See, no matter how much Muslim ass you kiss, you are considered an ‘Islamophobe,’ especially if you belong to the tribe of ‘pigs and apes’ as you do Bloomberg.
Bloomberg at a NYC mosque
Post by HUSSEIN RASHID, a native New Yorker and says he’s a Proud Muslim who is deeply committed to interfaith work and is passionate about teaching. He believes we need to start talking more intelligently about Islam specifically.
Religion Dispatches My colleague, Haroon Moghul, wrote a masterful piece here called “What’s Islamophobia, and Do I Have It?” In it, he expounds on the myths that serve as the bases for Islamophobia. His voice is one of a growing chorus that shows that Islamophobia exists and has a persistent logic of its own, often grounded in antisemitism.
One of the many Muslim antisemites arrested by the NYPD
In fact, one of the amazing elements of Islamophobia is the denial of its own existence—as Nathan Lean explains. In his article, Lean also offers several examples of the impact Islamophobia has had on the lives of Americans; Wajahat Ali has written about the fear and death that an Islamophobic environment sanctions; Erik Love gives us sociological background on the impact of Islamophobia. I want to offer a reflection of what a New York Muslim sees and hears as Islamophobia becomes so normalized that it becomes an institution.
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Any Muslim who meets another Muslim is tarred by six degrees of separation as being a potential terrorist, deserving of NYPD surveillance.The situation of the NYPD is one of the great travesties of Muslim life in the city. We at RD have covered ![images-2]()
the betrayal of trust that Mayor Bloomberg’s policies represent. This betrayal is further compounded by the fact that members of the NYPD call it the “most corrupt police department,” and try to harass people for exercising their freedom of expression. Yet, by giving them unsupervised, unchallenged power, Mayor Bloomberg makes it easy for them start with the assumption that Muslims are guilty until proven innocent. And again, much like the Islamophobia Industry denying Islamophobia in the presence of a preponderance of evidence, no NYPD policy changes, despite the fact that the surveillance is misplaced.
This type of Islamophobia is becoming so ingrained into the mayor’s administration, that when Sunando Sen was slaughtered on the altar of Islamophobia, the mayor urged us to remember that while it was sad, it was okay because the real story was how cool the NYPD was. This statement was a day after he talked about the unappreciated deaths of the 34 people killed everyday by gun violence. Clearly, some causes of violence and some victims of violence are to be appreciated more than others.
NYC Muslim cab drivers stop to pray wherever and whenever they feel like it. Every Friday, they block streets and sidewalks on the Upper West Side near a mosque
If the words of Fox News can lead to an arson attack against a mosque, and general Islamophobia results in knifings in pizzerias, then the words and actions of the Mayor of New York have a much more profound impact.
Muslims block Madison Avenue to pray in the street
Muslims in the city are bombarded by media coverage that paints us as suspect. The city’s police department paints us as suspect. Advertising in the veins of the city paints us as suspect. The mayor made a rousing speech during the Ground Zero Victory Mosque controversy, but he has not internalized or exemplified those words.
We are a community besieged by Islamophobia. Instead of building strong, resilient communities, we are left with “Be safe,” as our most potent protection. We cannot trust the police, we cannot trust people on the subway, and the mayor fiddles.
