Interviewer: Mr. McCain, what is the gravest long-term threat facing our economy?

McCain: Its Radical Islamic Extremism, Stupid

Well this wasn't the precise quote... but it sums it quite well. To quote then in the spirit of completeness:

MuslimMatters's Ruth Nasrullah, a hijab-wearing Muslim convert touches upon how some Muslim women with hijabs were "removed" from being behind Obama. Her thoughts are being cross-posted here with full permission

I'm currently reading The Veil: Women Writers on Its History, Lore, and Politics, edited by Jennifer Heath, which is an in-depth compilation of essays by different writers exploring various aspects of the veil, not just in terms of Islamic dress, but of veils from all over the world over the centuries - and of veiling as an idea.

Musa Maguire check-mates NYT's sloppy article on Obama's Apostasy. The following is cross-posted from MuslimMatters by Musa:

Check out this hilarious, yet insightful comic strip.

In his New York Times op-ed on May 12, Edward Luttwak puts forth the provocative claim that Barack Obama is considered an apostate by Islamic law. According to Luttwak, Obama will therefore be a liability for American relations with the Muslim world, and he may even face greater risk of assassination than other potential presidents, even those who happen to be right wing warmongers.

All the talk about Obama's minister Wright and his big mouth. But hardly a squeak about McCain's extremist endorsers and guides.

Part 3b by Amad on a collaborative book-review on one of most important book addressing Muslim opinion. Buy it here.

| Intro | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3a | Part 3b |Part 4 | Part 5 |

Part 3 by Amad on a collaborative book-review on one of most important book addressing Muslim opinion. Buy it here. The following is quoted from him.

| Intro | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3a| Part 3b |Part 4 | Part 5 |

See important notes on survey methodology at the bottom of this post.

The so-called "war against terrorism" has been raging for more than six years, yet the author argue that Muslim extremism and violence continues to spread and grow all over the world.

Part 2 by Omar on a collaborative book-review on one of most important book addressing Muslim opinion. The following is quoted from him.
Buy it here!

| Intro | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 |

Jeffrey Goldberg reflects on Israel's formative visions and current dilemmas in this thoughtful essay published in Atlantic monthly on Israel's 60th anniversary. Cross-posted on MM

The crux of this essay revolves around the concerns that Israelis continue to have about the very existence of the nation that they pride themselves on. While Goldberg alludes to the external threats posed by Iran, the essay seems to paint the real problem to be settlers, who pose an ever-growing threat to peace (emboldened by some in the American Jewish Diaspora) and by virtue of conflict, a threat to Israel’s very existence.

Part 1 by Omar on a collaborative book-review on one of most important book addressing Muslim opinion. The following is quoted from him.

| Intro | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 |

Chapter 1 - Who Are Muslims?

If you take the media's word for it, the answer to the question above is that they are, on the whole, a bunch of violent terrorists. A December 2005 Gallup Poll of Americans found that the majority of them admire "nothing" about Muslim societies.

Omar has written the introduction on Muslim Matters for a collaborative book-review on one of most important book addressing Muslim opinion. The following is quoted from him.

| Intro | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 |

We recently posted about the findings of a ground-breaking Gallup Poll regarding what Muslims really think. The findings of this study have been released in a book entitled, Who Speaks for Islam, by John Esposito and Dalia Mogahed.

For too long, Israel has not been getting a fair shake in the media. Everyone loves the Palestinian propaganda but no one is buying Israel’s.

See  this propaganda: Another photo of dead baby.

It’s time to set the story straight.

MuslimMatters's teenage staffer, "Anonymouse", discusses the recent Pew Survey that destroys all the stereotypes that neocons/right-wingers/LGF-lovers have been creating. Anonymouse was born and raised in Canada and is finishing her high-school years. The following is her article

In Case You Didn't Believe Us the First Time 'Round

I dunno about you, but I'm getting bored of all these "revelations" that the majority of Muslims condemn terrorism, are not "radical," believe in democracy (or at least, don't mind it), and all that jazz.

Anyway, in case you don't believe Muslims telling you that most Muslims don't condone terrorism, aren't radical, believe in democracy, etc. maybe you'll believe the Gallup poll telling you that most Muslims don't condone terrorism, aren't radical, believe in democracy, etc.

The Great Gallup informs us that:

MuslimMatters.org staffer, Ahmad, picks up on the ABC programming that catches bigotry on camera. Ahmad converted to Islam about 5 years ago.

For those who stubbornly insist that Islamophobia is nothing but a figment of the Muslim imagination (read this: Islamophobia Part-1: It Exists), ABC News has pretty much proved you wrong.  Islamophobia is very real and does indeed exist in this very country.

Help me out here. I am confused. Two stories, very similar in basic facts, yet with highly different consequences.

So, let's introduce our first bigot: Louis Farrakhan.

Mr. Farrakhan says that Obama represents: "hope of the entire world". Note that Farrakhan never endorsed Obama; he merely praised him.

Let's introduce our second bigot: John Hagee.

Mr. Hagee enthusiastically endorsed McCain: "Victory is within our grasp because John McCain knows it's never wrong to do the right thing,"

And how did the candidates respond and what was the consequence?

We have heard it over and over again. That Muslims don't condemn terrorism. Forget the fact that a simple google search will get you tons of hits with Muslims condemning terrorism all over the world: scholars and laymen.

This site contains a list of many scholarly statements and views from around the world.

CAIR site has 68 pages of Muslims around the world condemning terrorism
http://www.cair.com/...

Hundreds of thousands of Muslims have signed an on-line petition. The "Not in the Name of Islam" petition
http://www.cair-net.org/...

Three men, Eric Ian Baker, 32, Michael Corey Golden, 23, and Jonathan Edward Stone, 19, had planned for a week to burn down the Islamic Center of Columbia, according to the First Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul O'Brian.

Two of the men Stone and Baker told officers they were members of the Christian Identity movement, an extreme doctrine that claims white Europeans are God's chosen people.

According to the complaint, Stone said he earned "two stripes" for the act from Baker, who was described as his sponsor in the movement. "Stone admitted to special agents that he is a member of the Christian Identity movement and that stripes or promotions are earned for committing acts of violence against 'enemies,'" the complaint said.

The men are accused of using gasoline, rags and empty beer bottles to set fire to the storefront mosque on Saturday.  They also painted a swastika and the phrases "white power" and "we run the country" on the mosque's exterior.

In this excellent article, Juan Cole discusses how tapping into / promoting Islamophobia seems to be failing as a GOP's general strategy of winning by fear-mongering.

As most Americans have already noticed, the GOP platform doesn't seem to be about mortgages, jobs, health-care, the Iraqi imbroglio, or all the other important issues that the everyday American is worried about... no, no, those are not important. What GOP wants to shove down every American's throat is a "radical Muslim" waiting to get 'em!

But, as Cole points out, this strategy is failing:

So first my apologies to all the Ron Paulians (and there were a lot of Muslims aboard that bandwagon)-- yes, I would have probably taken Dr. Ron Paul over any of the current candidates (with the exception of Musa Maguire :) ), but only IF he could be elected (though my feelings about his libertarian positions are changing as you will read later). And yes, you all can continue to be in a state of denial and believe that he will come out of nowhere and still win. And yes, I admit that the mainstream media has pretty much ignored Ron Paul, even the malicious NPR (sarcasm alert). And yes, we can insist that this lack of coverage has nothing to do with Paul not having any real impact on the primaries already occurred (sarcasm alert).

But here's the bottomline: