Thread: Anti-Arab/Muslim sentiment in the United States

Originally Posted by jack burden

They are the one ethnic group one can racially deride and stereotype without being called a racist.

Stereotyping or deriding Islam is not racist. Anecdotally, I rarely hear anyone rail against 'arabs' - it always seems to be Islam. That said, there is definitely an aspect of racism and politicized xenophobia. But there is a valid argument for Islam-in-practice being violent, if only due to Sharia and the whole kill the infidels/apostates thing.

Originally Posted by ephekt

Stereotyping or deriding Islam is not racist. Anecdotally, I rarely hear anyone rail against 'arabs' - it always seems to be Islam.

You've never heard anyone use the word towelhead? One can deride a religion but, in many cases, like with Judaism, people use the guide of criticizing a religion to also condemn a whole ethnic group/culture/society.

Originally Posted by Syme

What is the specific situation you are referring to? What I'm saying is that Muslims don't just go out and start killing apostates/infidels purely because they read it in the Qu'ran.

Of course there are cultural aspects as well, but the primary source of "kill the apostates" is definitely the Koran. The Koran also outlines the ability/imperative to kill infidels as well as the reward for doing so.

This is ESPECIALLY wrong, because 99% of the ways women are mistreated in various Muslim societies have absolutely zero basis in the scriptural content of the Qu'ran. [...] I don't disagree with your core assertion that "women are oppressed in Islamic states"; that is certainly true in many cases. Nor do I disagree that many Islamic societies have a long way to go on women's rights in general.

So, perhaps you can understand why one would hold that these acts are predicate on the scriptural designation of women as lesser beings, beholden to male/husbandry's will. Also note that I never stated that this was limited to Islam; Christianity had its fair share of this as well, as did most other religions that held the "women submit to male will" view as cannon.
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Originally Posted by jack burden

You've never heard anyone use the word towelhead? One can deride a religion but, in many cases, like with Judaism, people use the guide of criticizing a religion to also condemn a whole ethnic group/culture/society.

"Towel heads" would be an attack on ethnicity and race, now wouldn't it? I'm failing to see your point here. I was simply pointing out that attacking Islam isn't inherently racist. It should be obvious that attacks framed against 'arabs' or 'towel heads' have little to do with religious criticism.