Princeton University Associate Professor of Politics Amaney Jamal speculated that 85% – 95% of Muslim Americans would vote for President Obama in 2012.  That was a bit of an overestimate as the actual number was closer to 70%. However, their support has not always been in favor of Democrats; Muslim Americans are historically dynamic voters.  For example, as a group Muslim Americans voted overwhelmingly for George W. Bush in 2000, Clinton in 1996, and George H.W. Bush in 1992. the Muslim American vote has been especially important in key swing states like Florida, Michigan, and Ohio.

The Republican Party has clearly alienated the Muslim population in the US, while Democrats have won them over, this time anyway. But why? Julie Poucher Harbin of ISLAMiCommentary writes that Muslims voted decidedly for Obama in 2008 (89%) and again in 2012 (68%) “despite the fact that many Muslim Americans hold conservative social and economic values – including on same-sex marriage (against), abortion (against), and school choice (for) – and have supported Republicans in the past.” Furthermore, Muslim Americans are not wholly supportive of President Obama’s administration, especially because of its use of drone attacks overseas and surveillance of mosques at home. In short, Muslims could have been wooed by Romney and the Republicans, but they weren’t. Many analysts have argued that the Republican Party has established itself – and election results support this notion – as the party of white, Christian men. This is largely due to ultra-conservative rhetoric isolating women, the poor, and minorities – including Muslims. Muslim Americans feel the Islamophobia from the far right, they feel the support for racial and religious profiling, they feel anti-Muslim sentiment packaged as quasi-patriotism, and they responded at the ballot box.

However, this election’s story of Muslims voting blue is about more than Islamophobia. Hind Makki said to Policymic, “Most middle-class Muslims and Arabs believe that a Romney presidency will negatively affect their pocketbook and access to health care.” Furthermore, “Arab Americans and Muslims don’t trust that Romney & his foreign policy team will enact different policies than Bush, considering many of his advisers are from Bush’s team.” The ghost of Iraq is still a very real force.

As the Muslim population of the US continues to grow (faster than any other religious group) in America, it will be an influential constituency at the ballot box. The political opinions of Muslims, a blend of social conservatism, moderately left-leaning economics, and progressive foreign policy are a curious combination that has guided swings left and right historically. The partisan incoherence and volatility of Muslim American voting trends result in part from the narrow lens through which they often view social issues. One solution to the contradiction would be for Muslims to embrace a different understanding of the role of religion in policy making on personal social issues (such as same-sex marriage and abortion), a view that affirms the separation of religion and state, all the while affirming religious freedoms.

Sources:

http://islamicommentary.org/2012/11/the-muslim-american-vote-a-lost-opportunity-for-the-right/

http://www.policymic.com/articles/18475/arab-american-vote-muslims-and-arabs-lean-toward-obama-but-show-less-enthusiasm-than-2008

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/07/obama-religion-voters-2012_n_2090258.html

Afghani- and Arab-American artist Mariam Ghani will be talking about her recent art projects. Her research-based practice examines the places, spaces, and moments where social and political structures take on visible and tangible forms. Ghani’s exhibitions and screenings include dOCUMENTA 13, Sharjah Biennial, Liverpool Biennial, and transmediale. Ghani lives and works in Brooklyn. See Mariam Ghani’s website for more information about her work.

Date: Thursday, October 25, 2012

Time: 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm

Location: 108 KAC (Kresge Art Center at Michigan State University in East Lansing, MI)

The “war on terror” overseas continues to test the U.S. justice system’s principles at home. In its quest to secure America from the dangers of religious extremism, the federal justice system is disregarding many of the basic human rights of (presumed) radical and violent Muslims. In a recent article published on Truthdig.org, Chris Hedges writes that “A disturbing pattern of gross infringements on basic civil liberties, put in place in the name of national security, has poisoned our legal system. These infringements include intrusive surveillance, vague material support charges, the use of prolonged pretrial solitary confinement, classified evidence that the accused cannot review, and the use of political activities, normally protected under the First Amendment, to demonstrate mind-set and intent.”

Hedges, who won in 2002 an Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Reporting and in the same year a Pulitzer Prize for his New York Times reporting on terrorism, and uses the example of the extradition case of the Egyptian Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri to illustrate systematic breakdown of the domestic legal process in the treatment of Muslim suspected of terrorism. Hedges summarizes the process by which al-Masri will be detained, tried and punished, noting that “This is not about the guilt or innocence of Masri, an Egyptian who lost an eye and a hand as a mujahedeen fighting in Central Asia and who has repeatedly called for violence against the United States and allegedly helped orchestrate violence. This is about the right of all accused to a fair defense and humane detention conditions.” Accordingly, the violation of fundamental civil liberties to some Muslims is not only distressing by its own merits, but because of its ramifications for legal practice more broadly.

AFX Prison Florence Colorado

Hedges notes that many of the practices of offshore prisons like Guantanamo or Bagram in Afghanistan, which disregard the limits on detention and punishment, are surfacing in domestic federal prisons under the guise of national security. Ultra-high security prisons, such as the Administrative Maximum Facility (ADX) a special supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, are notorious for the harsh conditions and have become widespread in the U.S. Inmates of the ADX and other supermax facilities are “disproportionately Muslims and people of color,” who endure prolonged solitary confinement and little or no access to the outdoors. Hedges cites studies that indicate such supermax conditions cause grave mental and physical health problems and constitute a form of disproportionate punishment bordering on torture.

Hedges argues that the detention in these supermax facilities is increasingly the destiny of Muslims accused of terrorism who are not granted the rights to a legitimate defense, a fair trial or even access to the evidence against them. Furthermore, that these practices constitute an erosion of the fundament legal rights of all Americans.

It may not be an easy task for many Americans to muster up concern for Muslims who are presumed to be criminals and perceived as intruders upon the American way of life. But, in fact, it is the annulment of the legal process in the name of national security that is the real threat to US freedoms, not the presence of Muslims in this country where they have long been part of the social landscape.

Source: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/what_is_happening_to_muslims_will_happen_to_the_rest_of_us_20121001/

Unity Productions Foundation (UPF) aired their film, Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet, on PBS, and it is now available for viewing on their website. The two-hour film follows the life of Muhammad and tells the story of Islam’s development. The film also features religious and historical experts, who shed light on who Muhammad was and what he taught. Furthermore, Muhammad showcases American Muslims, who discuss their own views on the prophet and the ways in which Islam shapes their lives. This holistic approach to understanding Muhammad and Islam gives a clear picture of the religion, past and present, to the viewer.

Through discussion of Muhammad and Islam the film brings light upon popular misconceptions of Islam. Particularly relevant are its discussion of the meaning of jihad and young women’s decisions to wear the hijab in America. The Muslim Americans featured in the film give expression to an Islam that is centered around community. They offer a confident, gentle, neighborly picture of Islam.

The film’s website also features a “PBS Resources on Muhammad” section. This section includes a “virtual hajj,” an interactive timeline of Muhammad’s life, and a “Muhammad and…” section that provides information on Muhammad’s relationship to a range of topics, such as violence, women, and Jews. The “Muhammad and…” section also provides information about Muslims in America. The online resources and the film are level headed and informative. UPF provides a picture of Islam from perspectives rarely available to Americans.

Jack Jenkins of The Center for American Progress writes that “the days during and immediately following Ramadan this year [2012]…saw one of the worst spikes in anti-Muslim incidents in more than a decade.” These crimes are widespread geographically, are frequently violent, and the perpetrator(s) often go uncaught. Jenkins also notes that the perpetrators of these acts of intimidation, vandalism, and violence seek victims based on their religious affiliation, thus representing “a threat to…the core principles on which our nation was founded: religious freedom and tolerance.” His report also shows that these attacks against Muslims are increasing. In fact, the number of anti-Muslim hate groups tripled from 2010 to 2011. Jenkins’ report offers a keen reminder that America is in need of a healthy dose of tolerance and respect.

There is a growing body of critical writing on the representation of Muslims and on Muslim self-representation. For example, New York University Press published this fall Evelyn Alsultany‘s Arabs and Muslims in the Media: Race and Representation since 9/11. The book critiques the complex representation of Arabs and Muslims in mainstream television shows and films. Alsultany’s book “explains that a new standard in racial and cultural representations emerged out of the multicultural movement of the 1990s that involves balancing a negative representation with a positive one, what she refers to as ‘simplified complex representations’.” If Alsultany’s book deals with the mass media representations of Muslims, Culture, Diaspora and Modernity in Muslim Writing (Routledge 2012) focuses primarily on Muslim self-representation in literature. According to the description on the Routledge website, this collection of essays edited by Rehana Ahmed, Peter Morey, Amina Yaqin “includes essays on contemporary fiction by writers of Muslim origin and non-Muslims writing about Muslims. It aims to push beyond the habitual populist ‘framing’ of Muslims as strangers or interlopers whose ways and beliefs are at odds with those of modernity, exposing the hide-bound, conservative assumptions that underpin such perspectives.” These two books contribute differently and importantly to developing a more detailed and nuanced understanding of the place of Muslims in the western imaginary, both as objects of representation and as producers of a distinct contemporary literary culture.

In an opinion piece for Al Jazeera, Sarah Kendzior proposes that the Western media should abandon the phrase “the Muslim world” because it reinforces reductive stereotypes, and ignores the cultural, religious, and political diversity within and between Muslim-majority states. Her article is a response to Western media coverage of anti-American protests, and she is critical of the tendency to generalize when referring to the Muslim-majority region. Kendzior writes, “By reducing a complex set of causes and conflicts to the rage of an amorphous mass, the Western media reinforce the very stereotype of a united, violent ‘Muslim world’ that both the makers of the anti-Islam video and the Islamist instigators of the violence perpetuate.” She argues that the Western media ought to recognize the limitations of Islam as a tool of unification, and focus more on “individual states, conflicts and leaders, since dictatorship and factionalism have been as essential in shaping politics in Muslim-majority regions as has religion.”

Kendzior’s article can be found at: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/09/20129168313878423.html

Empowering Community Workers
Training of Imams, Chaplains and Community Leaders as Mental Health Workers

Friday and Saturday, October 5 and 6, 2012
8:30 a.m.—4:00 p.m.
Michigan State University Union
49 Abbott Road, East Lansing, MI 48824

The 4th Annual Muslim Mental Health Conference is organized by Dr Farha Abbasi, managing editor of the Journal of Muslim Mental Health and founder of the Institute for Muslim Mental Health, which is affiliated with the MSU Department of Psychiatry.

For more Information on the conference program visit: www.psychiatry.msu.edu/conferences.html

The mockery began immediately following the release of Newsweek’s controversial cover story entitled “Muslim Rage” and their social media team’s request that Twitter users discuss the cover using the hashtag: #MuslimRage. Twitter users satirically critiqued the Newsweek article by ex-Muslim commentator Ayaan Hisri Ali, which reduced the motives of anti-American protests to an essential feature of Islam, without considering the political, historical, economic, and social context in which these protests occurred.

In response to Newsweek, Twitter users turned “MuslimRage” into a meme. In a collective satirical gesture the social media giant lit up with humorous depictions of so called “MuslimRage.” Enjoy some of the best examples here. Other great examples of this social-media-age phenomenon and photos depicting the new, humorous definition of “MuslimRage” may be found here.

For an alternative to the views of commentators, like Ayaan Hisri Ali, see “Men Behaving Badly” an essay by Mustafa Bayoumi published online by Middle East Report. Bayoumi’s essay offers a thoughtful interpretation of the regional reactions to the offensive video that has incited some Muslims to protest at US diplomatic missions in the Middle East and Asia.