altmuslim this week - november 10, 2008 - This week, with the decisive victory of President-elect Barack Hussein Obama, we take a look at what Obama's ascendancy says about Muslims in America and around the world. Also, what do Rashid Khalidi and Rahm Emanuel have in common?
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On Rahm and Rashid - Barack Obama's selection of Rahm Emanuel is a worrying start to pro-Palestinian hopes in his administration. But when compared to his friendship with Rashid Khalidi, is Obama being reactionary with the Emanuel pick - or strategically open minded?  (November 10, 2008)
Crescents among the crosses - The fact that up to 10% of voters still believe that Barack Obama is a Muslim (despite the Rev. Wright debacle and over a year of clarifications in the media) or "an Arab" underscores just how embedded the idea is that Muslims are still alien to all that America stands for.  (October 20, 2008)
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altmuslim review 030 - Free speech - is it something Muslims can live with? In this episode, we talk about how Muslims cope with (and benefit from) free speech in Western societies. Also, an extended interview with Jewel of Medina author Sherry Jones discussing her controversial book. (October 10, 2008)
altmuslim review 029 - A vibrant Muslim media could have an opportunity to restore balance to the Muslim public image - if it can get on its feet. In this episode, we explore the state of the Muslim media. Also, an interview with the creator of "Muslim Cafe", Navid Akhtar. (July 5, 2008)
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Recent and upcoming talks and offsite articles by altmuslim contributors
Zahed will be a keynote speaker at the inaugural meeting of the Network of European Muslim Technology Entrepreneurs, in Madrid, Spain (November 14, 2008)
Shahed will be a featured panelist at Red Faith/Blue Faith: Religion in the 2008 Election and Beyond at the Center for American Progress in Washington, DC (November 7, 2008)
Let the Global Islamic Conspiracy Begin, Ali Eteraz, Jewcy, (November 5, 2008)
Zahed will be a guest on Press TV's Islam & Life, hosted by Tariq Ramadan, speaking on French and American Muslim experiences (November 3, 2008)
Zahed will be a guest on Irish broadcaster RTE's Spectrum radio show, speaking about Barack Obama and the Muslim factor in the US presidential election (November 1, 2008)
Shahed will be a guest on the nationally syndicated radio show Interfaith Voices, speaking about the "otherization" of American Muslims (October 23, 2008)
Powell's remarks rebut the idea of Muslims as political kryptonite - Wajahat Ali, The Guardian (UK), Comment is Free (October 22, 2008)
Today's Boo Radley: Muslim Americans - Wajahat Ali, The Washington Post (October 20, 2008)
The Republican red scare, Wajahat Ali, The Guardian (UK), Comment is Free (October 11, 2008)
Heritage was mixed a long time ago - Irfan Yusuf, Sydney Morning Herald (September 30, 2008)
Shahed will be a guest on BBC Radio 4's " Sunday" programme speaking about the Jewel of Medina controversy (September 28, 2008)
Dangerous liaisons, Wajahat Ali, The Guardian (UK), Comment is Free (September 27, 2008)
Another attack - in the name of whose Islam? - Irfan Yusuf, The Age (Australia) (September 22, 2008)
Violence against women won't stop until men speak out - Irfan Yusuf, New Zealand Herald (September 12, 2008)
Shahed will be participating in a panel discussion, Sourcing Islam, at the Religion Newswriters Association conference in Washington, DC (September 20, 2008)
Muslims have nothing to fear from this book - Shahed Amanullah, The Guardian (UK), Comment is Free (September 9, 2008)
Rushdie is no believer in free speech - Irfan Yusuf, The Age (Australia) (August 8, 2008)
Shahed will be participating in the Progressive Revival group blog at BeliefNet (July 29, 2008)
Western civilization? What a good idea that would be - Irfan Yusuf, New Zealand Herald (July 22, 2008)
Shahed will be speaking about the role of the Web in promoting Muslim civic engagement at the ISNA South Central Zone Conference in Houston, Texas (July 5, 2008)
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Media appearances and analysis featuring altmuslim editors
Domestic crusader - An associate editor of the publication AltMuslim.com—“it’s neither too apologetic nor too antagonistic”—Wajahat exhorts wealthier American Muslims to invest in their own future by creating think tanks and scholarships in art and media instead of collecting luxury cars. “We have to break out of our culturally isolated bubble,” he says.
(October 11, 2008)
National publisher kills Spokane journalist’s book - [Amanullah] sent e-mails to about 200 graduate students in Islamic studies, telling them of Spellberg's "frantic" call and asking if they had heard about the novel. "What I got back was a collective shrug of the shoulders," says Amanullah. "The thing that is surreal for me is that here you had a non-Muslim write a book, and you had a non-Muslim complain about it, and a non-Muslim publisher pull the book." (August 20, 2008)
Self censoring Muslims - "But Amanullah says he never wanted the book pulled. 'I'm upset the book wasn't published,' he said, 'not because I agree or disagree with the book.' For him, 'I don't want to be in the position where we are stifling speech. Preemptive censorship is not in our interest. That's worse than even censorship. We're not going to silence our way out of problems.'" (August 12, 2008)
You still can’t write about Muhammad - "But Ms. Spellberg wasn't a fan of Ms. Jones's book. On April 30, Shahed Amanullah, a guest lecturer in Ms. Spellberg's classes and the editor of a popular Muslim Web site, got a frantic call from her. "She was upset," Mr. Amanullah recalls. He says Ms. Spellberg told him the novel "made fun of Muslims and their history," and asked him to warn Muslims." (August 5, 2008)
Why the silence? - "Both reactionary religion and militant secularism are on the rise, with both displaying a rigid certainty and a desire for power that will do nothing to benefit society. In this context, it is vital that people with open-minded faith speak up and demonstrate alternatives. [altmuslim.com has] set many good examples in this regard." (January 8, 2008)
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Gujarat Minister Narendra Modi
Hitler’s avatar tries again
Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of Gujarat in India, is once again seeking a US visa to visit some of his supporters. As before, those who recall his complicity in the 2002 Gujarat riots will endeavour to keep him out.
By Muqtedar Khan, July 16, 2008

Nishrin Hussein, a resident of Delaware since 1989, suffered immeasurable trauma in February of 2002. Her father, Ehsan Jafferi a former member of the Indian national parliament and a poet was dragged out of his house and burned alive by a rampaging mob.
In that week over 2000 members of a religious minority were killed and burned, over 150,000 were rendered homeless and many women were raped; often as police watched and stubbornly refused to protect religious minorities in Gujarat, a state in India. According to human rights organizations, Indian government commissions and even US government, the man ultimately responsible for this state facilitated genocide was Narendra Modi, the current and then Chief Minister of Gujarat.
Modi is now seeking a US visa to come and speak to his supporters and admirers in New Jersey in the month of August. His visit also forces victims like Nishrin Hussein to relive their trauma.
Narendra Modi belongs to a Hindu fascist movement that seeks to make India a global power by first religiously and culturally purifying it through elimination of religious minorities. International Religious Freedom Reports, prepared by the US State Department, implicate Narendra Modi's political party – the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its religious affiliates in systematic killings of Muslims and Christians and burning of their homes and businesses; year after year.
Modi is a self-styled disciple of Adolf Hitler. He has often expressed his admiration for Hitler and even members of his own party sometimes refer to him as the Hitler of India. In Gujarat, Adolf Hitler is glorified in higher secondary school textbooks. Modi and the state of Gujarat's growing admiration for Hitler has even spooked Israel. Former Israeli Councilor General David Zohar Zonshine has made significant efforts to rectify the matter, including holding exhibitions to educate Modi's followers about the Holocaust. But textbooks printed before Israeli protests are still being used in schools.
Modi frightens me. I think he is sowing the seeds of hatred and preparing the people of Gujarat for a bigger and more ominous genocide in the future.
Modi now wishes to mobilize his supporters in New Jersey. Fortunately a broad spectrum of Indians in America, American academics, human rights organizations and members of the US Congress, like Betty McCollum (D- Minnesota) have come together to forge a coalition against genocide (CAG) and are pressing the State Department to reject this Avatar (re-incarnation) of Hitler.
The Indian elite, empowered by recent economic successes, wish to piggy back on the US to superpower status. They wish to forge a new strategic alliance with the US that will facilitate the transfer of critical military technology, attract financial investments, open US markets to Indian businesses and enlist US' diplomatic support for Indian ascendance.
Modi seeks to increase his influence in the US. He also wishes to increase fund raising from the rich Indian American community to finance his politics in India. It is vital to his cause that he has intimate access to the U.S.
At the moment, Hindu nationalist cannot have both; Modi as a national leader and the US as vehicle to global power. As long as Modi is shunned by the US he is ineligible for national office. It is therefore essential for his supporters to purify his image, and they hope to do so by bullying the US government into allowing him entry in to the US. If he was received in the U.S., he will be projected in India as a leader of global stature.
US law on international religious freedom (section 604) prohibits the State Department from allowing people who commit egregious violations from coming to the US. Modi is now enforcing a new law against religious conversions in Gujarat which primarily targets Christians. This single act of curbing religious consciousness triggers section 604 and alone makes him ineligible for a US visa.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedoms has also asked the State department to deny Modi.
The Bush administration has been excellent on this issue, so far. In 2005 it not only denied Modi a diplomatic visa, but also rescinded a valid tourist visa underscoring his status as an untouchable. All the signals from the State Department suggest that the US will reject any new application from Modi.
All politics is now global. The struggle between secular Hindus and minorities and Hindu nationalism has spilled over to Foggy Bottom and Capitol Hill. The US cannot stay away. It must engage and fight with the Coalition against Genocide to preserve India's democracy and its pluralistic traditions.
Dr. Muqtedar Khan is Director of Islamic Studies at the University of Delaware and Fellow of the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding.
We try to remove any comments that do not conform to our netiquette guidelines. If any comments remain that are in violation, please let us know. The presence of offending comments does not necessarily reflect the views of the editors of altmuslim.
It amuses me so much to see Mulsim intellectuals terming what are at best riots as 'Genocide', whereas actual Genocides by Muslims in Africa and the Middle east are ignored! Not at all to make light of it - every life lost is an immense tragedy, but how are 2,000 Muslims dying the equivalent of a Genocide? What would you term a million or more in dying Darfur, or the hate in Rwanda, or the Muslim christian hate in Eastern Europe? Or for that matter tens of thousands in Iraq under Saddam? Or even for that matter, historically speaking tens of Millions of Hindus dying in India itself under Muslim rulers?
As much as it should not happen, vendettas are a part of human nature and we should be so thankful that India is so muted in her response to the historical atrocities perpetuated by Muslims there. I am glad you are protesting Modi's visit, but I would like you to be as conscientious about Muslim atrocities too.
- Posted by Weisskopf on July 20, 2008 at 10:17 AM
Good to see weissputz talking out of the other end of his mouth again. You are about as entertaining as watching grass grow in a window box. Always ready to give aid and comfort to conspiracy theories and minimize the suffering of select goys. As if a bunch of racist East European terrorists give a hoot about Darfur or Rwanda(as the Ethiopian Falashas in Israel about that)
"It is unacceptable that nations made up of people who have only just come down from the trees should take themselves for world leaders... How can such primitive beings have an opinion of their own?"
-Yitzhak Shamir, in reference to the black African nations who voted in support of the 1975 U.N. resolution which denounced Zionism as a form of racism
Judeofascism, and zionist terrorism and atrocities as usual are not a part of this shallow bigot's unconvincing rant.
- Posted by DrM on July 25, 2008 at 03:01 AM
Good job! "Doctor" M(oron), More hate speech like this is exactly what we need to bring out the true colors of Islam.
- Posted by Weisskopf on July 26, 2008 at 12:57 PM
Where is the admiration for the Indians when they did not go on a rampage against Muslims in India when the Indian Mujahiddeen planted bombs last week all over India that killed over 50 with the hope that Hindus would kill Muslims? In fact even the BBC said Narendra Modi was very swift in making sure riots did not happen...does not look like he is a Hitler reincarnate to me...Muslims on the other hand have been massacring each other in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan!
- Posted by Weisskopf on August 1, 2008 at 10:55 PM
More Kol Nidre style nonsense from the president of the Baruch Goldstein Appreciation society. Lying through your teeth again I see, Weissputz.
Modi was held responsible for the riots. Do you think what Modi did was right, when he stood by and gave free hand to the Hindu fanatics, by ensuring that the state administration and the apparatus abetted, aided and sometimes participated in the targeted killings of Gujarati Muslims based on their identity? Ofcourse you do! Modi couldn't be like Hitler because it was NOT Jews being targeted. Modi is in-your-face candid about his crimes (like Hitler) which people see as a sign of honesty in comparison to other weak and corrupt leaders who push the same agenda but are not honest about it.
Go back to "Jewish World Review" or whatever crappy zionist gutter you slithered out from.
- Posted by DrM on August 13, 2008 at 02:45 AM
oops! Looks like doctor moron just joined his friendly, neighborhood local madressah suicide bomber squad! Hijab baba just lost it on another post! At this rate, I will be the only poster left here for Shahid to talk to!
- Posted by Weisskopf on August 15, 2008 at 08:23 PM
You're a silly nuisance, weissputz, even by Talmudic standards. I guess Uncle Sam's welfare check hasn't arrived in the mail yet. Poor settler scum thinks he's a Semite living 5000 years in the past. The typical pathology of inbred AskheNAZI rejects from East Europe.
And people why shlomos have a tendency of getting thrown out of countries since time immemorial.
- Posted by DrM on August 16, 2008 at 04:00 AM
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