Claims that anti-Muslim bigotry is widespread in the U.S.
Whitewashes the violent, mysogynistic elements of Islamic history
Immediately after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the Muslim Students Association of Emory University (MSA EU) signed a students' petition that condemned what it called "growing instances of anti-Arab and anti-Islamic bigotry" that allegedly were occurring in response to those attacks. The petition read, in part:
"The perpetrators of this heinous act [9/11] must be brought to justice, however we can never achieve true victory over the forces of hate if we forget the essential foundations this nation was built upon. Our diversity is one of our greatest strengths; our capacity to love and respect people of every faith and creed is the cornerstone that makes our society great. We encourage the use of rational decision making by all Americans and hope that every individual's civil liberties are respected…. We must remember that this act of terror in no way represents the principles of the Islamic faith."
MSA EU has participated several times in MSA National's "Ramadan Fast-a-Thon" along with nearly 280 fellow Muslim organizations (mostly chapters of MSA). The purpose of this event is to raise, through temporary fasting, public awareness of hunger and homelessness in Muslim communities. Recent endorsers of the Fast-a-Thon include:
Imam Zaid Shakir, Yale University's former Muslim chaplain who has expressed his desire to see the United States eventually become "a Muslim country ruled by Islamic law"
In the wake of the July/August 2006 Israel-Lebanon war (which was sparked when Hezbollah terrorists simultaneously fired rockets at Israeli border towns and carried out a missile attack on two armored security vehicles inside Israel), the MSA EU website stated the following:
"After the Israel-Lebanon conflicts during this past summer, the devastation of the Lebanese people has drastically declined to epidemic levels. The infant mortality rate in Lebanon is 27% and the youth under the age of 25 years are facing a grim future due to a lack of jobs and a deteriorating education system. The United Nations Development Program estimated the destruction of about 35,000 homes and businesses, while about one fourth of the nation's bridges have been demolished. The country is in dire need for major reconstruction, rehabilitation, and healthcare. The economic losses for Lebanon totaled over $15 billion, an almost infathomable [sic] number which needs to be immediately addressed and brought to the attention of the general public."
No mention was made of the Lebanese aggression that had forced Israel to respond militarily.
In November 2007, MSA EU held its annual Islamic Awareness Week to "address issues of Muslim political activism in the U.S."; "explore the relationships Islam has with other faiths"; discuss "issues of women's rights and the place of Islam in America"; "demonstrate[e] … the magnificence of yesterday's Islam"; and identify "the misunderstandings that plague today's Islam."
That same month, MSA EU President Ameer Shaikh wrote a column in the Emory Wheel (the university's student newspaper) titled "Islam's Glorious History," which stated: "As Europe slept through its dark ages, Islam and its civilization were busy redescribing humanity. Muslims, from the seventh century until their expulsion from Spain in 1503, were civilization: No other existed." Shaikh said nothing of the fact that the Muslims initially had arrived in Spain as a result of an 8th-century invasion in which they conquered nearly the entire Iberian peninsula.
Comparing Islamic civilization favorably to its European counterpart, particularly with regard to women's rights, Shaikh added: "Muslims were the pioneers of almost all fields of science and humanities…. Islamic civilization was devoid of anti-Semitism and the Inquisition.... It was Islamic law which granted women the right to inheritance in 632. It was Islam in the 13th century whose jurisprudence dictated that women be equal witnesses to men in the courts of law. Such was magnificence" [sic].
Shaikh did not mention that the Islamic world today is replete with the abuse and subjugation of women. Nor did he address what Robert Spencer points out in his book The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam. Namely, the Koran itself states that "[m]en have authority over women because God has made the one superior to the other" (Qur'an 4:34); that a woman is like a field [tilth] to be used by a man as he wills (2:223); that a woman's testimony is worth only half that of a man (2:282); that a son's inheritance should be twice the size of a daughter's (4:11); that a man may marry up to four wives and may have sex with slave girls also (4:3); and that husbands may beat disobedient wives (4:34).
In Shaikh's calculus, all negative portrayals of Muslims today are the result of "Orientalist attacks upon Islam" that "exul[t] in displaying [it] in as negative a light as possible." Blaming "the imperial policies of Europeans" for "destroying the social and ethical fabric of Muslim societies," Shaikh contends that modern-day Muslims "are working diligently to recreate the mosaic of civilizations they formed so long ago."
Since Monday, February 14, 2005 --Hits: 135,879,940 --Visitors: 21,270,947
