Wednesday, October 03, 2007

from anti-muslim to anti-black

Here is a link to Tariq Nelson's piece Anti-Muslim bigots are also (often) racist which recently appeared at Muslimmatters.org. It shouldn't be surprising but it is worth being said.

6 comments:

sondjata said...

I think though that in light of your previous posting which I unfortunately cannot reach because I don't see your previous posts, in which it was discussed about the blatantly racist attitudes of many Muslims towards blacks, etc., that the moral outrage posted there ought to be tempered with serious self critique.

Abdul-Halim V. said...

I'm not sure which post you are referring to (possibly the marriage piece?) because I'm pretty sure that I've acknowledged what you are talking about in more than one post. But if you are willing to recognize that I've talked about it in the past, I would argue that I don't necessarily have to mention it again now.

Also, I didn't see Tariq's piece so much as being about moral outrage, but suggesting that there was a connection between the people who were anti-Muslim and those who were anti-Black.

sondjata said...

My comment wasn't directed at you it was at the linked blog. I don't think you list out all your old posts, so I can't search for the post you made but you linked out to a piece where among other comments, one Muslim fellow said to another with a straight face that he wouldn't let his daughter marry a black man. It was in the context of that statement, not yours, that I find the commentary found in that link you gave to be kinda, well, to be honest, full of it. Kinda in the realm of the proverbial pot calling the kettle, since it could be fair to state: Pro-Muslims are Anti-Black. Now, such a titled post would probably upset some people, even though, by your own posting such a comment would be somewhat truthful, just as it is somewhat truthful that some anti-Muslims are also Anti-black.

Seems to me that the "moral" high ground could be covered by saying that often people who are religions bigots of any kind are highly likely to hold other bigoted attitudes as well.

Abdul-Halim V. said...

i would try to look at everything in context. I think in terms of marriage, I think that across the board, inter-racial marriages are the exception and not the rule. If you ever look at personals ads in the newspaper, there are a lot of people who have no qualms about saying they seek someone of their same race, for example. So I would agree that the earlier post spoke annecdotally about how some Indo-Pak Muslims showed reluctance when it came to marriages with African-Americans... and that is definitely a messed up attitide... but it isn't as if Indian Hindus are lining up to marry Black folks either.

And while I would reject the naive view that Muslims are magically immune from racism, I would also definitely reject the idea that Muslims are particularly or especially racist against Black people.

Abdul-Halim V. said...

actually... this whole conversation reminded me of a chris rock routine:

You see these weird white guys getting overly patriotic, and they have their ****in' flag hats on, and their flag drawers, and their flag pickups. 'I'm American, man! I'm American! **** all these ****in' foreigners!' There was a lot of accepted racism when the war started. 'I'm American, man! I'm American! **** the French!' That was cool. Then 'I'm American, man! I'm American! **** all these Arabs!' And that was cool. Then they went to: 'I'm American! I'm American! **** all these illegal aliens!' Then I started listening, because I know that niggas and Jews is next."

Chris Rock and the War on Terror

R J Noriega said...

did you guys hear about how the guards who choked that kid to death in florida got off. thats the kind of racism which scares me most. when its institutionalized you can't fight it legally or with understanding