Tag: Islam
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A Post-Religious America? I Wouldn’t Count on It.
In a recent essay for Interfaith America, I explored how Americans seem to be losing faith in organized religion. Looking at the overall U.S. trends in recent decades, the picture can indeed seem dire. For instance, this chart shows the share of Americans who are affiliated with a church, synagogue or mosque – a figure…
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African Americans Seem to be Losing Faith in Organized Religion… and the Democratic Party
Throughout the Qur’an, God charges people of faith “not just to be nice and avoid doing wrong in their personal lives, but instead, to support the good and prohibit or resist that which is incompatible with al-sharia (the Path). This mandate, which is repeated over and over again throughout the Qur’an (e.g. 3:110 & 114, 7:157, 9:71 & 112, 31:17), has two…
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Religion and Politics in the Age of Trump
In a previous essay I demonstrated that Democrats have been consistently losing ground with both people of color and people of faith in virtually every midterm and general election cycle after 2008. Republicans, meanwhile, have seen consistent gains with many constituencies. What occurred in 2016, therefore, was not an aberration – but the culmination of…
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How Our Social Networks Shape Our Politics
An ambitious new project, the American National Social Network Survey, looks at the social networks of thousands of Americans over time, exploring how who people associate with affects their worldview. The project is sponsored by AEI and the Knight Foundation, carried out in partnership with NORC (who administer the General Social Survey). The latest report from the project,…
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Why Conservatives Must Reject Trump’s Homonationalism
In a RNC nomination acceptance speech widely maligned as dystopian, Donald Trump received rare mainstream media praise for asserting: “Only weeks ago, in Orlando, Florida, 49 wonderful Americans were savagely murdered by an Islamic terrorist. This time, the terrorist targeted LGBTQ community. No good. And we’re going to stop it. As your president, I will…
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Racially Profiling “Jihadists” Sounds Like Common Sense. Here’s Why It Doesn’t Work
Over the weekend there was a series of bombings, and attempted bombings, in New Jersey and Manhattan (where I live). Authorities have identified and arrested one Ahmed Khan in connection with the attacks, which injured dozens of people in the New York area. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was quick to seize on this incident…
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One Thing Trump Gets Right About Muslims, Terrorism (Kind of)
Let’s start with all the usual caveats: Trump is a demagogue. He and his advisory team are painfully ignorant about Islam—and as a result, most of his policy proposals and rhetoric about Islamic terrorism have been ill-informed and counter-productive. But for all that, Trump has repeatedly emphasized a point which many of his rivals and…
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Iraqi, Syrian Refugees May be ISIS’ ‘Achilles Heel’
In the aftermath of the series of attacks in Paris, attributed to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), French President François Hollande has declared a three-month state of emergency. This measure enables the military and law enforcement to monitor, arrest, detain and interrogate persons, with little or no due process. These powers…
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What Was Accomplished in Afghanistan?
The U.S.-led intervention in Afghanistan was justified in large part by highlighting the plight of women under Taliban governance. Within the first weeks of the campaign, Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush and Cherie Blair helped spearhead a highly-effective propaganda effort to convince the public that the U.S. and the U.K. were engaged in a moral war—one…
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Change We Can Believe In
“It was like hamburger meat shootin’ out of his chest.” His burger was rare; blood & oil ran down his double-chinned beard, down his marshmallow-chain fingers, staining his freedom fries. Nirvana on his face. Brown on the outside, pink on the inside. Just like a nigger. I. That nicotine itch on the back…
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Understanding ISIL’s Appeal
[su_quote cite=”Slavoj Zizek” url=”https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Zizek/70043440″]Thirty, forty years ago, we were still debating about what the future will be: communist, fascist, capitalist, whatever. Today, nobody even debates these issues. We all silently accept global capitalism is here to stay. On the other hand, we are obsessed with cosmic catastrophes: the whole life on earth disintegrating, because of some…
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Drawing Muhammad, Civil Rights & Religious Liberty in America
At the height of the unrest in Baltimore, I wrote a piece for Salon pushing back against the kneejerk condemnations of the riots. In the piece, I argued that advocates of pacifism fail to understand the extent to which their own methods are reliant on violence—to the point where it may not even be feasible…
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Pamela Geller is No Rosa Parks
“In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man.” –Pamela Geller “I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and prosperity for all people.” –Rosa Parks In the aftermath of the shootings in Garland, Texas New York Times reporter…
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Understanding Iran’s Nuclear Intentions
Iran’s nuclear program was founded in 1957 as part of U.S. President Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” initiative. As part of this deal, the United States helped provide the training, technology and infrastructure allowing Iran to become a nuclear power. It was America that built Iran’s first nuclear reactor in 1967, subsequently providing them with the…
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The Islamic State’s Supposed Theology is a Dangerous Distraction
It is problematic to assert that the Islamic State (ISIS or IS) is not “Islamic” in large part because the assertion presupposes there is a “true” and a “false” Islam—one by which Barack Obama or liberal Muslim intellectuals can judge whether others are “authentic” believers or not. This is the same takfir (excommunication) doctrine that…
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On the Strategic Logic of ISIL’s Atrocities
Following ISIL’s immolation Moaz al-Kasasbeh, many attributed the viciousness of his execution to the fact that he was a Jordanian pilot. The narrative is that the coalition airstrikes have been devastating for ISIL, and this extreme act was a desperate bid to dissuade allied forces from further strikes. By this logic, their tactic backfired: not…
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Al-Badghadi: Jihadist Provocateur
ISIS distinguishes itself from other jihadist organizations, particularly its progenitor al-Qaeda, by positioning itself as the group that will do what other groups are unwilling or unable to do. There is a clear dialectic wherein other terror organizations will commit an a heinous act that receives widespread media coverage; ISIS will then try to divert…
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Normalize Relations with Iran Now, Not Later
In an administration which has become known for largely continuing the disastrous policies of the previous White House and doubling-down on its own proven failures—President Obama stunned the world with his surprise announcement that the United States would be normalizing relations with Cuba. The President pointed out that the extraordinary sanctions regime, which has been…
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Deconstructing the “Islamic State”
Sarah Olsson interviews Musa al-Gharbi about ISIS, Islam, and the media Why has ISIL become so famous? Basically, there are a few reasons ISIL generates so much interest. One reason is because they are successful. While they have importantly different methods and goals than the group they spun from (al-Qaeda), and the areas they’ve seized have been largely…
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Musa al-Gharbi “interviews” Dr. Zuhdi Jasser
(Try to spot the fundamentalist) Apparently Dr. Jasser is a fan of my work…or in any case, he likes to skim it. Over the course of the following exchange, my interlocutor and I go through a good deal of my catalog–the dialectic is basically him systematically misrepresenting what I was arguing, and myself correcting…
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Yes, ISIS is “Islamic” (But with regards to policy, it really, really doesn’t matter)
It is perhaps disingenuous to claim that ISIS is not “Islamic,” as many Muslim apologists have attempted, in part because there is no “true” and “false” Islam objectively accessible to human beings. Would-be Caliph Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi’s interpretation may be far outside the mainstream contemporary or traditional approaches to Islam, but doesn’t make it “un-Islamic.”…
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Mexico’s Cartels Are More Depraved, Dangerous than ISIL
The horrific rampage of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has captured the world’s attention. Many Western commentators have insisted that ISIL’s crimes are unique, no longer practiced anywhere else in the civilized world. Worse still, they argue that the group’s barbaric practices are intrinsically Islamic, a product of the aggressive and…
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Reclaiming Jihad
In the wake of the excesses by ISIS, and the public outcry against them which often takes on an Islamophobic hue, many Muslims have tried to defend their religion by minimizing jihad (the struggle) as something peripheral to the faith, or else as antiquated: necessary in the time of Mohammed, but rarely of relevance in…
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Forget the Islamic State, Focus on the United States
America’s War on Sexual Violence, Mass Atrocities & Religious Persecution Should Begin at Home Without question, the so-called “Islamic State” is an abomination that should be wiped from the face of the earth. However, it is unclear whether America is the right agent to see this through. Part of the trouble relates to the Obama Administration’s strategy, which…
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On the Philosophical Underpinnings of Al-Qaeda & the Islamic State
The public discourse about transnational jihadist organizations indiscriminately lumps together al-Qaeda, its forerunners (such as the Taliban), affiliates (such as Jahbat al-Nusra), its derivatives (such as Ansar al-Sharia or the Islamic State), and even groups which have no strong connection to al-Qaeda or such as Hamas, Hezbollah, or local tribal militants. It is not just…
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Understanding Sectarianism in Iraq and Beyond
On Aug. 14, embattled Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki stepped down and accepted the candidacy of his successor, Haider al-Abadi, who was nominated last week by the Iraqi president in an effort to end months of political stalemate in Baghdad. Maliki’s ouster has been a key demand of the Sunni opposition and United States. His…
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Al-Sisi Triumphs Over the Deep State, the Regime is Reborn!
This week, Gen. al-Sisi formally announced his bid for presidency, as well as his simultaneous resignation as Minister of Defense and the SCAF’s Chief of Staff. In his speech he detailed, at length, the ongoing crises facing Egypt. Left out of this tirade were the inconvenient truths that these endemic problems, which animated the unprecedented…
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An Archaeology of the Crisis in Egypt
A week after carrying out his ultimatum to depose President Mursi, General al-Sisi delivered a new 48-hour ultimatum to those alienated by his actions to end their protests against the military coup. Even as the general demanded that the protesters end their demonstrations, he called upon his own supporters to take to the streets nationwide…
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Universal Values v. Universal Laws
The liberal notion of universal law derives its supposed normative force from an ill-defined notion of universal values. This notion of universality is tied conceptually and historically to Western imperialism—and many of the values taken to be “universal” are not. But even if, for the sake of argument, we presupposed the existence of some set of…
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The Semantics of Revolution
Many in media and academic circles seem to pride themselves on having advanced beyond the “Clash of Civilizations” rhetoric that defined the aftermath of September 11th (2001). However, upon analysis is clear that the primary development has been the transformation of these frameworks into euphemistic forms: consider, for instance, the supposed conflict between the liberals…
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Irreligious Fundamentalism
Fundamentalism is not exclusively, or even primarily, a religious phenomenon. The classical conception of liberalism includes, among other things, a commitment to free markets, universal law, democracy, pluralism, and secularism. While often held to be universal values, these ideologies are not intrinsically compatible or necessarily intertwined—in fact, these ideas were not even historically compatible. In…
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Liberals v. Democrats in Egypt
If people are truly given the right to self-determination, there is a good chance that, in many societies, most will reject the bulk of the (classical) liberal agenda — but isn’t this their right? As a case study, consider Egypt. Much has been made over President Muhammad Mursi’s temporary power-grab, of the Islamist dominance in…
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Ideological Pluralism v. Legal Pluralism
In the wake of Egypt’s historic democratic elections, Islamist candidates won nearly three-quarters of the seats in parliament. A Muslim Brotherhood candidate, Muhammad Mursi, would go on to win Egypt’s inaugural presidential elections. Recently, voters ratified a new Egyptian constitution which is perceived to grant Islamic institutions (such as al-Azhar) significant influence over the government.…