the conservative political machine: manufacturing islamophobia

i expect a whole lot of nothing in the way of coverage of this in the mainstream press, but the report is very interesting. illuminating of the paranoia industry in the united-of-states that the right has been relying on--quite explicitly--to market it's particular brand of neocro-politics---by which i refer to keeping alive the corpse of the national-security state and the particularly managed from of consumer democracy for which it stands.

this link takes you to the report's introduction:

http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/2494/fear-inc.-the-roots-of-the-islamaphobia-network

and this to the report itself (you can also access it via the link at the bottom of the page above):

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/08/pdf/islamophobia.pdf

Here's the summary of the report (also the first section of the article linked above):

note the funding foundations, particular scaife. what interest do you imagine ultra-right wing foundations have in underwriting the manufacturing of disinformation about islam and it's alleged relation to "terrorism"?

why do you imagine these people get air time? what interests are served by that?

what do you think the explanation is for this manufacturing of islamophobia?

have a look at the whole report, if you have the time. it's an interesting document, a view of the underbelly of contemporary ultra-rightwing politics.

what do you think can or should be done about this network? about the infotainment outlets that give credence to it's actions?

do you think freedom of speech is the freedom to manufacture and disseminate disinformation?
why?

 

Actually I think the Muslims that are committing atrocities and both attempted and succesful terrorist acts against other Muslims and against the infidels are doing a great job of creating Islamophobia on their own, thank you.

 

or it could be that you've been fed pre-packaged conservative-friendly horseshit.
maybe it'd be a good idea to actually read the report.

 

Yes that must be it.
If anyone believes things that don't fit with the current enlightened liberal sentiment of the day they must be ignorant of the truth. Simpletons or even worse.

 

this infotainment has a structure. it has a funding network. there are people who generate it. there are others who distribute it, and a conservative media machine that amplifies it. all the report does is follow the money, name the names and show the channels. and demonstrates that almost all the islamophobic infotainment spread through the right is simply, entirely, factually false. why anyone would choose to believe infotainment that is demonstrably false--and then avoid sources that are that demonstration--is beyond me. politics is made up of arguments about the world. those arguments are based on information. that information can be falsified. the arguments can be undermined logically. the connections between the two can be subject to critique. it is not---or should not be---a matter of simple identity. it makes no sense to "be" a conservative as the result of a kind of shopping off the rack for an identity that seems pretty to you but that puts you in the dysfunctional position of not being able to handle information that shows---without much room for doubt---the ways in which conservative islamophobia is empirically false and so appeals to something that really can't be distinguished from a version of racism. but it's used to mobilize the ultra-right around some paranoid fear about the continued domination of some imaginary christianity over some imaginary nation that they represent the center of. you get the same stuff in every other neo-fascist movement--all the main variants in western europe work the same basically racist theme, but twisted around so that islam becomes the Big Scary Other that's bearing down on christians. it's absurd. and it's based on a fundamental mischaracterization of islam that can only possibly have roots if you don't know anything to speak of about what the word "islam" refers to... but hey, choose what you like. at least in this situation, you know you're choosing not to interact with data in favor of maintaining god knows what, really.

 

One measure of the growing anti-Islam sentiments in the US is the number of religious based hate crimes, as reported by the FBI.

While the total number has been relatively stable for the last 10 years, hate crimes against Muslims have more than quadrupled, the only such increase. (Anti-Jewish hatred is still far and away the number one.)

Much of the post 9/11 anti-Muslim increase is likely based on internal ignorance, intolerance and fear, but this type of fear-mongering propaganda certainly adds fuel to the fire, where little fuel is needed.

Unfortunately, those on the right dismiss this trend as insignificant, given that the total number of such crimes is still not widespread.

 

@borla--that's a sort of facile relativism. it's really just about avoidance of having the sift through information and make judgments.

more generally---among the most obvious of distortions originating in conservativeland about islam is the wholesale replacement of sharia with some bizarre-o fantasy Evil Dominion of the Other. this, too, has had real consequences in the absurd laws passed on 20-odd states outlawing this fantasy, laws which are based on the conservative cookie-cutter legislative templates that you see--verbatim---in the report (the template and it's echoes).

and given the prominence--and financial backing---of the conservative media apparatus, any comparison between what the right is doing and anyone else is simply false.

but read the report--on this particular issue, it's clear and well argued and has the data to back it up.

 

There's a big difference between seeing the world with real, verifiable instances of Islamic terrorism that really do happen,
and seeing the world as a place where "Islam" is a pandemic menace.

If you cannot or refuse to see the vast canyon of nauseating stupidity between the two then you are willingly committed to being part of yet another embarrassing and idiotic era of racist/xenophobic lunacy in this country. Way to go.

 

You'd think Muslims arrived a decade ago on spaceships.

 

this came out yesterday from pew research. it's a kind of portrait of the muslim-american community.

http://people-press.org/2011/08/30/...rowth-in-alienation-or-support-for-extremism/

you know, who they actually are sociologically. which of course has no resemblance whatsoever to the phantom Menace manufactured by the right.

 

Based on 2009 data, race was the number one basis for hate crimes, 48.8%. 71% of that was based on the victim being black.
Number two was religion, 18.9%, followed closely by sexual orientation, 17.8%. Within the religion category 8.4% had to do with Muslim bias.

Perspective is important when discussing this issue. Here is a link with more data:

http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/hc2009/victims.html
--- merged: Sep 2, 2011 4:30 PM ---

Americans are not intolerant of Muslims. Americans are intolerant of indiscriminate terrorists attacks regardless of the underlying self proclaimed underlying motivation of person(s)/group(s)/nation(s) engaging in such behavior. No amount of money or PR activities will change this. Strongly held cultural beliefs are not influenced in such a manner.

 

Ace

Ace....I specifically refered to religious-based hate crimes.

And the fact remains, that among religious-based hate crimes, the number against Muslims has quadrupled since 2001.

 

This is a much more complicated issue than your post suggests. In most countries, including in the US, every group immigrating into this country faced "(Insert group name here) Problem" . The root causes and solutions varied and I am not making excuses for them, however, the "Muslim problem" is not a very big problem relative to the problems some other groups have faced.
--- merged: Sep 2, 2011 4:45 PM ---

I simply added additional data for perspective. It appears to me that the point of this thread is to exaggerate a problem. It also appeared to me that the point of you post was to exaggerate a problem. There is no doubt that the rate of growth of Muslim based hate crimes has accelerated over the past 10 years, but any increase from a small base gives large percentage increases - your post could easily be considered misleading.

 

Right ace, arson and vandalism at mosques across the country is no big deal, because its only a few mosques.

Efforts among state legislatures across the country to enact anti-sharia laws, supported by some of the Republican candidates, is no big deal since sharia presents such a real threat to the country.

My favorite is Republican candidate Herman Cain suggesting that building a mosque in TN is a violation of First Amendment freedom of religion rights of the majority.

 

ace... i would expect nothing different from you than an attempt to dodge the issue. i am reasonably sure you didn't read the report and will not ever read it. so there's little hope of any actual discussion. it's just how you roll.​

o yeah...the only american you speak for is yourself.​

 

This is an example of the difficulty in communication with you. Perhaps this is meant to be humorous, but in fact it is offensive to leap from what I wrote to the above.

For the record, given this needs to be said here, I think hate crimes are wrong and are a problem.

I am not familiar with the issue and specifically what he said, I am going to assume there is context that is missing in your presentation here.
--- merged: Sep 2, 2011 6:14 PM ---

I did not read the report and have no plan to read it. I could not get past the first few paragraphs without confronting some major questions that presented major flaws in the underlying premise of the report. I do not expect a mature exchange regarding the report and the questions I would have and see no point in reading it.

 

nice rationalization for avoiding information, ace. at least you aren't pretending to engage. the question then follows: why waste our time?