Browsing by Subject "Islamophobia"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Arab hip-hop and politics of identity : intellectuals, identity and inquilab
    (2014) D'Souza, Ryan Arron; Rossing, Jonathan P.; Dobris, Catherine A.; Sheeler, Kristina Horn, 1965-
    Opposing the culture of différance created through American cultural media, this thesis argues, Arab hip-hop artists revive the politically conscious sub-genre of hip-hop with the purpose of normalising their Arab existence. Appropriating hip-hop for a cultural protest, Arab artists create for themselves a sub-genre of conscious hip-hop – Arab-conscious hip-hop and function as Gramsci’s organic intellectuals, involved in better representation of Arabs in the mainstream. Critiquing power dynamics, Arab hip-hop artists are counter-hegemonic in challenging popular identity constructions of Arabs and revealing to audiences biases in media production and opportunities for progress towards social justice. Their identity (re)constructions maintain difference while avoiding Otherness. The intersection of Arab-consciousness through hip-hop and politics of identity necessitates a needed cultural protest, which in the case of Arabs has been severely limited. This thesis progresses by reviewing literature on politics of identity, Arabs in American cultural media, Gramsci’s organic intellectuals and conscious hip-hop. Employing criticism, this thesis presents an argument for Arab hip-hop group, The Arab Summit, as organic intellectuals involved in mainstream representation of the Arab community.
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    The impact of the negative perception of Islam in the Western media and culture from 9/11 to the Arab Spring
    (2014) Bousmaha, Farah; Parrish-Sprowl, John; Goering, Elizabeth M.; Dobris, Catherine A.
    While the Arab spring succeeded in ousting the long-term dictator led governments from power in many Arab countries, leading the way to a new democratic process to develop in the Arab world, it did not end the old suspicions between Arab Muslims and the West. This research investigates the beginning of the relations between the Arab Muslims and the West as they have developed over time, and then focuses its analysis on perceptions from both sides beginning with 9/11 through the events known as the Arab spring. The framework for analysis is a communication perspective, as embodied in the Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM). According to CMM, communication can be understood as forms of interactions that both constitute and frame reality. The study posits the analysis that the current Arab Muslim-West divide, is often a conversation that is consistent with what CMM labels as the ethnocentric pattern. This analysis will suggest a new pathway, one that follows the CMM cosmopolitan form, as a more fruitful pattern for the future of Arab Muslim-West relations. This research emphasizes the factors fueling this ethnocentric pattern, in addition to ways of bringing the Islamic world and the West to understand each other with a more cosmopolitan approach, which, among other things, accepts mutual differences while fostering agreements. To reach this core, the study will apply a direct communicative engagement between the Islamic world and the West to foster trusted relations, between the two.
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    Integrating Islam and Muslims into the U.S. History Survey
    (Oxford University Press, 2008) Curtis, Edward E., IV
    By some estimates, there are only two to three million Muslims in the United States, and yet their vulnerability to state surveillance and mob violence, their symbolic importance to the so-called clash of civilizations between Islam and America—and their remarkable stories and lives—demand coverage in the U.S. history survey. Though no one lesson plan can cover an entire religious group, this teaching strategy suggests how instructors can build on students' own experiences and knowledge of key events and themes in the history of ethnic and religious groups and U.S. foreign policy to integrate Islam and Muslims into the survey. Many scholars of Islamic studies and history believe that, due to overwhelmingly negative news coverage associated with Islam and Muslims, teachers need to begin any lesson on Islam and Muslims with some discussion of the stereotypes and cultural baggage that color most American discourse on the subject. This teaching strategy goes a step further, asking students to think comparatively about the stereotyping of religious and ethnic minorities in U.S. history and to locate some of the historical roots of stereotypes about Islam and Muslims in the twentieth century. It concludes with suggestions and resources geared toward introducing students to the diversity of Islam and Muslims in the contemporary United States.
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    Islam
    (John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., 2010) Curtis, Edward E., IV
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    Peril and Possibility: Muslim Life in the United States
    (Bloomsbury Academic, 2004) Curtis, Edward E., IV
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    The Islamophobic History of the United States
    (Equinox Publishing Ltd., 2011) Curtis, Edward E., IV
    This article offers an history survey of Islamophobic attitudes in the United States. It locates the roots of Islamophobia in colonial views of the Muslim Anti-Christ, early republican fears of the Barbary pirates and Oriental despotism, antebellum fascination with Muslim American slaves, and nineteenth-century fantasies of the Turkish harem. The article also explains how the functions and meanings of Islamophobia have changed during the Cold War and post-Cold War eras, emphasizing the clash of interests that developed between Muslim political groups abroad and U.S. foriegn policy after 9/11.