I've had issues with Sacha Baron Cohen's comedy before and watching "The Dictator" certainly didn't ease those concerns. At the end of the day he is still a Jewish man making fun of Arabs/Muslims/Islamicate people through buffoonish portrayals (The Dictator, Borat and arguably Ali G). Even in Bruno, where Baron Cohen plays a gay Austrian fashion reporter, he didn't take a break from making fun of Arabs ( see: Ayman Abu Aita, Bruno's "Terrorist," Threatens Legal Action)
Even so, I just saw The Dictator last night and had to admit that this scene was pretty funny.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Monday, October 01, 2012
when savages unite
Mark Gonzalez, a Chicano Muslim spoken-word artist responds to Pamela Geller's racist ad campaign (what is the product? who is buying? who is selling?) by making some "beautiful" connections between indigenous struggles everywhere.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
zain malik on w. kamau bell's totally biased
Debbie Schlussel, an insane blogger, has recently been crafting some bizarre claims that Zain Malik, a Muslim member of the boy band, One Direction, is a "pimp" for Islam by enticing young girls to participate in jihad.
Schlussel's theories were expertly and entertainingly skewered on W. Kamau Bell's new show, Totally Biased.
The Sun: One Direction's Zayn branded a ‘pimp’ for Islam
The Sun: One Direction's Zayn branded a ‘pimp’ for Islam
See also:
Monday, September 24, 2012
are muslims nuts?
In spite of the provocative title, Are Muslims Nuts? by Haroon Moghul is actually one of the more thoughtful and thought-provoking discussions of the whole Innocence of Muslims affair that I've seen.
azhar ahmed and the limits of free speech
The current controversy over the film Innocence of Muslims has got me thinking about the ways in which the West has its own taboos and sacred cows which potentially trump freedom of speech. One very recent example is the case of Azhar Ahmed, a 19 in West Yorkshire who was convicted of posting an offensive message on Facebook in the wake of the deaths of six UK soldiers in Afghanistan.
Saturday, September 08, 2012
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
jumah at the dnc
The Bureau of Indigenous Muslim Affairs is holding a Jumah Prayer at the Democratic National Convention along with a series of other Muslim events. I'm hoping the conspiracy theories don't get too thick.
totally radical muslims
Totally Radical Muslims Presents: Islamophopia, A Bitchin’ Zine! seems like an amazing project. I wish I could get a copy.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Tuesday, August 07, 2012
Monday, August 06, 2012
the sense of white supremacy
Racist attacks are authorized by a political culture that allows us to think in nativist terms, to bemoan the “browning” of America. By 2034, the Census department estimates, the non-white population of the US is going to be in the majority. With the political class unwilling to reverse the tide of jobless growth and corporate power, the politicians stigmatize the outsider as the problem of poverty and exploitation. This stigmatization, as Moishe Postone argues, obscures “the role played by capitalism in the reproduction of grief.” Far easier to let the Sikhs and the Latinos, the Muslims and the Africans bear the social cost for economic hopelessness and political powerlessness than to target the real problem: the structures that benefit the 1% and allow them to luxuriate in Richistan.
From Shooting at the Gurdwara: The Sense of White Supremacy by Vijay Prashad
Thursday, August 02, 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)