The Left grows more shrill, hysterical, and ridiculous by the day, and nowhere is this more apparent than at the hard-Left publication Vox. In this piece, Jenée Desmond-Harris, with help from Muslim academic Khaled Beydoun, explains that today’s “anti-Muslim hate” is a recrudescence of “Orientalism,” the process by which the arrogant, racist, colonialist West demonized and “otherized” the poor, innocent Islamic world. People dislike Muslims because they think of them exclusively as those “brown people from over there,” you see, and being white racists, they hate those brown people from over there.
This windy and risible piece ignores the real reason why anyone has any suspicion of or dislike for Islam or Muslims: 30,000 jihad terror plots worldwide since 9/11. Desmond-Harris and Beydoun and the rest should know, and may well indeed know but are trying to obscure the fact, that the real purveyors of “Islamophobia” in the U.S. are not white racists or Donald Trump, or Geller, Gaffney, Horowitz and me, but Nidal Malik Hasan, Mohamed Atta, Osama bin Laden, Anwar al-Awlaki, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Mohammed Abdulazeez, Syed Rizwan Farook, Tashfeen Malik, Omar Mateen, and all the other Muslims who have plotted and/or carried out jihad massacres on American soil.
Then Maytha Alhassen decries references in Trump’s executive order “to keeping out people who commit ‘honor killings’ or persecute individuals based on sexual orientation and gender. These stereotypes are what she calls ‘classic Orientalist tropes.'” Tell Amina and Sarah Said, and Aqsa Parvez, and all the other Muslim girls who have been murdered in honor killings in North America, that they’re just manifesting “classic Orientalist tropes.” As they lie in their graves, that will make them feel so much better.
“Islam isn’t a race. But it still makes sense to think of Islamophobia as racism.,” by Jenée Desmond-Harris, Vox, February 2, 2017:
…Trump’s statements about Muslims and proposal of what he called “Muslim ban” during his campaign, combined with his remarks about Mexican immigrants, inspired a wide consensus that it was fair to call him a racist.
Now that a ban on immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries is a reality, this criticism of his administration has deepened. It’s a rallying cry for activists and a concern of critics for whom the policy flies in the face of what they would like to think are modern American values.
But supporters of the executive order resist the application of the “r-word” here, saying that even if the order did explicitly target Muslims, that still wouldn’t be racist. After all, they argue, Islam is a religion, not a race. Muslims include people from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds — including many from countries affected by the ban whose national origins would fall under the “white” category on the current US Census if they were allowed in.
To understand why, despite all this, it makes sense to talk about anti-Muslim bigotry — both as expressed by the Trump administration and in general — as a kind of racism, you need to know about the roots of Islamophobia, and about how racial categories can shift with the political winds.
The roots of anti-Muslim hate: Orientalism
“Pre-9/11, the predecessor of Islamophobia was called Orientalism,” said Khaled Beydoun, a law professor at the University of Detroit who also works with UC Berkeley’s Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project. “That was the system that mothered Islamophobia; it feeds and provides many of the same stereotypes, systems of fear, and caricatures.”
Orientalism, as explained by the eminent Middle East scholar Edward Said, who first developed the concept in his groundbreaking book of the same name, is essentially the cultural and historical lens through which the Western world perceived, defined, and “otherized” the East, and particularly the Muslim Middle East.Beydoun said this centuries-old worldview “stereotyped Muslims as civilization threat and menace” long before it was dubbed “Islamophobia.” In his view, the anti-Muslim hate and bigotry that has been the topic of many public conversations over the past decade in the West is really just “essentially an extension of the fear and vilification of not only Muslims but everyone perceived to be Muslim that’s been taking place for centuries.”
This, according to Beydoun, has “brought about the conversion of Islam from religion to race, which as a result spawns popular perception of Muslims as exclusively Arab, and in turn blinds many from seeing Islam as a multiracial and ethnic faith group, of which black Muslims rank as the biggest group in America.”
Even though many American Muslims are black, and the former head of the largest Muslim organization in the US was a white woman, the bigotry of Orientalism doesn’t always pay attention to these details. That means centuries-old biases against Arabs haven’t had to change much to evolve into today’s anti-Muslim attitudes — they’ve just been refreshed and relabeled.
Ignorance and confusion mean contemporary anti-Muslim hate isn’t actually about religion
“When you’re Arab and Muslim, the categories can get conflated,” said Maytha Alhassen, a doctoral candidate in the department of American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California who has family roots in Syria and Lebanon. “When I’ve spoken to media, there’s been a distinct interest in looking at Islam as ‘those brown people from over there.’”
She said the many stories of Sikhs — who practice a religion totally separate from Islam — targeted in anti-Muslim attacks seem to provide an additional indication that this brand of hate is not as focused on an understanding of Islam as a religion. Instead, these actions are carried out against those who are perceived as culturally and ethnically “other.”
Alhassen said she’s not even a fan of the term “Islamophobia,” in part because the “neurolinguistic programming” that comes from putting together “Islam” and “phobia,” is part of how people try to defend their sentiments about people who practice Islamic traditions. “Anti-Muslim hate,” and “anti-Muslim rhetoric” are better. But, she said, “I like to be specific … if we’re talking about that ‘brown other’ that also could be Muslim, I use ‘Orientalist.’”
She said she’d use that term in particular to describe the sentiments in Trump’s executive order, including references to keeping out people who commit “honor killings” or persecute individuals based on sexual orientation and gender. These stereotypes are what she calls “classic Orientalist tropes.”…

john spielman says
true islam is NOT a race but it is a religion whose theology encourages discrimination (sharia law) and violence even MURDER against unbelievers!
was it “orientalism ” to fight the Japanese in WW2 who brutally conquered parts of China, Indonesia Micronesia, Philippines, massacring millions- just like islam has done/is doing
CrossWare says
Let me correct you! Islam is not a race and not a religion but
a violent, supremacist, totalitarian POLITICAL IDEOLOGY cult, bent on world domination. Closest ideological relatives are Nazism and Communism.
name says
Hate to rain on anyone’s parade, but we need to get to the bottom of this. Here –
Racism and racial discrimination are often used to describe discrimination on an ethnic or cultural basis, independent of whether these differences are described as racial.
So these pricks have modified the definition of racism to include cultural basis, which can, very well, accommodate islam and its followers.
I avoid posting on this website because of the censorship—the comments do not appear—but I did it this time, and I am almost certain that this comment will not appear as well.
marc says
when you play silly buggers like using a fake email address (iojbargikhaebrtghi@sognsojgnjnj.com) or advocate violence, take comments off topic or generally talk crap, your comments either do not pass automated moderation, or get manually deleted, that is not censorship, this is a private site, when i stop you having your own site, that would be censorship, what I practice here is just good housekeeping.
billybob says
“Racism and racial discrimination are often used to describe discrimination on an ethnic or cultural basis, independent of whether these differences are described as racial.”
So I just did a quick Google for that word, and it appears you are mistaken…
Racism
noun
prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.
“a program to combat racism”
“Aborigines are the main victims of racism in Australia”
the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.
I see no mention whatsoever of ethnic or cultural basis. However, I do understand that the Left wants to stretch the meaning of that word to condemn critics of Islam, but I am going to call you out on that. To do that is to blur the meaning to the point we will not longer be able to fight racism, because you will have destroyed the meaning of the word.
For example, suppose we want to condemn someone of racism who is an actual racist according to the definition I just quoted. Then if we accept your definition, someone could say “He is not a racist – that is just a word people use to condemn critics of religious ideologies, and we know there is nothing morally repugnant about criticism of ideas. ” The issue will become totally confused.
Pumbar says
Go Marc!!!
Shane says
The comment has been up a long time, so your fears were groundless. Another way the lying left promotes their views is by redefining racism to include power; they state that only Whites in America can be racists because Whites have the power. Of course, they are wrong that only Whites have power as we had a Black President for four years, and many of the most popular celebreties and athletes are minorities. Alsol, it is irrelavant which group has the power; anyone can be racist or can racially discriminate.
FP says
It appears that the left insists on seeing Islam largely through the lens of race and religion (and the latter category is true). However, we would do well to frame the argument in terms of its politics, for Islamic politics cannot be separated from its religion component. Most other religions can separate church and state (e.g. Christianity, Buddhism), but Islam cannot do this easily. This is their Achilles’ heel and the spot we must consistently attack.
billybob says
I think there is another implication there too, that the negative view of Islam stems from the arrogance of White Privilege. It is whites sneering at the religion of brown people as primitive and inferior. That is insidious, because the problem is demonstrably Islam itself, it is not in the eye of the beholder.
You state: “Most other religions can separate church and state (e.g. Christianity, Buddhism), but Islam cannot do this easily.” I would say Islam cannot do this at all. Muhammad, through his sock puppet Allah, has laid out a complete form of governance for the people. You cannot separate yourself from that if you are a Muslim.
Chris P Bacon says
except the commies and Nazis treated women better
Marty says
Well said.
“Islamophobia” is an oxymoron.
Any decent, non brainwashed, person should hate & fear islam.
Do we speak of Naziophobia ?
Cancerophobia ?
Pedophileophobia ?
Shane says
Yes, and let’s not forget Communismophobia! I despise Communism, Fascism, and Islamism because they are all Totalitarian political philosophies which deny freedoms of speech, expression, and religion.
Shane says
Islam is a religion of violent Jihad and misogynistic Sharia law. There is no such thing as Islamophobia, as fear of Islamic inspired violence, rape, and pedophilia is certainly a rational fear, and a phobia is an irrational fear!
Westman says
Dear Jenée Desmond-Harris and Khaled Beydoun,
Academic achievement is not an indicator of good logic; it’s more an indication of good memory.
To give credibilty to your claims of “racism” could you please go to any of these banned countries in “whiteface” and Western dress while walking about in public? If you find yourselves ignored rather than be verbally assaulted, or worse, then you will have earned the credibilty for your claims. If you cannot, the girth of your argument contains no more substance than a balloon.
epistemology says
Right, Islam is first an ideology disguised as a religion, it’s the same ideology as Nazism the same supremacy and the same anti-Semitism. In fact Islam is a racist ideology. with a religious twist which makes it very dangerous with its simple solutions and simple explanations it attracts many superficial people who refuse in-depth thinking. Islam is multi-ethnic and has nothing to do with physical features such as skin color or eye shape.
I’ve got a lot of dark-skinned African friends who all reject Islam as much as I do, my friends from South Sudan had to flee from their country because as one of them put it when I asked him why he had to leave his country “I’m black and I’m a Christian”, muzzies are racists.
ECAW says
Nothing “otherizes” like Islam.
Tony46 says
We better use ”islamotromia”. Tromos=terrified of.
Is more accurate.
dchiro says
Tony the problem is not just in the suffix but also the prefix. If you allow me how about changing the word islamophobia to infidelophobia.
Since words have meaning it a nice trick that the left has in trying to change their meaning. The psychodribble of islamophobia is a nice try to make rational fear into irrational fear. The definition of a phobia is a inordinate or irrational fear. By adding the prefix islam they are telling you the normal one that you are crazy. This is just another adjunct to the “Name AND
Shame game”; it is not the none believer that is crazy. It’s the believer that thinks that all none believers,Infidels, heads should be chopped off where ever you find them.
It is islam that fears the nonbelievers (infidels) and thus needs to irrationally kill them. They are infidelophobia. We are not phobic in any sense of the word.
mortimer says
‘Islamophobia’ is name-calling and nothing else. Name-calling is NOT an argument, but a fallacy.
Name-calling is used to distract from the real ARGUMENTS, because the name-caller actually has no COUNTERARGUMENT and so admits his inability to disprove the COUNTERJIHAD PREMISES. Thus, the Muslim name-caller is showing that he ENDORSES THE COUNTERJIHAD ARGUMENTS by calling names.
AleX says
Very well said, dchiro. Good points.
utis says
Academe = the Ministry of Truth. It’s annoying to think that so many of these propagandists are being payed by our tax money to spew this piffle.
I remember the start of the “Orientalism” meme, a music professor named Saeed or Said wrote a book that became very popular. It decried so-called “Orientalism”, but the cover had a naked boy dancer (with a python!) on the cover — a perfect image of the subject matter and a sleazy eye-catcher. I didn’t buy the book then, because of the sleazy come-on, but look what it spawned.
Mitch Classic says
The Left sees Islam as a race. They then project both their ignorance of Islam and their racism onto us and then judge us for it. (As they condemn us for many of their other sins, such as fascism, slavery, financial collapses, impoverished ghettos, abandoned hurricane victims, etc.)
Voytek Gagalka says
Except that Mohammed himself was not any “brown” guy, not even remotely similar to other Arabs of his days but was purely WHITE as the one “white” can only be. Did the creator of Islam impose those “imperialistic” and “racist” tendencies toward common “brown” Arab folk as he mercilessly subjugated them to his absolute rule, too? Was HE the “racist”?
dumbledoresarmy says
Also, Bosnian and Albanian Muslims are just as ‘white’ as Italians or Spaniards, sometimes more so. And so are the Chechens and other Caucasus-region Muslims – e.g. the Brothers Tsarnaev.
And ‘white’ converts to Islam like Samantha Lewthwaite, now running around as a jihad tart in Somalia… did she ‘change race’ when she rattled off the Shahada, and stop being of British ethnicity?
She’s as lily-white as they come… and she is a full-on dangerous jihadi, mad as a cut snake.
Walter Sieruk says
As for the title of the above article .Another fitting heading might be “Islam isn’t a race but Islam breed racism.” To the more specific about he latter part of that new proposed title . Islam breed a very strong and malicious racism against the Jewish people. For the Quran teaches the the Jews in really “swine and apes” in human form . As found in ,for example Sura 2:65;7:166; 5:60. That s as racist as can possibly be
ECAW says
I have to disagree. Mohammed was religionist toward the Jews not racist. He had no problems with Jews who converted because they were then no longer Jews. You can leave your religion behind but not your race.
762x51FMJ says
What’s the difference between the Communist Manchurian candidate, the Islamo-Facist Manchurian candidate and the Islamo-apologists Manchurian candidate?
The Communist waits for a phone call before playing solitaire,
The Islamo- Facist received the call years ago and is always playing solitaire.
The Islamo-apologists send themselves texts reminding them to pass the time and play a little solitaire.
762x51FMJ says
Also the trigger card for the Communist is a white queen of diamonds,,
The trigger card for the Islam- Fascists is the Ace of Spades.
The trigger card for the apologist/SJW is ANY card with a white male face..
762x51FMJ says
And of course all Jokers are wild…
efoc says
The intellectual terrorism of Edward Said lives on, sadly.
Of course, Jews aren’t allowed to enter 16 different Islamic countries. Non-Muslims are prevented from visiting religious sites in Saudi Arabia. Islamic countries practice religious apartheid and enforce real religious discrimination. However, according to this crappy article, it is the West that really “otherizes” – never could they imagine that it could be the other way around which it clearly is in today’s age.
Islam has “otherized” non-Muslims for centuries with no end in sight.
dumbledoresarmy says
You observed – “Islam has “otherized” non-Muslims for centuries with no end in sight.”
Yes.
When Muslims pick up on uber-Dhimmi Edward Said’s nonsense, and accusing westerners of ‘othering’ Muslims, all they are doing is… projecting.
What do they do about ethnically-south-asian Hindu and Sikh Indians who refuse to grovel to Islam, and who stand up against the bullying meted out by ethnically-south-Asian Muslims in India?
They can’t exactly accuse them of being ‘racist’…because both parties involved are ethnically identical, though divided ideologically.
John Winner says
Using colonialism as an excuse for acts of terror ignores the periods immediately following The Prophet’s death, when his followers attacked and enslaved a very large part of the then known world. Where was the colonialism then? Where was the “Orientalism” then? Islam’s xenophobic approach has its faithful; needing to blame anything and everything bad in a Muslim’s life on the other;the other could be a Jew, maybe it’s colonialism, maybe it’s a Muslim of another sect. These folks are working directly from the Victimology 101 Playbook! We in the West should not fall for any of this crapola…
Angemon says
Because many(?) people say something then it must be true, even when, if taken at face value, it clearly isn’t. Muslim is not a race. Mexican is not a race. Refusing to admit people you can’t say for sure aren’t killers and fighting illegal immigration is not racism, no matter how many people claim otherwise.
Chris P Bacon says
obviously, the author and for that matter, progressives, liberals and retards in general cannot see, hear, or smell the elephant in the room (I mean no disrespect towards retards)
Terry says
Two of the three author are (or,, form their names, seem to be ) women. Are they in favor of FGM, and have they had it?
Are they OK without being allowed out without a male relative with them?
Do they (or even the male) think that they could get a position at a decent college or university (if there are any) in a Muslim country, and be critical?
In Saudi Arabia, there is A NEWSPAPER, PUBLISHED IN ONE OF THE CAPITALS, (SA has two) WITH A WOMAN EDITOR IN CHIEF. (English language paper). I read a few issues on line before the election.
i will say, the editorial and letter pages seemed to be non-partisan- supporters and opponents of both Clinton & Trump had letters printed, and op-eds.
As to Mexicans- Trump NEVER SAID ALL MEXICAN IMMIGRANTS ARE RAPISTS, ——-, HE SAID SOME ARE.
The liberal media ignores the SOME.
Terry says
I thought “Orientalism” was the Chinese Exclusion Act, which did not allow Chinese to emigrate here.
Never heard it applied to other people.
Peter says
There is no such thing as homo sapien islamicus, unless, of course, you believe there is, in which case you are a racist.
Arab Muslims, who have long considered themselves the newest (and last) “chosen” ones, on the other hand, have been racist since the earliest days of Islam (Muhammad was an Arab, the language of heaven is Arabic, discrimination against new converts, Al Qaeda Arabs sense of superiority to non-Arab members, Muslim views of black Africans, etc…).
duh swami says
Twisted logic sooner or later produces twisted results…
Andre says
I love the title. ?
citycat says
Islamophobia is teargas for the infidel mind while the one chakra vampiric polar entity to the cursed stone devours muslim souls and grows longer into the space “over there” between the worlds, waiting for the delicacy of infidel souls to turn up.
Cretius says
“Islam isn’t a race, but “Islamophobia” is racism” is nothing more than a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Only fools cannot see what Islam is through it’s violent teachings against non-Mohammedans and islam’s violent and aggressive 1,400 year history of holy war that continues to the present against non-believers.
The goals of Islam are plain for anyone with a brain to see and so too is the threat Islam presents to western civilisation. Islam is a regressive system that is reminiscent of Stalin, Mao, Mussolini, Pol Pot, et al.
At the very best Mohammedans are a suspect community living among us.