The Digital Dispatch

From NOEBIE.net

Islam

Tithi Bhattacharya on Muslim Heterogeneity

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Tithi Bhattacharya dispels the myth of a Muslim monolith.

…while ISIS can quote the hadith as it executes other Muslims, and Trump can inveigh against the “Muslims,” we need to continue to look to the multiethnic neighborhoods of Istanbul, Paris and Beirut as lived histories of our times of mutual human coexistence. And it is such lived experiences of multifaith communities that need to be both defended and extended.

Source: Adventures in Islam: The Myths and Legends of Muslim Homogeneity | Tithi Bhattacharya

More Than A Quarter of Republicans Would Close All Mosques

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With the news that GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump is in favor of establishing a national database of Muslims in America drawing comparisons to Hitler, a new poll released by Public Policy Polling shows that Republicans are right in step with him.

Donald Trump floated the idea this week of shutting down all the mosques in the United States. 27% of Republican primary voters support that concept with 38% opposed, and 35% unsure on the issue. Among the top GOP hopefuls supporters of both Cruz (41/27) and Trump (37/27) support shutting down the mosques while backers of Carson (17/43), Rubio (25/37), and Bush (12/45) oppose doing so.

The latest poll confirms broad support in the GOP nationally for extreme views noted in a poll of Iowa two months ago.

Only 49% of Republicans think the religion of Islam should even be legal in the United States with 30% saying it shouldn’t be and 21% not sure. Among Trump voters there is almost even division with 38% thinking Islam should be allowed and 36% that it should not.

Decent Americans must stand up now, while there is still a Constitution to defend.

Conflating Bigotry and Blasphemy

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In an email interview to Vidya Venkat of The Hindu, Professor Mahmood Mamdani, Herbert Lehman Professor of Government and Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University, author of Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror, explained the difference between critiquing a religion and ridiculing it, and why it is one thing to oppose censorship and quite another thing to reprint Charlie Hebdo cartoons in solidarity.

“The problem with the ongoing discussion of Charlie Hebdo is that it tends to confuse bigotry with blasphemy. I am personally more favorable to blasphemy, but have no time for bigots or bigotry.”

Read the interview: ‘Charlie Hebdo cartoons are bigoted’ – The Hindu.

A Muslim Reflects on Charlie

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Food Blogger Sadia Jabeen writes about what it is like to be Muslim in the wake of the Paris attack.

“When I first heard the news about the events in Paris this week I felt a real sadness at the loss of life. Nobody should expect to be gunned down in their place of work. Again I felt that sense of dread and worry. Who was going to be made to pay for the crimes of the people they had never met or had anything to do with? Were we going to see a further rise of racism and Islamophobia? Where will it end? Unfortunately I wasn’t wrong…”

Read the full essay: I have been very quiet online since the attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices and here’s why | Make Tea & Cake, Not War.