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:

Since the original post on Benazir's assassination is already quite cluttered, I would like to leave that for updates and ground-situation, this article from Robert Fisk deserved its own post.

I am not particularly enthused at discussing Benazir's checkered past, considering that she is dead. But, I find it important that between the eulogies, the unending praises and the references to Benazir's "martyr" status, that we take a moment to step away and be JUST to history. Revisionist history, especially in matters that may frame the future of Pakistan, can be especially harmful. We have to understand what took us to this juncture and also recognize that Benazir's leadership wasn't in Pakistan's best interest, considering FACTS and HISTORY, not emotions and "official, whitewashed narratives".  Let's turn to the well-regarded journalist, Robert Fisk:

For the benefit of KOS'ers, I wanted to point to my post at MuslimMatters that is following the situation in Pakistan

http://muslimmatters.org/...

I am posting some of the beginnings of the post from MM:

Unfortunate turn of events in Pakistan. Although most decent Pakistanis and Muslims have no love lost for Benazir because of her bondage to the West and her anti-religion stand, there is still no justification for murder and carnage. This is pure terrorism that must be condemned by all, religious or otherwise. If anyone had a problem with her politics, then the proper route is to use one’s pen and mind to argue against her ideology, not use the coward’s strategy of shutting up who you can’t argue with. Violence is the nemesis that will sink Pakistan if people don’t wake up and recognize its evil (both in an Islamic and social sense).

The title initially brought all the Abrahamic faiths together... Initially, I had "Christian extremists" in lieu of "thugs". But, I felt a bit queasy about even mentioning that the thugs were Christians, similar to my feelings when I keep hearing ad nauseum about "Islamic extremists" or Islamic radicals or what have you. Because really what does Christianity have to do with this, except that the thugs were misusing their religion? Just like what does Islam have to do when Muslims do crazy things in its name or sometimes not even in Islam's name (like the tragic murder of Aqsa Parvez)?

Regardless, the incident brought together practitioners of the three faiths (one being misrepresented of course), not on an interfaith stage, but rather in a bizarre incident; a strange twist that is positive on many fronts, yet negative on others.

MuslimMatters's teenage staffer, "Anonymouse", sends a blitzing message out to everyone on this tragic Canadian story. Anonymouse was born and raised in Canada and is finishing her high-school years.

I write this with an aching heart and furious thoughts.

No doubt by now you have heard of Aqsa Parvez, the 16 year old girl who was killed by her father, allegedly over the removal of her hijab.

Needless to say, we are all shocked, horrified, and saddened. Yet I, for one, am also angry. Inevitably, the first thing that seems to be expected of us is a condemnation of this man’s actions. And so here it is, my condemnation: What happened to Aqsa Pervez was WRONG, was not an "honour crime" but was, like all such crimes, dishonourable. It was, without a doubt, unIslamic. Nothing in the Shari’ah says that a girl may be killed if she removes her hijaab.

But you know what’s even sadder?

Cross-posted on MuslimMatters.org
In what will hopefully be a series of posts, I will be examining the trend of rising Islamophobia in America, employing a sprinkling of information from the collection of articles in the book with the title, "Islamophobia and Anti-Americanism" edited by Mohamed Nimer (an Amana Publication) mixed . I highly recommend this book for any Muslim who is concerned about the difficult times American Muslims are finding themselves in these days.

What I found especially compelling about the book is that the collected opinions come from a spectrum of important American voices (Muslim and otherwise), from

Romney said at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum, 90 miles from Kennedy's speaking site in Houston.

"I do not define my candidacy by my religion. A person should not be elected because of his faith, nor should he be rejected because of his faith,"

On the heels of the favorable HLF trial in Dallas, the Imams' discrimination suit against U.S. Airways received its first victory as the federal judge in Minnesota rejected almost all of the arguments made by U.S. Airways and the Metropolitan Airports Commission in the case of six imams, or Islamic religious leaders, removed from a flight last year in Minneapolis, then arrested and denied further service.

*After you read this article, here's what you can do: BECOME A PARTNER (as an individual or as a blog)! Click here and Join the Facebook group

This is a campaign to bring all Americans together, liberals and conservatives towards a common cause: keeping, what Tom Hayden calls, the most dangerous candidate, out of the White House! If you don't like George Bush's policies, then you should know that Giuliani is far more of a threat to world peace than Bush ever was.

If you don't have time to read the post, then just read these 6 points to get the gist:

For background, see this and this article.

Dallas area newspaper Star Telegram printed an Islamophobic opinion-piece by Cal Thomas, accusing all Muslims of being a "fifth column". Thomas basically blames the trial result on the ineptness of the jury or the prosecutors. He goes to mention ICNA and ISNA as part of the radical Islamic front. It is our duty as patriotic Americans to respond to this alarmist rhetoric against other citizens.

Please join me in writing a letter to the Editor: letters@star-telegram.com. Below, I have included the letter that I e-mailed in to the paper (please use for reference only).

I was also pointed to a positive article that appeared in Star Telegram here, so I would recommend adding some positive tid-bit on that.

Cherif Bassiouni on the Holy Land Trial & the victory of Fair Play over Fear Mongering:

A prosecution that is likely to go down in the record books as one of the great abuses of the American legal process ended with a mistrial yesterday in Dallas, Texas.

The politicized case against the Holy Land Foundation (HLF), an American charity providing aid to needy families in Palestine, alleged material support for a terrorist organization.

Seems like awesome news for civil rights and justice in America. Cross-posted on MuslimMatters.org

The title is the headline from yesterday in Dallas Morning News.

The right-wingers, esp. the neocons among them, are squirming with pain on this decision. LGF is full of action on the "injustice" served. LGF serves as a good sounding board for people to know what is right (i.e. just believe the opposite!)

Spencer and the other Islamophobes, who are also in essence racists (I will talk about this in a future jury) have had their world shattered, because they were planning to hang CAIR via the witch-hunt of unindicted co-conspirators to Holy Land Foundation.

What a great victory for TRUE Americans and how ironic that it came during the bigotry week!

MuslimMatters's Ruth Nasrullah, describes her feelings as the shameful week of bigotry hits America's campuses:

When I read about Islamo-Fascism Awareness week I was reminded of an interview I did while in graduate school studying journalism. I was assigned to cover an anti-war protest in Boston Commons, and while looking for people to interview I was intrigued to come across two Neo-Nazis who were there to protest the protest - or maybe just to take advantage of the day to express their disapproval of the diverse world they found themselves in. I recall that one of them was wearing a t-shirt that applauded the effects of Zyklon B gas.

If you and your blog (if you have one) supports this call, then we'll add you to the list of supporters at the bottom of this post. Cross-link and cross-post to this post!

We, at MuslimMatters.org, call upon Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein to reinstate Debbie AlMontaser as the Principal of Khalil Gibran International Academy (KGIA). We cannot let bigotry and right-wing conspiracy allow a respectable and qualified candidate to be forced out of her rightful position.

When I first heard of Mukasey's name being waved around for attorney general, I immediately googled and found his op-ed piece in the WS Journal quite disconcerting, wherein he stated:

Instead, when it is examined closely, this case [Jose Padilla's case] shows why current institutions and statutes are not well suited to even the limited task of supplementing what became, after Sept. 11, 2001, principally a military effort to combat Islamic terrorism.

Appended below is the letter of Shaykh Salman al-Oadah to Osama Bin Laden. As a Muslim, I can tell you that a letter like this can affect the militant and terrorist tendencies of some extreme elements among Muslims a million times more than anything that a military response or any other campaign to "win hearts and minds" in the Muslim countries.

Al-Oadah has almost a rock-star appeal in the Saudi and Arab masses. He is respected by foes and allies alike. While many Osama cronies have dismissed MOST of Saudi clerics as government agents, this reputation has mostly alluded Al-Oadah who in the past has made some fiery statements of his own.

It is quite interesting that whenever there is any form of prejudicial attack on an organization or an event, you will always find bigots closing ranks and joining the party. That itself is an indication of the less than pristine motivations of such groups.

As we have been talking about the attacks on the Arabic school in New York and the resignation-under-pressure of Debbie AlMontaser, a new twist has come about. Apparently, one of the main coalitions opposing the school, the so-called "Stop the Madrassa" (the fact that they don’t know that a Madrassa simply means school shows how much the school for Arabic language is needed! What irony!) has among its ranks, the inSANE leader David Yerushalmi.

Also, an excellent report appeared in the NY Times, which brings to life another side of Debbie that the haters do not want everyday people to see.

1. DIGG the story here