TO THE EDITOR:
While I was initially pleased to see The Daily Tar Heel providing coverage of my recent teach-in on Islamophobia, I do feel that the March 6 article, “Islamophobia talk kicks off Muslim students’ lecture series” misrepresented the content of my lecture and our discussion that followed.
The article claims that in my opinion, “prejudice against Islam is a relatively modern phenomenon.” In my talk, I said nothing of the sort. Rather, I clarified that when I specifically used the term, “Islamophobia,” I was not discussing all anti-Muslim prejudice as it appears throughout history but instead referring to a particular set of discourses and networks that have become increasingly mainstream and institutionally supported in recent years.
I do find it somewhat unsettling that the key points of the DTH’s recap seemed to marginalize the present urgency of Islamophobia.
From the article’s treatment, one would interpret my key points as follows: 1) Islamophobia is a recent phenomenon; 2) the diagnostical language of “phobia” may be inadequate for describing anti-Muslim prejudice; and 3) I expressed optimism that Islamophobia’s prominence in the media has peaked and started to decline.
While I did express hope regarding the future of American Muslims, I also gave credence to the suggestion that the next decade will be worse than the previous one; the article did not recognize this crucial point. Furthermore, the enormous power and influence of Islamophobic networks and discourses, a key theme of the discussion, went virtually ignored in the DTH treatment of the event. The role of governmental institutions in Islamophobia went unacknowledged in the article, though this factored significantly in our discussion.
In my lecture, I attempted to provide a nuanced discussion of contemporary Islamophobia. I also attributed Islamophobia’s success in part to popular media’s inability to handle nuance. Unfortunately, it appears the DTH made my point for me.
Michael Muhammad Knight
Graduate Student
