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In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Islamophobia became a sort of unofficial religion in the United States. Vigilante street attacks on Muslim people became common. The government surveilled mosques and community centers. Over two decades later, the situation doesn’t seem much different. Resistance, for example, to bringing refugees from Syria into the U.S. is based entirely in racism and Islamophobia.
As we mark the 20th anniversary of the war in Iraq in March 2023, the New York Times’ major retrospective piece barely mentions the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians who died, and says nothing about its own role in the war or the toll on Muslim people in the U.S.
But Islamophobia as a weapon of imperialism goes deeper: The U.S. has a long history of funding right-wing political Islamist forces from Afghanistan to Syria and Indonesia. In this episode, we investigate the role that Islamophobia plays in U.S. foreign and domestic policy: It’s a tool used by those in power to justify its wars and surveillance operations in its quest for continued global hegemony.
We’re joined by Dr. Nazia Kazi, author of Islamophobia, Race and Global Politics, and Associate Professor of Anthropology at Stockton University in New Jersey.
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About the Author
Rachel Hu is a journalist with “BreakThrough News,” a new independent media project, where she hosts the podcast “It’s Not You, It’s Capitalism.”
She is also a host on WBAI 99.5FM in NYC and has been an anti-war and anti-racist activist with the ANSWER Coalition for the last decade.
Rachel can be reached at: rachel@wbai.org.
Chris Garaffa has been an anti-imperialist and social justice organizer since joining the movement against the Iraq war in 2003.
Chris is a weekly guest on Sputnik Radio’s “By Any Means Necessary,” and co-hosts the podcast “The Reboot,” focusing on the intersection between technology and human rights.
Chris can be reached at: chris.garaffa@gmail.com.
Rachel’s incredibly articulate and well-informed. She provides analysis of complicated matters with nary an uh, um, er, y’know, or like.
Excellent point, that western mindsets can’t seem to distinguish the majority of Arabs from minority of right-wing Islamists. It’s not difficult for the western public to see extremism as small minority in there own society. We can recognize the invasion of Iraq as illegal and what happened a crime against the Iraqi people, but those same peoples justly defending there country are labeled terrorist and the wheels seem to come off. That’s where the west seems to loose coherence and is unable to separate the PSYOP from what they know. too many movies, video games, fake media stories have made the “terrorist” anyone and everyone Arabic. By saying no matter how well you think you know them it could be all an act and reinforcing it with endless movies and shows was a master stroke, no doubt about it. Well now that they are pivoting to Russia, China and want to use the same playbook, its a chance to get things straight this time round and not let them weaponize our ignorance against us.