Islamophobia Threatens American Values and National Security

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-levin-jd/islamophobia-threatens-am_b_1686403.html

Brian Levin, J.D.

Director, Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, California State University

Islamophobia Has Been Mainstreamed
The real terror threat to the United States from a very small, but still significantly dangerous sliver of alienated Salafist radicals has been a boon to unrepentant bigots who wish to exploit fear for political purposes in an election cycle. The outsized presence of a small number of real extremists is being advanced as part of a coordinated effort to marginalize and exclude mainstream Muslims in the United States from meaningful participation in society. Unsubstantiated broadsides, particularly against moderate Muslims, not only reprehensibly damages them as individuals, but undermine their ability to build meaningful relationships across faith and political boundaries. Not only does this harm innocent patriotic Muslim Americans and potential allies in the fight against extremists, it shifts resources and attention away from real threats.  

If there were any doubt about the mainstreaming of Islamophobia one need look no further than the recent horrendous character assassination broadsides against patriotic federal public servants like the State Department's Huma Abedin and U.S. Special Envoy Rashad Hussein by members of Congress such as Michelle Bachmann in letters sent to federal agencies. Other recent instances of this kind of mainstreaming include the necessity of a Tennessee federal court's order mandating the final inspection of a controversial mosque after a lengthy delay and the appointment of former Army Lt. Gen William Boykin, a fierce critic of Muslims, to the post of executive vice president of the Family Research Council.

Characteristics of Islamophobia
Fareed Zakaria notes, "A cottage industry of scaremongering has flourished in the West -- especially in the United States since 9/11." The Anti-Defamation League's Oren Segal, who tracks radical extremism explains that illegitimate criticism comes from those who vilify "the entire Islamic faith by making assertions that there are conspiracies against American values inherent in Islam." Dr. Hussein Ibish of the American Task Force on Palestine further explains:

In the present moment, Islamophobic discourse is based on the explicit or implicit allegation that immigrant Muslim communities represent an alien and hostile political movement, in this case the so-called "jihadist" international terrorist front led by terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda. In other words, the idea is not just that Muslims are alien, other and "bad," but that, as an immigrant group, they are a stealthy vanguard of a hostile political and alien cultural movement that seeks to destroy American society and civilization.

Various tenets distinguish the Islamophobes from those offering meaningful insight into
the genuine extremist threat facing the United States.

1. The categorization of Islam and its adherents as a fixed homogenous political entity for which the extremists set the agenda.


2. Islam is some kind of unitary conspiratorial enemy committed to the destruction of the United States through overthrow and then implementation of sharia law.


3. Muslims due to their innate hostile political agenda of conquering America can not meaningfully assimilate.


4. A demographic time bomb of Muslim extremism exists through immigration and births that threaten the West.


5. Muslim religious practices and any accommodation of it represents a threat


6. Because Islam is a political entity at war with America, it should not be offered the protections of religious liberty mandated in the Constitution's First Amendment.


7. President Obama's Christian beliefs are a false smokescreen to advance his Muslim overlord enemies of the United States.

Shifted Focus From Real Threats
These shotgun style broad screeds against Islam as a faith and Muslims in general, who are categorized as either terrorist sympathizers or naïve has the effect of marginalizing Muslims from meaningful participation in the civic life of America. It also has the effect of shifting resources and the spotlight from real recent events. Scurrilous attacks against all Muslims overshadowed important congressional hearings related to the money laundering capabilities of terrorists through mainstream banking, the potential terror threat from Iran, cyberterror risks, and the ability of undocumented persons to still get flight training in the United States a decade after 9/11. In addition it overshadowed other news like the ability of an Egyptian with apparent connections to a terror group to come to the United States in a diplomatic delegation, the alleged possession of a fake Michigan drivers license by the Bulgaria terror bomber and terror related cases in London and Manchester, England.

For the Islamophobes every Muslim who achieves meaningful participation in public life must be a stealth operator in a conspiracy to undermine the United States with the help of a gullible public of useful idiots. They point to several real and horrendous instances of disingenuous wrongdoing by mainstream criminal or terrorist enabler imposters like Abdurahman al-Amoudi, Sami al-Arian, Anwar al Alakwi and the Holy Land Foundation as evidence of a broad conspiratorial template that they conveniently apply to all Muslims they disagree with irrespective of the evidence.

History Revisited
In both the Red Scare of nearly a century ago, and decades later in the McCarthy era, threats were exploited not for the protection of the country but to its detriment and to the reputations of innocent Americans. Yesterday, CNN showed how far the damage can travel. Demonstrators in Egypt who pelted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's motorcade over the weekend relied on American bloggers for their information about a State Department Muslim Brotherhood conspiracy.

Almost 60 years ago on June 9, 1954, lawyer Joseph Welch stood up in the Halls of the Senate to Joseph McCarthy in hearings about Communists and the Army:

Senator, may we not drop this? We know he belonged to the Lawyers Guild. Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?...READ MORE