Cornell Study Highlights
Need for MPAC’s
Counter-Islamophobia Campaign
Los Angeles, CA: The Muslim
Public Affairs Council commends the UN General Assembly
for adopting a resolution earlier this week which calls
for all 151 member states to cooperate with the UN Commission
on Human Rights to eliminate the growing new trends in racial
and religious discrimination, says an MPAC email message.
It adds:
The resolution comes in the wake of two significant events
in recent weeks, namely a historic seminar hosted by the
UN on “Combatting Islamophobia” and the release
of a Cornell study which found that nearly half of Americans
believe that the civil liberties of American Muslims should
be restricted. While media reports and recently released
FBI statistics on hate crimes have projected anti-Muslim
bias as a dwindling post-9/11 phenomena, the Cornell study
casts light on the genuine fear of Islam and Muslims.
The study’s findings only confirm what leading academics
presented at the UN Seminar on Islamophobia earlier this
month - that Islam and Muslims by and large remain misunderstood,
which results in fear and alienation.
“The Christian West has feared Islam both religiously
and politically,” said Seyyed Hossein Nasr, professor
of Islamic Studies at George Washington University and keynote
speaker at the seminar. “Today, the paradox of Islamophobia
remains that many people afraid of Islam know very little
about it. They feel a great need to see ‘the other’
as the enemy.”
University of Richmond Law Professor Aziza Al-Hibri explained
the history of Islam and Islamophobia in this country runs
deep, a fact reflected in the history of enslaved African
Muslims who did not benefit from the constitutional guarantees
of freedom of religion, despite the essential role they
played in building this country. In her remarks, Dr. Al-Hibri
called for mainstreaming American Muslims and giving them
their proper place at the table so that their authentic
voices can be heard in every aspect of our society, particularly
policy-making and education. Asma Gull Hasan, author of
“Why I Am a Muslim,” pointed to the need for
education about Islam even among Muslims.
During his address, Secretary General Kofi Annan said efforts
to combat Islamophobia require a delineation between politically-
and religiously- motivated violence.
“Islam should not be judged by the acts of extremists
who deliberately target and kill civilians,” Annan
told an audience of o scholars, senior United Nations officials,
and representatives from civil society organizations. “The
few give a bad name to the many, and this is unfair.”
Last weekend, during a national convention on “Countering
Religious and Political Extremism,” MPAC officials
discussed their ongoing efforts to address Islamophobia
and distributed copies of a new publication entitled “Counterproductive
Counterterrorism: How Anti-Islamic Rhetoric is Impeding
America’s Homeland Security.” The paper, which
seeks to expose profiteers who seek to alienate American
Muslims from the fabric of our pluralistic society, is a
supplement to MPAC’s ongoing Grassroots Campaign to
Fight Terrorism and Hate Crimes. Both the paper and Anti-Terrorism
Campaign handbook are available by contacting MPAC.
[CONTACT: Edina Lekovic, 213-383-3443, communications@mpac.org]
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