah khairan