April 27, 2010
The eighth most emailed
article on the New York Times yesterday was a column
by Ross Douthat in which he laments the "cowering" of American
institutions before (well you guessed it if you read Douthat before) the threat
of Islamic violence. Douthat believes the recent South Park death threat is
another example of how "Islam is just about the only place where we draw
any lines at all." By listing a few examples of censored journalists,
intellectuals and politicians who are brave enough "to give offense to
Islam", Douthat thinks the Muslim problem is the last frontier in
American/Western public discourse which retreats before nothing else, but the
fear to offend Muslims. This is the same Douthat who wrote extensively in the
blog of the Atlantic and in the pages of the New York Times about Islam as the
enduring enemy of the West, the greatest threat to the very existence of
Christianity (a very Huntingtonesque view of the world, indeed.) What I find
striking is not only Douthat's predictable anti-Islam rhetoric which guarantees
a prominent spot in the New York Times, but also his lazy intellectualism which
fails to look for counter examples, and I thought a minimum requirement for
NYT's columnists was to consider and account for all facts!). Here's an
excellent reaction
to Douthat's myopic view of the world in which he lives. Had he done some
minimal research without leaving the NYT's website , he would have come across
a March 28th article on a "Corpus Christi" class production at Texas
University featuring a gay Jesus which was canceled after the university
received threatening calls and emails. Why wasn't there as much media scrutiny
about that or about Kathy Griffith's provocative Jesus comment which
was cut from the 2007 broadcast of the Emmy Awards, or about the University of
Colorado biology professors who in 2007 received death threats
from a Christian extremist for teaching evolution, or about the death threats
which forced the removal of a billboard
sponsored by an atheist group in Cincinnati this past November,without talking
about those who acted on their death threats against abortion doctors.
The point here is not that Islam should be off
bounds to critics, but to say that Muslims are the only ones threatening
because that's what their religion teaches them is pure fantasy. Threatening
anyone with death for things they said is not only cruel but barbaric and
should always be met with scorn, but to single out one faith in a coward act of
deliberate amnesia about the excesses in the name of one's own faith as Douthat
does in his column is dishonest and irresponsible given the times in which we
live. Douthat should be able to express his thoughts against Islam however he
wishes to, but if the New York Times is willing to put up with his all too
frequent diatribes, it owes it to its readers to impose a minimum requirement
of fact-checking and constructive editorializing.
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi
April 23, 2010
I
find it hard to believe that anyone would be upset after the Pentagon
decided to rescind its invitation to evangelist Franklin Graham to
speak at an official prayer service. Apparently, and according to
yesterday's NYT's article, the Pentagon didn't even invite Graham for this service. A Colorado-based National
Day of Prayer Task Force, which is helping the Pentagon chaplain's
office with the prayer event, did. Two quick things to say about this:
Graham preached at a 2003 Pentagon Good Frid... Continue reading...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi
April 20, 2010
Riz Khan at Al-Jazeera English has recently done a show on the challenges of portraying Islam by Muslims in big film projects. Khan spoke to Raja Sharif from Alnoor Holdings,
which is producing a $150 million film (by Hollywood) on the Prophet Muhammad, Kamran Pasha, the
author of Mother of the Believers about the life of Aisha, the prophet's wife, and Alt-Muslim's Editor-in-Chief, Shahed Amanullah. At the heart of this discussion was an interesting point about how Islam was revealed as art, ... Continue reading...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi
March 31, 2010
Amr Khaled, the Arab world's most successful teleda'ia (televangelist is a loose translation) is at it again with a new racy show somewhat inspired by Donald Trump's The Apprentice. Mujaddidun (The Reformers) takes reality television away from mindless entertainment and into a new realm of charitable and voluntary work. For 3 months, 16 young (20-30 years old) contestants from 9 Arab countries compete for the brightest and most practical innovative ideas in charitable projects ranging from he... Continue reading...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi
March 30, 2010
Here is another way to talk about Muslims in the West in creative ways. The BBC recently aired My Name is Muhammad documentary in which it featured nine British Muslims whose name is Muhammad, including Shelina JanMohamed, a female blogger (Spirit 21). Muhammad is Britain's second most popular name after Jack, and the producers of the show wanted to defy some rampant stereotypes about Muslims. I applaud this initiative from the BBC, but It would have been more accurate to find British Muhamma... Continue reading...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi
March 29, 2010
The British are certainly more courageous to deal with Islam on TV more head on. Muslim Driving School is yet another creative series the BBC (BBC2) has aired recently to open up a rare window into the life of Muslim (Asian) women in the north of England. I really like the idea of using driving school as a way to talk about issues British audiences wouldn't want to learn about otherwise. It's a lighter approach to tackling some topical issues like arranged marriage, gender dynamics, a woman's... Continue reading...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi
March 26, 2010
If you read about the niqab-clad poet
from Saudi Arabia and her anti-extremist verse, you might be wondering
why people are rejoicing over a woman who is allowed to speak only
behind a thick black cloak covering her from head to toe in a
television show where women and men are seated in separate sections.
Yes, it is rather strange to see the male host of the show and the
other male contestants avoid eye contact with the female poet whose
eyes you can't really see, but cultural progress in tha... Continue reading...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi
March 17, 2010
If you visited IslamOnline recently, you may have found dead links to many articles and fatwa answers. That's because hundreds of workers in the site's editorial office in Cairo have been staging walkouts and sit-ins accusing their managers in Qatar of plotting to replace them with a team of religious hardliners. The managers are allegedly unhappy about a recent trend at the site to run more articles and advice columns about social issues, art, and youth-related topics. IslamOnline has become... Continue reading...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi
March 11, 2010
Here is an interesting request from Maureen Dowd who wants the Saudis to open up Medina and Mecca's holy sites to non-Muslims. Tough times call indeed for radical measures, and this is probably one measure Muslims should debate more seriously. This could help at a time of a sharp image crisis to bridge an important gap between Muslims and non-Muslims, particularly for those with a dying curiosity to learn more about Islam. As Dowd said, "In the end, I did see the hajj. When I got home, I went... Continue reading...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi
March 2, 2010
Veiled Voices is a rare look into the everyday life of three Muslim women in Lebanon, Egypt and Syria. It's an insightful departure from the exhausted cliche rampant in mainstream media of veiled women=oppressed women. These are religious leaders in their communities who are taking on challenging tasks to preach to other women in mosques and at home. Below is a clip from the documentary which will air on Colorado Public Television tonight at 9. This is quite similar to some of the arguments r... Continue reading...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi
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About Me
| Nabil Echchaibi |
| Boulder-Colorado |
I was born and raised in Morocco. My research focuses on the intersections between Islam, Arab popular culture and the media. I'm currently an assistant professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
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